Create a New Manufacturing Order

Jump to:

1. Demo video: Production Planning and Management.
2. Schedule a new Manufacturing Order.
3. Edit the proposed schedule - materials, operations, workers.
4. Create MOs from Customer Orders for make-to-order (MTO).
5. Calculation of operation's duration.
6. Calculation of manufacturing overhead, labor, and materials costs.
7. Setting default workers or departments.
8. Finite resource scheduling, material planning, and capacity planning.
9. Forward scheduling.
10. Backward scheduling.
11. Create a make-to-order bespoke manufacturing order.

Scheduling a Manufacturing Order

A new Manufacturing Order can be created from Production planning -> Manufacturing Orders, by clicking Create Create. 

When creating a new Manufacturing Order:

1. Choose a Product.
2. Enter the Quantity, after which the software will calculate the production schedule (read details here).
3. Optionally, edit planning parameters:
   - Start date to set the new starting point for forward scheduling.
   - Due date to set the starting point for backward scheduling (Enterprise feature: Backward Production Scheduling).
4. Optionally, view/edit the schedule details, by opening the details of a BOM line.
5. Optionally, select options:
   - Do not book workstations.
   - Do not book materials.
6. Choose the desired BOM, if there are several.
7. Save to save the order on the production schedule.

When calculating the production schedule, the system will:

1. Calculate a possible schedule for each of the item's BOMs and the Routings associated with each BOM.
2. For each BOM, the routing with the earliest finish date is selected, by default.
3. For a multi-level MO:
   - sub-assembly BOM is automatically selected alphabetically according to its number.
   - sub-assembly routing, connected to the selected BOM, is selected alphabetically according to its number.
4. Propose materials bookings (by FIFO; or FEFO for perishable goods). If some materials are missing, the BOM is displayed with a red italic font.
5. When using forward scheduling, consider the lead time of missing materials.
   Lead times are ignored when:
   - some lead time is unknown;
   - some sub-assembly does not have a BOM (a manufactured item must have a BOM);
   - using backward scheduling.
6. Estimate the total manufacturing cost = material cost + applied manufacturing overhead + labor cost.

Minimum quantity for manufacturing

If a product has a "Minimum quantity for manufacturing" defined:

• When manually creating a new MO, and the entered quantity is less, the "Quantity" field will be highlighted.
  When the cursor is moved over this field, a message will be displayed indicating the minimum manufacturing quantity for this item.
  Saving the MO with a smaller quantity is allowed.
• In case when the new MO is created automatically from a CO and the required quantity is less, the MO quantity will be increased up to the minimum quantity for manufacturing. A note will be saved to the MO.

Scheduling methodology

Finite resources scheduling, material and capacity planning

The scheduling takes into account all limitations in resources, including other jobs, the planned idle times for machines, and also, when performing forward scheduling, the lead times of out-of-stock materials. To use automatic scheduling, the item must have a Bill of Materials and a Routing.

Forward production scheduling

By default, the software schedules the Manufacturing Order to the first available time. By entering the Start date, you are letting the software know that production should start on or after that date, and the first availability will be searched for starting from the Start date.

Material lead time is considered when forward scheduling is used.

Incomplete information about material lead times

Note that if the availability of any material is unknown (a manufactured item (subassembly) not available; or procured item not available with no purchase terms), then the MO is scheduled ASAP, ignoring material lead times, as the information is incorrect/incomplete.

Backward production scheduling

In the Enterprise pricing plan, the software also allows backward scheduling: when you set the Due date when creating a new MO, the software will find the latest time to finish just in time before the Due date.

Material lead times are ignored when backward scheduling is used.

Options

If Professional feature Unscheduled Manufacturing Orders is enabled, it is possible to select options when scheduling a new MO:

• Do not book workstations - no time will be booked from workstations schedules for operations. The MO will be unscheduled.
• Do not book materials - no materials will be booked. The MO is created as if there are no materials available in stock. If the product has a multi-level BOM, then a multi-level MO will be created. 

BOM information page, editing the proposed schedule

To see and edit the details of the proposed schedule when planning a new MO, click on the View/Edit View button on the BOM line.

This page allows

• seeing the detailed information about material availability,
• seeing the detailed operations schedule,
• seeing the detailed estimated costs,
• choosing between Routings - by default the one with the earliest finish time is selected,
• editing proposed material bookings,
• editing the operations (incl. adding extra workers),
• changing assigned workers.

Make-To-Order bespoke manufacturing

If your company works in the "Make to order" mode and makes bespoke products, then adding a BOM and the Routing could sometimes be an overwork.

For basic scheduling without capacity planning, it is possible to create a manufacturing order without these documents.

Creating a make-to-order manufacturing order:

1. Start, as usual, by clicking Create Create at Production planning -> Manufacturing Orders.
2. Choose a product and enter the quantity.
3. From the pop-up warning, choose to create a Manufacturing Order without a BOM.
4. Enter the required materials.
5. Optionally, enter the Start and Finish dates, then the MO will be displayed in the Production Schedule.

Such a manufacturing order must be created manually, and cannot be created automatically from a customer order. For creating a make-to-order MO, it is also possible to do so from a CO:

1. Open a Customer Order.
2. Click Check stock and book items.
3. Click To book manually.
4. Click Create a manufacturing order.

If capacity scheduling is required, then a new item with BOM and a Routing needs to be created for every project.

This can be done very easily from within the Customer Order when entering the order, after which it is possible to also automatically schedule the Manufacturing Order.

Read: How to add a manufactured item?
Read: How to create a similar one-off product based on an existing item?

Demo video