Summary
The Master planning module in Supply Chain Management can be integrated into a business process flow that combines various other modules, roles, and models into a model that works for intercompany and for multisite planning.
Master planning calculates requirements and results in the generation of planned orders. The three main master planning processes are:
Master planning - The Master plan calculates net requirements. it's based on actual current orders and enables companies to control inventory replenishment on a short-term, daily basis. Another term to describe it's the "Net requirements plan."
Forecast plan - The Forecast plan calculates gross requirements. it's based on future projections (or forecasts) and enables companies to conduct long-term master planning of materials and capacity.
Intercompany master planning - The Intercompany master planning calculates net requirements across legal entities. It connects demand and supply between companies not only for short-term, firm demand and supply, but also for long-term, planned (that isn't yet firmed) demand and supply.
Note
The built-in master planning engine is scheduled to be made obsolete (deprecated). It's being replaced by the Planning Optimization Add-in for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. For more information about the migration to Planning Optimization, see Migration to Planning Optimization for master planning.
Planning Optimization enables master planning calculations to occur outside Supply Chain Management and its Azure SQL database. The benefits that are associated with Planning Optimization include improved performance and minimized impact on the SQL database during master planning runs. Because quick planning runs can be done even during office hours, planners can immediately react to demand or parameter changes.
For more information about Planning Optimization, see Planning Optimization overview.