Capacity Planning

Kinetic ERP
1

Question for you:

We have two lines:

Line A

Bay 1 → Bay 2

Line B

Bay 1 → Bay 2

If a part is manufactured on line A it must utilise Bay 1 and Bay 2 from Line A - it is a continuous line.
Likewise if a part is manufactured on line B it must utilise Bay 1 and Bay 2 from Line B. Both lines operate simultaneously and are independent of each other. How do I configure operations/resources/MOM to force Jobs to apply Op’s/resource for the same line?

Your guidance would be appreciated.

2

I am no scheduling expert. I am trying to figure it all out myself.
In MOM > Operations > Details > Scheduling Blocks set the number of Scheduling Blocks to more than one. This shows that you have the ability to complete more than one schedule block simultaneously. You may also want to check the MOM > Operations > Scheduling Resources > Detail > Concurrent Capacity.

These suggestions only affect a specific MOM for a part. If you want these settings to apply more globally, use the Resource Group Maintenance. You can adjust the same fields (Scheduling Blocks and Concurrent Capacity) at both the resource group and the resource level. You likely only need to set it at the resource group level, but the other option is available for completeness.

You also want to make sure your resource groups and resources are setup to Finite Capacity.
I hope this helps get you started in the right direction. Good luck!
Nate

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3

This sounds like Line A and B are exclusive and are not in use at the same time for the same Job. But you might be running the two jobs, for the same part, with one job on each Line. It also sounds like if a job starts on Line A, it must pass through Bay 1 AND Bay 2 - without deviation. It cannot use only Bay 1 OR Bay 2.

If those are true, then I would ignore Bays altogether. You really only have two resources - Line A and B.

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4

@MikeGross has a great idea. What you are describing is basically a cellular environment. Unfortunately, Epicor does not handle cellular manufacturing all that well. At least, I have never seen an effective setup for running cells in Epicor.

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5

Hi Mike,

We have two lines with multiple stages

Line 1 has two stages

Line 2 has two stages

We need to report activity against both stages on both lines but a part cannot switch between line 1 and line 2.

6

Hmmm… :thinking: Maybe something like this…

You could make the resources LineA-B1, LineA-B2, LineB-B1, LineB-B2 - having all four in the resource group. And then on the Operation, just alter the requirement to be LineA-B1 or LineB-B1 (same basic requirement as I stated above - like use a capability to drive to Bay1 on either line), and when the employee clocks into the Operation, have them specify the resource they are working on. That way they could clock to Bay 1 OR bay 2 on an operation, as needed by your requirements.

Or you could leave it like I stated above, with one resource group (Bay 1 resources) to be used for the scheduling requirement on the Operation, and create a second resource group for Bay2 resources that are never included in the capacity/schedule calculation but can be clocked to. It’s kind of like tooling - not every tool has a requirement to be on the schedule, they just get used as part of the mandatory critical-path on a production line. But if they exist in the system as resources, you can clock to them at any time (at least I’m pretty sure you can). You do this in MES → Start Activity and change the Resource.

In either case, the schedule never sees a demand for LineA-B2 or LineB-B2 then they will never get scheduled independently, but you may need to tweak the setup for those two resources, so they don’t show as additional capacity in any way but still calculate whatever else you need like Burden.

7

If you really need the system to handle it without work arounds like @MikeGross has suggested (no offense Mike, I think your ideas are great), I was able to set our system up to stay in a “cell” with some BPMs. I could detail how it was done if needed.

1 Like
8

@jkane I never take offense to alternate ideas and opinions!!! Not even criticism most of the time :wink:

It’s so hard for anyone to give us all the details of the scenario so we can offer the best suggestion the first time, so open discussion, adding details/clarity, and testing theories - that’s how this site works it’s magic!

3 Likes
9

Hi John,

I started to create a UBAQ to re-align resources after Jobs are firmed and thought about intercepting MRP with BPM’s but I may be opening myself up to a world of pain. If you can advise on the BPM’s/logic you implemented it would be appreciated.

Thank you.

10

What type of manufacturing are you? Make To Order, Engineer To Order, or something else?

11

Make to order.

12

Do you run MRP or manually create Jobs? If manual, what do you use, Order Job Wizard or something else?

13

MRP, regen every evening.

14

We do not run MRP, so I will have to think on what might be the best way to do it for you. I’ll craft something up before the end of the day.

15

We are a quick turn precision sheet metal manufacturer. Our production floor has 2 cells. The original directive was that a job was not supposed to jump between cells. If it started in cell 1, it had to stay in cell 1. When we moved to the Cloud, I did not bring over this customization because it did not really deliver what management wanted and we added a laser to cell 1. What cell the part was to be in was decided by the punch/laser.

Here is what I had come up with:

  • I added a field to the QuoteOpr/JobOpr table called PriorCell. The field would be blank for Op 10. When Op 20 was added, I checked what Op 10 was and entered the cell that the op was in. So, we had two operations (punch and laser) and the punch machine was in cell 1 and the laser machine was in cell2.
  • I created all of our resources with a 1 or a 2 at the end of the ID. We have a brake in each cell, a hardware machine in each cell, etc. So, it was Brake1 and Brake2.
  • I also created and entered a resource type for each machine of Cell1 and Cell2. I used this to help filter in my BPMs.
  • When a MOM is brought into a quote/job, it is loaded in order and each method fires, which means that you can use the methods to alter the resources before it moves to the next operation. I forget what methods I used as the customization is no longer there, but a trace would identify what you need.

If you have the Advanced Planning module, that would be the best. As you could create the Bays as Capabilities. Then when Line A was selected, you could set the next operation to use the BayA Capability. If you don’t have it, you could just put the bays in their own resource groups, A-Bays and B-Bays.

I was able to do this because I always knew which cutting machine was being used, I’m not sure if you know what Line a job will use before scheduling runs. If you don’t, you could probably implement a similar concept as a customization to the scheduling engine.

Let me know what questions you have.

16

Thanks for your time and suggestions John, I’ll digest this information and plan a solution.