Production Setup Guide

Overview

This guide covers the setup of Production application.

The Production system covers the modules needed to define the bills of material and produce finished goods from raw materials. The Production application also covers managing raw materials such as coil, and scheduling production based on job or departments. The Production system is deeply integrated with the Item Control system. Many of the setups needed to drive and control production procedures are actually determined from the item setups. The Production system is also integrated with the , Project Management, Procurement, and Accounting systems.

The Production application setup should be coordinated with the Item Control setup and Item Control data conversion steps. Generally, the Production setup can be completed after most of the other major application setups have been completed.

Production accounting is driven by the Item Warehouse setups. A solid understanding of the client's inventory accounting model is required to accurately set up Item Warehouse and Owner/Heldfor records.

Initial Setup

Establish the Production Environment

The Production environment mainly deals with how Production Work Order (PWO) forms are generated from sales order lines.

The most common environment is defined internally as MULTI. Multi means multiple PWOs are generated according to the item's department. If an order has 5 lines of panel items, 10 lines of coldform items, and 2 lines of built-up items, then in a MULTI environment, 3 PWOs would be created - one for each department.

The CID Setup Option, PWOONLYONE, defines an environment where all production items get created on only one PWO per sales order. This is a rare setup.

The CID Setup Option, SINGLEPWO, defines an environment where each item creates a separate PWO. This setup also uses the 'WOFORMSINGLE' PWO form layout when this option is set. This is a rare setup.

If neither of the setup options above are enabled, then the environment is considered MULTI. The PWO Forms by Department (PWOFORMS) rule can be configured to set individual departments as SINGLEPWO (one PWO per item) if the customer needs certain departments set up that way.

Verify/Create Warehouse Production Plant Records

The default Warehouse and default Holder should be created during the initial CID setup process. Those steps are included in the System Manager Setup Guide and the MASTER CID Copy Guide.

Review the Warehouses screen and add any additional Warehouse/Production locations. If the CID only requires a single Warehouse, review all tabs in the Warehouses screen and confirm the accounting setups and Warehouse flags are correct.

• In order to submit Warehouse items to production, the 'Production Plant' checkbox must be checked for that Warehouse Record.
• Review all GL accounts in the ‘Account’ tab for each Warehouse/Production Plant.
• If creating multiple 'Production Plant' Warehouses, review and update the Production Plant Priority tab as needed.

Production Work Order (PWO) Forms

Work with the customer to create all required PWO Forms, using the base form from MASTER as a template. PWO Form customizations are common, and customers will generally need unique forms for nearly each department. Work with the customer to consolidate forms as much as possible. Form customizations are costly and maintaining/updating multiple forms can increase the cost each time a minor form customization is needed.

The MASTER WOFORMMULTI base form was developed as a good starting point for most customers. When creating new custom forms, keep the overall layout and structure in place as much as possible. We want the Adjutant forms to have a common look and feel throughout the system.

Update the PWOFORMS rule (detailed in the Rule Maintenance section below) to tie each custom form to the correct department.

Review and Update Rule Maintenance Records

Item Attributes (ITEMATTRIB)

Item Attributes can define item types, assign special reflexes or provide additional details about item codes. The MASTER CID is updated with the most common item attributes and their corresponding form/jump screen where appropriate. Review the Item Attributes rule and add any attributes that are needed.

• Most Item Attributes are hard-coded based on the 'Name' value in the rule, but the Description value can be customized.
• The 'Group' value controls how the item attribute list is displayed in the Item Master screen. Attributes with the same Group value will display together in alphabetical order.
• At a minimum, review and customize the Department attributes to match the customer's setup. The MASTER departments are examples, and will not work for all customers.
  • The 'Name' value for department attributes should be the unique two-character department code that matches the code in the Departments (DEPT) rule
  • The two-character department code should also be entered in the Dept Code (text8) field
  • Production department items that require profile details (such as panel and purlin) should have the 'PROFILE' form associated with the department attribute

Departments (DEPT)

Department codes primary function in Item Control is to route production work orders and control profile information for certain item types. Departments can also be used to sort and group items on certain reports.

For Item Control, the two-character department code must match the 'Name' and the 'Dept Code' values for the related department attribute in the ITEMATTRIB rule.

Review the Departments rule and set up all needed departments based on the customer's production routing and inventory grouping needs. The MASTER codes are examples and will not work for all customers.

PWO Forms by Department (PWOFORMS)

The PWO Forms rule sets the default form to be used for each production department. In a MULTI environment, the system will uses the WOFORMMULTI base form, unless the 'Single' (log1) checkbox is checked for the corresponding department code.

Add each production department code that needs to use a unique form in this rule, and specify the complete form name (WOFORMMULTIDD.FRX where DD is the department code). Departments will use the CID default form if they are not listed in this rule. You only need to set up this rule for departments that need a unique form, unique sorting, or other unique controls.

• The '? to exclude' field can be used to exclude specific report codes from the list expressions on the form.

• The 'Sort Order' field is commonly updated to define a specific sort method for that department's form. Standard form field expressions can be used, and Foxpro formatting can be applied to certain expressions to convert to a string, or use just the left-most two characters, for example. Consult with development if there are custom sort criteria that are needed.

