How do I setup nightly MRP and FCS runs?

The Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS) jobs can be scheduled to run automatically at a specified time by creating a Windows scheduled task.  To configure and run the MRP and FCS jobs as scheduled tasks, follow the steps outlined below.

1. Identify a PC or server machine that will not be shut down during the time you want to run the MRP and FCS jobs.
2. If Catalyst has not already been installed on the machine, install Catalyst and link to the company back-end database.  Refer to the Installation help topic for detailed installation instructions.
3. Browse to the Program Files\Catalyst folder and locate the front-end database.  The front-end database will either have an accdb or accde extension and include “Catalyst vx.xx” in the file name (e.g. “Catalyst v5.16.accdb”).
4. Make a copy of the front-end database and rename the file to include “SchedTasks” in the file name (e.g. “Catalyst v5.16 - SchedTasks.accdb”).
5. Open the “SchedTasks” front-end database from the previous step in shift-bypass mode by double-clicking the file and holding down the Shift key at the same time until the database opens. In shift-bypass mode the Access menu and ribbon should display instead of the Catalyst ribbon.

Select File > Options to open Access Options. Select Current Database from the Access Options navigation pane. In the Display Form field, enter frmSchedTaskSettings as shown below. Click the OK button and then exit Access.

6. Open the Windows Task Scheduler. In the Actions pane, select Create Task.

7. On the Create Task dialog, populate the name and security options sections on the General tab.

8. Select the Actions tab and click the New button. In the Program/script field, browse and select the MSACCESS.EXE executable on the local machine.

9. In the Add arguments field, copy and paste the path and file name of the scheduled task database created in step 4 e.g. “C:\Program Files\Catalyst\Catalyst v5.16 - SchedTasks.accdb”.

10. If user-level security has been activated (i.e. you are prompted for a user name and password when opening Catalyst), you will need to add a command line to the argument to open the database with a specified user name and password e.g. /WrkGrp "C:\Program Files\Catalyst\Catalyst.mdw " /User "username" /Password “password”. So the entire path specified in the Arguments field would include both the file path and workgroup switch if the Catalyst file includes user permissions. Using the example from above the arguments string would then be as follows:

“C:\Program Files\Catalyst\Catalyst v5.16 - SchedTasks.accdb” /WrkGrp "C:\Program Files\Catalyst\Catalyst.mdw " /User "username" /Password “password”

11. Click the OK button. On the Actions page, the listed action should appear as shown below and include the MSACCESS path, the scheduled task database path from step 4 and the workgroup command switch from step 10. You can hover over the path in the Details field to confirm the entire path.

12. Update the Conditions and Settings tabs as desired and click the OK button to save the task.
13. On the Task Scheduler screen, select the new action from the list of actions on the Actions tab and run it using the Run button in the Actions pane,

14. To modify the MRP and FCS settings for the scheduled task, select the Stop button shown below to stop the countdown.  On the Finite Scheduler tab, modify the FCS settings as described in the Catalyst Scheduler help topic.  Select the MRP tab to modify the MRP settings as described in the MRP help topic.

15. After making the desired changes, click the Run button to save the configuration settings and run the selected jobs.  After the jobs finish running, the database will close.