Work Order Commitments

We are using P31113 to issue inventory to work orders with multiple locations and lots. The commitments flag in Manufacturing Constants is set to 'Soft at creation of Parts List' as confirmed when adding work orders, table F3111 Work Order Parts List, the committedHS values are S.

Issuing less than the item order quantity from a specific lot/location creates a hard commitment against the item lot/location for the balance (order quantity minus issued quantity).

How can this be prevented? i.e. the committedHS value in P31113 remains at S?

I'm puzzled by your setups. If you are using lot numbers, the commitment method on the B/P constants screen should be set to 2 or 3. That, in turn would require that you use one of the other commitment choices on Mfg Constants.
With your given situation, have you tried to use the multi-location option for Inventory Issues? I haven't tested it for your situation, but it is possible that a less than full quantity issue from a location different than the parts list location may leave the unissued quantity soft, and just put the hard commit on the actual issue.
Do you understand that the issued parts must be hard committed?

Thanks for the reply.

The commitment method on the B/P constants screen was set to 1. Changing to 2, however does not alter the effect.

Test

WO1
COMPONENT1 qty 100

At creation of WO parts list and at printing of pick list, commitment for COMPONENT1 is 100 at primary location. (in our case this is a logical location; i.e. no inventory is ever held here.

Created COMPONENT1 inventory of 10 at LOC1 LOT1 & 10 at LOC1 LOT2.

Issued 10 from LOC1 LOT1 to WO1, system creates a commitment for 90 COMPONENT1 against LOC1 LOT1, rendering availability of -90.

Changed the commitment method on the B/P constants screen to 2.
Repeated above with WO2 for COMPONENT1 at LOC1 LOT2.

Identical results.

It appears however, that as you say

“that a less than full quantity issue from a location different than the parts list location may leave the unissued quantity soft” is correct; i.e. the “hard” commitment can be issued. I am now testing how the “hard” commitment is viewed by MRP.

Please feel free to add to (or query) the findings.

Hi,
I haven't tested your scenario. This is just to add a point. Commitment method (CMGL) in the Item Branch/Plant overrides the one set in the Branch/Plant Constants.

Here are a few more things to consiider.

1. As mentioned by another respondee, the item B/P record overrides the The B/P constants value if there is a difference. The B/P constants value merely provides a default value for when the Item B/P record is created. Try changing the B/P record and see if the result is different.

2. On the B/P record, is the Lot Process type set to require lot numbers, or is it set to Blank, or zero?

3. On Mfg Constants, is commitment control set to Primary location or is it set to "split - don't cross B/P boundaries"?

4. What happens if you create the lot records BEFORE you attach the parts list?

Sometimes we can selectively activate JDE functions, but oftemtimes we have to get them all playing together. It is like going to the symphony - durng the 'warm - up" if only one instrument is playing it may sound like music, but if several instruments are warming up it is just noise. Only when all the instruments are playing together, in concert, do we get the real music the composer/arranger intended for us to hear.

I konw it is an iterative pain, but try the various combinations of the data field values, changing them one at a time, to really understand how they play together, and when they conflict.

Ifyou really want to maintain flexibility and soft commitment, the multi-location issues may be your option.

Finally, some questions for you - if multiple lot numbers of the same component go into you parent item, how does that impact lot tracking? Is the parent part lot controlled? If multiple parents are coming out of the WO, how do you distinguish which parents each lot of components went into?

I guess what I am asking is, "What is the big picture?" Piecemeal answers to isolated pieces seldom provide a satisfactory solution to an integrated whole solution. Often, they solve one problem only to introduce another problem elsewhere.

This post has met with some meaty replies - all good, don't get me wrong... But the answer is simple. NO. It cannot be prevented because you haven't split the line.

As soon as you issue the F3111 line is Hard Committed. As one of the other responders mentioned... You would have to split the line in order to have some committed and some uncommitted.

You can experiment with the various flags all over the system. I would be interested to know the result.. But nothing, in my experience, suggests that they will alter anything about the functionality of the P31113.

Thanks for the repsonses.

Background
I am involved in a post implementation exercise with a medium sized manufacturing company. We are a few months into the implementation and are now simplifying the set-up across the whole process and after an extensive overview we are embarking on inventory management.

The configuration is set to reflect the requirement to commit inventory to work orders at time of pick list print. The circumstances however, do not require such a restrictive practice; the intention now is to maintain lot control in the sense that all transactions for designated items will require a valid lot number for work order issues. No form of hard commitment to work order is required, merely the ability to select any lot/location for the item and record its issue to the work order. Multiple (usually two) lots being consumed by a single work order is a routine situation. At work order completion, the ability to establish that within the finished item, a particular component is either one lot number or the other is sufficient.

According the documentation, achieving this looked straightforward. In the test environment I set Commitment Control in Mfg Constants to 3 (soft commitment)

Lot process type on the Item Branch is set to 3 (lots assigned manually)
Commitment Control set to 1 (Primary Location)

The problem occurs when issuing a quantity of an item from a lot/location which leaves a balance less than the work order requirement. This results in the item lot/location being shown as a “hard commitment” for the outstanding quantity in Work Order Parts List, Table 3111 (H in the CommitedHS column).

I do not think that it is as big a problem as I’d originally thought because Table F41021 Item Location File does not show any hard commitments, (QtyHardCommitted is zero for the lot/location).

I am now trying to establish what the commited value in F3111 does.

We scheduled a nightly job Work Order Repost (R3190) to release the unused balance of the finished work orders.

Regards,