Manufacturing Orders and Components

  • Materials and components default from the selected bill of material
  • Should the planning change for a manufacturing order, the materials and components may be amended for the order (user permissions permitting). Full change history of material amendments is retained
  • Materials may be issued either by using a mobile barcode scanner, the ForwardERP interface, automated issuing (backflushing) or a combination of the three methods.
  • Stock allocations (reserving of stock) can be performed where it is required that specific batches or stock from specific locations are used
  • Where applicable and allowed in settings, materials may be over-issued (for example, where the nature of the material does not allow the issuing of the exact required quantity, such as lengths of steel). The remaining material can be returned and is not included in the cost of the manufacturing order
  • Full traceability and transaction history of issuing and reversing of issuing of materials are retained on the manufacturing order. This includes the date time, person, batch or serial number, quantity and value
  • Where procurement of materials/components is specific to manufacturing orders, purchase orders can be created directly from a manufacturing order in which case the purchase order is reserved for use by the manufacturing order

Substitution of Materials

  • Rules to define material substitution can be created
  • Substitution may be generic (an item may always be substituted by another item)
  • Or, substitution may be specific (an item may be substituted by another item only for specific manufactured items or bills of material)

Costing & Closing

  • The planned manufacturing cost is calculated per manufacturing order
  • The detailed planning of the manufacturing order is used to calculate the planned cost
  • The planned cost may be calculated whilst planning the order, or be automated to be recalculated at the time of the first manufacturing transaction
  • The option exists to use the standard cost of the manufactured item as the planned manufacturing cost
  • Manufacturing variances are finally calculated when the manufacturing order is closed
  • Optionally the manufactured stock can be revalued with the manufacturing variance upon closing of the manufacturing order
  • The close matrix rules can be used to enforce that orders with bigger variances may be closed only by higher authority users

Phase out of Materials

  • Phasing out of a material can be specified
  • This may be required where an item is replaced by another item, but the stock of the item to be phased out should be consumed first
  • Phase-out rules are applied automatically when a manufacturing order is created

Item Structure Costing

  • Simulation of the cost of bills of material and comparison of different bills of material is possible
  • The bills of material of the same or different manufactured items can be compared
  • The source of component cost and price escalation per line item may be specified
  • The use of a simulated costing as the planned cost on a manufacturing order can be allowed

Scrap and Rework

  • Scrap transactions, including a predefined reason code, can be recorded
  • Scrapping may be performed for the manufactured stock, or materials/components issued to the manufacturing order
  • Rework operations can be created and the time and cost for rework recorded
  • Non-conformances related to manufacturing orders can be recorded
  • Corrective actions as a result of non-conformances are provided for, including preventative action and root cause recording. Corrective actions are approved with an approval life cycle
  • Concession capability where applicable is possible

Work in Progress

  • Full visibility of work in progress is provided, both on an order/item level as well as in the general ledger
  • Materials/components may be planned and issued for a specified operation

Bill of Material

  • Item structures provide for an unlimited number of sub-levels
  • A scrap allowance in the item structure may be specified
  • The manufacturing operation at which a material/component is required can be indicated. Different quantities of a material/component may be required at different operations in a bill of material
  • Multiple active item structures per item where differences exist in the possible manufacturing processes available to manufacture the item can be created
  • Should a permanent change in a bill of material occur, the current instance of the bill of material can be deactivated and a new active instance can be created. A new instance can be created by copying a previous instance and amending as required where appropriate

Manufacturing Operations

  • Manufacturing operations as per specified routing that is customised per manufacturing order can be used
  • Planned time and cost may be used, and the actual time and cost collated either by batch capture or by real-time capture from the shop floor. This may be by using scanning and/or biometric feedback
  • Operators and operations that are allowed in a work centre can be managed
  • Operation sequence rules, including per manufactured serial number, may be applied

By-products and Co-products

  • Manufacturing of by-products and co-products is provided for

Outsourced Manufacturing

  • Outsourced manufacturing with sub-contract purchase orders is catered for

Manufacturing Schedule

  • Though not an APS system, the schedule as a result of manually planned manufacturing orders is visible in a Gantt chart format
  • The manufacturing schedule interface allows for manual and bulk moving of manufacturing order start and end times

Shifts & Clocking, Shop Floor Data Collection

  • Shifts and shift schedules/cycles may be set up
  • Shifts are linked to work centres, and non-productive times such as lunch breaks can be specified
  • Up to three shifts per work centre per day are allowed
  • Scanning or biometric clocking on manufacturing operations may be performed