In the planning run, the system takes for granted that all components are available to start producing the order, that is, on the order start date of the pegged order. It then plans the dependent requirements date using this information. This means the requirements date of the components lies on one particular day although the pegged requirement is produced over a period of time (often several days). In KANBAN, you can usually take for granted that not all components have to be provided at the same time for the start date of the order. Therefore, it may be necessary to smooth the dependent requirements before calculating the control cycles.

The result of the smoothing calculation is a smoothed requirements curve with minimum and maximum values for the number of kanbans and the kanban quantity.

The following methods are available for smoothing the dependent requirements:

• Dependent requirements in one week are distributed evenly over the week. The period of examination contains several of these periods. Then it is not necessary to carry out the kanban calculation for every day but for every week. This type of smoothing is particularly useful if you plan on a weekly basis. Note that, for this type of smoothing only the week in which the dependent requirement lies is relevant.

• Dependent requirements are distributed between the dependent requirements date and the latest dependent requirements date using a distribution key. This type of distribution is more performance intensive than the weekly distribution described above. In this procedure, the system finds the distribution key either from the BOM item of the individual dependent requirements or if it has been defined centrally for the kanban calculation in Customizing for KANBAN (calculation profile) and assigned to the control cycle. Here, equal distribution usually makes most sense.

The following graphic illustrates the procedure in the system: