We have recently decided to create a make and hold program for our top tier clients, with ambition to roll out to more customers as time progresses. We have a need to simplify the Job entry process.
Through the Engineering Workbench we set up the finished part, with an Operation (machine that will process the raw material into the finished part) and the Material (the raw material that is being used to create the final product)
In order to pull finished goods from our inventory automatically BEFORE Epicor creates the demand to create the entire order, I had a theory to add the finished part and operation to the Engineering Workbench, so the details of the item will be brought into Job Entry automatically when selecting Get Details under Actions. However, you cannot use the finished part number within the Engineering Workbench for the same item.
In short, how can I set up the item to have Epicor “see” the finished part in stock before issuing raw material for the creation of the finished part?
I’ve seen this question come up so many times but the answer is you can’t. If you uncheck nonstock, then it will automatically fill from stock and suggest more make to stock jobs when your inventory is insufficient. If you check nonstock then it will mark every sales order release make-direct and you will get a job for each one even when there is stock on hand. There isn’t any way to make it fill from stock first but then create a make direct job if there isn’t enough stock. Maybe there should be, I bet a lot of people would want that.
If you want to fill it from stock you just have to override the make direct checkbox on the order release but that is a manual process. Maybe somebody has come up with a customization for this.
“How can I create demand for a finished good so I can order raw materials and components before the order and allocate that finished good to a particular customer?”
If that question is what you’re asking, that capability in Kinetic is called a Planning Contract. There are a few users here to are actively using it. They have found some peculiarities with it (single bin restriction was one if I recall correctly), but it might be something worth looking into.
Let me explain the issue I am having. we take raw material and cut the material down for a customers specified needs. All customers have their own part numbers in our system and when we receive a PO, the sales order is entered creating the demand for the specified part number. Once the sales order line is created, we create the Job and open the job in Job Entry where we “Get Details” under the Actions menu. Those details are pulled from the specified items Engineering workbench. the details contained are the raw material and machine used to cut the raw material down to the requested item.
Some customers require a lot of material, making a necessity to work ahead and have finished items ready to deliver. When we create the job in Job entry and Get Details, the Details are how to produce the finished item from the raw material. we currently have to manually change the raw material in the Part/Rev dialog box of the Job details->Materials/ Details Tabs to the finished item’s number, then change the operation on the operations tab to “pull and ship” to ensure the machine doesn’t get used for the finished roll.
What we want to do is create the job and make 1 detail for all situations. situation 1, create finished good from scratch. situation 2, find finished item in stock and get it to be seen as a pull and ship. and most importantly situation 3, find finished items in stock and set to pull and ship AND create a demand on the raw material to create whatever quantity is remaining for the order AFTER the stock goods have been depleted.
I am confused as to why you can’t use Make to Stock unless I’m missing something it seems that customer buys “Cut Product” from you at a semi-regular interval and you want to work ahead
So make the Part regular Make to Stock, set a min / max levels (or use something like demand contracts, or forecasting to generate demand) then build to stock and ship form stock
If an order comes in and you don’t have enough in inventory then MRP will generate the required jobs and you’ll make more to ship to the customer.
Scenario
Current Stock: 0
Min/Max: 100 Units
Job is Generated by MRP-> and Received to Stock
Current Stock: 100
Customer Orders 50: → Ship form Stock
Current Stock: 50
Customer Orders 100 → Ship 50 from Stock
MRP Generates Demand → New Job →
Make 150 (50 to ship and 100 for your min/max) → Ship From Stock
Jose,
I took your email to my superior. they are having me look into this a little further. we currently run 99% of our jobs through Make to Order. are you saying that we set up the part in the workbench to have a minimum qty? once an order is placed and entered, we select ship from stock in the Job Manager?
You set your part to be a “stock” part and set minimums on hand. Then MRP will keep that stock replenished and i you get an order (over what you have in stock) it will generate more jobs (demand)
So in these cases it wouldn’t be a Make to order job it would be a Make (store) and Sell and Make it “to order” only if you need to.
Is there a way to connect with you outside the forum? My planning director is intrigued by what you are saying and our inventory director says what you are saying doesn’t work in Epicor. Would enjoy talking with you tomorrow.
What I am saying is the standard way to do Manufactured to Stock in Epicor. I am sorry I don’t really do consulting just help out on the forum when I can if you need a functional consultant there are some excellent ones around here that I can recommend.
But what I mentioned shouldn’t sound at all un-usual to anyone using Epicor so either I’m missing something or something is amiss…
In Epicor you can do
Make To Stock
Make To Order
Buy To Order
Make to Order
Customer Calls Places Order for Part X
You Make a Job → Build The Part → Ship From WIP (this is what you’ve been doing thus far)
Buy to Order
Customer Calls and Places order for Part X
You buy that part from a supplier → Receive it and Ship it to your customer (or drop ship from supplier if you wanna get fancy)
Make to Stock
You make some Part X (you can set min / max so that the system automatically makes jobs for you when you are running low) and store it for a bit.
Customer calls and wants to buy Part X → Ship from Stock (if you have enough)
If you don’t have Enough
Demand is Created → MRP Sees Demand → Job is Made → Part is Manufactured and Shipped.
(this is what I am suggesting you do for those special customers where you have to “make ahead”)
For a Make to Stock Part
If you set Min / Max the System will automatically make jobs for you if its running low that’s basically the gist of it.
You can get even fancier by using Planning Contracts which lets you mix and match to some extent.
@BKuhlenberg A caveat that may be what your inventory person is thinking about is that if you enter a sales order as a make direct it will NOT consume any on hand finished goods.
We had some items that we overbuilt and they were ignored to the point we were late to the customer from the job when we had stock to fill the order.
We then moved to entirely make to stock, ship from stock even for orders that are really make to order.
Thank you Jose,
I have been tasked with running this through our sandbox making sure all our processes are in line to accept such a change as it will change our order entry processes as well as processes on the production side of the house.
