RSMUS.comWe all know that Master Planning is extremely helpful in facilitating companies’ important information such as raw material availability, capacities required to complete production orders, and what must be manufactured, purchased, transferred, or set aside as safety stock before you can complete production. All of the main planning processes (Master planning, Forecast planning, and Intercompany master planning) are used to ensure materials and resources meet the current demand and are extended to cumulative lead time for products to be received. However, this functionality is scheduled to be obsolete by Microsoft as of update 10.0.16.
Planning Optimization Add-In
As part of Microsoft’s roadmap, a Planning Optimization Add-In is replacing the traditional functionality for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, with the help of the Power Platform. For reference, this add-in is not supported with on-premises deployments of Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain Management, but it is available in most datacenters (to see a full list and complete information from Microsoft about the new add-in, navigate here: Get started with Planning Optimization – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Docs)
The new add-in allows the master planning calculation to occur outside of Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain Management and related SQL databases. The benefits of this include improved performance and minimal SQL database impact during the runs of master planning. This allows for quick planning runs to be completed during operating hours, or high volume times, which can mean immediate reactions to demand or parameter changes. With the ability to use the add-in with current licenses used for master planning and the simplified installation process, there is a huge benefit to using the new feature and creating the best production plans for your company.
Migrating to accommodate Add-In
To take full advantage of this new offering, a type of migration must happen in your existing environments (new environments that are deployed on 10.0.16 or later will have this feature included by default). If you do run the master planning functionality without generating the new, required, planned production orders, it will still run and complete successfully, but you will receive an error message. Within that message, as well as within an email sent to the owners of the existing environments who run the built-in functionality without generating the planned production orders, there is a detailed exception process and guidance for the migration to the new add-in. It is recommended you evaluate a plan for migration for Planning Optimization with a partner; if you use this functionality heavily within your company. To determine if you need an exception, or if you can migrate immediately, I suggest checking out the Microsoft article here: Migration to Planning Optimization for master planning – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Docs
If you use this feature and have any feedback about it, we would love to hear it! Otherwise, I wish you a good migration to a more optimized planning layout!
