Question: SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Please Read The Attached Automotive Spare Parts Ltd Case, Put Yourself In Jacobs’ Place And Write A Report (Maximum 2000) To Your Boss, Ollie Prout. Specifically: 1) You Are Required To Do A Manual MRP Explosion For The Sidelamps And Headlamps Of The Next Six Weeks (Beginning With The Current Week). Assume That It Is Now The Start Of

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SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Please read the attached Automotive Spare Parts Ltd Case, put yourself in Jacobs’ place, and write a report (maximum 2000) to your boss, Ollie Prout. Specifically:
1) You are required to do a manual MRP explosion for the sidelamps and headlamps of the next six weeks (beginning with the current week). Assume that it is now the start of week 11.
2) Fill in the Start Assembly/planned order release form provided in Table 4. It should show the Start Assembly/planned order releases for all items for the next six weeks. Include it in your report.
3) Your report should identify the good and bad points of MRP implementation at Automotive Spare Parts. Supplement your report with worksheets on the manual MRP explosion indicating where adjustments must be made for start assembly/order releases and scheduled receipts. Conclude by making suggestions for change.
4) Your boss wants you to use the data provided in Table 5 to create the HEADLAMP as a new product in SAP Business ByDesign. You MUST follow the instruction shown in Table 5 about the Product ID which is highlighted in RED font. After creating the product successfully, you are required to snap shots the SAP Business ByDesign screens for the HEADLAMP product after creation (at least 4 screen shots are required). Your product will be checked also on the system to validate your answer for this submission requirements.

