Infor CloudSuite Industrial Production Planning Training Course

Course overview

Production planners need to turn volatile demand, incomplete supply visibility, and finite shop-floor capacity into executable schedules. Infor CloudSuite Industrial (CSI), weak item planning parameters, inaccurate bills of material, disconnected routings, or poorly interpreted MRP messages can create expediting, excess inventory, late orders, and avoidable schedule changes. This course gives planners and manufacturing teams a structured way to configure, run, review, and act on production-planning information in CSI.

Participants work through the planning data and workflows that drive material and capacity decisions: item and warehouse planning settings, lead times, safety stock, order policies, BOMs, routings, work centers, resource groups, MPS, MRP, and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). They learn to interpret planning exceptions, trace demand to supply, assess capacity constraints, create or reschedule planned orders, and use order-promising information to make defensible delivery commitments. The focus is on translating CSI recommendations into practical purchasing, production, and inventory actions.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided work in realistic manufacturing scenarios. Participants configure planning inputs, run planning activities, investigate demand-and-supply relationships, and resolve a simulated materials and capacity shortage. Each participant leaves with a production-planning control pack: a documented parameter checklist, exception-review routine, planning-run checklist, and 30-day application plan tailored to their operating environment.

The course is suited to manufacturing planners, schedulers, supply chain analysts, production supervisors, and CSI key users who need to use CloudSuite Industrial as a planning system rather than simply as an order-recording system. It supports both new users building sound operating habits and experienced users seeking more consistent MRP and APS decision-making.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure item, warehouse, and site planning parameters for lead time, safety stock, order policy, and lot-sizing decisions
• Maintain planning-ready bills of material, routings, work centers, and resource-group data in Infor CloudSuite Industrial
• Run MPS and MRP planning activities using defined planning horizons, demand sources, and regeneration options
• Interpret MRP exception messages and planning detail to identify shortages, excesses, reschedule actions, and supply risks
• Create, firm, reschedule, and release planned supply orders from CSI planning recommendations
• Evaluate finite-capacity constraints with APS and use scheduling results to prioritise production actions
• Trace customer demand through inventory, purchase supply, jobs, and planned orders using demand-and-supply inquiry tools
• Produce a site-specific production-planning control pack containing parameter standards, review routines, and an action plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Production Planners — who convert sales demand and inventory positions into executable manufacturing supply plans
• Master Production Schedulers — who balance the master schedule against material availability and plant capacity
• Materials Planners — who review MRP messages and coordinate purchase, transfer, and job supply actions
• Manufacturing Supervisors — who need to understand how CSI schedules, routings, and capacity data affect shop priorities
• Supply Chain Analysts — who investigate planning data quality, inventory exposure, and service-performance risks
• Infor CloudSuite Industrial Key Users — who support operational users and standardise planning processes across sites

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable navigating business applications and working with basic manufacturing data such as items, inventory balances, purchase orders, customer orders, jobs, bills of material, and routings. Familiarity with the purpose of MRP is helpful, but participants do not need prior experience of Infor CloudSuite Industrial, APS configuration, SQL, programming, or advanced forecasting. This is a foundation-to-intermediate course. Complete beginners should expect to spend the first day learning CSI planning terminology and the relationship between master data, demand, supply, and capacity before progressing to planning runs and exception analysis.

Training methodology

The five-day programme combines instructor-led CSI walkthroughs with guided configuration and planning exercises in a training environment. Participants work from a connected manufacturing case containing customer demand, inventory, purchased components, BOMs, routings, work centres, and constrained resources. Short demonstrations introduce each planning feature; then individuals and small groups run planning, investigate exceptions, compare MRP and APS results, and defend proposed actions. Daily debriefs connect screen-level activity to operational controls. The final workshop converts lessons into a parameter checklist, exception-review cadence, and 30-day workplace application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Planning foundations and CSI master data

• Infor CloudSuite Industrial production-planning architecture and data flow
• Demand, supply, inventory, job, and planned-order relationships
• Item master planning fields and item-warehouse planning controls
• Lead times, safety stock, order policies, and lot-sizing logic
• Bills of material structure, component effectivity, and planning accuracy
• Routings, work centres, resource groups, and capacity drivers
• Planning data governance and validation checks before a planning run

Workshop: Participants audit a sample product family and produce a corrected planning-data checklist covering items, BOMs, routings, lead times, and capacity records.

Day 2: Master scheduling and material requirements planning

• Master production scheduling concepts and demand prioritisation
• Customer orders, forecasts, safety stock, and dependent-demand sources
• MRP planning horizons, netting logic, and regeneration approaches
• Launching and monitoring MRP planning activities in CSI
• Planned purchase orders, planned jobs, and planned transfer supply
• Planning detail inquiry and demand-to-supply pegging
• MRP exception messages for shortages, excesses, and reschedule recommendations

Workshop: Participants run MRP for a multi-level assembly, investigate pegging results, and produce a ranked exception-action list.

Day 3: Material control and planned-order execution

• Interpreting action messages and prioritising planner work queues
• Firming, unfirming, rescheduling, and deleting planned orders
• Converting planned supply into purchase orders, jobs, and transfers
• Inventory availability, allocations, reservations, and supply timing
• Supplier lead-time variability and purchased-component risk analysis
• Lot-sizing, minimum order quantities, order multiples, and fixed-order policies
• Root-cause analysis for recurring material shortages and excess inventory

Workshop: Participants resolve a component shortage scenario by selecting and documenting planned-order, purchasing, inventory, and demand actions.

Day 4: APS and capacity-constrained scheduling

• Differences between MRP material planning and APS finite-capacity scheduling
• APS planning activities, scheduling horizons, and planning modes
• Work-centre calendars, shift patterns, resource groups, and capacity constraints
• Material availability and capacity effects on job start and finish dates
• Scheduling priorities, order-promising dates, and delivery commitment analysis
• Reviewing overloads, bottlenecks, and schedule sequence decisions
• Using APS results to coordinate production, procurement, and customer service actions

Workshop: Participants run an APS scenario with a constrained work centre and produce a recovery plan showing revised priorities, dates, and required actions.

Day 5: Planning controls, reporting, and workplace application

• Daily, weekly, and monthly CSI planning-review routines
• Exception ageing, shortage exposure, and planner performance measures
• Planning parameter review triggers and controlled change procedures
• Using Infor Birst reporting to monitor inventory, demand, and supply trends
• Infor OS alerts, workflows, and collaboration for planning exceptions
• Cross-functional escalation between sales, procurement, production, and finance
• Production-planning control-pack design and 30-day implementation planning

Workshop: Participants complete and present a site-specific production-planning control pack with planning-run steps, exception rules, ownership, metrics, and a 30-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Infor OS, Infor Birst, Infor Factory Track

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions