Plants and Warehouses

MAC-PAC distinguishes between two kinds of warehouses:  manufacturing warehouses and distribution warehouses.  The primary difference between the two is that manufacturing activity occurs at manufacturing warehouses.  Inventory can be purchased, stocked, and sold at manufacturing warehouses--just as it can at distribution warehouses.  However, how those inventory transactions occur differs between the two types of warehouses.  These differences are explained in the Manufacturing and Distribution Inventory section of this key concept.

Another distinction between the two warehouse types is that manufacturing warehouses always use standard costing.  Distribution warehouses can use standard costing or moving average costing.  You decide which costing method should be used when you define a distribution warehouse.  The  different costing methods are explained in the Inventory Control User Manual.

A plant is a logical grouping of warehouses.  The smallest plant contains one manufacturing warehouse.  A large plant could contain one manufacturing warehouse and many distribution warehouses.  Because even the largest plant contains no more than one manufacturing warehouse, the manufacturing warehouse and the plant are virtually identical.  Therefore, there is no need to go through a separate step for defining the plant and defining the manufacturing warehouse.  To set up a plant you:

·      Define the manufacturing warehouse, assigning it the plant's name.

·      Define each distribution warehouse, specifying the plant where it is included.

Note that the way you define manufacturing and distribution warehouses in MAC-PAC does not have to be identical to the way the physical plants are organized.  For example, you may have a single physical plant but want to use the features of a distribution warehouse.  You can define a manufacturing and distribution warehouse within the building to handle this situation.