In this task your work center supervisors and workers will issue material to jobs in real time.
Education:
Shop Control Guide - Issuing Materials in Real Time
Shop Control Screenshot Series
Video - Shop Control Guideline Job Issues
Training Tasks:
•Issue materials through the Work Center Schedule screen to all open jobs.
•Return some unused material to stock.
Job Issue Guidelines
Issue material to jobs in real time
In order to insure accurate on hand quantities for MRP generation, job issues, order picking, and stock counts, and to give users confidence that inventory numbers have meaningful value, it is essential that material be issued to jobs in real time through the Work Center Schedule screen prior to starting associated job sequences.
Detect and correct BOM errors immediately
Inaccurate BOM component specifications are a major source of inventory errors. Material gets issued by memory instead of from a pick list or dispatch list and then is pre-filled in the Job Issues screen without scrutiny, in which case errors go undetected. Instead, issue material from a pick list or dispatch list so that errors are detected when the issued material does not conform to what is needed on the shop floor. When BOM specification errors are detected out in the shop, see that the BOM gets corrected immediately so that errors do not get perpetuated in future jobs.
Correct on hand discrepancies immediately when discovered
Whenever a discrepancy is discovered where the physical stock quantity within a given location differs from the on hand value, see that the on hand quantity gets corrected immediately with a stock adjustment so that the discrepancy does not adversely affect future processes.
Never use stock adjustments to bypass standard processes
Stock adjustments should never be used to bypass a standard process such as PO receipts, job receipts, job issues, or order picking. Each standard process has its own unique posting and updating in conformance with the overall process workflow. Bypassing a standard process with stock adjustments severs the process workflow and causes numerous costing, accounting, and job updating problems.
Require 100% participation among shop personnel
Shop control is a system that is totally dependent on “just in time” process updating to have any meaningful use. Like any complex system, it is only as good as its weakest link. Therefore, shop control requires 100% participation among all workers and supervisors in entering their own material issues, labor hours, subcontract POs, job receipts, and job releases on a just in time basis with no tolerance for delay. Total participation will dramatically improve your efficiency and shop throughput.
Common Questions
Can I backflush a multi-level product structure?
“Backflushing” enables BOM components to be deducted from stock as finished items are completed, often for an entire product structure. Backflushing is not available in DBA because it is not compatible with an MRP and shop control system and it is the source of many inventory problems.
Light manufacturing systems, which focus solely on BOM components and do not have work centers and routings, often advocate “backflushing” because it reduces inventory updating down to a single step. While this may have superficial appeal, it is an inefficient and problematic process for these reasons.
•Backflushing degrades inventory accuracy because you never really know what is on hand for any given component, which also complicates stock counts.
•Backflushing is not compatible with multi-location environments or for components subject to lot/serial control.
•Backflushing is not compatible with an MRP system that generates jobs for subassemblies against interdependent demand instead of one “job chain” at a time.
•Backflushing is not compatible with a time-phased shop control system that releases jobs in correct multi-level order based on material availability.
The only efficient way to update inventory is to issue material to jobs in real time as needed within work centers. This insures accurate on hand quantities to properly drive MRP, job release, and stock counts.
Isn’t if more efficient to backflush components at job finish?
Backflushing job components after the fact at time of job finish is the biggest source of inventory problems. You can experience a dramatic and rapid improvement in your inventory control system simply by issuing material to jobs in real time.
Backflushing is mostly done out of habit. Companies that come to DBA from a light manufacturing system are accustomed to backflushing because it is the only means by which assembly build inventory gets updated. In DBA, however, job processes are time-phased and there is no reason to delay any process updating, which defeats the purpose of shop control.
There is no screen entry time to be saved with backflushing because job issue transactions are identical whether done in real time or at job finish. It is always easier and more accurate for the person doing the issuing to enter transactions at the time they occur, compared to the errors that can easily be made when transactions are entered hours or even days later, often by someone who did not do the issuing.
Issue material in real time and your location stock quantities will always be accurate, which facilitates stock counts, stock transfers, job issues, and order picking.
Can I use descriptors for items I buy directly for the job and never stock?
No you cannot. Some light manufacturing systems allow the use of non-inventory parts to bypass receiving and issuing for items purchased directly for jobs. You cannot do anything like this with DBA, which is designed to exclusively use stock items for all workflow processes. Never use descriptors as substitutes for stock items because they are not compatible with manufacturing costing, MRP generation, and job release, all of which are inventory-based.
Is using the Work Center Schedule mandatory?
DBA is designed for timely updating of material and labor through the Work Center Schedule screen.
It is time consuming and inefficient to manage work areas through manual planning. Constant investigation is required to track jobs and determine what job sequences are to be worked on next. Without software guidance, it is easy to work on the wrong job sequences or to ignore obvious bottlenecks that cause late shipments and generate excessive expediting.
The Schedule tab within the Work Center Schedule screen is a big time saver because it lists the active job sequences in each work center in job priority order. Job priority is determined by each job’s production time remaining relative to its required date. Assigning job sequences to workers in the suggested order throughout all work centers optimizes shop workflow and eliminates the need for manual expediting.
Work center scheduling is an activity that cannot be avoided because it must be performed regardless whether it is driven by software or done manually. A shop is a complex system with many participants and resources. It is a lot easier and far more efficient to manage work centers using software than doing so by instinct, manual tracking, and expediting.
Is real time updating practical?
Real time material and labor updating through the Work Center Schedule screen is not only practical, it saves a great deal of time and dramatically improves shop throughput.
It saves time because the alternative, which is updating at the end of the day, means that you are relegated to operating the shop in the dark without any current information.
Real time updating is highly practical because the entries are easy to make and can be done by the workers themselves or their supervisors. It only takes a few clicks to update any job sequence for material issues or labor. Furthermore, these entries cannot be avoided and they are easier to make as they occur compared to the tediousness of batch entry. Any worker or supervisor, even with no computer experience, can be taught to make these simple and highly repetitive entries.
