Using Alternate Materials in a Bill of Material

Overview

You can set up an operation in an item's current routing to be able to select from a group of alternate materials (which you specify for the operation) when the primary material will not be available by the due date. Or, by selecting the Use Latest Pull for Alternate Items parameter, you can configure the system to examine the availability of the primary material and each alternate material and plan the one that can be obtained or manufactured the fastest.

Note: The Alternate Item field on the Items form does not have any effect on the features described in this topic. The Alternate Item field is for reference only.

Planning the Fastest-Available Alternate Material

Select the Use Latest Pull for Alternate Items parameter on the Planning Parameters form to configure APS to plan the alternate item in a given alternate group that can be obtained or manufactured the fastest. See the description of the Use Latest Pull for Alternate Items field for details about how the system plans alternate materials based on the setting of this parameter.

Identifying Alternate Materials in the Plan Output

When the system uses alternate materials, they are flagged on certain output forms and reports by using the Alternate field. These forms and reports include this field:

Planning Detail
Supply Usage APS
Demand Detail Chart APS
Job Materials
Production Schedule Item Materials
Production Schedule Release Materials
Routing BOM Listing

Indented Current BOM Report: Displays alternate materials for a given material when you select the Print Alternate Materials field before printing the report.
Item Current Routing Report: Displays the alternate materials for a given current material.
Item BOM Where Used Report: Includes a field labeled Alternate that identifies alternate materials.
Job BOM Report: Includes a field labeled Alternate that identifies job materials that resulted from alternate materials used in the current bill of material. See "Copying Planned Alternate Materials to the Production BOM" below for a description of this situation.
Production Schedule Routing Report: Includes a field labeled Alternate that identifies production schedule materials that resulted from alternate materials used in the current bill of material.
Exceptions Report: Includes a field labeled Alternate that identifies material demands that resulted from alternate materials used in the current bill of material.

Copying Planned Alternate Materials to the Production BOM

When the APS Planning activity plans a job, production schedule release, or MPS order that has no routing/bill of material, it plans using the item's current routing/BOM. In this situation, when you firm a planned order or MPS receipt that results from the job, PS release, or MPS order, any alternate materials the system used when it planned the current BOM will be copied to the job or PS BOM.

How the Preserve Pre-Released Production Dates Parameter Affects Alternate Usage in Jobs and Production Schedules

For Firm jobs with no routing/BOM or Planned production schedule release with no routing/BOM (and whose PS item has no routing/BOM), the setting of the Preserve Pre-Released Production Dates parameter determines whether the system uses any alternate materials from the current routing/BOM or only the primary materials. These situations come into play when the parent item has a current routing/BOM containing one or more materials defined with alternate materials, and the job/production schedule has no routing/BOM.

Preserve Pre-Released Production Dates is not selected: the system uses the current BOM to plan the job/production schedule, and considers any alternates in the BOM.
Preserve Pre-Released Production Dates is selected: the system uses the current BOM to plan the job/production schedule, but does not consider any alternates in the BOM; instead, only the primary materials will be used.

About Rollup of Alternate Material Costs to Standard BOM

When you roll up the cost of the current routing/BOM to the standard routing/BOM (using Current BOM Cost Rollup or Roll Current Cost to Standard Cost), the cost of alternate materials is not rolled up to the standard routing/BOM.

About Planned Orders Consolidation and Alternate Materials

If you are using planned orders consolidation using the Planned Orders Consolidation parameter on the Planning Parameters form, multiple planned orders (PLNs) generated by the APS Planning activity may be combined into a single PLN. In this situation, when you firm a consolidated PLN and copy the current routing/BOM to a job, the system uses the BOM from the earliest PLN within the consolidated PLN. If any alternate materials were used in that BOM, they are copied to the job.