In today’s video, we are starting a new series focused on the Purchase Order Requirements/Generation (also known as PORG) window in the web version of Prophet 21. In this video, we will cover how to create basic criteria so you can use the same purchasing settings each time you want to run PORG.
We will also give a brief overview of the Factor tab.
Enter PORG Criteria:
Buyer ID:
Buyer IDs can play a bigger role if you are using buyer-specific purchasing.
Purchase Group Options:
Location-based with Location ID means you are purchasing for only one location.
There is an option to enter a Purchase Group ID, but we will cover that in a different video. It allows you to purchase from multiple locations, and ship them to individual locations. There are also some options to bring them into one central location and then transfer them out of that. But, this is a more advanced feature that we won’t delve into in today’s video. Enter the Location ID.
Purchase For:
Next, filter down what items you want to look at. The most common choice is using the Supplier ID or Purchase Group ID (or a combination of any of these). For this video, we will use a Supplier ID.
Note: you do have the option to Purchase For a Supplier Group. Which I will cover in a different video.
Supplier List is best used if you have two or three suppliers that you regularly purchase from at the same time. You can enter multiple Supplier IDs separated by commas, and make a list. You can also do that for some of the other items like the Product Group List.
Requirement Types:
The most common Requirement Type is Stock Including Backorders. Some of the other options are Backorders Only (grayed out if you select Stock Including Backorders), Direct Ships, Specials, Non-Stocks, and Requisition.
Now, you may not need to run Direct Ships and Specials if you expect your users to create those directly from Sales Order Entry.
I generally would recommend running those separately because they are not coming on the same shipment.
Replenishment Methods:
I recommend running with all replenishment methods unless you have a specific reason not to. Theoretically, you can select only one replenishment method, but it works with Up To and Min/Max. You can also narrow it down to just a single item. I do not know why you would run that by item, but some people do.
Show All Items Box:
The last thing I want to cover on this screen is the Show All Items box. If you generate this without selecting ‘Show All Items’, Prophet 21 will only show what you need to purchase. If you click show all items, it shows every single item that is assigned to this supplier for this location regardless if you need to purchase it or not.
We won’t do that for our basic sample running, but it is a way to add some additional items that are not technically required by the system.
Name and Save the PORG Criteria:
You can name the Criteria whatever you want, but I recommend choosing a name that will help you search for it easily. Name it what you are accustomed to calling things, and you will help yourself out when you need to find it later.
Then click Save.
So now when you come back and are purchasing for a specific vendor, you can start typing their Vendor ID to pull up the Criteria. And if you have PORG Criteria for multiple locations, you can filter down the results.
The Factors Tab in PORG:
The last thing I want to cover in this video is the factors tab. There is really only one piece of data that would recommend you focus on in the Factors Tab and that is the Usage Factor. This setting is the easiest to understand and utilize.
Use Case: You want Prophet 21 to forecast an extra ten percent of what it thinks you need to purchase.
Simply enter 1.1 and that will automatically get worked into your calculations to increase your daily forecasted usage by ten percent.
So if you were forecasting to use a hundred a day and, you ran it like this, it will let you know that you need a hundred and ten a day. Usage Factor is overall a quick and easy way to adjust your numbers for growth.
Note: I do not recommend using a lot of the features in the Factors Tab. In fact, there are some that I still cannot get to work a hundred percent right.
Conclusion on PORG Criteria (and the Factors Tab):
In this tutorial, we reviewed how to create basic criteria for Purchase Order Requirements/Generation (PORG) in Prophet 21. We covered how to enter specific criteria options, and name and save the criteria for future use. Additionally, we briefly discussed the Factors Tab in PORG, focusing on the Usage Factor. If you have any questions or want to see more videos and other resources related to this topic, feel free to leave a comment below.
