Description

The Shop Floor Control module schedules and monitors the status of the operations required to complete a manufacturing order. Shop Floor uses the routing and workcenter standards defined by Manufacturing Engineering and order-related information from Inventory Control to generate the scheduled operations (labor requirements) for a manufacturing order. Shop Floor Control programs maintain, track, and report against these scheduled operations.

The main functions of the Shop Floor Control application involve the processing of a manufacturing order from the point of scheduling the required operations to the point at which a finished product is received into inventory. Once the operations for the order have been scheduled, they can be modified or changed. The amount of time spent and materials used in processing the order are recorded and updated, which allows for various types of performance reporting.

Scheduling of the Operations

The operations required to complete a manufacturing order are scheduled either when a planned order is firmed or opened, or when an open or firm order is added. This scheduling, referred to as labor requirements generation, is based either on the due date (backward scheduled) or the start date (forward scheduled) of the order. Labor requirements records for the order are generated using the routing and workcenter standards defined for the part in the Manufacturing Engineering application. The scheduling logic is described in the Key Concepts section.

Maintenance of Scheduled Operations

The scheduler is able to modify the standard labor requirements for an order. Operations may be added or deleted, alternate operations may be activated, comments may be added or deleted, and operation information such as number of persons, piece rate, and start or due dates may be changed. These changes are completely validated, and the order and its operations are rescheduled online to incorporate the adjustments.

A batch rescheduling process is available with one of two options. Full processing reschedules all labor requirements. Net change processing involves the rescheduling of only those orders that have scrap reported against them; or that pass through a workcenter that has undergone maintenance, which affects the scheduling logic.

Dispatching

The Manufacturing Order Dispatch List, available as either an online inquiry or hard copy report, lists all outstanding operations to be performed for orders within a workcenter. This provides the shop floor supervisor with up-to-date, detailed labor requirements information, which makes it possible to prioritize the various orders passing through the workcenter.

Recording Time Spent and Materials Processed

The status of an order on the shop floor is updated by the recording of employee and/or machine time spent on specific operations and the recording of materials processed at each operation. Setup, direct, and indirect times are recorded for employees and machines. Quantities received, completed, scrapped, moved, shipped, received, and/or reworked are also recorded for each operation.

Performance Reporting