Establishing the Planning-Solving System

This chapter provides and overview of the planning-solving system and discusses how to:

Create planning instance definitions.
Create a planning cycle.
Load planning instances.
Maintain planning engines.
Maintain planning instances.
Delete a planning instance.
Review planning instances.
Reset planning instance locks.
Verify PeopleSoft Supply Planning data.

Common Elements Used in This Chapter

Category	Select the search criteria by a specific category ID code. Category information reduces redundant data entry during item setup and requisition and purchase order processing. The system assigns default purchasing attributes of an item category to any item in that category.
Family	Select the search criteria by a specific item family code. In PeopleSoft Inventory, you can categorize items by groups and families. No formal relationship exists between item groups and item families, but you can use an item family to further classify an item group. For example, you can define that the hardware group consists of families of fresh water equipment and salt water equipment.
Item Group	Select the search criteria by a specific item group code. In PeopleSoft Inventory, you can group similar items together to create categories of items for alternate search keys and for reporting analysis.
Plan Unit Group	Displays a value based on the value that you selected in the Planning Instance field.
Planner Code	Select the search criteria by specific planners.
Utilization Type	Select the search criteria by a specific utilization type code. The system uses utilization types in conjunction with the Due To Count option for cycle counts.

Creating Planning Instance Definitions

To create planning instance definitions, use the Problem Instance Definition component.

This section provides an overview of planning instance IDs and discusses how to create new planning instance IDs.

Understanding Planning Instance IDs

Planning instance IDs define a complete set of data analyzed to create a feasible supply plan. When you create a planning instance ID, define which inventory business unit group and which items you want to include in the planning model. When you run the Load Planning Instance process (PL_LOAD_OPT), you incorporate into the planning instance business unit data such as calendars and business unit planning options; item specific data such as item planning options, inventory positions, sourcing options, supplies, and demands; and capacity specific data such as work center capacity definitions. All PeopleSoft Supply Planning occurs within a planning instance.

The Planning Instance table (PL_PROBINST) contains information pertaining to the state of the planning instance and data comprising it, including the types of data loaded, the range of dates used to select data, and global attributes used by the planning solvers.

Planning Instance Locks

The system locks the planning instance data tables at the beginning of the Load Planning Instance process to prevent two processes from updating the same subset of the planning instance concurrently. It releases the locks only if the process terminates normally. If the process aborts, release these locks manually on the Planning Instance Lock page, where you can also verify that a Load Planning Instance process is not currently running for a planning instance.

Planning Instance Inquiry

PeopleSoft Supply Planning provides a planning instance inquiry component to enable you to view the data used to create the corresponding planning instance dataset and view the current planning instance attributes.

Page Used to Create Planning Instance Definitions

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Planning Instances	PL_PROBINST_DEF	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Planning Instances	Create new planning instances.

Creating New Planning Instances

Access the Planning Instance page.

Status	Displays the status of the Planning Instance Load process for the corresponding planning instance ID or the last major data exchange that occurred for the planning instance.
Planned By Type	Select only those items associated with the specified planned by types.

Note. A change to the item selection criteria has no affect on the next regenerative select or net change Load Planning Instance process run. Field values in the Item Selection group box apply to full regenerations only.

Creating a Planning Cycle

This section provides an overview of planning cycles and discusses how to define planning cycle criteria.

Understanding Planning Cycles

PeopleSoft Supply Planning facilitates lights out processing, enabling you to run a complete planning process overnight. Using the Planning Cycle component, you can set up a run control to load a planning instance, run a solver, perform mass maintenance, and commit the plan process.

Note. Ensure that you define the same level of security for the Planning Cycle page as that of each individual process included in the planning cycle.

Plan Process Creation

To create a plan, you need to first load the planning instance. You define the frequency with which you load the planning instance using a run control that you define. The system populates the planning instance tables based on the business unit groups and item filters that you defined on the Planning Instance Definition page and based on the parameters that you defined on the Load Planning Instance run control.

Note. You must create a planning instance prior to running a planning cycle.

Plan Solutions

When solving a plan, you can perform mass maintenance prior to the solver run or after the solver run. Performing mass maintenance is an optional step, but enables you to perform preprocessing on the data before the solvers run, or before the system commits the plan. For example, you might perform mass maintenance prior to a solver run to reschedule past due orders or freeze specific orders. You might perform mass maintenance after a solver run to freeze, auto-approve, or consolidate orders.

