Our company exports to other international subsidiary companies. We do not use transportation module today (but could be persuaded if this solves the problem). We have a regular schedule of when containers leave. For example, shipments from China to Japan may occur on the 3rd Tuesday of every month and then China will ship to Hong Kong every other Monday.

However, there is no process in JDE I can see to reflect this for planning purposes. From how I can see it, MRP uses the shop floor calendar for delivery purposes. But, the assumption is that the inventory can be shipped any day the office is open instead using a shipment pattern or date. In order words, if the container leaves on March 15th and the next container is not scheduled until April 15th, MRP does not move up all the potential shipments between 3/15 and 4/14 to the 3/15 date. This causes work orders to be completed late and creates expedites when the containers are missed.

I would love to know if someone else has found a solution to this that would be willing to share.