A work center is a specific production area where an operation is performed. It typically represent one or more machines that can perform the same jobs. For an assembly operation it can also represent the physical assembly area. A work center can belong to a department and/or a production line.
Represents a production area where internal operations are performed. When defining an internal operation for a routing, estimate, shop order, DOP order etc., it must be connected to a work center, which is used to schedule the operation, calculate its machine load and cost as well as control various operation reporting settings.
The capacity of a work center is the sum of the capacity for its resources as defined in the Resource tab. The calculation is based on the work center Calendar and Utilization as well as the resource Efficiency and Validity Periods. The capacity is calculated using the Calculate Work Center Resource Capacity dialog. The result of the calculation can be viewed in the Capacity tab and is used to analyze the CRP and shop order machine availability.
Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP) and shop order always selects one of the available work center resources to schedule an operation. If multiple resources exist, the least loaded resource is selected. Operations scheduled with CRP and shop order are always scheduled infinite.
Advanced Planning Board (APB) can schedule operations finite if Scheduling Capacity is set to Finite.
The fixed cost rate and the overhead costs are defined per cost set and period in the Costs tab. This information is used both to calculate the part cost and the actual cost for reported machine time.
Represents one or multiple suppliers performing subcontracting work on outside operations. When defining an outside operation for a routing, estimate, shop order, DOP order etc., it must be connected to a work center and is used to schedule the operation and calculate its machine load. If the work center is connected to a supplier, this supplier will be selected by default when you create an outside operation item for an operation.
The capacity and scheduling for an outside work center is handled in a similar way as for an internal work center.
Costs for outside operations are not defined on the work center page, but handled from the Outside Operation Costs page.
Used for resource routings when performing the Resource Requirements Planning (RRP) calculation for master scheduled and sales and operations planned parts. Can represents a production area, a factory, stock location, shipping area etc., and the capacity is not limited to use hours, but can be defined in any unit of measure.
The RRP capacity is defined in the RRP Capacity tab. You can create several different capacity scenarios, and for each scenario the Load Source and Overload/Underload Threshold should be defined. The capacity is defined per period in the Capacities tab by entering the Units per Day, Efficiency and Calendar.