Product Structure

Product structure module maintains data about the product structure, customer change, and engineering change. This module forms the basis for all the further transactions on the product. This module supports standard product structure for an item, which includes features and options and a specific bill of material with specific customer selection. IMMS ensures that product structure information does not change without notice. Through ECN documents the changes in the product structure are propagated.

Product Structure
Product structure represents the list of assemblies, components, features and options required for a product. More than one option can be defined as feature concept. A child in the product structure is mandatory, feature or an option. Product structure can be defined up to any level. Product structure forms the basis of creation of a customer specific bill of material. Product structures at each level are independent. For example an injection moulding machine product structure consists of all major assemblies like injection assembly, hydraulic assembly, electrical assembly, which are further broken down into sub assemblies or components.

Features and Options
Features and options concept is used when there are multiple options available to do the same function and only one has to be selected. These help in defining all the options at one place rather than defining only one of them and change every time for different customer order. For example injection assembly of different power can be grouped under one feature of an injection feature and all injection assemblies as options under it. If there are multiple options available for a child the same is represented as feature. A feature item can have multiple options. One of the options is default option.

Freeze Product Structure
During the conceptualisation stages there are many changes in the structure. Once it has been put into production this has to be controlled. Before the product structure is taken into execution it has to be frozen, so that the changes are not allowed to it. Any change after the freezing of product structure should be done through ECN only. IMMS allows the product structure to be frozen.

Engineering Change Notice
To regularise the change in the product structure so that all concerned come to know about this change, ECN is used. Engineering changes can be applied to all product structures or to selective one. The changes allowed are, add a child into a parent, delete a child from a parent, change the child code or child's quantity in a parent. ECN can be applied to customer bill of material also.

Customer Specific Changes
Engineering decides the changes required in the product structure to satisfy customer's requirements. Apart from selection of a specific feature options and selection of optional items other changes required for a customer differentiate the final product from the standard product. This change is done through customer specific changes. Customer specific bill of material is created using these changes.

Customer Bill of Materials

IMMS maintains a separate image of a customer bill of material for each customer item. Customer changes and Engineering changes can be applied to customer orders selectively. This bill of material remains permanent in the IMMS as long as the customer order or production order for which it has been created remains in the IMMS. During MRP explosion the requirements are calculated through this bill of material.

Following functionality is provided by the IMMS:

Maintenance

1) Product Structure maintenance
2) Engineering Change Notice maintenance
3) Customer change maintenance
4) Features and options maintenance

Reports

1) Single level explosion report
2) Single level implosion report
3) Multi level explosion report
4) Multi level implosion report
5) Summarised explosion report
6) Summarised implosion report
7) Single level common / uncommon list of components between two parents
8) Multi level common / uncommon list of components between two parents
9) ECN analysis
10) ECN printing
11) Printing of customer changes

Process

1) Customer bill of material generation
2) Apply changes to the customer bill of material
3) Purge customer bill of material
4) Deactivate a product structure
5) Apply ECN to product structure and customer bill of material

Material Requirement Planning

Material Requirement Planning or MRP controls resource - material. MRP module works in conjunction with product structure, inventory, purchase, sales and shop floor module. Master production schedule prepares the production plan for the planning horizon. Based on customer orders and sales forecast for the period of planning horizon time phased requirements of components are calculated by exploding product structure and customer bill of material. The pending work order shortages are added to these requirements. These requirements are netted against warehouse inventory, pending purchase orders and pending work orders and net requirements are calculated.

With the help of lead-time IMMS suggests releasing purchase orders for Buy Items and work orders for Make Items for each planning period. IMMS also suggests change in the delivery of orders, cancellation of orders. Through automatic purchase order and work order creation option these orders are created from the suggestion.

Warehouse inventory, purchase orders and work orders are allocated to customer orders, forecast based on priority. This helps in calculating the net requirement after allocation.

Any change in the demand or supply changes the net requirements on-line. ECN, customer changes, changes in production schedule effects demand. Change in warehouse inventory, change in pending purchase order status and change in pending work order status changes the supply. These change effect net requirements, but do not change time-phased requirements.

Following functionality is provided by the IMMS:

Process

1) Production schedule maintenance
2) MRP explosion to calculate gross requirements
3) MRP netting to calculate net requirements

Report

1) Report on gross requirement
2) Report on net requirement
3) Report on suggested purchase orders
4) Report on suggested work orders
5) Buyer wise net requirements
6) Report on suggested cancellation of purchase orders, work orders
7) Report on suggested change in the delivery of purchase orders and work orders
8) Inquiry on availability of items for customer order, work order
9) Inquiry on item requirement

PRODUCTION

Shop Floor

Shop floor module control's all shop floor activities, i.e. creations of work orders, maintenance of work order shortages, issue of items, work centre maintenance, labour and production booking, shop utilisation, shop and workman efficiency. Planning, scheduling and execution functions ensure that the shop floor is loaded properly.

Work Order

A work order is a mechanism to launch and monitor production to meet a planned requirement. It is also a way to cross reference production to a specific customer order. Work order is an internal order to the production to produce the component at a given due date. Work orders can be generated for components in the machine shop or for assemblies in the assembly shop. IMMS gives the flexibility of either generating one single work order for a finished good or multiple assembly work orders. Work order uses the customer specific bill of materials for the issue of the items. IMMS tracks shortages for each work order. IMMS also tracks the planned and actual issues against a work order. MRP treats the work orders as pending supply and work shortage as pending demand. Through MRP work orders can be generated automatically.

Work Order Issues

Items can be issued against work order either manually or automatically by way of allocations. Through customer specific bill of material required quantity for each component is calculated. IMMS does not allow issuing more than what has been specified in the bill of material. For this purpose separate inventory transaction should be used. Work order issue updates the warehouse inventory. They also update work order shortage.

Shortage
IMMS uses customer bill of material to generate the list of items required producing the work order item. Depending upon the availability of the inventory and priority of the work order items are issued against work orders. IMMS maintains items, which are not issued for a work order. MRP IMMS considers shortages as pending demand.

Work Centre
Work Centre is a logical unit of the shop where manufacturing operations are carried out. IMMS maintains the total shop hours available for each centre and also the load on each centre. Each operation in a process sheet is carried out on work centres. From process sheet and production reports IMMS calculates work centre efficiency and utilisation. Similar work centres can be grouped to form one group.

Process sheet

A route is required on the shop floor to make a component or an assembly. Process sheet consists of data of each individual work centre, timings, special tooling required to carry out each operation in the shop. IMMS uses this data to calculate total lead time required to make or assemble an item, to calculate the total load on each work centre, to calculate work centre efficiency and utilisation, to trace work order status. IMMS provides the facility to define move and set up operations also.

Production Report

IMMS books daily labour employed and production done during the day. Actual time spent on each individual operation for each individual work order is booked. This data is used to calculate work centre and labour efficiency. This also changes the state of work order. Production reporting on a work order creates a work order work order receipt transaction and updates warehouse inventory. Apart from regular production booking, booking of indirect, unproductive and idle time can also be booked.

Following functionality is provided by the IMMS:

Maintenance

Report