The “fixed lot size” is a lot-sizing procedure in which a production order or an order from suppliers contains the production or order quantity defined in the fixed lot size. If the material requirement is greater than the fixed order quantity, as many orders or purchase orders are triggered until the material requirement quantity is reached or exceeded. For example, with a fixed batch size of 25 and a requirement of 60 pieces, 3 orders of 25 pieces each are triggered.
The “fixed batch size” is mainly used when technical or organizational restrictions require it. For example, certain technical processes require production with a certain batch size or packaging quantities on pallets suggest a certain fixed batch size.
Our tip:The “fixed lot size” mechanism seems simple, but is handled differently in different ERP and planning systems , e.g. with regard to the consideration of production scrap. Before you work with this lot-sizing procedure, you should therefore understand how your planning system works at this point.
In order to comply with packaging or transport units during production or ordering, it is often more practical to use a different lot-sizing procedure, such as the cover time, and to set a rounding lot size (lot size increment). Instead of several production orders, which may all have setup times and setup costs, one production order is created in this case, which is more realistic.
The “fixed lot size” can be an interesting way to set up a pseudo Kanban mechanism without it having to be specifically mapped in the planning system. In this case, every production order or every order placed with the recipient is interpreted as a kanban card.
