Core concepts in production control

  • 5 minutes

Although each company’s manufacturing processes are unique, depending on the nature of the production environment, the core conceptual elements that are used in the Production control module are frequently similar.

The core concepts in the Production control module are as follows:

  • Calendars
  • Resources
  • Resource types
  • Resource capabilities
  • Bill of materials (BOM)
  • Routes and operations
  • Formula
  • Value streams
  • Production flow models
  • Production units
  • Production groups
  • Production pools
  • Allocation keys
  • Kanban functionality

Resources

Resources are the company’s total working resources. They can be anything that is used for the creation, production, or delivery of a good and/or service over and beyond the materials consumed in the process. Resources can be of different types, including machines, tools, people, vendors, or locations.

Organization administration > Resources > Resources

Screenshot of the Operations tab on the Resources page.

Resource types

Resources are created in the Organization administration module. They are used in production along with the calendar to manage the overall capacity of a company's equipment and resources. Each resource can be associated with a resource group, and one or multiple resources can exist in any given resource group.

The following resource types are available in Supply Chain Management:

  • Vendor - Use this type when an operation (or task) is performed by an outside resource or subcontractor. A vendor number can be associated with this kind of resource to help with scheduling and tracking.
  • Human resources - Use this type to define when personnel or a group of employees conduct an operation.
  • Machine - Use this type to tie an individual machine or group of machines with a resource. It is the most frequently used type of resource.
  • Tool - Use this type to control and schedule the reservations of a tool. Use this type only when capacity is limited.
  • Location - Use this type to control and schedule the reservations of a specific location.
  • Facility - A building or fixed structure that is required to perform an activity.

Organization administration > Resources > Resources. Select New to create a new resource.

Screenshot of the Type dropdown list on a new Resources page.

Resource capabilities

Capabilities are assigned to an operation’s resource. A resource can have more than one capability assigned to it, and a capability can be assigned to more than one resource. Capabilities can also be assigned to resources on a temporary basis by defining a start date and expiration date on the capability assignment.

Organizational administration > Resources > Resource capabilities

Screenshot of the Resource capabilities page.

Capabilities that have expired on a resource will prevent the resource from being scheduled for production if the production requires that capability. A capability that has expired can be subsequently renewed.

When defining resource requirements for a production route, you can specify one or more capabilities as requirements. When production scheduling is performed, the capabilities that are defined in the resource requirements on the route operation are matched with the capabilities that are defined for the resources.

The resources with capabilities that satisfy the requirements are then selected. When defining capabilities for different resources, you should set up capabilities so that significantly different processing speeds are set up as different capabilities.

Bill of materials (BOM)

The BOM is one of the most important documents in a manufacturing company. Before a company can produce a product, it must know what components are to be included and how many of these components are needed to make the end product. The BOM contains all the ingredients, components, parts, or raw materials that are required to make one finished product.

Product information management > Bill of materials and formulas > Bill of materials

Screenshot of the Bills of materials page.

Routes and operations

The route determines the process steps that are needed to produce a finished product.

The BOM defines the materials required, the resource defines where the item is produced, and the route determines the sequence of events to build the finished product. Operations are the tasks or work processes that are put together with a route to produce a specific product. Each task is associated with a time allotment to complete the individual task.

Production control > Operations > All routes

Screenshot of an example of a route for a speaker cabinet.

Define optional settings

Companies can also set up optional settings that control the production process if these are relevant to their production environments.

The optional settings are as follows:

  • Production groups - Set up production groups to establish relationships between the production order and ledger accounts. The ledger accounts will be used to post or to group orders for reporting.
  • Production pools - Create production pools to group production orders for processing urgent production orders or for deleting and posting groups of orders.
  • Properties - Define properties to create special attributes that you can assign to your resources for use in the scheduling process. These attributes are connected to the working time template.
  • Resource capabilities - Create resource capabilities in case resources need to perform the various operations in the route that can be expressed as the set of resource capabilities. This allows the allocation of resources to be deferred until production is scheduled.

Production control integration with other modules in Supply Chain Management

The Production control module is integrated with the following modules in Supply Chain Management:

  • Inventory management
  • Warehouse management
  • General ledger
  • Master planning
  • Organization administration
  • Project accounting
  • Product information management

This integration supports the information flow that is needed to complete the manufacturing of a finished item. The production of items follows a sequential production life cycle. The life cycle reflects the actual steps that are taken to manufacture an item. It begins with the creation of a production order and ends with a finished, manufactured item that is ready for the customer.

Each step in the life cycle requires different kinds of information. When a step in the life cycle is completed, the production order signals this by a change in the production status. If one or more of the mandatory steps (or updates) are skipped, the steps are performed automatically before the production order is moved to the next step.

Production life cycle and statuses

The production order is assigned a status that reflects where it is in the production life cycle. The status of the orders is as follows:

  • Create
  • Estimate
  • Schedule
  • Released
  • Start
  • Report as finished
  • End

You can configure Supply Chain Management to automatically process Report-as-finished journal postings as production orders enter the report as finished status. This makes your finished goods immediately show up as physically available.