Automotive Spare Parts Ltd
Jack Jacobs, the Production an Inventory Management Manager of Automotive Spare Parts Ltd, stopped for a moment to adjust his tie knot and run his fingers through his hair before entering the office of Ollie Prout, the vice president of operations. From the tone of Prout’s voice over the telephone Jacobs knew that he was not being called for a social tete-a-tete.
Company Background
Automotive Spare Parts is a medium sized firm employing 500 persons and 75 managerial and administrative personnel. The firm produces a line of automotive electrical components. It supplies about 75 auto parts stores and “Moonbird Silverstreak” car dealers in its region.
Johnny Bennett, who serves as the president, founded the company. Bennett is a great entrepreneur who started producing cable assemblies in his garage. Through hard work, consistent product quality, and high customer service, he expanded his business to produce a variety of electrical components. Bennett’s commitment to customer service is so strong that his company motto, “Love thy customers as thyself”, is etched on a big cast iron plaque under his giant oil portrait in the buildings front lobby.
The company’s two most profitable products are the automotive front sidelamp and the headlamp. With the recent boom in the auto industry in the rising popularity of Eurosport sedans, such as the Moonbird Silverstreak, Automotive Spare Parts has enjoyed a substantial demand for these two lamp items.
Last year on Prout’s recommendation – and for better management of the inventory system – Bennett approved the installation of a new MRP system. Prout worked closely with the task force that was created to bring MRP online. He frequently attended the training sessions for selected employees, emphasising how MRP should help Automotive Spare Parts secure a better competitive edge. On the day the system “went up” there was an aura of tranquilly and goodwill. The days of the informal system of firefighting were over!
A year later Prout’s mood is quite different. Inventory and overtime levels had not dropped as much as expected, customer service was getting worse, and there were too many complaints about late shipments. Convinced that this should not happen with MRP, Prout is attempting to find out what is going wrong.
The Problems
Jacobs had barely taken two steps inside Prout’s office when his voice cut across the room. “Jack, what’s going on out there? I’ve just received another call from a customer complaining that we fallen back on our lamp shipment to them again! This is the umpteenth time that I’ve received complaints about late shipments. Johnny has been on my back about this. Why isn’t our system working as it’s supposed to and what do we have to do to hold on to valuable customers and stay in business?”
Jacobs gulped and took a moment to regain his composure before answering Prout. “We’re trying our best to maintain the inventory records and BOM files. With our system, there’s a new explosion each week. This gives us an updated material requirements plan and action notices for launching new orders. Some of my group think we should extend our outputs to get priority and capacity reports. As you know, we decided to get to the order-launching capability well established first. However, we don’t seem to have a formal system of priority planning, and that’s creating scheduling problems on the shop floor.
“I think our purchasing and marketing departments also are at fault. We seem to experience too many stockouts of purchased parts even though we’ve worked closely with Jayne Springs group to get realistic lead-time estimates. And marketing keeps taking last minute orders from favourite customers. This plays havoc with our master production schedule.”
“Well, I’m really getting fed up with this,” Prout cuts in. “Talk with the people concerned and find out what exactly is going wrong. I’ll expect a complete report from you in two weeks giving me all the details and recommendations for improvement.”
Jacobs decided to get to the bottom of things, as he walked out of Prout’s office. He first called upon Sam Mckenzie, the shop superintendent.
Production
Jacob’s conversation with McKenzie suggested the pre MRP informal system is still alive and well. “I’m starting to wonder about this MRP system, even though it looks great on paper,” McKenzie commented. “Last week we hardly had any work, and I was forced to overproduce on several orders just to keep everyone busy. This week is just the opposite, so many new orders were released with short refuses the almost everyone will need to work overtime. It’s either feast or famine! Our priority planners don’t seem to update the due dates assigned to each order, but things change pretty quickly around here.
“Another thing is the inventory records. When I get an order I first check the inventory record for the time to find out the current stock situation. More often than not, the actual number of units is less than what the records indicate. This means that I often have to produce more than planned. This plays havoc with our capacity plans. We can’t stick to our lead times when things are so fluid around here!”
Purchasing
Jacob’s next conversation with Jayne Spring, the purchasing manager. It was equally disconcerting. “Our buyers are really getting frustrated with this new system. There’s no time for creative buying. Almost all of their time is spent following up on late orders because of constant expediting action notices. For example, the other day the system told us to bring in 200 units of part HL222P in just two weeks. We tried all possible vendors but they said that delivery in two weeks was impossible. What are the planners doing? The perplexing thing is that the planned lead time in the inventory record for this part is correctly stated as four weeks. Doesn’t MRP offset for lead time? On top of this, we also have some problems with unreliable vendor lead times. This requires us to carry more safety stock for some items than is necessary.”
Jacobs tried to assimilate all of this information. He then proceeded to collect all the required information about the sidelamps and headlamps (shown in Table 1 through Table 3 and in Figure 1, and decided to gain further insight into the problems by working out the MRP explosion manually for the next six weeks.
Submission requirements
Put yourself in Jacobs’ place and write the report (maximum 2000) to your boss, Ollie Prout. Specifically:
5) You are required to do a manual MRP explosion for the sidelamps and headlamps of the next six weeks (beginning with the current week). Assume that it is now the start of week 11.
6) Fill in the Start Assembly/planned order release form provided in Table 4. It should show the Start Assembly/planned order releases for all items for the next six weeks. Include it in your report.
7) Your report should identify the good and bad points of MRP implementation at Automotive Spare Parts. Supplement your report with worksheets on the manual MRP explosion indicating where adjustments must be made for start assembly/order releases and scheduled receipts. Conclude by making suggestions for change.
8) Your boss wants you to use the data provided in Table 5 to create the HEADLAMP as a new product in SAP Business ByDesign. You MUST follow the instruction shown in Table 5 about the Product ID which is highlighted in RED font. After creating the product successfully, you are required to snap shots the SAP Business ByDesign screens for the HEADLAMP product after creation (at least 4 screen shots are required). Your product will be checked also on the system to validate your answer for this submission requirements.
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Table 1. Part Numbers and Description
Table 2. Master production schedule
Table 3. Data from Inventory record Part Number Lead Tim (weeks0 Lot-Sizing On-Hand (Units) C206P 1 2500 150
C310P
1
180
30 HL211A 2 As required 10
HL212P
2
350
15 HL222P 4 As required 50
HL223F
1
As required
70 SL111P 2 350 15
SL112A
3
As required
20 SL113P 1 100 20

Figure 1. BOMS for the Headlamps and Sidelamps
Table 4. Start Assembly/planned order released Form Week Part Description and Part Number 11 12 13 14 15 16

Table 5. Headlamp (HL200E) SAP entry data to create the product in SAP Business ByDesign
Product ID: P_HEADLAMP_22_GID Where GID is your group ID number Example1: if your group number is 9 so your product ID must be P_HEADLAMP_22_G009 Example2: if your group number is 99 so your product ID must be P_HEADLAMP_22_G099 Example3: if your group number is 101 so your product ID must be P_HEADLAMP_22_G101 Part Description and Part Number Headlamp HL200E Electronic parts
Net weight
3 kg Gross weight 3.2kg
Net volume
300 L Gross volume 320 L
Site
Almika Branch1 Planning Area Almika Heating Cleveland
Availability check horizon
14 days Sale Direct sale
Status of the product
Finished product, cost $300