Planning, Scheduling and MRP

Streamline production and optimize capacity with Abel’s Planning, Scheduling and MRP functionality — using labor, machine, or quantity-based planning to stay on top of delivery commitments.

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Demand Planning

Abel’s Demand Planning helps manufacturers forecast with confidence, aligning production with real-world demand across customers, companies, and locations. Whether you’re planning for finished goods or raw materials, Abel gives you the visibility and control to stay ahead of demand.

Core Features

Abel’s BOMs support a wide range of manufacturing processes and product structures:

Customer & Company-Level Budgeting & Forecasting Load budget and forecast demand quantities for finished goods at either the customer or company level. Abel calculates the associated cost of goods sold and sales value.
Multi-Level Budget and Forecast Visibility Break down budgets and forecasts by finished goods, semi-finished products, and raw materials for a complete view of your supply chain.
Month-by-Month ForecastingReload forecasts monthly and track changes over time.
Multi-Company, Multi-Location Support Forecast demand by customer across different countries and locations. Abel generates inter-company or inter-branch MRP demand to ensure supply aligns with global requirements.

MRP and MRP II

Abel supports both MRP (Material Requirements Planning) and MRP II (Manufacturing Resource Planning), giving manufacturers the tools to plan materials, resources, and production with precision. Whether you’re manufacturing to stock or to order, Abel helps you streamline operations, reduce waste, and meet demand across locations and companies.

Core Features

Abel’s BOMs support a wide range of manufacturing processes and product structures:

MRP – Material Requirements Planning Built for both Make to Stock and Make to Order manufacturing environments. MRP helps you efficiently plan and replenish inventory by leveraging real-time demand, optional forecast data, current stock levels, and key inventory reorder attributes such as minimum and maximum stock thresholds and lead times. This ensures timely and accurate replenishment, reducing the risk of stockouts or excess inventory.
Reorder Recommendations Generate reorder suggestions based on current stock levels, existing orders and optionally forecast demand. These recommendations take in to account key inventory settings such as Minimum and Maximum levels, Economic Order Quantity (EOQ), order Multiples (MUL), and Supplier Lead Times.
Controller Review & Build Process Controllers can review and adjust reorder recommendations before initiating Abel’s “Build” process to create internal manufacturing orders.
Consolidated Manufacturing Documents Combine multiple items into a single manufacturing document for streamlined processing.
Location-Specific Reordering View reorder lists filtered by manufacturing location or inventory criteria to support location-based planning and replenishment.

Advanced Features

MRP II – Manufacturing Resource PlanningIncorporate labour and machine capacity into the planning process for a more comprehensive view of production requirements.
Budget & Forecast Demand Load budgeted and forecast demand quantities for finished goods at a customer or company level. Abel calculates the associated cost of goods sold and sales value.
Global MRP for Multi-Company Planning Coordinate planning across multiple companies, branches and countries (provided they are within a single Abel database).
Multi-Country Forecasting Load forecasts for customers in different countries, placing demand on manufacturing locations for supply to overseas countries and locations.
Multi-Company, Multi-Location Support Forecast demand by customer across multiple countries, locations and currencies. When operating within the same Abel database, Abel generates inter-company or inter-branch MRP demand, helping ensure global supply aligns with distributed operational needs.

Bill of Materials

Abel’s Bill of Materials (BOM) functionality gives manufacturers the flexibility to define, cost, and manage product structures and production steps that align with real-world production. Abel provides both “Static” BOMs – template BOM’s for standard product configurations and “Designer” BOMs – individual BOM’s for specific or custom production requirements. Abel helps you stay in control of your product structures and production processes.

Core Features

Abel’s BOMs support a wide range of manufacturing processes and product structures:

BOM Templates Create reusable BOMs for standard product configurations and typical manufacturing processes. Normally linked to inventory items and reused across multiple jobs.
Designer BOMs Create individual BOMs for specific Customer requirements without disrupting standard processes.
Multi-Level BOMs Build and manage nested BOMs for complex assemblies.
Phantom BOMs Use phantom BOMs for subassemblies that aren’t stocked separately to simplify BOM structures.
BOM-Based Costing Automatically calculate costs based on BOM components and routing.
BOM Versioning Track changes over time with full version control and effective dates.

Advanced BOM Capabilities

For manufacturers with more dynamic or custom production needs, Abel offers advanced BOM features:

Work Centers Define machines or workstations (routing steps) used in manufacturing processes and Bills of Materials.
Routing Integration Update BOMs with routing steps for accurate scheduling and costing.
Machine & Labour Run Times Load detailed run times against Work Centres for accurate costing and scheduling.
Capacity & Span Calculations Calculate job capacity and span per Job by location within the factory.
Family-Based Scheduling Group and schedule jobs by product families for greater efficiency.
Kitset Management Manage pre-assembled kits and packaging requirements.
Component Traceability Track components through production for quality and compliance.
File Attachments Store drawings, specifications, and certifications with BOM records.

Scheduling

Abel’s Planning & Scheduling functions help manufacturers to streamline production, optimize capacity, and stay on top of delivery commitments. Whether your focus is on labor, machine, or quantity-based planning, Abel gives you the flexibility to schedule using either finite or infinite capacity models.

