Planning QC in MRP

Sometimes, in manufacturing, there are multiple customers for the same item, but they have different specifications for that item. The differences can range from minor, where a customer is “cherry-picking” your inventory by having tighter specs than you have in general, to major, where the differences are so significant that you want to have two different Item Masters. MRP QC Planning provides a middle process where you want to produce an item and execute customer-specific QC Tests before shipping it out the door. The process even provides for the situation where you produce the same item for two different customers at the same time, but apply different Quality Control Groups to the results, while reserving product to the Sales Orders so that you are sure that each customer gets the properly tested version of the product. The feature easily allows companies to determine if customer item QC specs which are nearly the same could be grouped on the same production job, or if separate jobs would be needed.

Configuration

The following steps must be performed prior to using the MRP QC Planning feature.

  • Creation of Customer Cross Reference Parts. Note: Customer Cross Reference Parts must have both a Bill-To and Ship-to listed in order for the MRP QC Planning feature to work.
  • Creation of Quality Control Groups and assignment of those groups to the appropriate Customer Cross Reference Parts. Additional information is available via the "Managing Customer-Specific Quality Specifications" page.
  • Sales Orders, representing demand, must be entered for the appropriate customers and items.
  • The "Plan QC During MRP Job Creation" flag must be checked on the "Properties" tab of those Items that will be included in the feature. This flag is useful in situations where companies wish to make products under a single part number and execute customer-specific QC as part of the production process, but only when shipping to a select group of special customers. If this flag is not checked, the system assumes that lot selection is based only on customer specific QC Tests. In this case, the QC Tests for Customer Cross Reference Parts are not displayed during MRP QC Planning.

Note: Companies may have both general production QC Tests set on the item's Bill of Material, as well as customer specific QC Tests set on the Customer Cross Reference Part for that same item.

Process

  1. Navigate to Inventory > MRP.
  2. The MRP pre-filter will be displayed.
  3. Fill in the pre-filter as necessary.
  4. Click the "View" button."
  5. Select the parts that will be included for production.
  6. Click the "Create Job" or "Auto Job" buttons. See the "MRP" page for details on these buttons.
  7. The system will display the "Select a Facility" form.
  8. Select the appropriate Facility.
  9. The "MRP QC Planning" form is displayed.
  10. This form displays the open Sales Orders for selected items together with QC Groups and QC Tests according to the following criteria:
    1. Customer specific QC Groups and Tests if the "Plan QC During MRP Job Creation" flag is checked on the item and customer specific QC Groups have been assigned.
    2. Generic QC Groups and Tests, from the item's BOM revision, if the item has the "Plan QC During MRP Job Creation" flag checked and the item does not have customer specific QC Groups and Tests, or if the customer QC Groups and Tests are same as the generic QC Groups or Test from the item's BOM revision.
      1. Note: The form also displays sales orders that have manually been linked to a job.
  11. At this point, companies have the option of creating a single job or separate jobs to satisfy all displayed QC Tests.
  12. Select the appropriate sales orders/QC Tests by double clicking on the line(s) or via the "Select All" button.
  13. Click the "Create Job" button.
  14. The system creates a job, with a job number assigned, and displays the job on screen. (In web versions of DEACOM, the system will present the "Auto Job Setup" form when using the "Auto Job" button. This form allows users to select different BOM revisions and change the job quantity if necessary. Additional information and process steps are available via the Managing Production Capacity help page.) Note that when creating jobs using the MRP QC Planing feature, Co-Products and By-Products on Jobs are not linked to the corresponding Sales Orders.
  15. A line will be created for each Sales Order that was selected previously.
  16. The "QC Overrides" tab on the "Edit Job Line" form will display any customer-specific QC that is to be performed on this specific job line.
  17. Verify the information is correct. If changes are not required, click the "Exit" button to complete the process. If changes are required, they can be made now. Once complete, click the "Save" and "Exit" buttons to complete the MRP QC Planning process.
  18. Perform QC testing based on company and DEACOM system requirements. See the Entering Production and Stability QC Test Results page for additional information. Note that when completing post production QC for multiple lots and job lines that were created through the MRP QC Planning process, the system will reserve inventory to the sales order specified on the job line (lj_ordnum) for each separate lot, even if the QC is all completed at one time.

FAQ and Diagnostic Tips

Tip: Once inventory is reserved to a Sales Order, it no longer shows on the MRP QC planning grid.