Additional Manufacturing Information

1. Economical Batch Sizes

1.1. Why use this functionality?

Some sites may make batches of goods that if made only for the individual demand could create wastage. To assist with this, it is possible to determine minimum and maximum batches on a stock item.  For example, if a user tries to create a works order for less than the minimum batch size, they will be prompted to increase the quantity to reflect the economical batch size. See the Sicon Works Order Help and User Guide for more information, under the “WOP Settings on a Stock Item” section.

This functionality works slightly differently with Sicon’s Material and Resource Planning (MRP) tool.  MRP will first look at all the demand and available stock, and then at the point of creating the suggestions determine what splits are required to make the item in the most economical way.  This is then displayed for the user to see prior to creating the Works Order.

1.2. Overview of Process

Example of setting in practice

The sections below walks through a couple of examples of this feature and the expected outcomes within Works Order Processing and Material Resource Planning.

1.3. Example 1 – Minimum Stock 100, min/max 40, split on max batch size

Set-up

The built stock item has a minimum and maximum batch size of 40.  This means it is always recommended to make this in batches of 40.  In addition, the setting to Split by max batch size has been configured, so if the requirement is less or more, it will always be recommended to make it in batches of 40.

Stock Control – Stock Records – Amend Stock Records – Sicon tab – WOP
The built stock item has a minimum stock quantity of 100 on one of the locations.

Stock Control – Stock Records – Amend Stock Records – Locations tab

Because the stock item can only be built in batches of 40, it is expected that 120 would need to be made to fulfil this demand.

Manual Works Order behaviour:

Sicon Works Order Processing – Works Orders – Create Works Order

If a manual Works Order was created for 100, at the point of creating the Works Order the system will prompt to split this down into 3 works orders, each for a size of 40:

It is possible for a user to override this and continue to make 1x Works Order for 100 if deemed necessary.

MRP behaviour:

Sicon Material and Resource Planning – Material Planning – Material Planning

In this example, there is a minimum stock demand for 100, but because the item should always be made in quantities of 40, a suggestion for 120 is expected (3x 40).

In the MRP settings, all demand suggestions have grouped.  MRP will run through all the demand, and group everything together as one suggestion, taking into account any batch quantities when it makes the final suggestion.  So instead of a suggestion for 100, a suggestion for 120 has been made, and the user is informed that Economical batch sizes apply by the icon:

It is possible to double click the icon to reveal how the batches will be split:

1.4. Example 2 – Minimum Stock 100, Sales Order demand for 100, min/max 40, split on max batch size

Set-up

The built stock item has a minimum and maximum batch size of 40.  This means it is always recommended to make this in batches of 40.  In addition, the setting to Split by max batch size has been configured, so if the requirement is less or more, it will always be recommended to make it in batches of 40.

Stock Control – Stock Records – Amend Stock Records – Sicon tab – WOP

The built stock item has a minimum stock quantity of 100 on one of the locations.

Stock Control – Stock Records – Amend Stock Records – Locations tab

Because the stock item can only be built in batches of 40, it is expected that 120 would need to be made to fulfil this demand.

Sales Order Processing – Sales Orders – Enter New Order-Full

Because the stock item can only be built in batches of 40, it is expected that 120 would need to be made to fulfil this Sales Order demand.

Manual Works Order behaviour:

Sicon Works Order Processing – Works Orders – Generate Works Orders for Sales Orders

If a manual Works Order was created for the Sales Order, the first screen shows the min batch size:

And at the point of creating the Works Order, the system automatically splits the batches and creates 3 works orders, for a quantity of 40 each.

MRP behaviour – Grouping turned on:

Sicon Material and Resource Planning – Material Planning – Material Planning

In this combined example, there is a minimum stock demand for 100, but because the item should always be made in quantities of 40, a suggestion for 120 is expected. There is also now a Sales Order demand for 100, which would also require a suggestion for 120.  However, because the overall total is 200, the suggested results will depend on the grouping settings.

In the MRP settings above, all demand suggestions have grouped.  MRP will run through all the demand, and group everything together as one suggestion, taking into account any batch quantities when it makes the final suggestion.  A suggestion for 200 has been made, and the user is informed that Economical batch sizes apply by the icon:

It is possible to double click the icon to reveal how the batches will be split:

MRP behaviour – Grouping turned off:

Sicon Material and Resource Planning – Material Planning – Material Planning

In this combined example, there is a minimum stock demand for 100, but because the item should always be made in quantities of 40, a suggestion for 120 is expected. There is also a Sales Order demand for 100, which would also require a suggestion for 120.  However, because the overall total is 200, the suggested results will depend on the grouping settings.

In the MRP settings above, no suggestions have been grouped.  MRP will run through all the demand, including what the minimum stock requirement is, and take this into consideration when making the suggestions.  In this example there are two suggestions made:

The minimum stock suggestion is lower than the demand, because the Sales Order is suggestion is higher than the demand (20 will be going into free stock).  It is still possible to double click on the Min Max batch split icon to display how the batches would be split.

In this example it is worth drawing attention to the Future Stock Movements screen (which can be viewed by double clicking on a line, or clicking “View Details” while a line is highlighted).  This shows that although the two suggestions are not for the exact quantity of the demand, the overall result will leave the stock item with the minimum stock requirement:

2. Destination Warehouse

In 221.0.61, a destination warehouse field was added to the works order form to show where the finished item will ultimately end up.

2.1. What is the purpose of Destination Warehouse?

Standard behaviour is that if you create a Sales Order in your Sales Warehouse, this is where your stock is allocated and despatched from.  For manufacturing sites though, the stock being sold may first need to be made, and that may happen in another warehouse completely.

There has always been an option on the stock item to define the default production warehouse for a built item:

In the above example, the default production warehouse is Warehouse.

And this is the scenario where Destination Warehouse has been introduced to make this clearer.

2.2. Destination Warehouse in practice

In this example, a Sales Order has been raised for an umbrella into the Sales despatch warehouse, Showroom:

Running MRP against demand for Works Orders and Purchase Orders, creates a suggested Works Order as expected, but instead of being made in the demand warehouse of Showroom, it will be made in Warehouse, the default Production warehouse for this manufactured stock item:

If View Details is selected to see the Future Stock Movements, at this stage a suggested stock transfer will show from the production warehouse (Warehouse) to the despatch warehouse (Showroom).

Once this works order is created from MRP, the Works Order is preallocated to the sales order, and it also shows the destination warehouse from the Sales Order at the top-right.

At this stage, if users were to look at Future Stock Movements for this stock item, the suggested stock transfer will have updated to an entry for an Auto Stock Transfer out of the production Warehouse, and into the sales Showroom warehouse.

As the Works Order progresses through to completion, at the point of booking in the works order the works order is automatically allocated to a stock transfer, which is preallocated to the Sales Order.

If the Sicon Distribution – Preallocations module is installed, this can also be viewed within the preallocations menu.

Once the stock transfer has been completed, the sales order will be marked as allocated.

In summary, the flow when the Despatch Warehouse is different to the Production warehouse is below: