- Feature
- Filter derived requirements by coverage time fence
- Availability
- Generally available in Supply Chain Management 10.0.49
- Industry focus
- Automotive component suppliers
Automotive suppliers live by their customers' release schedules. Vehicle manufacturers send forecasts stretching months ahead and firm call-offs for the next few days or weeks, and they revise them constantly. Suppliers have to react quickly without overreacting to demand that may never materialize.
The industry challenge
In master planning, demand for finished parts creates derived requirements for sub-assemblies and components through the bill of materials. Coverage time fences define how far ahead the planning engine should look when creating planned orders.
The complication has been with derived demand. If derived requirements are generated beyond the time fence that applies to the component, the plan can contain requirements far into the future that planners never intend to act on. Those requirements clutter planning screens, inflate apparent demand for components and make it harder to see what genuinely needs action.
For automotive suppliers with thousands of components and frequent schedule changes, that noise is costly. Buyers and planners waste time reviewing requirements they will never order, and the important signals are harder to spot.
What Microsoft delivered in Supply Chain Management 10.0.49
Supply Chain Management 10.0.49 updates Planning Optimization so that derived requirements are filtered by the coverage time fence. The time fence is taken from the item first, then the coverage group, then the global setting.
Derived demand beyond the relevant horizon is filtered out, keeping the plan focused on requirements within each item's planning window.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact |
|---|---|
| Planning clarity | Plans show derived requirements within the relevant horizon, not far beyond it |
| Buyer productivity | Less time reviewing requirements that will never be acted on |
| Component inventory | Lower risk of ordering components against distant, uncertain demand |
| Planning performance | Smaller plans may be easier to review and process |
| Policy control | Horizons set by item or coverage group to reflect each part's lead time and risk |
A worked scenario
(An illustrative example.) A tier-one supplier produces seat frames for several vehicle platforms. It receives twelve-month forecasts from customers, but its stamped and welded sub-assemblies need only a few weeks of planning horizon, while imported electronic components need much longer.
The planning team sets coverage time fences by coverage group: short for in-house sub-assemblies, longer for imported parts. With derived requirements now filtered by those fences, the planning workspace for sub-assembly planners shows only the next few weeks of requirements, while buyers of imported components still see the longer horizon they need. Planners spend their time on actionable demand rather than scrolling past months of speculative requirements.
Adoption considerations
- Review time fence settings. Check item, coverage group and global time fences before relying on the filtering.
- Match horizons to lead times. A time fence shorter than the cumulative lead time can hide requirements you need to act on.
- Use coverage groups deliberately. Group parts with similar lead times and risk profiles.
- Compare before and after. Run planning in a sandbox to see which requirements disappear and confirm that is intended.
- Communicate with buyers. Explain why some long-range requirements no longer appear.
The bottom line
Automotive suppliers need plans that are responsive without being noisy. Filtering derived requirements by coverage time fence keeps each component's plan within the horizon that actually matters, so planners can focus on real decisions. The key is setting time fences carefully. An experienced Dynamics 365 Supply Chain adviser can help you review planning parameters across your component portfolio.
Source: Microsoft: What's new or changed in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management 10.0.49