Advanced Production + Co-Parts + Kanban – Multi-Cavity Mold Question

Kinetic ERP
1

Advanced Production + Co-Parts + Kanban – Multi-Cavity Mold Question

We are running Advanced Production with co-parts, backflushing resin, Kanban receipt entry only (no jobs), and average cost.

We have one mold that can produce 15 parts in a full cycle, but we frequently run subsets of cavities depending on demand. For example:

  • A only
  • B only
  • C only
  • D only
  • E only
  • A + C
  • A + D
  • B + C
  • B + D
  • Various other combinations

Total resin per shot changes based on which cavities are active. Because of how co-parts and backflush work, we must enter resin per piece in the method, which means the divisor changes depending on the configuration.

Since we are using Kanban (not jobs), we cannot dynamically adjust material at runtime. The straightforward solution appears to be separate run configuration parents for each grouping, but that could quickly lead to a large number of BOMs to maintain.

Has anyone handled a similar multi-cavity molding scenario differently while continuing to use Kanban receipt entries?

If so, how did you structure it to avoid a BOM explosion but still keep material consumption accurate

2

Hi Dice,

We do something similar in both our plastics and foundry division. Unfortunately, for free riders or dynamic configurations there was no way to handle the backflush components. You can, in the full Time and Attendance, say what it makes but what gets backflushed will always get pegged to the BOM. You would need to manually assign the material used.

3

I LOVE Kanban Receipts. I love the wide-eyed looks I get when someone tells me about the boatload of work they have to do in order to make a simple part and capture everything, and I tell them to give me a part number, a valid revision, and a quantity and boom.

That said, it doesn’t compromise. You gotta give it a valid MOM.

I suppose, theoretically, you could write a wrapper program that asked for all the parameters such a MOM would need, somehow dynamically create (and temporarily store) the MOM, and then somehow call that MOM for Kanban Receipts to use…

1 Like
4

We also use Kanban and have some multi-cavity tools, however ours are specific to part.

Do you have one setup that is used more often? Could you have different revisions or alternate methods for the lesser used setup?

5

Kanban receipts is probably the best single screen in Epicor in terms of the amount of data entry it saves. And I consider the “must have a valid MOM” to be a great feature - it means users can’t do things Engineering hasn’t okayed.

At least setting up a MOM once is about the same amount of work as setting up a custom job, with the bonus that you can re-use the MOM next time too.