Material Handling

A summation of the material requirements on a Design Object can be called a Material Requirement of a Design. This is managed by using Additional Parts.

Additional parts are related to a design object and fulfill the following:

• Form the basis for fulfilling the equipment (the material requirement).
• Document the design in terms of equipment assembly.
• Provide an accurate spare parts list for maintenance purposes.

Purchasing and Maintenance Integration

Additional parts can be defined with a Purchase Part Quantity and a Spare Part Quantity.

Purchase part quantity for an additional part is the number of items that is required to be purchased. Additional parts also serve as the documentation for a design object since it collects the composition of the object. For example, a centrifugal pump could have additional parts for casing, bearings, impellers, nuts and bolts, and axels. Another example is pipe systems that have in-line parts as additional parts like flanges, gaskets, nuts, bolts, tees, reducers, valves and elbows. By creating each of these parts as additional parts, the design object is completely documented.

Parts with the correct quantity can be purchased once the procurement process is started for the object. Purchase Requisitions for the part lines can be created through IFS/Asset Design, and thereafter they are handled by IFS/Purchasing.

Spare part quantity for additional parts is entered for the purpose of creating a spare part list in IFS/Equipment. For example, an impeller is registered as a design part and then assigned as an additional part to a centrifugal pump object. After the pump's design status is changed to Planned for Operation or Completed, the pump is created as an equipment object in IFS/Equipment. Each of the attached additional parts is copied to the equipment object in IFS/Equipment as a spare part, supporting the maintenance activities.

Purchase quantity is primarily used in calculating plant material requirement, which is also called Plant Demand.

Engineering Register Material Procurement List

When plant and its design objects are handled through a Project the demand related to the objects needs to be registered on the connected project activity. For example, a design object with its material requirements (additional parts) of all centrifugal pumps could be connected to a common project activity for Procurement and Design. These additional parts are then reported to the activity as design object demands. Design object demands are also useful for design object-project procurement coordination.

The Engineering Register Material Procurement List (ERMPL) will show the demand for parts and/or services made from a design object, once the connection is established between the activity and the design object.

Note: The ERMPL option is only enabled if IFS/Asset Design is installed.

Benefits of Using ERMPL

ERMPL will ensure that you have a separate view of the project's demands related to IFS/Asset Design, from the common project related demand tab. It lists all the additional parts that make up the design object with the related planned costs.

Received and issued quantities of parts can also be monitored using the ERMPL tab, once the procurement process is completed.

Plant material requirements are automatically reported as project demands on the project activity. The value of the Purchase Part Quantity field for an additional part on the Additional Parts page will be equal to the value in the Required Quantity field for the same part in the Demand/ERMPL tab of the connected activity.

In addition, the inventory process can be handled efficiently via the command options on a demand line in the ERMPL page.

Cost Synchronization

Engineers only have estimations of costs, when design objects are created in the early stages of a design project. These estimates could be entered manually as planned costs on the design object and will be summarized on the project activity once a connection is established.

Costs in the ERMPL are more accurate since its derived from the supplier price or latest purchase order. ERMPL also provides the ability to enter additional cost elements necessary to complete the procurement process.

Therefore you will need to make changes to the planned cost once you have a better idea of what exactly the cost involves. If changes are made to the planned cost in the demand such as an additional cost element or a modification to the already defined cost elements through the project, you are able to update this change back to the design object in IFS/Asset Design. This cost, will then in turn be updated to the design object in the project connection.

This provides the engineer the ability to fine tune the initial estimates on objects and replace them with more accurate costs from the ERMPL.

The Update Planned Cost from ERMPL option is used to achieve the synchronization of planned costs between the design object and ERMPL. Once synchronized, modifications in ERMPL do not require that the synchronization be performed again. The Cost Elements Updated from ERMPL option indicates if the cost elements on the design object have been updated from ERMPL, and this option can either be:

• Selected - Indicating that planned costs and cost elements have been updated from ERMPL.
• Cleared - Indicating that planned costs and cost elements from ERMPL have not been updated on the design object and that it is possible to update via the Update Planned Cost from ERMPL option.

A graphical explanation of the ERMPL process: