Question

1 raw material, 1 operation results could be part A or part B

  • 21 October 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 199 views
A
  • Anonymous
  • 0 replies

I need some guidance regarding how to manage 2 different parts that are produced from the same raw material and operation.  These are not co-parts, they are not created at the same time.  Sometimes when the process is run we get an A quality product and other times we get a B quality product. 

Most often our requirements call for the B part, however, we produce more of the A part than the B.  

We can use the A in a job the requires the B, but we can not use the B in a job that requires the A. 

We currently use only 1 part number and the team in inventory, manually tag the product that qualifies as the “A” material. 

How can we set this up so that we are accurately recording the inventory if we move to 2 part numbers?

How do we prevent MRP from requiring more production if we have enough to cover demand, because we can use A in place of B? 

5 replies

K
Userlevel 3

Sometimes the low tech approach is the best for these unusual situations.  Obviously if you are in a regulated industry this may not meet your audit requirements.  What specifically isn’t working well with the manual system?

Keith Cote , PMP - VP of IT UFP Technologies Newburyport MA 978-234-0949
I

I think you need to set your A and B quality parts as separate parts each with its own part number.

eg part a_XYZ123   and part b_XYZ123

You manufacturing job would be for the manufacture of say  qty 100  part a_XYZ123  and also qty 1 of part b_XYZ123

But your job completed quantities may be  80 Part a_XYZ123 and  20 part b_XYZ123.  these should be logged into stock. The nice thing here is you now have quantities of each shown in stock  and your A and B parts may have different costs.

 

Part usage 

Part say J4567 (which is to be made) is setup with a BOM of 1 part b_XYZ123 and 1 part a_XYZ123

And the manufacture of qty 50 of J4567  will be completed  with material used as  20 part b_XYZ123 and 30 part a_XYZ123.

 

Part say J9876 (which is to be made) is setup with a BOM of  1 Part a_XYZ123  only

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mwilson
Userlevel 4

@it Good ideas!  Depending on your costing method, you may have significant planned-to-actual variance with this approach so you’ll want to check everything in Test, including the costs.  To the OP, @kcote makes a good point: knowing specifically where your current system is falling short, might inform those trying to help.

 

All best,

…...Monty.

..Monty. Monty Wilson, Vice-President North America, Epicor Users Group
A

Having 2 different part numbers is where we want to be with this.  There is no cost difference in manufacturing, it is just the resulting part sometimes tests out as an A and sometimes tests out as a B.  Most jobs call for B.  Our mfg team mostly produces A.  A, can be substituted for B, better is always a good thing; but B can not be substituted for A.  

The job requires (variable by job) x meters of raw material to make the end product (A or B);  with 2 part numbers MRP keeps saying we need to order more raw material because we don’t have enough to produce the needed qty for the job (the job is calling for B in the BOM), but we do have enough of the A finished good to use for the job and do not really need anymore.  That is the main problem.  

mwilson
Userlevel 4

I think your minimum quantity on hand needs to be A here.  Set minimum quantity on hand of B to zero, because you don’t really need a minimum quantity of the B product to be on hand, provided you have sufficient A products to satisfy orders for A, and sufficient A + B products to satisfy orders for B.  You may need to provide some custom tools like embedded dashboards, to assist those who need to manually manage the quantities-on-hand of the two items.  For example,  when you get demand for B, before firming-up MRP job suggestions for B, you could display a grid showing the quantities on hand for both A and B.  Epicor has built-in tools  for part substitution, but not in the way you’re needing it.

On a prior project, the team was dead set on making multiple approved revs per part (not a good idea but I couldn’t convince them)  and finding ways outside the system to know which inventory items were manufactured to which spec (PartRevision) -- we never did find a sound way to keep track of everything.

Come to think  of it, you could un-check the MRP box on the B product, so it would never have jobs suggested. 

..Monty. Monty Wilson, Vice-President North America, Epicor Users Group

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