I am not an planner but a program manager.  So it wasn't obvious that your response had the answer.  Simply stated is there a process for maintaining the planned work order number besides firming the order in the system?

I am not an planner but a program manager.  So it wasn't obvious that your response had the answer.  Simply stated is there a process for maintaining the planned work order number besides firming the order in the system?

If you initialize data each day, the keys are going to increment according to your MRP and WO activity and there is no method in the native functionality to change that other than a source code modification. That applies to all companies you have in the system as well since they all use these key values. If you don't create actual orders and initialize the MRP version, the system removes the previous data associated with that version and recalculates it accordingly.

MRP is primarily a forecasting engine for demand fulfillment of your materials, sub-assemblies and finished goods. The method of fulfillment depends on your configuration and usage of the functionality but this logic centers around the items and not the orders. You can use the native features to build your forecasting models, as well as creating and scheduling work orders but it is always going to be item-centric, and the native MRP features and reports revolve around item fulfillment.

Given that, if you have the need to retain more order-centric data, you are going to need to adjust your MRP processes and usage scenarios, or have a developer build a modification to suit your needs. As I noted, you do not need to initialize the data each time you calculate demand, but it depends on how you have configured the MRP functionality, and there are hundreds of different ways to use it.

If you don't want to adjust your procedures or finance a modification, your only choice is to change those reports and analyses to organize planning data by item, not work order, because each time you initialize a MRP version, that previous data is going to be removed.