This article explains how to configure, review, test, and troubleshoot automatic job creation in PRP.
Overview
The automatic job creation process creates jobs based on MRP demand and the Job Creation Threshold defined for a part.
Before enabling this process, test it thoroughly to understand how it will affect production planning, inventory, demand, and related business processes.
Automatic job creation runs during the nightly MRP process and creates jobs only when the required conditions are met.
Required Configuration
Automatically Create Jobs
Set Automatically Create Jobs to 2.
Do not set this setting to 1.
Generate MRP Demand
Set Generate MRP Demand to 2.
When both Automatically Create Jobs and Generate MRP Demand are set to 2, the system creates jobs during the nightly MRP process for parts that meet the job creation criteria.
Part Product Type
In the Part Product Type setup table, select In MRP Include for the appropriate part product types.
Only included part product types are considered by MRP for automatic job creation.
Job Usage
Set Job Usage to:
MRP - Realtime
The job usage must be set to Demand to prevent the system from repeatedly creating the same job.
Automatically Create Jobs Day
The Automatically Create Jobs Day setting determines which days of the week the automatic job creation process runs.
This setting works only when:
- Automatically Create Jobs is set to
2. - Generate MRP Demand is set to
2.
Set Automatically Create Jobs Day to 0 if Automatically Create Releases is enabled.
Job Creation Threshold Display
Enable Job Creation Threshold Display to display the Job Creation Threshold field in the Other section of the part form.
The Job Creation Threshold specifies how many days into the future the system should look when automatically creating jobs.
- A value greater than
0allows jobs to be created when other requirements are met. - A value of
0prevents automatic job creation for the part.
Optional Configuration
Auto Job Review
Enable Auto Job Review to allow the automatic job creation process to evaluate changes in demand and identify jobs that may no longer be needed.
The review process runs after the nightly demand generation process.
Cancel Review Jobs
Enable Cancel Review Jobs to allow jobs in the Review status to be cancelled automatically during a subsequent nightly run.
Job Status Setup
Create a job status in the Job Status setup table and mark it with the Review flag.
When the Auto Job Review process determines that a job may need to be cancelled, it changes the job to the Review status. During the next nightly run, the job can be changed to Cancelled status when Cancel Review Jobs is enabled.
Auto Job Review Example
The review process may occur as follows:
| Day | Process |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | The automatic job creation process identifies demand and creates a job. |
| Day 2 | Demand decreases enough that the entire job may no longer be required. The job is moved to Review status. The job remains active and may continue to be included in MRP based on its job status settings. |
| Day 3 | The job in Review status is changed to Cancelled status during the nightly process. |
| Day 4 | A new job is created if necessary to satisfy demand that is no longer covered by the cancelled job. |
A job is moved to Review only when the entire job is no longer required. For example, if a job quantity is 100 and demand decreases by 90, the job is not moved to Review. If demand decreases by 100 or more, the job may be moved to Review.
Planning Considerations
Keep the following considerations in mind when using automatic job creation:
- Jobs are not created for past-due demand by this process.
- Consider standard quantities and minimum inventory requirements when reviewing automatically created jobs.
- Minimum Inventory Requirements are not treated as a negative net by automatic job creation. Jobs are not created solely to satisfy this requirement.
- Each day introduces a new time bucket for evaluation against the Job Creation Threshold.
- Automatic job creation does not explicitly target individual orders. It is driven by a negative MRP net.
- A job is created only when MRP identifies a negative net in the applicable time bucket.
Testing
The Create Jobs action is available for testing in the Test environment:
- In Classic, it appears in the test environment.
- In UX, it appears in the Action Bar.
- The action is not available in Production because automatic job creation runs as part of the nightly MRP generation process.
Test the process with representative parts, demand, bills of material, quantities, and planning settings before enabling it for regular use.
Troubleshooting
Jobs are not being created for a part
Verify the following:
- The part’s Job Creation Threshold is greater than
0. - The threshold extends far enough to include the time bucket containing the negative MRP net.
- The part product type is included in MRP.
- MRP identifies a negative net for the part.
- Required quantities and planning settings are configured correctly.
For a multilevel bill of material, each higher-level part that must be planned automatically must also have a Job Creation Threshold greater than 0.
Jobs are not being created for all subassemblies
Automatic job creation is based on the negative net for each individual part. A lower-level subassembly may not show a negative net until after the higher-level job has been created.
As a result, multiple MRP generations may be required before jobs are scheduled for every level of an exploded bill of material.
The Create Jobs button is not available
The Create Jobs action is intended for testing and is available only in the Test environment:
- In Classic, use the Test environment.
- In UX, look for the action in the Action Bar.
- The action is not available in Production because jobs are created during the nightly MRP generation process.