Core Features

Abel’s scheduling functions give planners the flexibility to manage jobs across work centres, ensuring production flows smoothly and efficiently:

Interactive Work Centre Scheduling Schedule jobs in the order they’ll be worked on, moving them from unscheduled to scheduled status. Adjust the sequence based on priority, optimize throughput by grouping similar products, or reassign jobs to different work centers depending on availability, capacity, and production goals.
Multi-Level BOM Scheduling Schedule work with complex Bills of Materials independently or as linked parent-child relationships, depending on your production structure.
Automated Route and Document Allocation When a job is scheduled to a work centre, Abel can automatically assign related routes and documents to the appropriate work centres, based on your manufacturing setup and scheduling methodology.
Job Sequencing Define task sequences within jobs to reflect real-world production dependencies.
Family-Based Scheduling Group and schedule jobs by product families for streamlined planning.
Point-and-Click Scheduling Adjust schedules quickly and easily using point and click mouse commands.
Calendar Views View schedules by day, week, or month to monitor workloads and identify bottlenecks.
BOM based Capacity & Span Calculations Define labour and machine run and setup rates by the work centre route to calculate job capacity and span by work centre within the factory.
Work Center Overview and Load Management View work centre schedules and and get a clear overview of loading. Filter by scheduled or unscheduled jobs, search by keyword to quickly locate specific tasks and assess workload.
Early Batch Allocation Allocate sensitive stock early, e.g. 5–6 weeks in advance, including before it’s transferred into the manufacturing branch.

Advanced Features

For manufacturers with complex or high-volume operations, Abel provides advanced scheduling techniques:

Finite Capacity Scheduling Schedule jobs based on actual resource limits to avoid overloads.
Forward & Backward Scheduling Choose scheduling direction based upon your production goals and constraints.
Routing Integration Link scheduling with routing steps for accurate timing and resource planning.
Exception Reporting Identify scheduling conflicts or delays for proactive resolution.
Multi-Location Coordination Schedule across multiple sites (provided they are within a single Abel database).
AspectPL® Integration Utilize AspectPL Manufacturing Execution System software for machine-level integration, advanced production scheduling and to capture your production data back into Abel.

Shortage Management

Abel’s Shortage Management features help manufacturers identify and resolve material shortages before they impact production. With real-time visibility, Abel ensures you can respond quickly, adjust plans, and keep your operations moving.

Core Features

Abel gives planners and controllers the tools to manage shortages across locations, jobs, and inventory types:

Advance Shortage Visibility View potential shortages of materials for manufacturing jobs ahead of time.
Real-Time Demand-Driven Data Shortage information is based on live manufacturing documents and current stock levels, giving planners up-to-date insights.
Focused Exception Management Teams can focus on areas of concern without needing to review the full workstream each time.
Confirmed vs Unconfirmed Orders View upcoming purchase orders, and filter to exclude on time confirmed purchase orders to identify what needs follow-up.
Shortage Reporting View shortages by job, item, or location to understand impact and urgency.
Shortage Filters Filter shortage lists by manufacturing branch, inventory type, or keyword for targeted analysis.
Linked Document Visibility See which jobs, orders, or manufacturing documents are affected by shortages.
Cross-Team Visibility Key dates and shortage information are visible across sales, purchasing, and planning teams for better coordination.
Multi-Location Shortage Tracking Monitor shortages across branches and warehouses with consolidated views.

Multi-Site Stock Movements

Abel’s stock movement functions scale to suit both domestic and international operations, helping manufacturers manage stock transfers across branches, companies, and countries. Whether you’re supplying internal demand or fulfilling inter-company requirements, Abel gives you the tools to plan, track, and execute stock movements with full visibility and control.

Core Features

Abel supports a wide range of stock movement scenarios to meet the needs of complex manufacturing and distribution operations:

Branch-to-Branch Replenishment Transfer stock between branches to meet demand rather than placing separate orders with external suppliers.
Demand-Driven Replenishment Automatically restock pick faces or staging areas based on manufacturing or picking requirements.
In-Transit Shipment Tracking Gain visibility of goods in transit, including ships on the water and estimated container arrival times.
Shipping Documentation Generate manifest documents to support shipping processes.
Intercompany Accounting Manage intercompany stock transfers with full accounting support, including optional transfer pricing.
Margin Elimination Journals Automatically create intercompany margin elimination entries for accurate group-level financial reporting.

Outbound Containers

Abel’s Container functionality gives manufacturers full visibility over outbound shipments. Whether you’re planning container loads for export or for shipping to remote parts of your business, Abel helps you coordinate logistics with production, so you can meet delivery expectations with confidence.

Core Features

Abel supports a range of export container workflows to suit global shipping operations:

Customer Order Assignment to ContainersAllocate Customer Orders to outbound containers based on the destination.
Multi-Order Containers Combine multiple Customer Orders into a single container.
Split Orders Across Containers Split large orders across multiple containers.
Pre-Assigned Stock Assign stock to containers in advance, with or without export pallets.
Real-Time Weight & Volume Tracking View container weight and volume as goods are assigned.
TradeWindow® Integration Generate export documentation with Abel’s TradeWindow® integration.
MPI Export ED Integration Generate MPI Export ED’s that comply with New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries’ requirements for movement of animal products.