To solve the plan, run one PeopleSoft Supply Planning solver against the planning instance.

Plan Process Commitment

To commit a plan, you must run the Post Updates process. This process obtains data from the planning instance tables and generates update messages for the other PeopleSoft SCM applications, including PeopleSoft Production Management, Inventory, Supplier Relationship Management, and Order Management. You can review the update messages using these components under the Supply Planning - Commit Plan menu:

Review Inventory Post Errors.
Approve Inventory Updates.
Review Production Post Errors.
Approve Production Updates.
Review Purchasing Post Errors.
Approve Purchasing Updates.
Review Order Management Post Errors.
Review Order Management Updates.
Planning Updates report.

Understanding Planning Cycle Setup

Before you can use lights-out mode and other optimization features, you must configure PeopleSoft Integration Broker. Perform these tasks the first time that you use the system.

Configure the integrationgateway.properties file.
Configure the integration gateway.
Rename the local node.
Check for the InSync and OutSync OPT_CALL transactions.

See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.46 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Integration Tools PeopleBook

The following sections discuss the minimal setup needed to enable PeopleSoft Integration Gateway to support batch interaction with the planning engine in PeopleSoft Supply Planning.

Application Server Configuration

To configure the application server:

Select yes as the Pub/Sub server value.
Select yes as the Opt Engines value.

Integrationgateway.properties Settings

The integrationgateway.properties file exists in the web server configuration folder (for example, $PSHOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSIGW\WEB-INF). To set up the Integrationgateway.property settings:

In the JOLT connect string settings for Application Server with known NODENAME, set the server settings (replace the $NODENAME with exact name of the node).
ig.isc.$NODENAME.serverURL=//<server:jolt port>

The default jolt port is typically 9000.
ig.isc.$NODENAME.userid=<database user ID>
ig.isc.$NODENAME.password=<database password>

Encrypt the password using pscipher.bat

To encrypt a password using pscipher.bat:
1. Open a DOS window.
2. Set the directory to the path for the web server directory containing PSCIPHER.BAT (for example: $PSHOME\webserv\peoplesoft).
3. Run PSCIPHER <database password>.
4. Copy the entire resulting encrypted password string including any special characters that appear on the end.
5. Paste the encrypted string value as the password.
ig.isc.$NODENAME.toolsRel=<tools version number>

Include the exact tools version number that you are using, for example: 8.44.11.

Gateway Definitions

To set up the gateway definitions:

Select PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Configuration, Gateways.
Open a gateway definition.

Use a new gateway definition, or use the default definition LOCAL.
Select the Local Gateway option on the Integration Broker - Gateways page.
In the Gateway URL field, enter a URL for a PeopleSoft Listening Connector.

For example, you might enter: http://<server>/PSIGW/PeopleSoftListeningConnector

To check the status of the listening connector, access the URL from a browser.
Save the definition.
Click Load Gateway Connectors.

A list of standard and default connectors appear.
Click Save.

Node Definitions

To set up a node definition:

Select PeopleTools, Integration Broker, Integration Setup, Node Definitions.
Select the default node definition for the environment.

The default node definition has a local node value defined as 1 and a default local node value defined as Y.
Access the Node Definitions - Connectors page.

Enter the gateway definition that is in use (for example, LOCAL) in the Gateway ID field.
Click Save.
Access the Node Definitions - Transactions page.
Verify that these transactions are associated to this node. Ensure that you:
1. Define InSync as the transaction type for the OPT_CALL request message.
2. Define OutSync as the transaction type for the OPT_CALLrequest message.
3. Define InSync as the transaction type for the SPL_OPT_CALL request message.
4. Define OutSync as the transaction type for the SPL_OPT_CALL request message.
5. Define InSync as the transaction type for the SPL_OPT_CALL_ARRAY request message.
6. Define OutSync as the transaction type for the SPL_OPT_CALL_ARRAY request message.

Page Used to Define Planning Cycle Criteria

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Planning Cycle	PL_CYCLE_REQ	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Planning Cycle	Define the planning cycle criteria.

Defining Planning Cycle Criteria

Access the Planning Cycle page.

