Production - In Depth

The stock control product window allows various options to be set for products used by the production module. These include being able to specify outputs as having no production cost, which is often used with by-product or waste materials.

During sales order entry, component checks can be performed to multiple levels. These are only performed when insufficient stock checking is turned on and there is insufficient stock of the finished product.

A further option exists to allow the shipment of products or assemblies with missing components. These can then be added to the sales order as back ordered items for automatic back order shipment. The bill of materials controls this ability by allowing the specification of minimum levels required in a works order before the assembly can be completed. This facility is often used with items such as manuals, etc. for machines.

Works order creation can be handled on a back-to-back basis directly from sales orders. This can be either manually instigated or the assembly product can be set to automate the procedure for the user. This facility is especially useful with products that are made to order.

Options exist which will allow products to be specified for automatic assembly as part of the sales order picking process. This option will then produce an indented works order within the picking list for the sales order. This facility also provides a sub-option to pick already assembled products if they are available, and then to assemble any balance as required.

A further option is to allow on-the-fly kitting. This facility does not require a standard bill of materials, as the user is allowed to build and price the assembly on the fly during the sales order entry. Once defined, the kit is handled as per the normal kit assemblies.

The de Facto S5 bill of materials facility allows multiple bills of materials to be stored for the production of an item, for instance on different machines. Each bill of materials supports multiple input and output items. Both types of item can have standard and minimum quantities. Inputs can be excluded from cost calculations and outputs can receive no cost if required.

Different types of bill of materials can be defined using differing parameter set-ups, documents and generate different accounting treatment. The cost allocation method can also be chosen. This is useful when producing multiple outputs from a single works order and requiring a flexible allocation of cost across the outputs.

Bills of Materials in S5 v4.5 provides a number of new options. Waste Percentages can be specified on the Bill of Materials resulting in an increase in the quantity required. Setup Quantity per input or output product can similarly be specified on the bill of materials as either a fixed amount or a quantity per so many units or operations. Reusable components can now be defined on the inputs and have the effect of returning the product back to stock after completion of the works order. These could be used for the handling of tooling or jigs etc.

A library of Standard Operations or Procedures can now be defined which can then be attached to the works order header, footer or a specific component or operation. The specified procedures / text can be output on any production output documentation. Inputs can now have a Machine and Program specified, which can be used for integration into direct downloads to machinery of manufacturing programs. A new flag has been provided to indicate if the BOM on a works order has been modified from the original. Additional controls to user security to control their ability to modify materials or operations on works orders have been added.

Works Orders Processing is handled by the de Facto S5 production module as four individual processes which can be combined if required. These processes begin with works order creation either manually or automated by production planning or sales order processing. Orders can then be processed in the following steps:

Pick production inputs, this will allow automatic or manual selection of stock for the works order and will then lock that stock. This can be followed by input confirmation, which confirms the input material usage and moves it to work in progress. The final stage is then output confirmation, which matches the inputs to the outputs and creates the output product. The individual processes can be combined and can also be carried out on a batch basis if required.

The planning process can be carried out on a selection of finished or interim products / bills of materials. The plan can be constructed in either days or weeks, and is based on calculated and actual demand, which can then be amended. The system then in real time carries out an MRP procedure which immediately highlights any input/material needs. This plan can take into account the lead time for both bought in and produced materials.

Once the plan has been amended it can be saved, and in doing so will generate planning demand within the expediting system, thus allowing relevant purchase orders to automatically be raised if needed. The plan then allows the relevant works orders to be generated from it either selectively or en mass.

A number of enhancements have been made to facilitate Production on multiple sites from the same Bill of Materials where each site may have varying production capacity:

Warehouse and Production Area Types
A new warehouse type has been added to allow bills of materials to be specified by warehouse type, as an alternative to a specific warehouse. Likewise production areas can also be classified by type.

Production Area - Maximum Capacities
Production Areas now gain the facility to specify the maximum capacity of the area. You can also control how production planning may be used to auto generate works orders taking into account the production capacity.

Multi Site - Production Planning
This has been modified to allow the sales order demand to be built per site. This will take into account the site and warehouse restrictions of the current user. Works orders can then be generated for the selected site and related production areas.

Production Batch Processing
A new 'Single Process' provides the ability to process works orders through from picking to output confirmation as a single process. This option does not create any WIP entries for either the stock transaction or nominal ledger, but simply creates entries for the input usage and output creation.

Transaction batches also offer facilities for the importing of transaction data from external sources. Data is imported from text files for which a public file format is published. Special import options are available for the importing of opening balance transactions when first setting up the system.

All transaction types when posted are immediately updated to the respective ledgers including the nominal ledger. Automated postings for such items as stock, cost of sales, work in progress, accrual accounting are made. All postings are defined via sophisticated "Nominal interfaces" which control the selection of nominal accounts and cost centres for stock accounts or adjustment codes, etc.

de Facto S5 offers standard facilities for defining multiple levels of analysis codes on all types of records and transactions at both header and detail levels. These codes can have user-definable titles and choice lists. Many standard reports can then use these analysis codes to select and sort data.

The de Facto S5 production module now includes new facilities for the quick processing of works orders, by confirmation of materials used, and outputs produced. These facilities are available both directly within the application, and on our thin-client RDT-based platform for online data entry.

A new feature in the Production module is that of outputs apportionment to input materials with quality related measurements. This feature has been designed for the fresh produce industries.

The Production module has recently seen developments in the areas of cost calculation, control and posting. Designed for flexible cost recovery and accrual accounting in a complex production environment.

The Production Planning window has had a large number of enhancements in the v4.5 release. The new Auto Fill option checks all Bills of Materials for required production, taking into account demand up to the selected time slot. New options to highlight related assemblies or components can now be activated so that the related items will be highlighted in both assembly and components lists. The table can be filtered to show only the highlighted items. Other features to further increase the productivity and ease of use of the window have been implemented.

de Facto S5 Production now provides a flexible standard facility for booking labour to works orders, with options for employee and activity maintenance to facilitate this. Operations can be added as inputs into the Bills of Materials and can then have labour booked against them during works order processing. The entry and posting of a labour booking creates a record of Labour Used, and then allows this to be allocated as part of the normal output confirmation process. These options will see further enhancements in de Facto S5 version v4.6 and v4.7.

A new (in v5.2) option in Works Order parameters, 'Pro-rata Outstanding labour', enables labour to be booked over and above the input detail quantity. When using quick process the new option allocates the extra cost to the input and allows the Works Order to be completed. If there are multiple output items the additional cost is allocated pro-rata.

Each of the categories listed below will have multiple versions exploiting the many options that the standard reports provide.

In addition to Production specific reports, de Facto S5 provides a comprehensive series of Standard Reports, many of which can be easily parameter driven by the user. S5 further provides the Vistas feature, which are a powerful and easy way of selecting, sorting, displaying and working with data from either single or multiple tables.