Can we issue parts from a job to another job? I think this would be issued as material. The goal is to issue the parts from the job, rather than send the parts to stock first then issue them from stock. I think the goal is to keep the WIP costs in WIP and not let it go to stock.
If this is possible, will all of our costs still be captured the same, as if the parts were sent to stock first then issued from stock?
An unrelated side question: In Job manager in the demand table, there is a column for Job Num. Ours is not populated, so what is the field for, and where does the job number come from? We have sales order releases linked to jobs, but the job number is not listed in the demand table.
Thanks for your time!
Nate
EDIT: In my research I have not found a way to issue from the job to a job. I am going on a limb to say it is not possible. I think we have to issue parts to stock before we can issue them back to another job. At least all the screens I have seen leads me to believe this.
You’re welcome! FYI, if your altering existing demand links, make sure your JobProd.ProdQty is correct. Sometimes it gets set to zero and it’s easy to miss, as the DemandQty and JobHead.ProdQty will stay the same.
I don’t understand what you mean. You can issue from a job (usually the jobs part number) to another job, usually a material, but I believe you can issue to assemblies as well.
What kind of things scenario are you trying to do? Can you explain in an example?
This is all based on our goal of making to stock instead of making to order. We have issue splitting jobs (read: we don’t split jobs in epicor). Making our jobs to stock instead of to order helps us split jobs in any arbitrary way. Our thinking was we could make a job to stock, and before receiving it into stock, ship it off the sales order (from the stock job).
This little idea of issuing from a job to another job came up when we were considering how we could keep a lot of parts together for the first few ops, then have then split into multiple jobs after a certain op.
For example, we have a job for 300 parts, but we are only going to end up delivering them in batches of 30 per week. We need to get all 300 through our subcontract heat treat operation to make the cost worth it. So, if we setup our first job for 300 parts, and that job just makes the parts through the subcontract op, then we can take the result from this job, and feed the next operations in the future jobs. After that first job of 300 pieces is complete, we can begin issuing those completed parts to the next half of the job. The next half of the job might be 10 jobs (for 30 pieces each) over the next few weeks.
The worry is that if we make the job to stock and then issue/receive the parts to stock then the WIP costs get lost somehow (this is a concern of finance and truthfully, I don’t get it.)
It sounds like, in this scenario, these are actually Make To Order jobs, but you need to batch them. Could you create a single job, and add 10 Order Demand Links?
Alternatively, you could create the jobs from the Order Rels, and the job for 300 of Part A would just be one material with qty 30 on the Make To Order Jobs. then you could add Job Demand links to the job with qty 300 of Part A, using the Make To Order job nums.
So, you don’t need to do Make to Stock, what you need to do is structure your part records and MOMs correctly to how you operate. I will take the 300 scenario as an example.
When you are building your MOM, if you know that there is an operation that needs all 300 to go through for the best cost, that is where you draw the line. You assign a part number for the subassembly and set the job multiple to 300. Then you create a MOM for the finished good that uses the part that was just created as a Plan As Assembly.
Now, when you get an order for the part, set it as Make to Order. MRP will run and see that there is no stock for the subassembly, see that there is a job multiple of 300 and will cut 2 jobs. The first job will be for the 300 pieces through the subcontract operation. The second job will be for the 30 pieces for the first release, using 30 pieces from the 300. You put the balance of 270 into stock and when MRP runs and sees the next demand of 30 pieces, it will create the job for 30 pulling 30 pieces from stock.
We are converging on a solution. During our meetings we keep bringing up this idea of making a sub assembly of those 300 heat treated parts, then consuming them in the main job. We hadn’t considered the idea of using sales order demand on the main job. I think we could use that.
I am giving the win to @Banderson because this is really the answer to the question. However, all the great feedback from everyone has been very helpful! Thank you!
I have backed up and duplicated a part we are thinking about updating to include the heat treated subassembly. First, I copied the main part number to a new part number (COPY12446637). Next, I copied that part to make the HT part (COPY12446637HT) For the main part, I created a new revision and used the last revision to get the details. Then I just removed the first two ops, for saw and heat treat. I resequenced the ops, and then added a material for the HT part. I edited the revision for the HT part to only include the first two ops (saw and heat treat). I set the HT part to Lot Sizing Multiple = 300, and set it to Plan As Asm.
When I run MRP I expect to see what you said. Two jobs. The first should make the 300 HT parts, and the next should use some of those to run a job for the first release quantity.
We do not use MRP right now, so I am still learning.
Thank for your time!
Nate
After running MRP for just the COPY part numbers, I looked at Job Status Maintenance. Here I can see the job suggestions for each of the 5 releases on the sales order. Here is where I would expect to see one job to make 300 of the HT part to stock, and 5 jobs, one for each release (since I didnt set any planning horizons/days of supply.
Sorry, forgot to mention that you need to firm up the demand and then run MRP again. The system is seeing the demand from the Sales Order and creating the jobs, but since they are unfirm, there is no demand for the material in the jobs.
@jkane Is there any way to setup the system to create the HT job at the same time as the main jobs for the releases? Do we always have to run MRP twice to achieve this result?
I vaguely recall that costing doesn’t get updated when you don’t receive to stock.
FWIW, we receive to stock to an actual location that handlers keep an eye on. When something pops up there, they know they need to handle it. Receipt to Inventory is transacted by QC after they’ve performed final inspection on the part and associated documentation.
We do job-to-job receipts on a limited number of parts where the surface treatment process has a vastly smaller capacity than the machining steps. The surface processing always immediately follows machining. So you’ve got machining 1 job that dovetails into N finishing jobs. There is some traceability requirement that drove all this.
Normal subassemblies move to stock upon completion. They’re picked on the next level assembly job when that job is ready to go (which can be minutes to months later).
