ASCP - Unconstrained Plan

Few basic characterstics can be listed as below;
An unconstrained plan:
- doesn't consider manufacturing capacities (material & resources)
- assumes infinite capacity
- results are same as traditional MRP
- simply is an statement of what all resources would be needed to meet the production schedule
- can come handy in long term decision making for resource requirement planning

Oralce's ASCP module can be used for unconstrained planning as well, unconstrained ASCP plans are usually like baby steps towards more complex, holistic, constrained & optimized planning ASCP world.

Unconstrained ASCP plans thus form an integral part of ASCP implementation, as it can be used for getting familiar with application, as well as in verifying the ASCP outcomes. You can compare the unconstrained ASCP plan recommendations with your MRP plan results and thus can validate the basic ASCP setup.

Two important aspects to be focused on while running ASCP unconstrained plan should be:
1. Try to duplicate results of legacy MRP system.
2. Increase familiarity & confidence on ASCP application.

Steps to implement an unconstrained ASCP plan:

1. Create DB link between transaction source(ERP) server and APS(Advanced Planning & Scheduling) server

2. Setup collection program

3. Run collection to copy supply chain model from source instance to APS server

4. Define an ASCP plan and setup plan options.(with no constraints)

5. Launch the plan

VERIFICATION: Unconstrained plan is designed to produce identical results as that of legacy ERP system. This becomes useful in verifying implementation and in building users confidence with the ASCP application.

Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning(ASCP)

ASCP module forms the core of Oracle's APS suite, with its holistic global supply & distribution planning functionalities. With ASCP you can plan simultaneously for all your manufacturing plants & distribution houses at different granularity of time in a single plan, which considers the latest demand, forecast, sourcing rules, current inventory and production levels. ASCP offers a variety of plan options and plan types, which can be used to model individual business supply chain planning needs. In general, ASCP implementations start with an initial phase of "unconstrained ASCP plans" usage. In due course of time and with planner's readiness towards understanding the inputs, setups and results, one can move forward with "constrained" ASCP plans (e.g. EDD, ECC & Optimized plans).

Why MRP isn't sufficient?
Becasue:
- It is sequential in nature
- It plans based on unconstrained production, storage & transportation capacity
- It does not optimizes the supply recommendations
- It has no decision support capabilities

Few of major features of ASCP module can be listed as:
- Global Visibility
- Rapid ROI
- Supports Centralized & Decentralized planning
- Supports mixed mode manufacturing
- Holistic Plans for high level planning & Detailed scheduling
- Finite Constraint based Planning(CBP) & Scheduling
- Optimization across multiple Objectives
- Online Replan & Simulation capabilities
- Supports Global Order Promising(GOP)

A good definition for ASCP, found in Oracle documentation:
"Oracle ASCP is a comprehensive, Internet based planning solution that can rapidly and significantly improve supply chain performance. ASCP is based on Oracles' Internet computing architecture, third generation Oracle memory based planning engine technology and proven constraint based planning & optimization technology."

For more details:
Oracle's ASCP offering page link: "http://www.oracle.com/applications/planning/SCMP.html"

How is "Demantra different from ODP" ?

Oracle has left behind ODP and have Demantra as ther future demand planning & forecasting application. Demantra has already found it's place in Oracle's roadmap for Fusion. Demantra had many major differentiators on ODP, that it made Oracle's job of selling Demantra as substitute for ODP, a lot easier. Demantra's beysian mix modeling technique, it's flexible & scalable nature, and support for functions like, S&OP, PTP and TPMO are among few of these differentiators. 

ODP's best fit forecasting method had the capability of selecting the most fit model, for forecast calculation for a data series. It used one of all the available models, which had least residual and was a closest fit to historical demand data. While in Demantra, engine selects multiple good fit models and puts a coefficient to each of their predictions, to calculate the final baseline forecast. So Demantra calculates fit for multiple models to historical demand, and then tries to validate the fit. In the forecasting process, based on residual calculations it also calculates weightages for each of those models and then all of those are combined to form a combined mix estimator model. The Beysian modeling hence uses multiple models, instead of one best fit, which ensures that a better statistical forecast is generated.

Demantra's BPM(Business Process Mapping) capabilities ensures it a berth in Oracle's Fusion and future product roadmap. Demantra's footprint in Trade promotions management & optimization business solutions, along with it's Deduction & Settlement Management modules, makes it a better bundled suite of solutions. 

How to: "Create a Data Series"

This post contains a simple example of creating a data series and also lists out a starter's definition to "data series" in Demantra application. For those who have worked on ODP, Series in Demantra are like "Measures" in ODP. One can create and build a simple to quite complex logic for data values which are stored and are shown in the Series. 

A simple series could be "Budget Data", which simply is created to store financial budget information. On other hand, one can create series like "Projected Inventory" or "Safety Stock", which uses multiple base series for computing the values. 

More details on Series creation and options available, can be easily found in documentation provided by Oracle. Please refer to below documentation for a better understanding of "Series":

Document is available @http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11051_02/demantra/acrobat/ddmug.pdf