In ERP, production work orders are issued based on sales orders. There is usually a corresponding relationship when the order is initially issued. However, as time goes by, various reasons cause the matching relationship between orders and work orders to change. Such as the following example:
The three sales orders are for the same product, as shown below:
In order to simplify production management, two work orders are issued based on demand:
Then Customer 2 notified that the delivery date was postponed by one week to March 15th. If the work order is produced and purchased according to the matching demand date, the inventory time of product A (2000) will be extended by one week, and the purchased materials will also increase.
This situation of order changes and work orders being unable to follow the changes will lead to confusion in the matching relationship between work orders and orders. The start date of work orders will be inaccurate and difficult to calculate clearly. This is also the reason why many companies cannot assemble finished products together and have a lot of semi-finished products in stock. If ERP purchases according to the start date of the work order, it will cause an increase in inventory or a shortage of materials.
The demand management module of PlanMateAPS has an order and work order matching function. After matching calculations, work order splitting suggestions will be given based on the matching results. As in the above example, Work1 can be split into two work orders with quantities of 1000 and 2000. Work order splitting recommendations need to consider several parameters:
1: Difference in demand dates (if the difference in demand dates is less than the set value, it will not be split)
2: Remaining quantity (if the quantity of the last work order is very small after splitting, it will not be split)
After APS gives the split suggestion, it needs to carry out the actual split in ERP, and then re-run the matching after the split.
After running the matching calculation twice, PlanMateAPS gives suggestions for merging work orders. As mentioned in the above example, merge the split 2000 with Work2. The result after the merger is as follows
Parameters must also be considered when calculating work orders together:
1: Merger time range: Work orders with exactly the same demand dates may not be merged, but similar dates can also be merged.
2. Quantity limit. If the number of merged work orders is too large, the merge will not be performed.
After the work order merge is completed, the last order work order is matched to obtain the new start date of all work orders. The user needs to update the start date to the ERP.
Benefits: We once implemented the above functions for a large electronics factory. After the system went online, raw material inventory was reduced by 30%.
It is not difficult for APS to give suggestions for splitting and merging work orders, but some ERPs do not have the function of splitting and merging work orders. The same effect can be achieved by modifying the work order quantity and re-opening work orders.
If there are a large number of work orders that need to be split, manual operations are time-consuming and error-prone.
By developing automatic splitting and merging functions in ERP, work orders can be optimized quickly and accurately. Enterprises can develop it themselves or ask ERP vendors to assist in development.