All terms below are used with specific meanings throughout this documentation. When a term appears in bold for the first time in an article, the definition can be found here.
Material Requirements Planning. The engine within Pulse Dashboard that calculates weekly demand, supply, and shortage projections for all tracked items.
MRP Engine
The full calculation layer in Pulse Dashboard that produces the MRP Core table and all derived shortage data. Encompasses the Flat BOM build, Component Level assignment, Flat Forecast calculation, and MRP Core netting.
MRP Core
The central output table of the MRP Engine (mrp_details), populated after each regeneration run. The source of data for all Pulse shortage reports.
MRP Regeneration
The process Pulse runs to rebuild all MRP planning data from scratch using current Macola transactional data.
Flat Forecast Table (#FlatForecast)
The working SQL temporary table used during BOM explosion. One row per item (or item/location). Ten columns per planning week.
Flat BOM Table (#FlatBOM)
A fully exploded, flattened multi-level bill of materials built at the start of each regeneration run. Used to cascade shortage signals from parent items to components.
Component Level Table (#ComponentLevel)
Assigns each item its deepest BOM level number. Controls the processing order during BOM explosion.
BOM Explosion
The process of traversing the multi-level bill of materials to identify all components and sub-components of a manufactured item, and propagating demand and shortage signals downward through each level.
BOM Level
A number (0, 1, 2…) indicating how many levels down from a finished good an item sits. Level 0 = finished good; Level 1 = direct component; Level 2 = component of a Level 1 item, and so on.
Shortage Cascade
The process by which a parent item's shortage quantity is multiplied by the BOM qty_per_par and added as ComponentShortageDemand for each child item in the same planning week.
Planning Week
A seven-day window starting on the Production Week Start day configured in Calendar Settings. All MRP calculations are bucketed by planning week.
Week Index / _###
The zero-padded suffix appended to Flat Forecast column names. _000 = current week, _001 = next week, and so on.
Lean Inventory
An inventory management approach that aims to hold the minimum stock necessary to reliably meet demand — replenishing components based on actual projected need rather than a fixed schedule.
Any transaction that consumes inventory: customer orders, production component requirements, in-transit transfers (source location), forecast demand entries, or BOM-cascade component shortage demand.
Replenishment
Any incoming supply that adds to available inventory: Purchase Orders, Production Processing Orders (finished-good side), or Shop Floor Orders (finished-good side).
PO
Purchase Order. An order placed with an external vendor to replenish purchased inventory.
POP
Production Processing Order. An internal manufacturing order that both consumes components (demand) and produces finished goods or sub-assemblies (replenishment).
SFO / SF Order
Shop Floor Order. A manufacturing order managed at the shop floor level. Functions similarly to a POP for MRP purposes.
Forecast Demand Entry
A synthetic demand row created by the BOM explosion process in the MRP Core table. Represents projected component demand derived from parent-item shortages, not from a confirmed order.
Netting
The process of reducing a forecast by the quantity already covered by real orders or invoices, preventing the forecast from double-counting demand that is already in the order book.
The prorated budget or forecast demand for the item in a given planning week.
CustomerDemand_###
Quantity from open customer orders due in the planning week.
ProductionDemand_###
Component quantity consumed by open production orders due in the planning week.
ComponentShortageDemand_###
Demand propagated down from parent item shortages via the BOM shortage cascade.
Replenish_###
Total incoming supply from POs, POPs, and SFOs due in the planning week.
NetDemand_###
Total effective demand used to drive the inventory projection and shortage calculation.
NetForecast_###
Forecast-only demand view. Populated but not used in downstream MRP logic.
EndQty_###
Raw projected ending inventory before applying the minimum floor.
AdjustedEndQty_###
Ending inventory after applying the minimum floor. Carried forward as starting inventory for the next week.
Shortage_###
Unmet demand after applying the minimum floor. Triggers the BOM shortage cascade.
mrp_new_qty_i
MRP - New Qty On-Hand (All Loc) — cumulative projected on-hand quantity at the item level, rolling up all stocking locations.
mrp_new_qty_il
MRP - New Qty On-Hand (Loc) — cumulative projected on-hand quantity for a specific item + location combination. The level most commonly used by Pulse shortage reports.
mrp_new_qty_ilg
MRP - New Qty On-Hand (Group) — cumulative projected on-hand quantity within the item's MRP Group. Relevant only when MRP Groups are configured.
mrp_rec_avail
MRP - Avail? — availability flag: 'Y' = the order is projected to be fully fulfillable; 'N' = a shortage exists at some point in the order's planning horizon.
mrp_trx_dt
MRP - Demand/Replenish Date — the calendar date assigned to this record. Determines its chronological position in the netting sequence.
mrp_trx_qty
MRP - Qty Demand/Replenish — the quantity impact of a transaction. Negative for demand, positive for replenishment.
qty_per_par
Qty Per Par — bill of materials quantity: how many units of a component are required per unit of its direct parent. Used in the BOM shortage cascade.
min_qty_on_hand
The inventory floor value used in shortage evaluation. Source depends on the Minimum Quantity Mode setting.
The abstract interface (BudgetViewBase) and its concrete implementations that generate BaseForecast values for the Flat Forecast table. Two implementations exist: Pulse Budget and Macola MRP Forecast.
Macola MRP Forecast
Forecast sourced from Macola's msfrcfil_sql file. Pre-netted natively by Macola as orders are placed and invoiced.
Pulse Budget
Forecast sourced from Pulse's own budget module (PDS_BUDGET_Loc_Itemno). Netted by Pulse at regeneration time against open orders and invoices.
BudgetMultiplier
The proportion of a fiscal month's budget attributed to a given planning week. Calculated as: days in the week that fall within the fiscal month ÷ total days in the fiscal month. For split weeks, a separate multiplier is calculated for each month and applied independently before the results are summed. Only used by the Pulse Budget forecast source — the Macola forecast source does not use a multiplier.
Split Week
A planning week whose seven days span two fiscal months. For the Pulse Budget forecast source, a split week generates two independent netting and proration calculations — one per month — whose results are summed to produce the week's BaseForecast_### value. Detected in code when NumberOfDaysInWeekThisMonth < 7 for the first month, causing a second MonthInformation entry to be added to CalendarMonths.
Forecast Week Consume Day
The MRP setting that determines whether forecast demand is dated to the first day or last day of each planning week. Appears in the UI as Beginning of each week / End of each week.
Calendar Settings option. Defines which day of the week begins each MRP planning period.
Minimum Quantity Mode
MRP setting controlling the inventory floor used in shortage evaluation. Options: Zero, Safety Stock, Reorder Level.
Forecasting Aggregation
MRP setting controlling the granularity of BOM explosion planning. Options: Item, Item and Location, Item and MRP Group.
Fully Explode Production Orders
The master switch in MRP Setup. When off, no BOM explosion occurs and all Forecasting settings are disabled. When on, Pulse builds the Flat BOM and performs full multi-level BOM explosion during regeneration.
Forecast Type
MRP setting selecting the forecast source: Disabled, Use Pulse Budget, or Use Macola's MRP Forecast.
Include Statuses
Per-order-type filter in MRP Setup controlling which order header or line statuses qualify for inclusion in MRP calculations.
MRP Group
A user-defined grouping of stocking locations used to plan inventory across multiple locations as a single unit.
Req Ship Dt
Required Ship Date — the date by which a customer requires an order to ship. The default demand date field for customer orders in MRP Setup.