About Inventory

Use the Inventory module to control the steel products inventories (work in process inventory and finished goods inventory), consumable items inventories, and scrap inventory.

Steel Products: may include merchandise steel products (purchased for resale which form is not altered prior to resale) and job-specific steel products that require further processing before completion and sale. Inventory item is not defined prior to receiving. When received, each item is given a unique tag that becomes the item identifier.

Consumable Items: office supplies, janitorial supplies, shipping supplies, equipment maintenance supplies etc. Inventory Item is completely defined in item setup.

The Company Setup form determines if a reason code is required when inventory item cost is adjusted (on Inventory form) and what the default adjustment codes should be.

About Fabrication Modules

The core modules for Fabrication are BOM Items, Bill of Material, and Product Routing.

This topic explains:

• BOM Structure
• BOM Items
• Bill of Materials Form
• Product Routing Form

BOM Structure

The BOM describes an unlimited structure of materials requirements and processing requirements that together make one unit of the required finished product. Materials can be added or used at any level of the structure. The BOM describes what is required and how much of it is consumed during the process.

Ordering a number of finished items that are the product of a BOM process creates an array of requirements for materials to feed each process, and for processing time on all of the work centers that are required to complete the fabrication process.

Materials required can be multiple units of different items. The input to a process could be several burned parts, some consumable items such as nuts and bolts, some purchased items such as wheels or gauges, or some ICI items.

When a Bill of Materials structure is built and confirmed, it becomes a version. If an amendment is required, to change the materials or the processes, a new version is created and becomes the current version. Previous versions of the structure are still available if required to make the “old” version of the finished product.

Different departments can use the same BOM structure but have variations in routing, which means the same finished item can be made differently in different departments. If a departmental detail is unconfirmed for one department but confirmed for another department, the overall BOM can be confirmed in the first department and unconfirmed in the second department.

The time required to make a finished item can be calculated by accumulating the throughput time for each of  the processes required to make the item.

Finished items can also be components for other BOM structures. If a sub-assembly BOM is changed, it alters the release version of the parent BOM.

BOM Items

Every item that is to be included in a BOM has to be described on the BOM Items form. The BOM items data is additional or supercedes the standard information recorded about the inventory item. It also includes the departmental routing variations which occur, for example, when one department makes an item from raw materials, while another department buys the part or transfers it from the other department.

These items can be customer parts (specific for one customer) or company parts (for anyone to use). Other options for BOM items include ICI or Consumable. An ICI implies a metal item described by an ICI. A consumable is an item such as paint or nuts and bolts which is consumed in a non-specific way, although purchase lots are recorded and lot costing is used in calculating costs.

The BOM provides a template, similar to work instructions, that helps set up production processes and production orders required to produce the required final product.

Bill of Materials Form

The Bill of Material form is used to display and update the Bill of Materials components and levels. The navigation tree on the left panel is used to navigate in the BOM tree structure. The data at the top of the form and in the tabs on the right change as different items are selected in the navigation tree.

BOM Tab

Displays the routing and components used to make the part. In the example shown above, the part is made from five components which are assembled in theKitting operation in step 10 and then shipped in step 20. Note that the routing can also include an option to backflush the production recording (non-steel items only) and/or the costs of the step.

Indented Expl Tab

Displays all of the sub-levels of materials used to make the parent. In the example, there is only one level below the parent. If the Level was 2, it would be indented in the level field, as would each succeeding level.

Single Level Used Tab

Displays all of the immediate  parents for a specific component. In the example, the paint is used in four other BOMs.

Top Level Used Tab

Displays only the finished items where the component is used.

Multi-Level Used Tab

Displays the combination of top level and single level used.

Summarized Expl. Tab

This is a calculator that shows the requirement of materials for any quantity – in the example the calculation has been performed for 51 items.

Summarized Routing Tab

Displays the equivalent of the Work Order for the routing required.

Product Routing Form

The Product Routing form is used to build the routing (work steps) for a BOM part.