When a parent part is manufactured, certain work steps are required. These are called operations and are performed in different work centers. Operations are the work phases needed to manufacture the parent part from the components in its structure. Like structure records, operations can be validity-controlled. The default validity interval is retrieved from the latest revision of the parent part. If you change the validity interval, revisions of the parent part are not affected as they can be when you change structure records.
A routing is comprised of the machine and labor actions used in the assembly of a part. Routing is a generic definition. Production orders for a part might require order-specific changes to the list of operations to be performed, but the set of operations for the order is initially created in accordance with the routing definition of the ordered part.
All time information entered for operations (such as setup time, move time, and efficiency) affects operation scheduling and the setup and unit times of the part. Routings are also used to calculate lead times and costs, and they are used in scheduling potential orders. Although optional, routings are the only way to capture cost and time information directly for labor and machine activity.
If the routing is for a configured manufactured part, back office configuration rules can be associated with elements of the routing, including the routing alternate, routing operations, tools, and operation work guidelines. Back office rules allow you to control which operations, tools, and guidelines are to be selected, based on specific configuration values. Read more about theese configuarions in the About for Back Office Configuration Rules.
If the routing includes an operation that should be performed by a supplier that operation is called an outside operation. More information about routings with operations that should be performed by a supplier is found in About Outside Operations.
Routings are divided into three elements: the routing header, the routing alternate, and the routing operations.
A routing header identifies the part, site, routing revision and routing type. The routing header itself acts as a routing revision independently from the inventory part revision.
When a manufacturing inventory part is created, a manufacturing routing header is automatically created. For other routing types and purchased parts, routing headers must be created manually. Possible routing types are:
| Type | Description |
| Manufacturing | The routing used to manufacture a part. Also used for planning, CRP and cost calculations. A routing header of this type is automatically created for inventory parts with Part Type set to Manufactured and Manufacturing Recipe. |
| Repair | The routing used to repair a part. |
| Prototype | The routing used to prototype a part. Note that a prototype creates a unique part revision with the Prototype Part Revision Prefix defined on Site/Manufacturing, and always remains in status Tentative. |
| Disassembly | The routing used to disassemble a part. |
| MRO Assembly | The routing used to assemble a part within the MRO process. |
| MRO Disassembly | The routing used to disassemble a part within the MRO process. |
| Disposition | The routing used to disposition a part within the MRO/CRO processes. |
A routing alternate represents a slightly different way to manufacture, repair, prototype, disassemble, assemble or disposition the same part. The differences might be based on the quantity of parts being assembled or an alternate routing might use different tools or work centers in case of downtime at the normal work center. When a routing header is created, a routing alternate, known as the default alternate, indicated with an asterisk (*) in the Alternate No field is automatically created.
The routing alternate status indicates how the routing information can be used. Possible statuses are:
| Status | Description |
| Tentative | A structure alternate is created in Tentative status and, normally, this is the default value. This status indicates that the structure alternate is not yet usable, and the structure data will not be used by Planning or Manufacturing. Operations may be changed in this status. |
| Plannable | A structure alternate promoted to Plannable status can be used to calculate cost and planning information, but is still not used for Manufacturing. Operations may be changed in this status. |
| Buildable | Structure alternates
promoted to Buildable status are completely visible in the system,
and can now be seen and used by Manufacturing, as well as for planning
and costing purposes and for generating order components. The structure update attribute, defined on Site/Manufacturing, determines your ability to modify a component's attributes in this status. If Simplified, most changes are allowed. If Enhanced, only some changes are allowed. If Restricted, most changes are not allowed. |
| Canceled | The structure alternate has been canceled and will not be available for use in Manufacturing or Planning nor used to generate costing information. You can change to this status at any time; however, once done, only the status may be changed. |
| Obsolete | The structure alternate has been obsolete and will not be available for use in Manufacturing or Planning nor used to generate costing information. You can change to this status at any time; however, once done, only the status may be changed. |
Note: If the routing type is prototype the routing alternate can only have Tentative and Obsolete statuses. The routing alternate is created in Tentative status and can be used by prototype manufacturing. Routing alternates in the Obsolete status will not be available for use in Manufacturing and cannot be changed to a different status.
Routing operations are the work steps to perform the work that the routing type represents.
Each operation identifies a task for which you must define in which work center the task should be performed. For the operation you can define:
Queue time is time that an operation has to wait before it can be processed in the work center. This time is however defined per work center and inherited directly to the shop order operation.
If the operation has labor setup time and labor run time the labor class and the crew size must be defined for the operation. A crew size < 1 indicates an operator is expected to work on more than one operation in parallel. A crew size > 1 indicates more than one operator is required to perform the operation.
Operations are defined as rates. An operation rate is the number of parts that can be processed in a period of time. An operation rate can be expressed in one of three ways:
In each case, the machine time and the labor time are calculated based on the machine or labor rate entered and the number of parts being made. The machine and labor setup are absolute values, not affected by the quantity being made.
The resource share indicates how big share of the capacity of a work center resource the operation will utilize during its duration. The resource share can either be defined as a fixed value not affected by the order quantity, or as as a value per produced unit being multiplied with the order quantity. The resource share is typically defined per unit only when the operation rate is set to Hours (regardless of units).
Operations can be defined as being parallel or not parallel. A parallel operation is planned to be done at the same time as the previous operation. Setting an operation to parallel could affect the lead-time and the planning of the operations.
An operation can overlap the previous operation, or more information about operations with overlap, see more in About Operation Overlap.
Operations can be defined as milestone operations. A milestone operation must be reported consequently, and it is not possible to report a higher value on following operation than the value reported on the milestone operation.
Operations can also be linked to product structure, recipe structure, or configuration structure line items. If an operation is linked to a structure component line item, the material on that line item will be issued during the linked operation. Functions within Shop Order Operation Reporting will automatically issue material linked to specific operations, and a pick list report can be generated for an operation, showing only material linked to that operation.
Operation usage factor is an estimated value which represents the estimated occurrence of the operation in created shop orders. Functions like CRP uses this value to plan the operations as the configuration and the list of operations can be unavailable at the time of planning.
To have a more accurate Usage Factor, it is possible to calculate the Actual Usage Factor and do the adjustments to the operation usage factor which is added in the routing operation. The Calculate Routing Operation Actuals dialog is used to perform the calculation and snapshots are created in Routing Operation Actuals page, where the calculated Actual Usage Factor is shown.