Period Factor for Calculating the Availability Date/Time

Factor used by the system to calculate the availability date/time of a receipt element within a time period (bucket).

Use
The system determines the exact availability date/time of the receipt elements within a period, by adding a time interval (that it gets by multiplying the period factor with the period length) to the start time of the period. You can enter a factor between 0 and 1, where 0 is the start of the period, 0.5 the middle, and 1 the end of the period. When calculating the availability date/time, the system takes into consideration all weekdays, meaning that it does not take into consideration any days that have been defined as non-workdays in the calendars. The following applications can take the period factor into account:

Heuristic in Supply Network Planning (SNP) The SNP optimizer does not consider any period factor.

Period lot-sizing procedure in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)

Usage in the SNP Heuristic

The system uses the period factor to calculate the availability date. It sets the availability time automatically to 12:00 within daily buckets.The following period factors are relevant for the SNP heuristic: Period factor in the location product master In order that the SNP heuristic can take the period factor into consideration, you have to set the Use Period Factor indicator. If you do not set the indicator, the system always uses the standard value 0.5 for the period factor.

Period factor in the production process model or in the transportation lane If you have defined a value for the Period Factor for the SNP heuristic in a production process model (PPM) or in a transportation lane, the system first considers this value when calculating the availability date/time. The period factor in the production process model is only relevant for in-house production orders, while the period factor in the transportation lane is only relevant for external procurement orders. If, in the PPM or in the transportation lane you have not defined a value, the system checks if you have set the Period Factor indicator in the location product master. If this is the case, the system takes the value defined in the Period Factor field of the location product master into consideration. If neither parameter has been maintained in the location product master, the system uses the standard value 0.5, meaning that it sets the availability date/time to the middle of the period.

Usage in the PP/DS Period Lot-Sizing Procedure

In order that PP/DS can consider the period factor from the location product master in the period lot-sizing procedure, you have to set the Use Period Factor indicator. The system calculates the availability date/time from the period duration, to the exact second. If, for example, you specify 0.75 for the period factor, for a period duration of one day, the availability time is 18:00. The period factor in the production process model or in the transportation lane is not relevant to PP/DS.