Shop Order Material Issue

IFS/Manufacturing has flexible material issue management which can vary, depending on the requirements for delivery assurance for different parts. Availability checks are a major part of IFS/Manufacturing. Each time a part is received into or issued from inventory, its quantity on hand changes. In the same way, the availability of the part changes each time you plan an issue or receipt. 

The availability check monitors the development of the available balance within the product's lead time. This means that each time a change occurs, the system determines whether all shop orders can be delivered on the promised date. The change can be an order entry, an issue, or a reservation. Only changes within the part's lead time are taken into account, since the availability of the part outside the lead time is considered to be under control.

The shop order backflush process controls which components to issue from inventory, the quantity to issue, and the locations from which they are issued. Backflushing is triggered by the following shop order processes:

Note that the shop order should be in the Released status or higher before material can be issued for it.

Options for Issuing Material for a Shop Order

Issue Reserved Material

When the material line is reserved before it is issued, issuing will primarily be done from the reserved location(s), i.e., all reserved material will be issued before any backflush to try to find other locations to issue material from. Within the reserved location, material is issued from according to the priority order defined for the site, such as FIFO (First In, First Out).

Issue Material Manually

By manually issuing material, you ensure that you get exactly the material you want. When you use this method the backflush hierarchy and part parameters are ignored, and you are allowed to manually issue available material from locations of the floor stock, picking and production line types.

Backflush Material when Receiving Shop Order

When you receive a shop order, the system will automatically backflush material that is not yet issued. Backflush hierarchy and part parameters will be used to find locations where material is allowed to be backflushed. Unreserved material lines with Reserve/Issue Method set to Reserve or Manual cannot be backflushed when the shop order is received.

Backflush Material when Reporting Operations

When an operation is reported, all material connected to that operation needs to be issued. If all material connected to the reported operation is not reserved or issued, the backflush hierarchy and part parameters will be used to find locations where material is allowed to be backflushed from or use this function to reserve material linked to a specific operation. By linking material to the operation in which it will be used, you do not have to reserve material too far ahead in time. Unreserved material lines with Reserve/Issue Method set to Reserve or Manual cannot be backflushed when the connected operation is reported.

Issue Over-Reported Qty

If material connected to an operation should be backflushed according to the reported quantity or up to the plan quantity when a shop order is over-reported, decides by the value of the Issue Overreported Qty option. If unconnected material should be backflushed according to the received quantity or the plan quantity when a shop order is received with a higher quantity than the planned quantity, decides by the value of the Issue Overreported Qty option.

Planned Scrap

If planned scrap has been defined for the material, either by component scrap or scrap factor, value of the Reserve/Issue Planned Scrap option decides if the planned scrap will be automatically issued or not when the material is backflushed. If planned scrap exceeds actual scrap the remaining planned scrap will be issued when the option is enabled.

Unissue Manually

Use this function to return a selected quantity of previously issued material to any inventory location. Note that the shop order material should be in the Issued status before you can use this function.

Unissue Automatically

Use this function to return the entire quantity of previously issued material for either the entire shop order, or a selected material line. Note that the shop order material should be in the Issued status before you can use this function.

Hierarchy for the Automatic Backflush of Material for a Shop Order

To determine the locations from which to issue materials, the system uses a hierarchical set of rules. Understanding this set of rules will help you control the locations used for backflushing. To issue components, the system looks for available inventory, until enough is found, in the following order:

If negative inventory is permitted for the site, the system will continue with the following step: 

The first location found for the part using the backflush hierarchy identified above will be used for negative on hand for this specific order.

Parameters that Affects the Automatic Backflush of Material for a Shop Order

Inventory Part

An inventory part has two parameters that affects the reserving and/or issuing of material for a shop order:

Reserve/Issue Method consists of four options, which are Manual, Reserve, Backflush, Reserve and Backflush, that determines whether you are allowed to reserve or backflush material. This parameter is passed to the shop order material line and it can be modified at the shop order material line level.

Reserve/Issue from consists of three options, which are All Location, Only Floor Stock, Only Specified Location. The selected option determines from which location you are allowed to reserve material for a shop order. If the Only Specified location option is selected, the logic will stop after that step in the hierarchy.

Work Center

Work center has two parameters that affects the issuing of material for a shop order.

Outside Reserve/Backflush consists of four options which are Reserve Allowed, Backflush Allowed, Reserve and Backflush Allowed and Not Allowed. The selected option determines whether the operation connected material should be allowed to continue with reserve and/or backflush after this step or not, using locations other than the work center inbound locations.

On the Work Center/Location tab, the Shared Location option determines whether the location is allowed to issue to other material demands that are not connected to the particular work center. In an instance when the location is protected against the work center, no other material demand is able to automatically backflush material from this particular location. This helps to avoid unexpected shortages due to backflush of material that is not supposed to be processed in the work center.

Production Line

Outside Reserve/Backflush which is in the production line affects both automatic reserving/issuing of production schedule and shop order material. Options determine how the reserve/backflush of material is allowed from locations other than the production line inbound locations.

If you have specified more than one inbound location, or more than one location of a specific location type, the system looks at the expiration or receipt date of the material and uses a FIFO process to determine which location to use.

Only inventory available for automatic issue according to the part availability control on the inventory part in stock location will be available for backflush. The existence of a W/D/R number does not affect part availability. Inventory part in stock locations for tracked parts and parts with W/D/R numbers will not be considered for negative inventory.

Site

If the Allow reserve and issue from lot/batches outside the batch balance option is enabled in Site/Manufacturing page and shop orders are connected to a batch balance ID, backflush of the component which the preceding balanced shop order is supplying, is limited to the lot/batch numbers received from this shop order.