Shop Order Tool Reservation

Shop order operation tool reservations control how tools and equipment are allocated to manufacturing operations. They ensure that the correct tools are available when needed, prevent conflicts when multiple operations require the same resources, and simplify moving tools to the operation where they are required.

Linking a Tool to a Part

Reserving tools requires that an inventory part is linked to the tool on the Tool/Equipment page.

If the part is serial- and/or lot/batch-tracked, the tool must also be linked to the corresponding serial and/or lot/batch number.
It is highly recommended to define the part as serial-tracked to ensure full traceability between the tool/equipment and the inventory part serial.
If the part is not serial-tracked, it is important that the on-hand inventory quantity exactly matches the number of tools/equipment linked to that part, since the system does not validate quantities between tools and inventory during reservation.

Reserving a Tool for a Shop order Operation

To reserve tools, the shop order must be in Released status or higher.

If the part linked to the tool is not available in inventory, reservation will not be possible.
When a reservation is performed, the system first tries to reserve the assigned tools.
Any remaining unassigned tool demand will automatically be assigned and reserved based on the availability of the tool-connected inventory parts.
If an already assigned tool is not available, the system will not change or remove that assignment.

Once a tool has been reserved for a specific shop order operation, it cannot be reserved for any other shop order operation at the same time.

Unreserve

The Unreserve function removes a previously made tool reservation.

Unreserving does not remove tool assignments; it only releases the reservation.
When an operation is closed, all tools reserved for that operation are automatically unreserved.

Hierachy for Automatic Tool Reservation for a Shop Order

When a tool is reserved, the inventory part connected to the tool/equipment is reserved from an inventory location selected according to the defined reservation hierarchy.

The reservation logic:

Is executed for all selected tool demand lines.
Does not consider the inventory part settings Reserve/Issue Method or Reserve/Issue From.

The hierarchy used is as follows:

1. Work Center Resource Tool Locations

The system first evaluates tool locations defined at the resource level:

The Scheduled Resource is checked first.
If no resource is scheduled, the Preferred Resource is used.
If sufficient tool quantity is not found, the logic continues to the next level.

2. Work Center Tool Locations

Next, the system evaluates tool locations defined at the work center level:

The tool location at this level is always a Shared Location.
If sufficient tool quantity is not found, the logic continues to the next level.

3. Floor Stock Locations

Then, any floor stock locations not already evaluated are considered:

If sufficient tool quantity is not found, the logic continues to the next level.

4. Picking Locations

Finally, any remaining picking locations not yet evaluated are considered:

After evaluating this level, the reservation logic stops, regardless of whether sufficient quantity was found.