The manufacturing module describes how your organization turns raw materials and components into finished goods. It covers the production resources you schedule against (work centers and calendars), the bills of materials and routings that describe how each product is made, the work orders that authorize production runs, and the costing rules that compare each run’s actual cost against its standard.
This guide covers each part of the module:
- Work Centers — the production capacity buckets you schedule against, plus their calendars and date-specific exceptions.
- Routings — the ordered sequences of operations that turn components into a finished product, plus the operation time math and lifecycle.
- Bills of Materials — the recipes for every manufactured product, with components, by-products, scrap factors, alternates, and phantom assemblies.
- Work Orders — the production-run document: lifecycle, releasing, issuing components, reporting operations, scrap, holding, completing/closing, and cancelling.
- Subcontracting — running a Work Order whose operations happen at an external supplier, with components shipped out and processed parts shipped back, all tied to a single production document.
- MRP — the periodic run that turns demand (sales orders, forecasts, safety stock) and current supply into planned work orders and purchase requisitions, plus action messages on supply that no longer matches demand.
- Production Costing — standard costing: the frozen standard cost at release, the running actuals from issues and operation reports, and the per-category variance computed at completion and finalized on the work order at close.
Navigation
Open Manufacturing in the sidebar. The module opens on what needs doing (below), and the sidebar lists the work in the order a week runs it:
| Entry | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Planning Runs | the runs that net demand against stock and propose what to make and buy — see MRP |
| Scheduler | every work order’s operations on the work centers’ calendars — see Scheduler |
| Work Orders | the production runs — see Work Orders |
| Shop Floor | the operators’ own screen — see Shop Floor |
Setup, at the end of the list, holds what production is made from.
See what needs doing
Opening Manufacturing shows the work waiting for somebody, in five lists. Each row opens the record where the job is done, and the lists are read again every time you open the page.
| List | What it shows | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Late work orders | the orders released or in production whose due date has passed, the earliest due first, with how many days late | find what holds the order up; finish it, or move its due date |
| To release | the orders waiting for approval and those approved, the soonest due first, each with its status | open the order and move it to Approved, then to Released |
| Work orders on hold | the paused orders, with the reason they were held and the day they were meant to resume, or how late they now are | once the cause is fixed, put the order back to Released or In progress |
| Planned orders to release | what the last completed planning run proposes to make or buy, due to be released today or earlier | open the run’s Planned orders tab and promote or ignore each one |
| Last planning run | the latest run: when it ran and how many orders it proposed, or what stopped it | after a failure, correct what stopped it and execute the run again |
Each list shows five rows and how many there are in all, and View all opens the whole list at the same selection; Planned orders to release opens the run’s own tab. Only the last completed run’s proposals are listed: a run that stops part-way leaves a partial answer, which is not one to act on. A purchase it proposes is listed only while Procurement is on. At the top of the page, a button starts a New work order. You see only the lists and the button your role lets you open.
Set up the module
Setup is one page for what you set once and come back to when the shop changes. Its tabs come in the order you fill them, because a routing names its work centers and a bill of materials points at its routing:
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Work Centers | the machines and crews you schedule against — see Work Centers |
| Calendars | the weekly hours a work center is open — see Work Centers |
| Calendar Exceptions | the stops, shutdowns and overtime days; the public holidays need none — see Work Centers |
| Routings | the operations that make a product, and where each runs — see Routings |
| Bills of Materials | what goes into each product — see Bills of Materials |
Each tab keeps the address its list always had, so a bookmark still opens it. You see only the tabs your role lets you open, and with none of them Setup is not in your sidebar.