Tier Suppliers
Releases move weekly, the scorecard never forgets, and the submission package has to come out of the same records the floor is already making.
Releases and schedules flow down from a prime, and the paperwork matters as much as the part.
A tier supplier lives on somebody else's schedule. The award is a blanket purchase order with a volume and a price; the real demand is a release that moves in both directions, sometimes weekly, and a missed one costs an air freight bill and a line on a scorecard that follows you into the next sourcing round. WorkCell is built around the part of that you control: finite capacity scheduling against real machines and real people, with proposal runs so a planner can test a revised release against capacity before committing to it. Inspection results, nonconformances, and 8-D corrective actions come off the job rather than out of a separate quality binder, which is most of what a submission package and a supplier corrective action response ask for.
The award is ten thousand pieces: two thousand on the first delivery, then a thousand a month. In practice the customer pulls one release in, pushes the next out, and calls at the end of the blanket to extend it. A static plan built on the original schedule stops being true in week three, and nobody knows which other parts just got displaced. The planner reruns the whole board in their head every Monday morning, and the shop finds out what the answer was when a kit shows up short.
EDI releases land in the customer's web portal or an inbox, and somebody retypes them into whatever runs the shop. Every retype is a chance to transpose a quantity or a date, and the only record of what was actually released is a download folder. The planner becomes the integration, which works until the planner takes a week off.
Delivery performance, parts per million defective, responsiveness on corrective actions, and incidents of premium freight all roll into a quarterly number that decides future sourcing. Premium freight is the one that stings, because the shop is already paying to expedite and the customer reads it as evidence you were close to shipping late.
A print says level 3 PPAP and that means a warrant, dimensional results, material and functional test results, capability studies, a control plan, gage studies, and process documentation. Dimensional results live in one spreadsheet, the material cert in a PDF, the run data in the machine monitor. Assembling it once takes a week; a revised print restarts the argument about whether you resubmit. Nothing in that package is new information; all of it already exists somewhere in the building.
Programs run five years with an annual reduction built into the price. Without labor, scrap, and material posted against the part as the work happens, there is no cost curve to argue from, only an opinion. The reduction gets accepted because nobody can show what the part costs this year compared with the year it was quoted. Three reductions in, a part that was profitable at award is funding the program out of a different one.
Finite capacity scheduling with proposal runs
When a release moves, model it before you commit it. The scheduler plans against real machine and labor capacity rather than infinite capacity, and a proposal run shows which other jobs and which other promised dates get displaced by pulling a release in. The decision to expedite becomes a comparison instead of a reflex.
Cost posted per part, per program, as work happens
Labor clocked at a terminal, material issued, and scrap recorded at the operation are all stamped with the Job, so the cost of a part number accumulates run by run. Five years into a program with annual reductions, the cost curve is a query against real postings rather than a reconstruction from memory.
Inspection templates and AQL sampling on the floor
Inspection characteristics and sampling plans are defined per item and executed at the operation, so dimensional results are recorded where the part is made instead of transcribed later. The data a submission package wants is captured as a by-product of running the job rather than as a separate measurement exercise before a deadline.
Severity-classified nonconformances and 8-D
A failure raises a nonconformance with a severity classification and a disposition, and a systemic problem escalates into an 8-D corrective action with the containment, root cause, and verification attached to the job it came from. That is the structure a customer's supplier corrective action request expects back, on their clock.
Lot and serial traceability for containment
Receiving records the lot, issues to a job preserve the link, and completions assign lots or serials. When a customer asks which shipments contain parts made from a suspect coil or on the day a tool was found worn, the sort is a query over the genealogy rather than a week in the filing cabinet and an uncomfortable phone call.
Revision control with effective dating
Bills of material and routings carry a revision and an effective date, and changes supersede rather than overwrite. When one dimension changes on the print, the structure built before the change stays recoverable, so the submission history and the as-built record line up with what the customer actually received rather than with the latest drawing in the file.
Finite scheduling, proposal runs, and terminals capturing quantity, scrap, and time.
QualityAQL sampling, inspection templates, nonconformances, and 8-D corrective action.
InventoryLot and serial traceability from receiving through shipment.
AnalyticsDelivery, scrap, and cost history per part number and per program.
Orders, inventory, scheduling, shop floor, and job costing on one database.
APSFinite capacity scheduling when releases move in both directions every week.
QMSInspection results, nonconformances, and 8-D responses on the customer's clock.
MRPThe category that nets release schedules into material demand; WorkCell's material planning is still in progress.
Program work built to the customer's print and the customer's revision.
AutomotiveIATF-driven supply with releases, scorecards, and annual price downs.
PPAP & APQPWhat the submission asks for and which records WorkCell keeps for it.
Quality ManagerRunning inspections, nonconformances, and corrective actions off the job.
Can WorkCell take our EDI releases from the customer?
No. EDI is not a live integration in WorkCell today, so releases still arrive through your customer's portal and get entered by a planner. A REST API and webhooks exist if you want to build the bridge yourself, and the only integrations shipping today are QuickBooks Online and Shopify.
The blueprint says level 3 PPAP is required. What does that actually mean?
Level 3 means you submit the warrant plus the supporting evidence: samples, drawings, dimensional results, material and functional test results, appearance approval where it applies, capability studies, control plan, gage studies, and process documentation. The submission level is always the customer's call, so confirm the specifics with their quality engineer.
One dimension changed on the print. Do we have to resubmit?
Ask the customer, because submission level and triggers are entirely at their discretion and the answer varies by program. What you can control is the evidence: WorkCell records inspection results against the revision in effect and supersedes rather than overwrites it, so a resubmission starts from real data instead of a remeasure.
Do we have to notify the customer before changing a sub-supplier or material source?
Almost always yes, and usually in writing before the change, not after. That obligation sits in your contract and your quality procedures. WorkCell holds the supplier catalog and the purchasing record showing when a source changed, but it has no document control or electronic signature capability to route the notification itself.
How do we schedule against a blanket order when releases move every week?
Treat each release as demand and reschedule finitely rather than editing a static plan. A proposal run shows which other jobs and dates shift before you commit, so pulling a release in becomes a visible trade rather than a surprise. Material planning is not yet live, so material coverage stays a planner judgment.
Our customer tracks premium freight incidents on the scorecard. What are they looking for?
Incidents, not just dollars. Expedited freight tells the customer you were close to shipping late, so it reads as a delivery risk signal rather than a cost. Scheduling that shows a release at risk early is the only real defense, because the chargeback conversation starts after the air freight is already booked.
See where WorkCell fits your shop.
Tell us how releases reach your floor today and we will tell you straight whether WorkCell is a fit.