if you're not in the habit of marking your orders as ready and done, you will need to start doing so if you
want to get any value from our production scheduling capabilities. See Manage Orders in the general How To document.
we provide a 'catch-up' bulk operation on the Order Status page - you can use to clear out orders so old you're sure they could not still be active.
from the Manufacturing page, the Plants option will provide you the ability to customize the name of
your plant, and set up the details of the work day like what time production work starts and what are the day's break times and so on.
the plant provides default daily capacity for stations, described below
also under the plants option, you can specify days off, that is, days when the plant will not be producing
cut batches are now tied to a plant, and can 'pull' units from shop orders
screen batches are now tied to a plant and can be import screens from shop orders
partial-shipment invoices can be generated from shop orders
stations are children of plants, so they are accessed from Manufacturing→Plants
stations are locations where one step of the production process occurs
the station record includes one entry per day of the week to indicate how many 'work-minutes' are available at that station on that day of the week in a typical week
stations are linked to production steps, described below
from the detail page for a station there is an option to update the work minutes for all stations at the
same plant, in cases where there's some special occurrence like a half day off
examples: Four Point Welder, Corner Cleaner, Big Mitre Saw, Screen Bench...
product flows are children of product families, so they are accessed from Manufacturing→Families
a product flow is a collection of production steps in a particular sequence used to create a single or
multi-panel product
each product flow step has a name, refers to a work station, indicates whether it occurs before or after
panel assembly, a formula to indicate under what conditions it applies,
and a formula to calculate how many seconds the step should take for an ordered product
combined with panel flows described below, this is expected to be the largest part of the setup process
panel flows are children of panels, so they are accessed from Manufacturing→Families→Panels
a panel flow is a collection of production steps in a particular sequence used to create a single-panel, whether
part of a compound (multi-panel) product or as a product on its own
each panel flow step has a name, refers to a work station, and a formula to indicate under what conditions it applies, and a formula to calculate how many seconds the step should take for an ordered panel
combined with product flows described above, this is expected to be the largest part of the setup process
examples: Casement, Awning, Single Slider..
imagine a two panel Casement-Fixed window joined modularly, ie. two boxes with a joiner strip. The steps might be:
the shop orders page refreshes automatically, so it might be suitable for a big monitor in a
location where concerned parties can monitor plant activity
a cell with a yellow background indicates a shortage or a due date in jeopardy, while a cell
with a light red background indicates lateness
a shop order is a child of a sales order, in most cases there will be one
and only one shop order for a given sales order
shop orders can be automatically generated from sales orders in the simplest form - that is one
shop order for all the units on the sale - controlled by a company setting currently only accessible to
Fenestratio support staff. Orders deducted, not on hold, not already ready, not done, not cancelled
are candidates for automatic shop order generation.
if you prefer to control when shop orders are created, we can turn auto-generation off and you can
create shop orders manually from the order header page status tab
the shop orders list displays a "Guess Ready" column to indicate the results
of the AutoSchedule process described below. As the setup information for a plant
becomes more accurate, the Guess Ready date should start to be more accurate, if
the plant staff follow the schedule and the management records work completed in a timely manner.
the shop orders page also includes a quick-link to run the Shop Orders report
in the standard format which uses the same sort sequence as the AutoSchedule
the Guess Ready column of the shop orders page is color-coded to indicate the day of the week on
which the product is expected to be ready - the colors can be chosen at Administration→Company
clicking on an order number or customer name brings the shop order detail popup, where the operator can:
move the shop order within the schedule by changing the manufacturing sequence and/or hold status
record work in progress (WIP) at the product unit level by indicating if a unit is 'ready', ie. it has been fully assembled or it's a resale product and has arrived at your facility
update the due date of units of products purchased for resale
split the shop order by moving some units to a new shop order
operators can use the barcode label button at left of every shop order line to print barcode labels for shop order units - see barcoding below
operators can use to rebuild the schedule. Up to 1 hour before the plant's configured end of day time,
the schedule will rebuild from 5 minutes hence, after 3pm the rebuild will start the next work day. Rebuild will
update the 'Guess Ready' date for all shop orders, skipping any units or panels that have been marked ready.
the Shop Orders page will not be available during a schedule rebuild
every night between 2:00 and 4:00 am eastern time, Fenestratio runs a process to 'guess' when orders in the plant will be ready
the 'UNready' shop orders for a plant are sorted for scheduling by Hold status, then manufacturing sequence, then order number
each production step of each unit (and each panel of each unit as applicable) on the shop order will be scheduled in sequence at the appointed work station for the seconds calculated
plant start time will determine the beginning of each day
plant break times and days off will be excluded from scheduled time
the autoschedule process will update the shop order's manufacturing sequence and the shop order's Guess Ready time
in order to make a truly adaptive schedule, Fenestratio needs indications of when component shortages will
be alleviated, and when resale items will arrive
ETA/Due dates do not represent a commitment to other colleagues; rather, they are meant as a "best-guess"
planning tool
we 'guess' at due dates for resale items from the Lead Time Weekdays value on Maintenance→Vendors
purchase orders have a due date entry on them that will initially be a guess but can be refined by the
operator
introducing Manual Purchasing for those sites using supplier extranets who find Fenestratio's purchasing module unnecessary
manual purchases have a due date entry on them that will initially be a guess but can be refined by the
operator
in order to have a schedule most often reflect the latest reality, we have implemented some barcode workflows
to record production accurately and efficiently
all barcoding capabilities are conveniently included in the Fenestratio mobile apps for Android and Apple devices
note that using Barcode Move on a unit to specify where it's stored will also mark it ready if necessary
all barcoding pages are "camera-ready" for devices having a camera but not a specialized barcode scanner like tablets or phones
Manufacturing→ShopOrders:
from here the operator can jump to a page to print unit barcode labels
one label is printed for each unit of a quote line product
another label is printed for each panel of each multi-panel product
the notation on the labels reflects the Fenestratio quote line notation: A is the first product line,
a is the first panel of that product from the top left, C is the third product line and c would be the
third panel in a product...
Manufacturing→Barcode Ready
an operator can scan labels of units and panels
when a panel label is scanned, that panel is marked ready, and its requirements are removed from inventory
when a unit label is scanned, that unit and all its panels are marked ready, and all of their requirements are removed from inventory
the time taken on the schedule by the shop order will be reduced for every unit or panel marked ready
so a phone or tablet at the finishing benches can scan units and panels ready as they are
completed!!!
Manufacturing→Barcode WIP
at Manufacturing→Plants→Stations an operator can print barcode labels for workstations
the operator scans a station label to begin recording completed steps at that station
the operator then scans unit or panel labels to indicate the product-flow or panel step implied
by that combination has been completed
any step marked complete this way will reduce the time on the schedule used by the unit and shop
order in question
for heavily batch-oriented shops Barcode WIP may be most useful because progress on multiple panels
and units can be recorded as they are touched
use last-component-due/last-resale-item-due dates to suggest shop order sequencing
consider use of schedule results and recent history to suggest realistic times for note on
bottom of quotes: "If you order today your products will be ready on..."
consider productivity reporting
consider detailed requirement browsing
consider percent done reporting if anybody uses Barcode WIP
at left of every shop order line to print barcode labels for shop order units - see barcoding below