Planning Instance	(Required) The system initially populates this value with the value that you defined on the Define User Preferences - Planning page. If you defined no user preference, the system populates this field with the default value that you defined during installation. Note. Availability of certain processes is dependent upon the planning engine status for a planning instance. For example, you cannot run the Load Planning Instance process if you have started the planning engine. Conversely, you cannot run the mass maintenance or solver processes unless you have started a planning engine. You can define each process to start or stop a planning engine automatically.
Select All and Clear All	Click Select All to include all of the processes in the Planning Process column in the planning cycle. Click Clear All to exclude all of the processes in the Planning Process column from the planning cycle.
Load Planning Instance	Select to include all of the processes required to populate the planning instance tables.
Pre-Solver Mass Maintenance	Select to perform mass maintenance on the data before the solver process. Note. You can perform mass maintenance only after you have loaded the planning instance into a planning engine.
Run Solver	Select to include a solver process in the planning cycle. If you elect to include a solver process, select the solver to run in the Solver field. Values are Material, Feasible, or Enterprise. Note. You can run a solver only after you have loaded the planning instance into a planning engine.
Post-Solver Mass Maintenance	Select to perform mass maintenance on the data after the solver process. Note. You can perform mass maintenance only after you have loaded the planning instance into a planning engine.
Extract Demand Violations	Extract demand violations for orders pegged to low level orders with violations.
Post Updates	Select to post the updates to PeopleSoft SCM.
Select	Select if the corresponding process should be included in the planning cycle.
Run Control ID	Select a run control ID for each corresponding process that you want to include in the planning cycle.
View Run Control	Click to access the run control page for the corresponding planning process.

Note. PeopleSoft Supply Planning runs the processes in the sequence in which they are presented on the Process Cycle page.

Loading Planning Instances

This section provides an overview of the Load Planning Instance process, and discusses how to:

Define general planning parameters.
Define general parameters for PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning.
Define supply and demand order type parameters.
Define supply and demand forecast type parameters.

Understanding the Load Planning Instance Process

When you transfer information from the transaction system to the planning instance, you must populate the optimization tables comprising the planning instance with information that is pertinent to PeopleSoft Supply Planning.

To populate the optimization tables, enter information on the Load Planning Instance component run control page. This information—the types of data to include in the next run of the Load Planning Instance process—is keyed by planning instance and is saved onto the Planning Instance table, enabling you to determine all parameters used for the current incarnation of the planning instance.

Note. You must create a planning instance before you specify it on the Load Planning Instance component run control page. Define planning instances on the Planning Instance Definition page, where you can associate business unit groups and items to a planning instance.

Optimization Table Data and Run Types

The optimization tables contain two types of data: static and dynamic. Static data refers to data that is updated less frequently, and generally includes item, bill of material, routing, business unit, date penalty, calendar, and sourcing option data. Dynamic data refers to data that is often revised, added and removed. Examples of dynamic data are forecasts, sales orders, production orders, transfer orders, quantity on hand, and purchase orders.

You can select from three run types when refreshing the optimization tables: full regenerative, regenerative select, and net change. Each run type processes static and dynamic data differently.

Multi-Process Optimization Table Load

You can load the optimization tables using the Optimization Table Load process (PL_LOAD_OPT), or using the Multi-Process Optimization Table Load job (PL_LDOPT), which separates the Load Optimization process into several child processes to enable concurrency. Multi-process optimization enables you to use multi-CPU servers or schedule child processes to occur on different servers.

PeopleSoft Supply Planning uses JobSet functionality to enable you to schedule a combination of serial and parallel jobs. When you select the Multi-Process Opt Table Load job on the Process Scheduler page, the system schedules the processes to run serially or parallel, as needed. If a process fails, the system determines which, if any, subsequent processes it should run. For example, suppose that the Multi-Process Optimization Table Load Start process (PL_LOAD_MPS) fails, the system will not run subsequent processes. However, if the Production Opt Table Load process (PL_LOAD_PROD) fails, the system will still run the Sales Order Optimization Table Load process (PL_LOAD_SO), as the remaining processes in the Multi-Process Optimization Table Load job can run independently of the others. If any single process fails, you can correct the situation, then select the Regenerative Select run type option to load the corrected section.

Pages Used to Load Planning Instances

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Load Planning Instance - General: Common	PL_LOAD_OPT_REQ1	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Load Planning Instance	Define general planning parameters, such as time frames and run type, and start solvers.
Load Planning Instance - General: Inventory Policy	PL_LOAD_OPT_REQ8	Click the Inventory Policy link on the Load Planning Instance - General: Common page.	Define general PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning parameters.
Load Planning Instance - Orders/Forecast: Orders	PL_LOAD_OPT_REQ2	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Load Planning Instance	Define supply and demand order type parameters.
Load Planning Instance - Orders/Forecast: Forecast	PL_LOAD_OPT_REQ3	Click the Forecast link on the Load Planning Instance - Orders/Forecast: Orders.	Define supply and demand forecast type parameters.

