BOM - Phantom vs Sub-assembly

[rekblad]

The engineers prefer the sub-assembly approach since they can easily manage the BOM. The operations people prefer the phantom approach so they don't have to manage so many Work Orders. Problem arises when the phantoms are also replacement/service parts (and thus need to be completed to stock), so they have created 2 parts to solve this problem - not a good solution.

Any way to "batch complete" Work Orders so the operations people don't have so many to manage?

Anyone with a similar situation? How do you solve it?

 

[Larry_Jones]

Classic situation Rob. Well described.
We have the same situation here - alas, no solution found that makes everyone happy.

What did you mean by "batch complete"? Are you referring to backflushing or super backflush?

Regards,

 

[rekblad]

No backflushing since they have only 1 routing step and production is "quick".

What I meant by "batch complete" is the operations people would be happy to use the sub-assembly concept if they didn't have to start and complete all of the Work Orders. So if there was a quicker way to manage the work orders......

 

[Lori Gibbs]

What we are doing - and I am not saying this is the best solution - in our production branch we will have phantoms (no work orders) in another branch that handles replacement parts - we are using "m" parts (work orders) The work order is only generated when it is needed for replacement and daily production doesn't have to process for regular production items. In the replacement parts branch - you could set safety stock and min order qty's to ensure that you have enough in inventory - thus only generating a work order when stock is getting low.

 

[Krofire.com]

Rob,

Before we all go off at various tangents can we come back to your original assumptions. What I want to know is WHY can't your people raise Work Orders for Phantom Items?

In theory you CAN do this. Both your Engineers and Operation people can use this without difficulty. I can see no problem in Shop Floor Control but I imagine that MRP might try and consume your Spares. However, this is not a problem just felt by Phantoms! Your Phantom Spares need to be stored somwhere and somehow such that MRP doesn't plan for them.

Work Orders can be raised manually for Spares for the Phantom. Or not? Do you get an error? I have not tried this in a while. Let us know what the problem is.