Solution Summary
In engineered to order (ETO) manufacturing environments, customer orders typically call for modifications to design and/or specifications of product models. While an engineered to order product provides flexibility and value to customers, it also provides many challenges to the business throughout the entire production cycle. Such challenges include: integration of multiple configuration tools and rules, order processing, Work in Process tracking and management, accurate cost analysis, and the management of customer change orders. New Generation’s Engineered to Order Tracking and Management extension provides a tracking solution for any environment with high variability of product and high volume of transactions. By unifying information from order management through the production process in WIP, it enables the business to review and manage critical information for engineered product in a timely and cost effective way. New Generation’s ETO tracking and management extension provides critical workflows and a WIP Job Dispatching and Management console. Together these tools provide visibility into which work orders are related to which projects/sales order line, what is the total cost of the engineered item, when orders are released and what are the cost implications of a customer change to the order.
Problem Statement
In an engineer to order environment, when an order is released to manufacturing, visibility to that order is often not sufficient as the emphasis of Discrete manufacturing is on organizing parts and assemblies for orders into efficient discrete batches. Further, the work orders for the lower level subassemblies driven by the Top level ETO item are not linked to a sales order or their parent work order, and challenges arise when attempting to render a 360 degree view of where an ETO is in the production process. Additionally, shop floor planning for the movement of all these parts and assemblies related to a specific order through all work stations in an organized fashion becomes a challenge.
Concerns revolving around work in process management and work in process tracking include:
Difficulty in identifying which work orders, other than the top level assemblies, are associated to what sales order demand.
Excessive number of transactions in WIP to manage and track the work orders.
Difficulty in identifying which work orders are associated to other work orders (which subassemblies are tied to which final assemblies).
Excessive number of work orders transaction tax ability of staff to efficiently process.
Inability to generate usable standard reports for Shop Floor paperwork without the need to alter the shop floor flow.
Uniqueness of each ETO being ordered may cause a proliferation of part numbers.
Creating new work orders or updating existing work orders is often required for customer driven change orders. It is difficult to tie them to the current production schedule and parent demand.
Concerns revolving around changes to orders include:
Changes to the engineered item often requires canceling the order line as identifying and making changes to the associated work orders is difficult.
Difficulty in tracking down all work orders associated with a change order.
Difficulty in capturing the associated costs related to the change.
Overall management of work order changes.
Solution :
Controlling an order as it moves from Order Entry to Manufacturing in an engineer to order environment can be a challenge in Oracle Discrete Manufacturing. Companies need visibility to determine when to release the order, where the subassembly components are in the process, how to control and account for changes to the order and how to cancel and cost related jobs when the order line is canceled. Further complicating the process are complex nested BOMs that generate large numbers of work orders related to the assemblies and sub assemblies that comprise the ETO product.
Oracle Discrete Manufacturing does an excellent job when operations are centered around products that are manufactured, assembled and released to inventory. Orders are completed by picking items, newly created or already in inventory, and shipping. Engineered to order manufacturing presents challenges for any ERP system as each order is in effect a new, distinct product with multiple distinct subassemblies specific to the needs of the customer.
Solution Profile
The focus of the solution is to capture and streamline ETO Order demand from Oracle OM and release it directly into WIP regardless of which Configuarator system the demand originated from. By utilizing Oracle’s workflow capabilities and a custom WIP dispatching form , we are able to create discrete jobs in the WIP module for the top level assemblies and any make to order components specified at any level in the BOM. All jobs are linked to their respective sales order line, CAD drawing ID and parent work orders (where applicable). A custom form provides a 360 degree view of all jobs that are associated with a sales order or drawing ID. From this form you are able to manage all work orders and their release statuses. Finally, custom shop floor documents are used to communicate all work instructions to the shop floor. These documents included routing sheets, indented bills of material, as well as a document that grouped different items with like operations so the machine operators could batch disparate jobs across the same resources. These shop floor documents are designed to match legacy format and therefore eliminated the need to alter product flow through the shop floor workstations.
Distinguishing Features
New Generation’s ETO tracking and management extension provides critical workflows and a WIP Job Dispatching and Management console.
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