Defining General Planning Parameters

Access the Load Planning Instance - General: Common page.

Run Type

You can select from three run types when refreshing the optimization tables. Values are:

Regenerative: The system deletes all rows for a planning instance from the optimization tables, refreshes all of the static data, and refreshes the dynamic data specified in the run control parameters.

Regenerative Select: Enables you to refresh the dynamic data, such as forecasts, sales, buying agreements, production, transfers, stock requests, purchase orders, and quantities on hand. The system deletes all of the current rows for a planning instance involving the dynamic structures that you selected at run time and rebuilds only those dynamic tables. For the regenerative select run type, the system only adds dynamic data for items that already exist in the planning instance. The date range for the regenerative select option is based on the original full planning instance regeneration, and cannot be changed in the regenerative select mode.

Note. Ensure that the types of objects in the process instance remain synchronous. If you regenerate sales orders but not quantity on hand, for example, it is possible that a sales order that shipped will not be represented but the quantity on hand will still remain.

For example, suppose that the available inventory for an item is ten, and you receive a sales order requesting seven of that item. Available inventory for that item is now three. In the transaction system, you record the shipment. As a result, the available inventory remains at three, while the outstanding quantity to ship is zero. If you refresh the sales orders in PeopleSoft Supply Planning, but you do not refresh the inventory quantity on hand, the inventory balance in PeopleSoft Supply Planning remains at ten, but the sales order demand is updated to zero. In is example, PeopleSoft Supply Planning assumes that it can satisfy demands of ten, when available inventory can only satisfy supplies of three.

Net Change: Enables you to add new rows and delete old rows of data from the optimization tables, and synchronizes the transaction and optimization tables with the least amount of data changes. The date range for this run type is based on the original full planning instance. The net change run type is available for dynamic data only.

Base Currency

Select a value if you want PeopleSoft Supply Planning to calculate item cost in a single, common currency when multiple currency values are valid. Currency codes that you set up on the Set Up Financials/Supply Chain - Currency Code page appear as values.

Rate Type

Select a value to define the exchange rate that the system uses to convert item costs from other currencies to the single currency code that you selected in the Base Currency field. You can use these two fields if you are transferring stock from a business unit that uses a different currency from the receiving unit. For example, suppose that you are transferring stock from Mexican pesos to Canadian dollars, you can select to convert those values to a single base currency, such as U.S. dollars. In doing so, you work with only a single base representation of costs in the planning instance.

See Setting Up Sourcing Templates.

Fences

Current Option

You may select either Date or Offset. Values entered in the Current Offset field will allow the planning fences to be based on a set amount of days earlier or later than the current date.

During a full regenerative run, the current date, start date, and end date can change; otherwise, the dates in the Current Option, Current Date,Start, and End fields are fixed at the dates determined by any original regenerative run. You can modify the dates in the Capacity, Early, and Late fields to update the planning instance.

Use the start fence and end fence to define the data for inclusion in the planning instance. Use the early fence to define a date prior to which the solvers will make no changes. You can override the early fence on an item-by-item basis. Use the late fence as a cutoff point for the violation and exception workbenches. The system generates no violations or exceptions after the late fence. Use the capacity fence to limit capacity planning. The system does not plan for capacity after the capacity fence date.

Planning Engine

Pre-Load Auto-Shutdown

Select to stop the planning engine before running the Load Planning Instance process.

Post-Load Auto-Startup

Select to start the planning engine after you run the Load Planning Instance process.

URL

Specify the location of a planning server where you want to start the planning engine after the Load Planning Instance has completed. If you do not specify a URL here, the system uses the default URL.

To obtain a URL, the system uses the domain you use to run solver, if the planning instance is running. If the planning instance is not running, and you did not specify a domain, or if the planning instance fails to start on the domain you specify, the system uses the default domain you define on the Planning Engine Domains page.

Defining General Parameters for PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning

Access the Load Planning Instance - General: Inventory Policy page.

