Reporting and Tracking Production Activities

Production orders involve reporting of several types of activities. These include component material consumption, routing operation time and unit completions, and production order output of completed items. Auto- deduction can minimize reporting for material consumption and operation time. The activities can be reported manually or automatically through a data collection system.

Reporting Material Component Usage

Component materials can be manually issued or auto-deducted based on their flushing method. Manual issues are typically initiated based on a printed pick list identifying the remaining component quantities that need to be issued to a production order. Actual component usage can be recorded on the Consumption Journal window. As a short-cut approach to recording information, the window displays all components for a specified production order (using the calculate consumption function), so that the user can easily review and post many transactions. Over- and underconsumption can also be recorded before the order status is changed to finished.

A pick document provides an alternative approach to initiate manual issues and report actual component usage for a production order. It identifies required component quantities for one production order. It can be created from the production order, or the production order subsequently associated with a pick document. Actual quantities picked are reported against the pick document, and posting the pick document reduces the component inventory balances .

Auto-deduction of components depends on their flushing method in the order-dependent bill and linkage to routing operations. Chapter 3 described flushing methods for reporting material usage. Over- and underconsumption is manually reported on the Consumption Journal window.

Reporting for an Internal Routing Operation

Reporting for an internal operation involves unit completions and/or operation time.

• Reporting Unit Completions by Operation . Units completed at an operation can be designated as good or scrapped, with an optional scrap reason code. The unit completions provide one measure of progress against the routing. They can trigger auto-deduction of back-flushed material linked to the operation. They can also trigger auto-deduction of operation time for a back-flushed work center.

  Reporting unit completions for the last operation has special significance. The good unit completions indicate the output of the production order, and a location and bin must be specified for the received inventory. Additional information may need to be recorded about lot and serial numbers based on the item tracking policies for the parent item.

• Reporting Operation Time . Actual time reported for an operation reflects the work center time (and costs) rather than individual employee time (and labor rate). The actual time provides feedback for updating estimated times, and a measure of progress against the routing. The operations remaining time is used in work center load analysis and production scheduling. An operation can be designated as finished so that the load analysis and production schedules ignore the operations remaining time.

Unit completions and operation times are reported on the Output Journal window. As a short-cut to recording information, the window displays all internal routing operations for specified production orders (using the explode routing function) so that only units and/or time must be entered. Each routing operation is displayed as a separate line item, and posting updates all line items.

Auto-deduction of operation time depends on its flushing method, defined in the order-dependent routing. Chapter 3 described flushing methods for reporting operation time. Over- and underreporting of operation time is identified on the Output Journal window.

Reporting for an Outside Operation

An outside operation involves two streams of supply chain activities: one for the production order operation and a second for its related purchase order. The purchase order receipt provides reporting for an outside operation. Actual subcontract costs are updated for the production order based on the purchase price and quantity invoiced. No additional reporting is necessary for the production order unless the outside operation is the last operation in the routing (which requires reporting of the production order output).

Reporting Output of a Production Order

Output of a production order has several synonyms, such as work order receipts and parent item completions. The system provides two approaches for reporting outputone with routing data and one withouton the Output Journal window. With routing data, the good unit completions for the last operation define the output quantity. Without routing data, the parent item completions define output quantity (and operation information is not relevant).

Tracking Production Order Status

Production order status can be tracked in several ways. An orders statistics summarize actual costs expended to date in comparison to expected and standard costs. Progress against routing operations can be tracked in terms of unit completions or operation time or both, and a routing operation can also be flagged as finished. A comparison between order quantity and output quantity reported to date also provides a measure of production order status. The production order status should be changed from released to finished when all activities have been reported.