Manufacturing - Routing and Resources Overview

The Routing and Resources application allows you to define non-material items such as labor and machinery for your facility. Routing and Resources helps you define the step-by-step routing that manufacturing follows when producing a product. These manufacturing items are broken down into such areas as labor, work centers, operations, tooling, machines, and so on. By defining these different areas, you can track their impact on the manufacturing process as a whole, and you can see where to fine-tune these areas in order to improve overall profitability.

The Routing and Resources application provides much of the data required to use routing and non-material resources in the Production and Bills of Material applications. Routing and Resources is crucial to establishing proper lead times, accommodating work center, machine, or labor dispatching, and any type of capacity planning.

This application is also a key element in determining operation costs. Every operation has costs associated with where the process takes place, how long it lasts, who does the work, what machinery is involved, and how much it costs in terms of overhead and management, not to mention the basic costs of the materials themselves. Routing and Resources helps you estimate, and later capture, these costs in the Production module, in the most effective manner possible.

Routing and Resources also provides a media option that allows you to include and attach movies, drawings, and pictures to any work center, labor type, machine group, or operation.

Frequently used functions

The most frequently used functions are on the Global Replacement and Setup and Maintenance menus. Use these functions for the following tasks:

  • Globally replace manufacturing related work centers, labor types, machine groups, and tooling IDs throughout the entire bill of material and routing database.
  • Enter and edit information in your routings, operations, work centers, machine groups, labor types, tooling and your calendar.

Reports

The Reports menu consists mainly of a group of Where-Used reports. These reports are similar to each other in functionality. Print the Where-Used reports before you run any global replacement functions so you can view the substitutions you are about to make.

Interactive Views

Use the interactive views to view the setup information for your routings, operations, work centers, machine groups, labor types and tooling.

Interfaces

Routing and Resources can be interfaced with Accounts Payable, General Ledger and Payroll.

Workflow

 

Initial Tasks

The Routing and Resources module provides much of the data required to use routing and non-material resources in the Production and Bills of Material modules. Therefore, most tasks within this module are setup tasks; there are no daily tasks required. The initial tasks within this module help you define non-material items such as labor and machinery for your facility, and to define the step-by-step routing that manufacturing follows when producing a product. These manufacturing tasks are broken down into such areas as labor, work centers, operations, tooling, machines, and so on. By defining these different areas, you can track their impact on the manufacturing process as a whole, and you can see where to fine-tune these areas in order to improve overall profitability.

Perform the tasks on the setup checklist to configure the system. The initial tasks are discussed in depth within the Routing and Resources Setup section.

Use these functions to set up Routing and Resources:

  • Define Tooling (if needed)
  • Define Labor Types
  • Set Up Machine Groups
  • Set Up Work Centers
  • Define Operations
  • Set Up Routings

Business Processes

The Routing and Resources module includes a global replacement function, inquiry functions, reports, and lists that provide you with the manufacturing information you need to analyze your business practices. To make the most of your manufacturing processes, use the functions described below.

Global Replacement

Use the Global Replacement function to globally replace manufacturing related work centers, labor types, machine groups, and tooling IDs throughout the entire bill of material and routing database. For example, you may need to change the name of a work center that is used in hundreds of routings and operations. It would take a lot of time and effort to print a Work Centers Where-Used report and then locate each instance of the old work center and replace it manually with the ID for the new work center. By using the Global Replacement function, you can make this change to several hundred assemblies in one step.

Interactive Views

Interactive Views functions are designed to give you quick access to vital manufacturing information more quickly and with as much detail as a report. The flexible nature of Interactive Views is designed to deliver information efficiently without having to sort through a lot of additional information.

  • Routings are defined as the general flow of an assembly as it goes through the plant. Routings are made up of routing steps, which define the operation performed at each step. When you set up a bill of material (BOM), routings are used to define the processes for that BOM. Having standard routings makes creating a routing for a BOM easier and quicker.

    The Routings inquiry function allows you to view routings information such as the routing step number, a routings description, and associated operation, work center, labor type, and machine group IDs.

  • The Operations inquiry function allows you to view operation process information, both internal and subcontracted.
  • Use the Work Centers inquiry function to view where work takes place as well as the overhead accounts set up for GL, overhead rates, and methodology.
  • The Machine Groups inquiry function allows you to view machine group information such as maintenance cycles, quantity available, billing information rate, shop calendar, and labor types associated with a machine group.
  • Use the Labor Types inquiry function to view labor type information such as hourly burden rate, per piece cost, billing information rate, and employees assigned to the labor type.
  • The Tooling inquiry function allows you to view tooling information such as tooling ID, quantity available, associated vendor, and whether or not the item is consumable.

Reports

Since Routing and Resources is not activity oriented, the Reports menu is minimal, consisting of a group of Where-Used reports that are similar in functionality. Print the Where-Used reports before you run the global replacement functions so that you can see the substitutions you are about to make.

These Where-Used reports are available:

  • Operations – displays the routings and BOMs in which each operation is used and the impact of any changes in the current operation availability and cost structure. Print this report before you run a global replacement on operation IDs.
  • Work Centers – displays the operations, routings, and BOMs in which each work center is used and the impact of any changes in the current work center availability and cost structure. Print this report before you run a global replacement on work centers.
  • Machine Groups – shows the work centers, operations, routings, and bills of material in which each machine group is used and shows the impact of any changes in the current machine group availability and cost structure. Print this report before you run a global replacement of machine group IDs.
  • Labor Types – shows the machine groups, operations, routings, and BOMs in which each labor type is used and the impact of any changes in the current labor type availability and cost structure. Print this report before you run a global replacement of labor types.
  • Tooling – shows which operations in which each tooling ID is used and shows the impact of any changes in the current tooling availability. Print this report before you run a global replacement of tooling items.

Master Lists

Master lists are basic reports that display the contents of the main files, but do not show historical detail, complex calculations, or anything you can’t access using the Setup and Maintenance functions. The purpose of the master list is to review the master file information you set up for accuracy, or to check the appearance of sections such as user-defined fields.

These lists are available:

  • Routings – displays a list of routings, routings descriptions, and any associated operation, work group, machine group, labor type information.
  • Operations – displays a list of operations, operation descriptions, machine group, labor type, setup labor type, work center information, and associated times.
  • Work Centers – displays a list of work centers, work center descriptions, and associated GL account, shop calendar, cost group, billing rate, and billing method.
  • Machine Groups – displays a list of machine groups, machine group descriptions, maintenance cycles, quantity available, hourly cost factor, and associated GL account, shop calendar, and cost group.
  • Labor Types – displays a list of labor types, labor type descriptions, hourly rate, per piece cost, billing rate and method, and associated GL account, shop calendar, and cost group.
  • Tooling – displays a list of tooling items, descriptions, quantity available, cost, and the associated vendor.

Some Frequently Asked Questions about the Manufacturing modules