Policy	Select an inventory policy on which you want to base planning requirements. Inventory policies are sets of methods and parameters that define replenishment order quantities, safety stock, and minimum and maximum stock levels. Values are: Standard: Policies from PeopleSoft Inventory. Published: Policies from PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning. Published Override Standard: Policies from PeopleSoft Inventory overlayed with policies from PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning.
Publish Name	Select a name that identifies a PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning published policy. The inventory policy system can use publish names multiple times because they are considered logical. In these cases, a single name might have multiple publish dates.
Publish Date	Select the date on which the inventory policy was created using PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning.
Business Unit Field	Represents the database field in PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning that maps to the PeopleSoft Supply Planning business unit.
Item Field	Represents the database field in PeopleSoft Inventory Policy Planning that maps to the PeopleSoft Supply Planning inventory item.

Note. This page is available only if you have PeopleSoft Inventory Policy installed. The fields on this page are available for regenerative loads only.

Defining Supply and Demand Order Type Parameters

Access the Load Planning Instance - Orders/Forecast: Orders page.

Apply Demand Priorities	Select if you want solvers to use demand priorities for scheduling supply to meet demand. PeopleSoft Supply Planning enables you to define a set of rules to prioritize the distribution of demand when demand exceeds the available inventory on hand. The system uses these demand priority rules to determine the order in which you fulfill demand. Set up demand priority rules on the Priority Rules page. If you do not select this option, the system assigns all of the demand transactions the same priority: 999. See Setting Up Demand Priority Rules.
Delete Extra Demand	During a full regeneration of a planning instance, select this check box to purge the extra demand table for the planning instance. Clear this check box to retain the extra demand. You can use the PeopleSoft Supply Planning extra demand feature to simulate demand that has not been realized in the form of a sales order, quote, buying agreement, forecast, production component requirement, transfer order, or material stock request transaction type. The solvers consider extra demand as another demand stream. Unless the extra demand is frozen, solvers can reschedule extra demand to another due date.
Firm/Frozen Plan Orders Only	Select to include only planned orders with a firm or frozen status.
Freeze Pegged Orders	Select if pegged orders should be frozen as they are loaded into the Planning Instance. This will prevent the solvers from updating the orders.

Orders

Select the types of customer orders that you want to include in the Load Planning Instance process. You can include sales orders, quotes, or buying agreements.

Accept % (accept percentage)

If you elected to include sales quotes when loading the optimization tables, you can specify the quote acceptance percentage, or the minimum success percentage acceptable as demand as defined on each sales quotation header. Consider, for example, that you defined the quote acceptance percentage as 80. If there are 1500 sales quotations currently active in PeopleSoft Order Management, 350 of which have a success percentage of 80 percent or better, then the system considers the 350 quotations as demand. The system does not consider the sales quotations under 80 percent, as they are less than the quote acceptance percentage. If you don't specify a percentage here, no quotes are loaded.

Demand Date

The date on which the customer order demand is recognized. Solvers attempt to satisfy the demand on the selected date, and forecast consumption recognizes the demand as occurring on the selected date. Values are:

Schedule Date:Select when you want the plan to recognize demand and consume the forecast based on the order scheduled ship date. This is the default value.

Because the planning solvers reschedule the customer orders scheduled ship dates based on the Demand Date option before the netting of demand and supply begins, you might want to select Schedule Date.
Request Date: Select if you want the plan to recognize demand and consume the forecast based on the customer requested ship date.

Note. No scheduled ship dates exist for buying agreements, so the system selects Requested Date as the default value for all of the buying agreements.

Demand

Select any of the order demand types in this group box to include in the next Load Planning Instance process.

Supply

Select the types of supply that you want to include in the Load Planning Instance process. Usually, you want to include all of the supply options when using a regenerative run type. For net changes, you can create a separate run control to include net change data for different types of supply and demand. For example, you can create a net change run control to select production data at the end of each shift.

On Hand Options

Quantity On Hand	Select to include inventory balances when loading data into the planning instance.
Only Changed Items	Select during regenerative select or net change processes to update quantity on hand for only those items that had demand or supply added or deleted.

Defining Supply and Demand Forecast Type Parameters

Access the Load Planning Instance - Orders/Forecast: Forecasts page.

