MRP versus ASCP - Now and Future With Authentic Customer Scenarios

As some of you may recall we were working on a doc detailing the majority of differences between MRP and ASCP.  At that time I was working for Oracle development.  We lost traction on that project and time moved on.  There have been a number of requests for something similar.  Here is an update regarding traditional MRP and Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP).  This is NOT exhaustive however, I try to give the direction of Oracle related to MRP and ASCP.  There are a few examples of the benefits of ASCP included.

• MRP continues to be available, it is in sustaining mode only.  We recommend of course that customers that are on MRP evaluate Cloud SCP.
• The strategy is unchanged for many years and I believe it is very clear.  For discrete manufacturing customers , they receive MRP as part of the manufacturing bundle and can continue to use it.  While that is true, we believe they can gain significant additional value by using ASCP even when just leveraging its superior support for unconstrained MRP processes, which is available as an   additional licensable option.
• If you are using Oracle Process Manufacturing MRP today, then you can migrate to unconstrained ASCP and run it on same server.  If you are using ODM MRP then there is no free migration to ASCP as MRP is still offered, though not enhanced, in the latest release.
• MRP has not been enhanced for many years and will not be enhanced going forward.  MRP also does not interface with any of today’s advanced VCP capabilities such as Sales and Operations Planning, Production Scheduling, Inventory Optimization, etc... that may potentially satisfy future requirements.  Unconstrained ASCP is a better starting point then attempting to make MRP perform functionality that is organizationally complex.
• The old MRP product does not support using Legacy data collections as it collects data differently than ASCP.  This product will not be enhanced to use data collections.
• We have plenty of scale-out and 64-bit support on current release ASCP 12.2.9, or better Cloud SP.  Nobody should stay on a more than 2 decades old 32-bit MRP 11i with known memory imitations.
• RAC is supported in VCP 12.2.6 (but not for MRP).
• There are no Enhancement Requests (ERs) for MRP

CLOUD Computing

• Release 13: View the release page for the latest What's New and Feature Summary page links, or visit cloud.oracle.com.
• Release 12: What's new in Release 12 Plan2Produce | What's new in Release 12 Order2Cash
• Supply Chain Planning Cloud FAQ | Supply Chain Collaboration FAQ

MRP vs ASCP Scenarios.  Meant to give an idea of the possibilities using ASCP.

• We cannot use alternate routings for jobs created on the MRP workbench.  After a planned order is released from the planner's workbench, a job is created in the Work In Process (WIP) application.  We want to change the discrete job's routing to the assembly's alternate routing.  However I cannot.  The alternate routing designator filed is grayed out.  Is this standard functionality?
  • Comment: If you are talking MRP and not ASCP, then yes, MRP does not look at alternative bills and routings by design as it is unconstrained.
• On 12.1.3, standard MRP(not ASCP), we define substitute component and increase on hand of the substitute item.  When running MRP,  it does not consider the substitute component.  It suggests planned order for primary component in spite of enough substitute component on hand.  But it is shown as substitute in Planning Detail Report output as below.

  Substitute Item Detail Usage Substitute Item Using Assembly Quantity
  ---------------------------- ------------------------------ ----------
  ITEM_A-02                    ITEM_B-01                      1.00

  Are there any setup to make the plan consider the substitute component?

• Comment: No
• I would like to change their procurement process for some items:  moving from local supplies to a hub supply, followed by transfers to each requiring inventory organization.  Interested in Sourcing Rules and bills of distribution.  I read the documentation.  I need to use a multi-org MRP process.  Do I need to acquire ASCP (unconstraint) or can it be done with MRP?
  • Comment: You will need ASCP.  MRP as part of EBS is single organization and the old SCP product is obsolete.  If you are an OPM MRP user then when upgrading a different option applies but you would still use ASCP.
• I am on EBS 11.5.10 traditional MRP.  I have inter-organization planned orders coming from one organization, considered in the source organization.  Do these inter-organization planned orders consider the transfer lead times?   In order for planning to consider transfer lead time, where should it be set up?
  • Comment: You should license ASCP to resolve planning across multiple organizations.  MRP is not designed to support planning across multiple organizations, you will be disappointed in the MRP application.  Especially when issues like circular sourcing occur.
• I am Rapid Planing (RP) on 12.1.3 version.  I want to to use RP MPS plan as MRP plan demand, but I cannot select RP MPS plan.  It looks like I could use ASCP MPS or MRP plan as demand.  Is this current correct behavior or did I miss any set up?  If this is current behavior, is there any plan to change this behavior?
  • Comment: No you did not miss setup - this is not supported, and no there is no near term plan to change this.  Rapid Planning does not support any variant of hub and spoke planning at this time.
• I have a resource 'ASSY1' assigned to Department 'ASSEMBLY' with units as '3'.  The same combination is defined in the routing of an assembly item in which Assigned unit is '1'.  When MRP runs it calculates the completion date as per the setup made at the Routing level.  My requirement is that the even value entered in 'Units' in the department should be defaulted to the routing as well   when the combination is entered and MRP will calculate the completion date accordingly.  Any change in the resource quantity, once done on the department level, should reflect in the routings as well instead of manually correct in each routing.
  • Comment: Having 3 units of resource defined within a department, does not mean that you will use the 3 at the time for the same routing (product)...  You may have 3 different products using the same resource, and each product using 1 assigned unit and in that case you can build the 3 products at the same time.  So there are 2 different settings for 2 different business purposes.  For information, if you are using ASCP, there is also a setting allowing ASCP to consider assigned unit as a fixed value or a max value. 
    • * If assigned unit at routing (operation resource) level is 3, if fixed, it will use 3 resources at the same time.
    • * If assigned unit at routing (operation resource) level is 3, if variable, it will use 1 to 3 resources depending of constraint and lead time....which allows to keep 2 or 1 unit of resource to make another product (or same product on different work order).