Production Reject Reasons (REJECTREASONS)

Pre-defined rejection reason codes can speed up the process or rejecting production yields upon inspection, prior to final assembly, and indicating that correction is needed.

Add all requested production rejection reason codes and descriptions, along with a unique two-character code for each.

Production Scheduling Dates (PWOG2DATES)

The Production Scheduling (SCHEDMASG2) screen is a useful grid display screen of upcoming production orders. The PWOG2DATES rule sets the default PWO Due Date range for this screen.

Review the rule and adjust as needed to match the customer's desired default range. Use dynamic date code offsets from the current date, such as -7d to represent 7 days prior to today, or +10d to represent 10 days after today.

PWO Reports (PWOREPORTS)

The PWOREPORTS rule controls the valid Production-related reports available in the report drop-down on the Production Work Order Master screen.

In order to add a new report to this list, an ECR must be submitted to development to make the report available for processing from the Production Work Order Master screen.

PWO Assignment Difference Codes (PWOQDIFF)

This rule works with the CID Setup Option PWOQDIFF. With this option enabled, users are prompted for a reason code when the assigned material on a PWO doesn't match the calculated assignment amount.

If the customer is using the PWOQDIFF option, add all valid assignment difference reasons to this rule.

Review and Update Profile Rules

The following rules are associated with the Production module, but are required to be set up in order to complete the Item data conversions for production items.

The profile detail rules (COLOR, MATERIAL, GAUGE, and WIDTH) have hidden logic that attempts to match the related item description in order to narrow the list of valid options in each drop-down. The description linking is based on hard-coded description values like PANEL, SSR, CEE, ZEE, EAVE STRUT, PRESS BRAKE, and CHANNEL. For example, if your item has the word 'panel' or 'SSR' in the description, then the drop-down list for profile color on that item will only show colors that are in the PCOLORONE rule. If your items have a description with 'cee' or 'zee', then the drop-down will show values from PCOLORTWO. If your item does not have any of the hard-coded descriptions, it will display all possible colors from all rules.

Working with this setup can be confusing for customers, especially if their item descriptions don't match the hard-coded profile descriptions. A common solution is to update each version of each rule with all possible entries, and leave the descriptions blank. This type of setup makes all colors, gauges, materials, etc. show up in each drop-down, regardless of the profile type. This solution also can display duplicate values for items with description that don't match any of the hard-coded rules.

A new solution is in development as of August 2018 that will rebuild the profile logic by linking the profile names to the valid profile details. Until that development is available, continue to set up the profile details according the the customer's best interests.

Profile (PROFILE)

The Profile rule determines the valid profile entries in the Profile drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profiles. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Profile Color One and Two (PCOLORONE, PCOLORTWO)

The Profile Color rules determines the valid entries in the Profile Color drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profile colors. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Profile Gauge One and Two (PGAUGEONE, PGAUGETWO)

The Profile Gauge rules determines the valid entries in the Profile Gauge drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profile gauges. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Profile Girth (PGIRTH)

No longer used

Profile MACHINE (PMACHINE)

The Profile Machine rule determines the valid entries in the Profile Machine drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profile machines. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Profile Materials One and Two (PMATONE, PMATTWO)

The Profile Materials rules determines the valid entries in the Materials Color drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profile materials. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Profile Width One, Two, and Three (PWIDTHONE, PWIDTHTWO, PWIDTHREE)

The Profile Width rules determines the valid entries in the Profile Width drop-down list on the profile jump screen attached to production departments. Update the rule with all required profile widths. The MASTER rule details are provided as an example and will not work for all customers.

Set up PWO Auto-Processing Attributes

The EMAILPWO-DD-WWWWW Contact Attribute can be created to define how the Print Production Work Order 'Auto-Process' feature routes PWO Forms.

• Create attributes in the ATT_CON rule following the format EMAILPWO-DD-WWWWW, where DD represents the department code, and WWWWW represents the Warehouse name. Set the Group to 'Auto-Process'.
• Assign the attributes to users in the Contact screen to define which users are emailed copies of the PWO form when the 'Auto-Process' checkbox is used.

Set up Printer Controls

Set up all needed printers in the Printer Control screen.

The PWO Control tab can be used to route specific production plant and production department combinations to specific printers.

Complete all Required Production Item Control Data Conversions

These conversions are generally completed along with the Item Control data, however they are uniquely tied to production processes and controls, and they are repeated here for reference.

Item Master BOM Data

Bill of Material data is required for automating assemblies in the Production application. This import creates the BOM attribute and the associated material items and quantities required to produce each imported item.

Item Master Profile Data

Profile Data is used to provide additional details on production forms and to group produced items. This import populates the profile details for each imported item.

Review System Functionality

Once all core system setup has been completed, perform the following system functionality tests. Some of these will require additional setup in other areas in order to create transactions and report data for testing. Work through each associated setup guide to complete the required setup and verify that each area below is functioning as expected in the new server setup.

• Verify that reports can be previewed
• Verify that drilldowns work, this uses an HTML viewer different than previewing a regular report
• Verify that the doc vaults are accessible
• Verify that printing is working
• Verify that both outbound/inbound emailing are working