Forecast Source	Values are: Forecast Sets: Select to include processing associated with item forecast sets from PeopleSoft Inventory or product forecast sets from PeopleSoft Order Management. Do not select this value to disable the processing associated with forecast sets. Published Forecasts: Select to include processing associated with published forecasts from PeopleSoft Demand Planning. Do not select this value to disable the processing associated with published forecasts. No Forecast: Select to disable the processing associated with forecasts.
Forecast Set	Specify the forecast set to use for the planning session. Forecast sets are not used when loading published forecasts. You can define different versions of forecasts for PeopleSoft Supply Planning. For example, you might select OPTIMISTIC and LIKELY to create two unique forecast sets. For each case, you can define forecast quantities by product or item to create what-if scenarios with different versions of the material and capacity plan based on different forecasts. You can load only one forecast set into a planning instance at one time. This field is available only when you select Use Forecast Sets.
Weight Profile	Displays the PeopleSoft Demand Planning weight profile the system uses to convert the item's forecast into daily intervals. The system initially populates this field with the default profile name ALLDAYS. You can override this value. This field is available only when you select Use Forecast Sets.
Publish Name	Specify the published forecast that you want from PeopleSoft Demand Planning. This field is available only when you select Use Published Forecasts.
Use Latest Published Forecast and Publish Date	Select to use the last set of data published by PeopleSoft Demand Planning. Otherwise, enter a specific date in the Publish Date field. These fields are available only when you select Use Published Forecasts.
Array, Business Unit Field,Item/Product Field, and Forecast Type	Select values to map PeopleSoft Demand Planning forecasts to PeopleSoft Supply Planning. These fields are available only when you select Use Published Forecasts.
Bucket Size	Indicate the size of bucketed time periods to use for forecasting. Select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Monthly buckets begin on the first of the month and weekly buckets begin on a Sunday. Note. Use weekly or monthly buckets, because the forecast is only consumed by orders within the same bucket.
Fulfill Fence (days)	Indicate the number of days from the current date that the planning engine uses as the forecast fulfillment time fence. When a forecasted demand occurs within the time fence and cannot be met entirely, the system cancels the forecast tasks representing portions of the forecast that cannot be met. If the forecasted demand that occurs past the time fence cannot be met entirely, the system delays and rolls forward to future planning buckets (where they can be satisfied) forecast tasks representing portions of the forecast that cannot be met. Solvers determine how many forecast tasks can be satisfied and where to reschedule the unfulfilled forecast tasks. If you do not enter a value in this field, the default is the current date. Forecast fulfillment is the process that the planning engine uses to manage forecasted demand over a period of time. Forecast fulfillment enables you to divide the total forecast demand into portions based on an item's forecast fulfillment size to meet certain portions of the forecast if the total forecast can't be met. The planning engine can meet the supply shortage during the same planning bucket in which the shortage occurs or carry it over into the next bucket.
Forecast Load	Select to front load the forecast and produce demand at the beginning of the forecast period, so that the supply must be available at the beginning of the period. If you select the Back Load option, the forecast produces demand at the end of the forecast period, so that supply can be scheduled during the period. Front Load is the default option. When forecasted demand cannot be supplied, the solvers look at forecast tasks and how their forecasts were loaded to determine whether forecast tasks are late. When a task is late, the solvers determine whether the task should be delayed or canceled.

Forecast Consumption

Forecast consumption options enable you to control the forecast consumption calculations.

Consumption demands are defined at the business unit item level. Inventory items consume sales orders, quotes, buying agreements, transfers, material stock requests, extra demand, and production. Planning items consume nothing. Each demand transaction's consume forecast attribute flag must be defined as True to make the transaction eligible for forecast consumption

Allow Forecast Consumption	Select to indicate that you want PeopleSoft Supply Planning to consume the forecast. If you do not select this option, the solver assumes that forecast values loaded into the planning instance are net forecasts.
Explode Demand for Consumption	Select to consume forecast against production component demand. Select this global option for nonconfigured items to enable the forecast consumption process to analyze the primary sourcing option for all items marked to explode demand for consumption. If the primary sourcing option is a production option, the forecast consumption process calculates the component requirements necessary to satisfy all of the demands for that item, based on the bills of material. For each component marked as consuming forecast against production demand, these requirements are then consumed against the forecasts defined for the component. For configured items marked as exploding demand for consumption, the component requirements are determined using actual production orders. Do not select the Explode demand for Consumption check box if forecast consumption occurs for customer order demand, extra demand, stock requests, or transfer demand only. To explode demand for forecast consumption: For the demand order, determine the forecast bucket to which you add the demand based on the target due date. Use the default item sourcing option as the primary way to source the item. For a purchase option, stop the explosion, since the item is sourced externally. For a production option, look at each component of the bill of materials and calculate the required quantity. To calculate the quantity, multiply the quantity per assembly by the order quantity. If the component is marked as consuming production demand, this quantity is consumed against the component's forecast. For each component marked to explode for consumption, repeat this step using the component required quantity. For a transfer option, check the item in the sourcing business unit. If it is marked to explode for consumption, repeat this step using the order quantity.
Stock Request Shipments	Select if you want shipped stock requests loaded into the planning instance to consume forecast.
Transfer Demand Shipments	Select if you want shipped transfer orders already received by the destination business unit loaded into the planning instance to consume forecast in the source business unit.
Sales Order Shipments	Select if you want shipped sales orders loaded into the planning instance to consume forecast.
Consumption Sequence	Indicate whether consumption should occur before or after the proration to PeopleSoft Supply Planning forecast buckets. This option is valid only if bucketed forecasts are extracted from PeopleSoft Demand Planning (if you are using published forecasts).

