MRP and multiple approved revisions

I have two methods for producing the same part. One method is where we do most of the production in-house with commonly stocked raw materials. The other method requires us to purchase pre-fabricated raw materials, it’s more costly and time consuming to produce the parts, but we may need to go that route given capacity issues.

I tried the route of using one revision with an alternate method, but MRP will always create the same base MOM on any jobs it creates. I contacted tech support, they indicate it’s working as designed (alternate methods is normally used in a different plant). So, it appears that I will go the route of having two revisions. I know I can keep one revision approved and the other unapproved, and MRP will select the approved revision for the MOM. (By the way, we are normally producing to stock, not to an order.) But, since part revision approval is really an engineering function, I don’t want the planning department out there bouncing approved revisions on and off.

Is there a way to somehow dictate to MRP which part revision to use for creating jobs when there are multiple revisions approved?

TIA,
Kevin Simon

MRP will create jobs with for the Approved Revision with the most recent Effective Date.

If it were my production line, I would set up two Alternate Methods on one Revision (you can have multiple methods for the same plant). The most common Alternate Method would be set as the Primary Alternate Method on the Part Plant record. Then let the Planning Department change the method by using the Get Details function in Job Entry and selecting the alternate if they need to change.

I’m assuming the planning department knows what method to use prior to the Job Traveler being printed.

Example:
My production planner has a Job to cut a board to 95". On this part we have the Primary Method set to use an 8’ board as the raw material, the Alternate Method is set to cut two boards out of a 16’ board. He can choose either method in Job Entry prior to printing the Job Traveler.

2 Likes

Do you really need 2 alternates? Could you do it with the revision and just 1 alternate?

I have not done that much with alternates and was just wondering.

Matt - that was it exactly. I had a colleague mention there was a way to set this, but I was out looking through the revisions/alternate methods tab. I’ve got the part set up with one revision and an alternate method, and was able to get it to do exactly what I wanted. That’s a much preferable solution than managing multiple revisions.

That’s what I meant. We have two methods: the base revision and ONE alternate.

@mhelfrey Hi, do you think this is possible? I have the same issue.

I’m not sure what you’re asking me. Correct me if I’m not understanding what you are trying to do.

From what I gather, you have a standard part that can have multiple variations based on the configurator input?

If that’s the case, you will want to use Alternate Methods instead of changing revisions. When MRP generates the Job for your part it will always choose the Approved Revision with the most current date. Alternate Methods would allow you to use Revision A all of the time and then choose a different method of manufacture based on your configurator inputs.

So, I don’t think you need to toggle Firm or Engineered in this case. As long as the Job is not Released, you can use a BO to ‘Get Details’ and select the appropriate Alternate Method to update the BOM and BOO.

It’s pretty much it, but I have tried to modify the revision and it did’t allow me since it isn’t Firm.
I need to change some comments, some quantities and some part names in the assembly depending on the customisation after selecting the right revision.

I want to make a the Firm right after it was created by the MRP process.

I checked the trace log and reproduced the calls but nothing happened. @mhelfrey