Automating Purchasing with Requirements

What are Requirements?

Requirements are records opentaps uses to denote when inventory is needed either for manufacturing or for orders. There are two types of Requirements: Product Requirements and Internal Requirements. Product Requirements are used to create purchase orders, and Internal Requirements are used to create production runs.

Creating Requirements

Requirements are usually created automatically either when Material Resources Planning (MRP) is generated or when customer orders cause them to be created. To create requirements with MRP, use the Run MRP Screen in the Purchasing application.

To create requirements automatically as orders are created, set the “Requirement Enum” field of either a Product or of an entire Product Store. The different requirement settings are:

• None (PRODRQM_NONE) – No requirements are created on ordering. Only MRP will trigger requirements.
• Automatic for Every Sales order (PRODRQM_AUTO) – a Requirement is created each time an order is created, for the quantity of the item ordered.
• When ATP/QOH reaches minimum stock for Product-Facility (PRODRQM_STOCK for QOH and PRODRQM_STOCK_ATP for ATP) – a Requirement is created the first time ATP or QOH falls below the minimum stock level set for Product facility for the reorder quantity defined for the facility.
• Requirement for order when ATP reaches minimum stock for Product-Facility (PRODRQM_ATP) – a Requirement is created for the quantity of the order item if the ATP is below minimum stock, without regard to reorder quantity. This is what you usually want to use to automate purchasing.
• Drop ship only (PROD_RQM_DS) – The item is only drop shipped.
• Drop ship on low quantity – Item is drop shipped based on quantity.

When requirements are automatically created, they are created in the warehouse defined by the facilityId of the product store of the order. Minimum stock and reorder quantity are defined as part of the Inventory Stock Levels for a product. If you set a days to ship, a required by date will be created as well on your Requirements.

If you want to create purchase orders or drop shipments automatically, create suppliers for your product under the [Catalog] > [Product] >> [Suppliers] tab, and designate one supplier as the “Main Supplier” under the “Supplier Order Pref” field. The requirements will then be automatically created for with this supplier.

Working with Requirements

Once your requirements have been created, go to the Open Requirements Screen in the warehouse application. You can look up the Requirements here manually, or you can use the [Approve Requirements] tab to look up a list of all outstanding Requirements and approve them in bulk.

After you have approved requirements, you can use Approved Requirements Screen to see the vendors with approved requirements for them. The “# Products” is for the number of distinct products approved for this vendor. For example, if product A has been approved with quantities 2 and 3, it comes as 1 product in this column. Select a warehouse where you would like a purchase order to be shipped, click on [Prepare Order] to go to the next Prepare Purchase Order Screen, where you can review the quantities and prices of products to be ordered and create a purchase order for the items.