Packaging Consumption in Work Orders

I'm looking for ideas as to the best way to consume packaging in work orders.

We sell products in various packaging....totes, drums, pails, etc.

Currently the packaging is relieved from inventory at time of sales invoicing.....packaging codes are listed in sales order.

But we may have product sitting on the floor waiting to ship so our packaging stock quantities will not be a true number for empty available to use packaging.

In otherwords if I was to look up out tote stock quantity the number will include all the empty totes plus any filled totes sitting on the floor waiting to ship.

If we consume the packaging through the work order then the stock quanitity will be a true number of empty available totes.

So for example say a tote holds 1000 kgs.  How do I change my BOM so that if the work order calls for 5000kgs it will automatically consume 5 totes.  

Also is there a way for the Stock Valuation Report to list the packaging quantities instead of total kgs?

Thank you.

Parents
  • Hi I start to rephrase your case so I am sure I am getting it right:
    - packaging codes are managed in the sales order, do you mean they are managed as a sales kit component?
    - the problem when doing that is you don't know in your stock the exact quantity of bulk produced and exact quantity of product in tote

    Using work order to transform bulk products and empty tote into a product packaged in tote is a solution to have all quantities correct in stock (more transactions to manage but better quality information in the system).

    I hope this is a correct assessment of your situation. Now it is true there are mainly two approaches to manage packing: same product code and using packing unit (simpler management but less accurate information especially on costing and packing process scheduling) or 1 product code per packing unit and a work order to transform bulk into packaged product (more common data to manage and more transactions but possible to manage the cost per packing and to value and schedule the packing process).

    So to reply to your questions:

    How do I change my BOM so that if the work order calls for 5000kgs it will automatically consume 5 totes?

    In a BoM you can set proportional links, so the best would be to have packaged product managed in unit and to produce 1 unit you need 2 components: 1 tote and 5000 kg of bulk. If using proportional link, the work order will automatically try to consume 5 totes and 5000 kg of bulk when producing 5 packaged unit. If managing your final packaged product with stock unit = unit (with no decimal) then you have no risk of trying to consume half a tote. You can have some automations to simplify the management of your work order such as back-to-back or MRP combine to automatic release (run as batch process) to create the work order automatically. You can as well use backflush management on your components to have automatic material tracking from production tracking. Some other operations as WO cosure or costong can be run a mass process bia a recurring batch.

    -is there a way for the Stock Valuation Report to list the packaging quantities instead of total kgs?

    Sure you need to change the crystal report and replace STJ.QTYSTU with STJ.QTYPCU. But if you manage work order, then I understand wyou have different product codes per unit so why using packing units?

Reply
  • Hi I start to rephrase your case so I am sure I am getting it right:
    - packaging codes are managed in the sales order, do you mean they are managed as a sales kit component?
    - the problem when doing that is you don't know in your stock the exact quantity of bulk produced and exact quantity of product in tote

    Using work order to transform bulk products and empty tote into a product packaged in tote is a solution to have all quantities correct in stock (more transactions to manage but better quality information in the system).

    I hope this is a correct assessment of your situation. Now it is true there are mainly two approaches to manage packing: same product code and using packing unit (simpler management but less accurate information especially on costing and packing process scheduling) or 1 product code per packing unit and a work order to transform bulk into packaged product (more common data to manage and more transactions but possible to manage the cost per packing and to value and schedule the packing process).

    So to reply to your questions:

    How do I change my BOM so that if the work order calls for 5000kgs it will automatically consume 5 totes?

    In a BoM you can set proportional links, so the best would be to have packaged product managed in unit and to produce 1 unit you need 2 components: 1 tote and 5000 kg of bulk. If using proportional link, the work order will automatically try to consume 5 totes and 5000 kg of bulk when producing 5 packaged unit. If managing your final packaged product with stock unit = unit (with no decimal) then you have no risk of trying to consume half a tote. You can have some automations to simplify the management of your work order such as back-to-back or MRP combine to automatic release (run as batch process) to create the work order automatically. You can as well use backflush management on your components to have automatic material tracking from production tracking. Some other operations as WO cosure or costong can be run a mass process bia a recurring batch.

    -is there a way for the Stock Valuation Report to list the packaging quantities instead of total kgs?

    Sure you need to change the crystal report and replace STJ.QTYSTU with STJ.QTYPCU. But if you manage work order, then I understand wyou have different product codes per unit so why using packing units?

Children
  • in reply to Julien Patureau

    Your understanding is correct.  Currently we have a separate line on the sales order where we enter the packaging product code at null value.  So the packaging is taken out of inventory at that time.  But again that doesn't give us an accurate count of the packaging we have on hand available to use at any given time.

    We are going to create new product codes so that we have 1 product code per packing unit.  But instead of having 2 components (the packaging and the finished good) I was trying to add the packaging as a compoent to the recipe so only one work order would have to be done as opposed to two (the one to make the finished good and then the one to put the fnished good into the packaging).  

    Our BOMs are set up so that the mgmt unit is percentage and base quantity is 100.000.  All the link quantity codes are set to proportional and qty rounding set to round to the nearest.  All the raw components are in KGs and the packaging unit is EA.  I added the packaging component line to the recipe (BOM) but I didn't enter any quantity BOM UOM or link quantity STK.  I was thinking that when the recipe was closed the packaging quantity could be entered at that time manually.  This way I wouldn't have to change raw component link quantities because they would still equal 100.000.  I don't know if this will work though, we are testing soon.  Your thoughts??

    I was just wondering about the SVR because instead of seeing the total KGs for that product code, even though we know that product code is for totes we would still have to do the math to see how many totes of material we had.  It would be nice to see how many totes as well......just visually easier.  But that's not as pressing as getting the packaging consumption figured out.  

  • in reply to Abram2388

    Sorry what SVR stand for? If a second work order is too demanding did you consider an assembly?.
    In my opinion if the product in bulk is stored for a long period (many days) without packaging then using the same work order is not really accurate as you will not know if the quantity in stock of finished good is bulk or packaged.
    If bulk is not stored for more than a day (because it may be not good for the product), then reusing the same work order to track the totes should do it. I mean the stock level will be good and cost as well.

    Keep us posting!

  • in reply to Julien Patureau

    SVR - Stock Valuation Report

    We package right away, we do not keep bulk product on hand for more than a day.