Jobs that are in production can be monitored within the Job Schedule screen. Your primary objective in monitoring released jobs is to detect and communicate with customers when dependent sales orders are likely to be supplied late relative to their required dates.
Released jobs are displayed by default
The Job Status option in the upper panel of the Job Schedule screen has the option of displaying Released or New status jobs. Released status jobs are displayed by default and are jobs in production.
Master Schedule Dates
The master job schedule consists of the following dates:
Planned Start
This date is the original target demand date for supply from stock on hand, POs, or lower level jobs.
Released
This is the date the job was released to production and is considered the actual job start date.
Job Finish
This date is the expected supply date for the job. It is established as follows:
•When MRP generates the job, the Job Finish date is forward scheduled from the job Planned Start date by the item’s Job Days allocation, skipping over non-shop days.
•When the job is released to production in the Job Control Panel, the Job Finish date is forward scheduled from the job Released date by the number of job days captured at time of job creation. This updates the master schedule with a realistic supply date.
Manually Adjusting the Job Finish date
•The Job Finish can be manually adjusted for released jobs to reflect the reality of your shop if you know you will not be hitting the finish date target. Updating the supply date (Finish date) will provide feedback for all dependent jobs and sales orders.
Late Supply screen improves communication between the shop and the office for top level for sale items
When the Finish date is greater than the sales order line Required date this job will show up in the Sales > Late Supply screen. This will immediately let the office know which jobs are running late and they can update the SO line Expected Ship date and contact the customer if appropriate
Required
This is the date that the parent item is needed to supply dependent demand events or to replenish stock. It is established as follows:
•If the earliest dependent demand event is a job, this is the job’s Planned Start date.
•If the earliest dependent demand event is a sales order, this is the SO line item’s Required date.
•When the job is for stock and there are no dependent demand events, the date is made equal to the last day of the item’s planning period at time of MRP generation.
The Job Schedule screen is not used for active scheduling - Job Release is the core scheduling function
The Job Schedule screen is for information purposes and is not an active scheduling screen. Job dates are initially established at time of MRP generation. Dates against New status jobs cannot be changed because those dates are short term, just in time dates that will be automatically rescheduled as needed when jobs are released to production.
Job Progress Indicators
The following fields are indicators of job progress relative to its scheduled finish date and required date.
Days Past Req
A value in this field means that the Job Finish date or current date, whichever is latest, is ‘X’ shop days past the job’s Required date, which may affect dependent demand events.
Supply Dependencies
The icon in the Dependencies field, which launches the Supply Dependencies inquiry, becomes visible when the job is scheduled to finish late relative to dependent demand events. Dependent demand events are sales orders or jobs with demand dates earlier than the Job Finish date or the current date.
The supply job may still finish on time
Even though the supply job has a Days Past Req value, it does not mean that the job will definitively miss its Required date. A job that is trending late automatically receives greater priority in work center queues, which reduces waiting time and may enable the job to be finished by its Job Finish date.
Dependent Sales Orders
Sales order lines listed in the Supply Dependencies inquiry will be late for shipment if the supply job is not finished by its Required date. If you conclude that the supply job has no chance of being finished on time, you may wish to inform the customer when shipment is likely to be made.
Never change the Required date
When a supply job is trending late, do not move out dependent sales order line Required dates. Leave the dates fixed as is for these reasons:
•If a sales order line Required date gets moved out, the original date is lost and the new date appears to be on time, which eliminates the ability to measure on-time shipping performance.
•If the sales order line Required date stays fixed as is, the supply job gets assigned greater priority in work center queues, which automatically expedites the job. If the Required date gets moved out, however, the supply job appears to be on time and gets assigned an average priority and does not get expedited.
•If the sales order line Required date stays fixed as is, the sales order moves towards the top of the Shipment Planner list within the Order Picking screen. This way the sales order line gets high shipment priority when the supply job is received and stock becomes available for shipment. If the Required date gets moved out, however, it does not receive high priority and could get shipped after other less urgent sales orders.
Dependent Jobs
Jobs listed in the Supply Dependencies inquiry will be delayed for release to production if the supply job is not finished on time. No action is needed because dependent jobs that are released late will automatically receive greater priority in work center queues and may still be finished by their required dates.
Days Past Finish
A value in this field means that the current date is ‘X’ shop days past the Job Finish date, which indicates a late job that failed to meet its scheduled finish date.
Slack to Finish
This value indicates whether a job is trending ahead of, even with, or behind its Job Finish date and is calculated as follows:
Shop Days to Job Finish – Remaining Job Days = Slack to Finish
A positive value means that the job is trending ahead of its finish date. A zero value means the job is trending exactly on schedule. A negative value means the job is trending late.
Slack to Req
This value indicates whether a job is trending ahead of, even with, or behind its Required date. It is calculated as follows:
Shop Days to Required – Remaining Job Days = Slack to Required
A positive value means that the job is trending ahead of its Required date. A zero value means the job is running exactly even with its Required date. A negative value means the job is running late relative to its Required date.
Priority
This is the Priority used within the Work Center Schedule to determine the optimal order in which job sequences should be performed. It is calculated as follows:
Shop Days to Required – Remaining Sequence Days = Priority
Job sequences are prioritized within work center queues in ascending Priority order starting with the largest negative value.