Maintaining Planning Engines

The Planning Engines component enables you to bring a planning instance into memory (start a planning engine), check the status of the planning engine, and remove the planning instance from memory when you've finished planning for the planning instance (stop the planning engine).

This section discusses how to:

Start, stop, and view the status of a planning engine.
Review planning engine domains.

Pages Used to Maintain Planning Engines

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Planning Engines - Planning Engine	PL_PROBINST_MAINT	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Planning Engines	Start, stop, and view the status of a planning engine associated with a specified planning instance.
Planning Engines - Tracing	PL_PROBINST_TRACE	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Planning Engines, Tracing	Use this page only if asked to do so by authorized PeopleSoft personnel. Adding values to fields on this page does not change the planning solution, but might significantly slow down the creation of a plan.
Planning Engine Domains	SPL_DOMAIN_LIST	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Planning Engines Domains	Review planning engine domains to determine available domains on which to load a planning instance, and to determine on which domain a planning instance is loaded.

Starting, Stopping, and Viewing the Status of a Planning Engine

Access the Planning Engines - Planning Engine page.

Status	Displays the status of the Load Planning Instance process for the corresponding planning instance ID or the last major data exchange that occurred for the planning instance.
Start Planning Engine	Click to start the planning engine for the corresponding planning instance.
Shut Down Planning Engine	Click to stop the planning engine for the corresponding planning instance.
Check Planning Engine Status	Click to determine whether the planning engine is loaded for the corresponding planning instance. The system displays a text message in the Return Message field.
Return Message	The system displays information in this field when you click the Start Planning Engine, Shut Down Planning Engine, or Check Planning Engine Status buttons. For example, when you click the Start Planning Engine button, the system might display a message indicating that the planning engine is being started. If you click the Check Planning Engine Status button, the system might display a message indicating that an error has occurred (when appropriate).

Reviewing Planning Engine Domains

Access the Planning Engine Domains page

Refresh Domain List	Click to update the page and display the current status of all the domains listed. If you do not click this button, the system displays the status current at the time you first accessed this page.
Default	The system populates this option if the domain is defined as the default domain on the Planning Engine Domains page.
URL	Displays the URL for the corresponding domain, which normally represents a physical computer.

Maintaining Planning Instances

This section provides an overview of planning instance maintenance and discusses how to:

Copy planning instances.
Delete planning instances.

Understanding Planning Instance Maintenance

PeopleSoft Supply Planning enables you to copy and delete planning instances.

Planning Instance Copies

When you copy a planning instance, you can enter a new value into the Target Planning Instance field to create a new planning instance definition or enter an existing planning instance to refresh with data from the source planning instance.

When copying planning instances consider:

If planning instance user-level security is in effect, you can access only those target planning instances that you created, pending expansion of security by an administrator.
You must enter a valid source planning instance.
The system deletes in its entirety and regenerates the target planning instance.
If the target planning instance is loaded into the planning engine, the system stops the process and requires removal of the planning instance from the planning engine before copying.
You can produce one copy of a planning instance at a time.

You cannot make multiple target copies from one source planning instance during a single run.
The system deletes the Extra Demand table from existing target planning instances; PeopleSoft Supply Planning does not retain this data.

Planning Instance Deletions

When deleting planning instances, consider:

The system deletes data from tables keyed by planning instance only.
Staging tables resulting from the Post Updates process that are pending transaction system approval are not impacted.
You can delete only one planning instance at a time.
If the system loads the target planning instance into the planning engine, it stops the process and requires removal of the planning instance from the planning engine before deleting.

Pages Used to Maintain Planning Instances

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Copy Planning Instance	PL_COPY_PI_REQ	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Copy Planning Instance	Copy a source planning instance to a new or existing target planning instance.
Delete Planning Instance	PL_DEL_PI_REQ	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Delete Planning Instance	Delete a planning instance and elect to remove or preserve the corresponding planning instance definition and security.

