1. FAQ - WO Traveler Set-up
1.1. How can ManEx help with Setting Work Center Priorities and Scheduling?
Q.  How can ManEx help with Setting Work Center Priorities and Scheduling?

ManEx has several standard and optional features designed to help with identifying bottlenecks and setting work center priorities and schedules.
  • Dynamic Production Scheduling * - This screen allows production managers to monitor and track a jobs progress through the production floor.  It sets priorities based on slack time and allows managers to adjust those priorities as needed.  It also communicates those priorities to production workers so they know the most important jobs, in their work centers, at any given time and can focus their attentions where it can do the most good.  The production schedules are adjusted each day to account for the process made that day and the update priorities as needed.
  • Capacity Critical Path* - This screen gives immediate visibility of potential bottle necks by allowing the user to select a date (grouped by day, week, or month) and/or work center and see the capacity and load.  This information is available as soon as a job is in the system and scheduled.  This can provide sufficient time to adjust the schedule or the capacity as needed and maximize throughput. 
  • Open Work Order List - This screen provides a summary of all open jobs in production and allows users to sort by WO, Customer, Due Date, and Status.  It also shows the build quantity, how many are complete, and the balance.  This can help production workers know which jobs are in process and when they are due. 
  • WO Shortage Summary List - This list identifies component shortages by WO, WC, and part number.  By displaying which parts are currently missing and expected delivery quantities and dates, this screen helps production identify critical shortages and adjust the schedule as needed. 
  • Web Based Order Simulation* - This screen allows users to enter and assembly, requested quantity, and requested date.  It evaluates processing time and material availability and indicates how many can be done by the requested date, when the full quantity can be done (worst case scenario), and the components currently preventing an on-time delivery with short quantity and expected lead time.
  • Customer On-time Delivery Reporting* - The report in eManEx will allow users to show on-time delivery performance for selected assemblies or customers over a selected period of time.  This enables production to evaluate their current processes and process changes to see how it impacts on-time performance.  This report is also available as a third party ad-on.  As part of our plans to help all users get the most of their system and leverage our focus and features, we have the first user develop report available for on-time delivery reporting.  This report was created by a ManEx user and can be used by other ManEx users to evaluate their on-time performance and make necessary adjustments and improvements.  If you are interested in this report, please contact sales@manex.com.
1.2. What does PPM mean?

Answer:  PPM (Part Per Million) this field is where you would enter in the defect opportunities.

In the ROUTING screen, the PPM is opportunities for defects.  What this means is there are a certain number of things that can go wrong and cause a failure of the assembly.  The PPM is the total number of defects that might occur at each work center in the assembly of the product. 

Example:  If you have a board with one part on it, you can start with PPM = 2: the board can be wrong, and the part can be wrong.  But then you can expand on that by counting the number of leads on the component.  It is possible that if there are eight leads on the component, any one of them may have a bad solder joint.  So now the PPM is 2 + 8 or 10.  Now it is possible to insert the component backwards, so polarity is another PPM.  So now the PPM is 10 + 1 or 11.  It may be that the part is correct, the leads are ok, but it is defect.  Now the PPM is 11 + 1 = 12.  The 8 leads on the component must go somewhere, so there will be traces or conductors on the board.  Each of these may be a defective due to the manufacturing process by creating either shorts or opens.  So now the PPM is 12 + 8 or 20.

Lets say that there are two such parts on the board.  Now the PPM rises by the same complexity (but not the board itself), so now the PPM is 20 + 19 or 39 PPM.

There may be similar PPM's for each step in the process, depending on what is done in the process, and which parts might be affected.

So, if the work order is for a total of 100 boards (and we didn't add any other PPM's), then the PPM for the lot would be 3900.

What PPM is readlly intended to convey, is a measure of the quality of the boards assembled.  It is the number of defects observed in the lot divided by the total opportunities for defects.  In this example, if one board was found with one unsoldered pin, that would account for one defect out of 3900 possible defects, or approximately 256 PPM (1/3900*1,000,000).

Obviously, most assemblies will have much more PPM's than this example.  The Customers of Manufacturers sometimes require certain PPM quality or penailize the CM.  Of course, the Manufacturer will then attempt to make the PPM's as high as they can, to lower the defects.