Work order dependencies¶
When manufacturing certain products, specific operations may need to be completed before others can begin. In order to ensure operations are carried out in the correct order, SotaERP Manufacturing features a work order dependencies setting. Enabling this setting allows for operations on a Bill of Materials (BoM) to be blocked by other operations that should occur first.
Configuration¶
The work order dependencies setting is not enabled by default. To enable it, begin by navigating to . Then, enable the Work Orders setting, if it is not already active.
After enabling the Work Orders setting, the Work Order Dependencies setting appears below it. Enable Work Order Dependencies, then click Save to confirm the changes.
Add dependencies to BoM¶
Work order dependencies are configured on a product’s BoM. To do so, navigate to , then select a BoM, or create a new one by clicking New.
Learn more
For a complete guide on how to properly configure a new BoM, see the documentation on creating a bill of materials.
On the BoM, click on the Miscellaneous tab, then enable the Operation Dependencies checkbox. This makes a new Blocked By option available in the settings of the Operations tab.
Next, click on the Operations tab. On the top-right of the tab, click on the tab’s settings button, then enable the Blocked By checkbox. This makes a Blocked By field appear for each operation on the Operations tab.
In the line of the operation that should be blocked by another operation, click the Blocked By field, and an Open: Operations pop-up window appears. In the Blocked By drop-down field on the pop-up window, select the blocking operation that must be completed before the operation that is blocked.
Finally, save the BoM by clicking Save.
Plan work orders using dependencies¶
Once work order dependencies have been configured on a BoM, SotaERP Manufacturing is able to plan when work orders are scheduled, based on their dependencies. To plan the work orders for a manufacturing order, begin by navigating to .
Next, select a manufacturing order for a product with work order dependencies set on its BoM, or create a new manufacturing order by clicking New. If a new manufacturing order is created, select a BoM configured with work order dependencies from the Bill of Material drop-down field, then click Confirm.
After confirming the manufacturing order, select the Work Orders tab to view the work
orders required to complete it. Any work orders that are not blocked by a different work order
display a Ready tag in the Status section.
Work orders that are blocked by one or more work orders display a Waiting for another WO tag
instead. Once the blocking work order(s) are completed, the tag updates to Ready.
To schedule the manufacturing order’s work orders, click the Plan button at the top of the page. After doing so, the Scheduled Start Date field for each work order on the Work Orders tab auto-fills with the scheduled start date and time. A blocked work order is scheduled at the end of the time period specified in the Expected Duration field of the work order that precedes it.
Example
A manufacturing order is created for Product A. The manufacturing order has two operations: Cut and Assemble. Each operation has an expected duration of 60 minutes, and the Assemble operation is blocked by the Cut operation.
The Plan button for the manufacturing order is clicked at 1:30 pm, and the Cut operation is scheduled to begin immediately. Since the Cut operation has an expected duration of 60 minutes, the Assemble operation is scheduled to begin at 2:30 pm.
Planning by workcenter¶
To see a visual representation of how work orders are planned, navigate to the Work Orders Planning page by going to . This page shows a timeline of all the work orders scheduled for each operation.
If one work order is blocked by the completion of another, the work order that is blocked is shown as scheduled to start after the work order blocking it. In addition, an arrow connects the two work orders, leading from the blocking operation to the blocked operation.