Reviewing Planning Instances

This section discusses where to review planning instance data.

Pages Used to Review Planning Instance Data

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Review Planning Instances - Planning Instance	PL_PROBINST_DEF	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Review Planning Instances	Review planning instance data.
Review Planning Instances - Text/Policy	PL_PROBINST_DEF2	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Review Planning Instances	Review any text messages associated with the planning instance. Review the inventory policy information loaded into the planning instance.
Review Planning Instances - Dates	PL_PI_DATES	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Review Planning Instances	Review dates and time fences associated with the planning instance.
Review Planning Instances - Orders	PL_PI_ORDERS	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Review Planning Instances	Review supply and demand selection criteria loaded into the planning instance.
Review Planning Instances - Forecast	PL_PI_FORECAST	Supply Planning, Create Plan, Review Planning Instances	Review forecast setup data associated with the planning instance.

Resetting Planning Instance Locks

This section provides an overview of planning instance locks and discusses how to select locked supply and demand elements.

Understanding Planning Instance Locks

PeopleSoft Supply Planning locks the planning instance data tables at the beginning of the Load Planning Instance process to prevent two processes from updating the same subset of the planning instance concurrently. It releases the locks only if the process terminates normally. If the process aborts, once the reason for the error is corrected, you can run the failed job in restart mode. When the job completes successfully, the system releases the locks. If you do not restart the failed job, you must release these locks manually on the Planning Instance Lock page, where you can also verify that a Load Planning Instance process is not currently running for a planning instance.

Pages Used to Reset Planning Instance Locks

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Reset Planning Instance Locks	PL_PROBINST_LOCKS	Supply Planning, Define Planning, Reset Planning Instance Locks	Select the supply and demand elements locked by the Load Planning Instance process.

Selecting Locked Supply and Demand Elements

Access the Reset Planning Instance Locks page.

Note. It should not be necessary to change the status of these locks, unless an external event occurred which caused an unforeseen failure to the Load Planning Instance process (PL_LOAD_OPT).

Status	Displays the status of the Load Planning Instance process for the corresponding planning instance ID or the last major data exchange that occurred for the planning instance.
Lock Status	The system populates these options to indicate that the corresponding object type is currently being transferred to the planning instance. Normally, the system populates one at a time, unless you are running the Multiprocess Opt Table Load process to load data into the planning instance. If the Load Planning Instance process completes successfully, no options are selected.

Verifying PeopleSoft Supply Planning Data

The Planning Data Inconsistency Report (PLS3001) enables you to identify items to be planned and validates the items that are currently planned.

This section provides an overview of the Planning Data Inconsistency report and discusses how to create the Planning Data Inconsistency report.

Understanding the Planning Data Inconsistency Report

Using the Planning Data Inconsistency report (PLS3001), you can:

Verify that the master plan items have only master and material components.
Verify that material items have only material components.

Note. If the two preceding principles are violated, the system does not bring the assembly and component relationship into the optimization tables when you run the Load Planning Instance process.

Identify the item and production areas that have no valid routing.

You cannot place a planned order against an area and item combination.
Identify the routings that have no item and production areas.

The Post Updates process (PL_POST) produces an error message when this condition exists for a planned order.
Report routings that have no planning times.

The system does not bring these routings or their related sourcing options into the optimization tables.
Identify items with no associated sourcing templates.
Identify missing reference routing items.

You can identify items whose reference routing item the system will not bring into the planning instance, based on the selection criteria that you specified for this report.
Identify potential sourcing options with yields defined as zero.

Although you cannot define a yield as 0 in PeopleSoft Supply Planning, it is possible to import a yield defined as 0 from an external system. PeopleSoft Supply Planning treats yields defined as 0 as equal to 100 percent.

Note. When specifying search criteria on the Inconsistency Report page, do not populate a field if you intend to search for all of the field's possible values.

Pages Used to Verify PeopleSoft Supply Planning Data

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Inconsistency Report	RUN_PLS3000	Supply Planning, Define Planning, Inconsistency Report	Create the Planning Data Inconsistency report.

Creating the Planning Data Inconsistency Report

Access the Inconsistency Report page.

Planning Instance

Select a planning instance ID. If you populate this field, the system populates the other request parameters on this page based on the defaults associated with the corresponding planning instance ID.