Production

Plan and build what was sold: jobs, work orders, resources, planning, scheduling, and the live shop floor.

Production is where demand becomes physical work. It reads released orders and the on-hand picture, decides what to make and buy, sequences the work across the shop, and tracks it live as it runs.

It covers:

  • Work is the queue of jobs and their work orders. A job is the unit of work that satisfies demand for a made item; it breaks into work orders, and each work order into operations that run at a resource.
  • Resources are the stations, machines, and work centers that operations run on, with their capacity and status.
  • Planning reads released demand against on-hand and on-order stock, surfaces shortages, and proposes the jobs to run and the materials to buy.
  • Schedule sequences operations across resources over time. Workcell proposes a schedule you can accept or reject.
  • Live is the real-time shop-floor view: what is running now, by site, with throughput, utilization, and downtime.

From demand to finished goods

The following diagram shows how released demand becomes shop-floor work:

Production flow: a Released order goes through Planning to a Job, then Work orders, then Operations at resources; Planning routes material shortages to Purchasing

Schedule sequences the operations across resources over time, and the Live view tracks them as they run.

  1. Planning turns released demand into proposed jobs and material requirements. Shortages become purchasing requisitions.
  2. A job is created for the made item; its work orders carry the routing steps from Engineering.
  3. Schedule places every operation on a resource over time. You review the proposed timeline and accept it to commit.
  4. The floor reports progress through terminals; the Live view shows it as it happens.

Engine-driven screens

Planning and scheduling are engine-driven. These docs explain how to use the screens (read the proposal, accept or reject it, react to shortages). How the planner nets demand and how the scheduler sequences work are proprietary and are not documented.

The how-tos

  1. Plan production to turn demand into make and buy orders. See Plan production.
  2. Release a job to create its work orders and reserve materials. See Release a job.
  3. Schedule production across your resources. See Schedule production.
  4. Run a work order through its operations to finished goods. See Run a work order.
  5. Manage resources the work runs on. See Manage resources.

For what each state means, see Job statuses and Work order and operation statuses.

Where to go next