Overview

Introduction

Manufacturing Planning Optimization (MPO) is a planning solution designed to help manufacturers optimize production scheduling, reduce manual planning effort, and improve production efficiency.

The app introduces advanced planning capabilities into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, enabling planners to organize, prioritize, and schedule production orders based on configurable business rules, production line constraints, preparation times, and changeover requirements.

MPO transforms traditional production planning into a dynamic and controlled process, helping manufacturers react more effectively to changing demand, limited capacity, and complex production environments.

Key Usage Scenario’s

• Automatically calculate starting and ending times for production orders based on planning characteristics, preparation time, and changeover rules.
• Group and sequence production orders by item, planning priority, and block settings for optimized execution.
• Respect planning flexibility settings to avoid rescheduling critical or locked lines.
• Enable automatic splitting of production orders when capacity constraints are exceeded, ensuring smooth daily planning.
• Visually manage planning periods through block assignments, color coding, and real-time updates during scheduling actions.

Key Concepts and Definitions

Understanding the core concepts used by Manufacturing Planning Optimization (MPO) will help planners configure the solution correctly and maximize scheduling efficiency.

Production Line: A Production Line is the primary planning resource used by MPO. It represents a logical production unit where production orders are scheduled and optimized. Unlike standard Work Centers, Production Lines include planning-specific settings such as operating hours, preparation times, subperiod definitions, and automatic splitting rules. A Production Line can be linked to one or multiple routings and serves as the foundation for production scheduling.

Preparation Time: The time required to set up or prepare a Production Line before starting the manufacturing process. It includes activities such as equipment setup, material positioning, and initial quality checks.

Factory Planning: Factory Planning is the central planning worksheet used to retrieve, organize, optimize, and apply production schedules. It provides planners with a visual workspace where production orders can be sequenced, grouped, adjusted, and optimized before changes are applied to actual production orders in Business Central.

Planning Characteristics: Planning Characteristics are customizable attributes assigned to Items and SKUs that help determine production sequencing. These characteristics are used by MPO when grouping and sequencing production orders to minimize setup activities and improve production flow.

Optimization Period: The Optimization Period defines the planning horizon used by Factory Planning. It determines how far into the future production orders are retrieved and evaluated during scheduling activities. The value is typically configured as a date formula in MPO Setup.

Optimization Subperiod: The Optimization Subperiod divides the planning horizon into smaller planning buckets used during optimization. Available options include:

• Day
• Week
• Month
• Quarter
• Year

These subperiods are used to create planning blocks and organize production activities.

Block: A Block is a logical grouping of production activities within a specific planning subperiod. During optimization, MPO assigns production orders to blocks to help organize production sequences and reduce unnecessary setup and changeover activities.

Changeover Time: Changeover Time represents the time required when switching production from one item, characteristic, or product group to another. Changeover Times are configured in the Changeover Matrix and are considered during scheduling calculations.

Changeover Matrix: The Changeover Matrix defines the rules and duration for transitions between products or Planning Characteristics. It enables MPO to build realistic schedules by incorporating setup and cleaning requirements between production runs.

Automatic Split: Automatic Split allows MPO to divide a production order into multiple planning segments when available capacity is insufficient within a single production period. This helps ensure production fits within available operating hours while maintaining achievable schedules.

Retrieve: Retrieve is the Factory Planning action used to load eligible production orders into the planning worksheet based on selected filters and setup parameters. Retrieved records become available for scheduling and optimization activities.

Schedule: Schedule is the optimization process that sequences production orders according to Planning Characteristics, priorities, blocks, and other planning rules. The objective is to create the most efficient production sequence possible.

Assign: Assign calculates the proposed production schedule, including start times, end times, preparation times, and changeover impacts. The results are displayed as proposed planning values until applied.

Adjust: Adjust is the final step in the optimization process. When executed, the proposed schedule from Factory Planning is written back to the underlying Production Orders in Business Central, updating their planned dates and times.

Scheduled Downtime: Scheduled Downtime represents planned periods where production cannot occur due to maintenance, cleaning activities, setup operations, or other operational constraints. These events are considered during the scheduling process to ensure realistic production plans.