Add a second safety stock level of "Critical" level or similar name on Item coverage and provide the following additional Coverage group setting "Restrict Action messages for safety stock violations" with the following options:

o Never

o Always

o For flagged Approved planned orders only

MRP logic for generating planned orders does not change in any of the three settings. Only the logic for creating an "advance" Action message would change.

Ignore: Critical safety stock would be ignored

Always: The advance Action message would be created only if Critical safety stock level would be violated and ignored if ONLY the Minimum inventory level was violated.

For flagged Approved planned orders only: Same as Always but only if the planner approved the planned order and set a new flag "Ignore unless Critical level violated."

Justification:

Most good planners will perform an explode up on expedite Action messaged planned orders to see what demand is at risk. If it is only to protect safety stock, they will often choose to take no action. The best will set the status to "Processed". Unfortunately, if nothing changes, the planned order will be recreated by MRP as unprocessed with no indication of the prior day's decision leading to a wasted "revisit" and reanalysis.

This idea would provide a company-wide choice to eliminate the message for safety stock violation and only add it again if the new "Critical" safety stock level would be violated. The majority of D365 and AX planners struggle to get through even the most important expedite Action messages every day. Indeed, many have given up and actually ignore or switch off Action messages altogether. This Idea could significantly improve the odds of successfully managing expedite Action messages.