Description

The Manufacturing Engineering (ME) module is typically installed in environments where shop floor movements are tracked through routings.  A routing is a plan for how each part moves through a plant''s workcenters during the production process.  A workcenter is an area where people and machines work together at a certain rate and cost.  A workcenter can be a set of machines, one machine, or an assembly line.

The Manufacturing Engineering module is required to install the Shop Floor and Capacity Planning modules in MAC-PAC, because routing and workcenter information is central to how these modules operate.  The following information is maintained within Manufacturing Engineering.

Workcenter Description File Data

This data includes information, such as workcenter number, description, and department assignment (departments are defined in Design Engineering), that identifies the workcenter.  In addition, descriptive information about the workcenter's properties controls how it is treated and used by the various applications within MAC-PAC.  For example, the Workcenter File stores the machine/labor paced flag for each workcenter.  This flag determines the scheduling logic used for all parts whose routings include the workcenter.  MAC-PAC also uses the flag, together with information from the Workcenter Rates File, to determine total standard and burden costs for a part.

One key piece of information maintained for each workcenter is the workcenter's capacity.  Capacity information is used in the Capacity Planning module to determine what resources are needed to meet planned production.

You can define the same workcenter in more than one plant.  A separate workcenter record is created for each plant.  This feature allows different plants to use the same workcenter for different applications, with different descriptive and rate information.  The plant is displayed in the upper left-hand corner of screens and printed in the upper right corner of reports.  Although you need to create a separate workcenter record for each plant, the Copy Workcenter Maintenance conversation makes it easy to copy records from one plant to another.

Workcenter Rate Data

The Workcenter Rates File contains each workcenter's rate codes, descriptions, and current and standard rates.  This information allows you to assign multiple labor and overhead rates to the workcenter.  You may define an unlimited number of rate codes; for each code you may indicate whether the rate is a labor or an overhead rate and whether the rate applies to machine or labor hours.  Each rate code may be associated with a unique general ledger account number.

For processes that occur outside your plant, outside processed workcenters are defined.  The cost each part incurs as it passes through each outside process is stored on the Miscellaneous Cost file.  Multiple cost elements can be defined for each part/miscellaneous workcenter combination.  You also define whether the total miscellaneous cost is fixed or variable, and whether it should be regarded as a material, labor, or overhead cost.

Routings

Manufacturing Engineering maintains routing specifications for manufactured and transfer parts.  On the Part Master File in Design Engineering, you define the standard batch quantity used for producing each manufactured item.  The batch quantity defaults to one, providing traditional, unit-for-unit control over discrete manufacturing processes.  On the Routing File, you define the rate per hour used to process the part at a particular operation/workcenter.  For the fixed time operations that are batch sensitive, this processing rate is defined for one batch of the part.  For fixed time operations that are not batch sensitive, and all variable operations, this rate is defined for one unit of the part.  The Routing File also contains typical routing data such as the operation type (for example, standard or overlap), setup hours, and the number of persons and machines required.

On the Routing File, you can specify if a particular operation within a part's routing is batch sensitive.  If a workcenter is batch sensitive, producing a quantity that is a certain percentage greater than the normal batch size will require the same amount of time as producing two batches.  For more information about batch sensitivity, see the Key Concepts section.

The Manufacturing Engineering module also contains a program that generates the lead time for an item, based upon its routing.  This program automatically updates the Part Master File with the calculated lead time.  Manufacturing Engineering calculates the run units (or run days per piece) and uses this information together with the lead time to determine the start and due dates for manufacturing orders of certain order quantities.  Orders for components are offset by these calculated lead times, so that the planned manufacturing orders, purchase requisitions, and transfer requisitions developed by the Master Scheduling and Requirements Planning modules are scheduled in the appropriate periods to meet the master production schedule.

Note that Design Engineering contains a separate program that calculates cumulative lead times for manufactured items.  The cumulative lead time includes the lead time to make the part and the lead time to make (or purchase) all of its components (down to the lowest level).

All workcenter and routing information is used for scheduling operations in the Shop Floor Control module.  The Product Costing module uses workcenter rates and routing information to determine the total labor and burden cost components of a product.