1. FAQ- System Setup
1.1. Customer Name and/or Supplier Name Pulldown Sort Order.
Question:  Why does the Customer Name and/or Supplier Name Pulldown Sort by upper case then lower case?  For example, if you have 3 names “BC”, “AB” and “ac”, the system will sort as “AB”,”BC”, then “ac”.  

Answer:  This is a natural sort.  Each letter, Upper case, and lower case, have an ASCII number assigned to them.   For example, “A” is 65, and “a” is 97.   Every key on the keyboard has an ascii number associated with any version of the key – lower case, upper case, CNTL, Alt  and combinations of them.  And these numbers are used to sort the fields. So you can see that is why upper case "A through Z" comes before lower case "a through z". 





   

1.2. How do I track SETUP and RUN Times for Capacity Planning, Job Costing or Product Data Management in ManEx?

Q.  How do I track SETUP and RUN Times for Capacity Planning, Job Costing or Product Data management in ManEx?

A.  There are TWO different ways to track SETUP and RUN times for Capacity Planning, Job Costing or Product Data Management in ManEx.

Using Run and Setup Times from the Work Order Traveler Setup module is preferred when there is great variability in the products produced and the setup and run rates in each Work Center.

Using the Run and Setup Times from the Production Work Centers & Activities module is preferred when the product flow is uniform, the machine rates are well established and the setup times are very uniform regardless of product.

Use of Run and Setup Times is optional unless either Job Costing or Capacity Planning Modules are in use.
 
1.3. How does Marking a Type as "Lot Code" affect records throughout the System? And why it can not be simply turned on or off?
Q.  How does Marking a Type as "Lot Code" affect records throughout the System?  And why it can not be simply turned on or off.


A.  When we attach LOT Tracking to a part type, throughout the system, that sets a flag that the user will also have to deal with Lot Tracking information. When invoked, lot tracking creates additional records tied to the warehouse information, which is tied to the AVL information, which is tied to the item master, where the flag is to use lot tracking.   Now what happens is that the inventory quantities are NOT saved in the warehouse file, but in the lot tracking file.  Turning OFF the lot tracking would then loose all of the inventory information.  Similarly, if we tried to turn ON  lot tracking, and all of the inventory quantities are at the AVL Warehouse, and when searching for part information we would NOT be able to find any parts that exist in the other table.  When we added the lot tracking capability, we elected to control it at the part class/type so users could easily identify which parts were tracked and which were not. 
 
So, we CANNOT simply turn ON nor OFF Lot Coding on an existing inventory part without losing data.
 
Option:  If you have existing parts you would like to change from Non-Lot Coded to Lot Coded, or vis-versa users are able to do this within the Inventory Control module but will loose all lot code tracking history.
 
The other option a user has is to Create a new class/type and new part numbers for those items you wish to track.  Use Material Handling to move inventory out, and receive it back in under the new part number.  During this process, you will have to identify lot tracking to receive the parts back in.  You will at this time need to create new BOM's and modify any Sales Orders with the new BOM information.  By doing it this way it will permit you to flush out any existing WIP and move product into FGI for shipping. 
1.4. Why are Some Inventory Parts not being Displayed in the Cycle Count?
Q.  Why are Some Inventory Parts not being Displayed in the Cycle Count?
 
A.  Make sure that the Cycle Count # Days" field is populated with a number other than "0".  If "0" is entered these parts will NOT be included in the Cycle Count
1.5. Why doesn't the Inventory WIP Report Values match the Accounting Ledger Values?
Question:  Why doesn't the Inventory WIP Report Values match the Accounting Ledger Values?
 
When considering the Accounting value of the WIP account in comparison with the Inventory & WIP Value report, there are three major considerations:
 
1.  All inventory transactions MUST have been released and posted to the GL and the GL accounts recalculated. 
2.  The results from the INVENTORY report are calculated real-time, based on the condition of the work order and material kitted to the work order.  If there are any inventory transactions completed after the closing of all GL transactions, the results will not be the same. 
3.  As the GL values are carried over from month to month, any previous errors to the accounting process will be included in the WIP account value (or any account value, for that matter).  So it could be because the beginning WIP account value may have NOT been accurate because of numerous journal entries to the account in preceding periods. 
 
 
Recommendations: (these steps can be used to get the values in sync - as much as possible, and are not intended to be a routine monthly practice)
 
1.   Make sure you have fully released and closed ALL previous periods, and the previous year before any further transactions, and retain a copy of the database.
2.  Run the Inventory Valuation report at the end of the last day of the period, and retain it.
3.  Compare this value with the GL WIP account, and adjust the GL WIP account by the difference, so they match.
4.  The following period end, repeat Steps 1 thru 3.
5.  If after Step 4, there is a difference between the accounts, provide the database from each period ending and both valuation reports to ManEx.
 
 
Also, check your Warehouse setup:
  
1.  Could be due to the Warehouse Setup not having the WIP and MRB setup to have unique GL account numbers.
 
For Example:  If the MRB whse and the WIP whse used to be assigned the same GL Account number, the Inventory and WIP Valuation report is coded to only considered WIP and would not account for the MRB values.  But due to the way the whse was setup your account would be accounting for both the WIP and MRB transactions.  Therefore the Inventory valuation report and GL account balances would never come close to matching.   We have modified Warehouse setup so WIP and MRP GL numbers now have to be unique.  User is not allowed to enter WIP & MRP GL numbers that have been used by other warehouse and other warehouses can not use the same GL numbers that are used by WIP and MRP warehouses.
 
2.  Could be due to the Warehouse Setup not having the WO-WIP and WIP setup to have unique GL account numbers.  It is VERY important that the account number for WO-WIP is NOT the same as the WIP account number, in Warehouse Setup.
 
For Example:  WO-WIP (Work Order-Work in Process) is a term we use to describe inventory issues to a work order, but which exceed the needed quantity of the work order.  An example would be the issue to of a reel of components containing 2000 parts, but only 1600 components are actually needed for the work order.  Because it may not be feasible to portion out exactly the 1600 components, the complete reel is issued to the work order.  Then from a data standpoint, there are 1600 actually issued to the work order(WIP) and 400 issued to WO-WIP.  
 
So WO-WIP is actually inventory, NOT WIP.  We identify it as WO-WIP to make it wasier to understand that it is not in a normal warehouse, and to idenify the work order where these extra parts are currently held.
 
Doing this procedure allow us to identify the extra parts issued to a work order as being available to meed any demand requirements in MRP.  Without the visibility of these WO-WIP parts, MRP would not know they were available and generate orders to obtain more parts, with the result being a likely duplication of the requirements.
 
At the end of the work order (or any time before it) the extra parts should be returned to the stockroom, and the kit adjusted to reflect the return.  If it is not done, then when closing the kits, these parts may be absorbed by the work order, resulting in an unfavorable mfgr variance.
 
 
1.6. Why doesn't the System Allow User to Assign More Than One Work Center to a Work Station?
 

The feature in Setup to assign a work center to a work station is designed to make it so the user will not have to specify the work center when transferring boards.  If you have more than one work center using that work station, it defeats the purpose and does not work.

If you need to process more than one work station through a computer, then do NOT assign a work center to that work station.  This isn't required to complete the production process, and the user can do it when recording the transaction.

1.7. Why the system enforces the uniqueness per Product rule and will not base the uniqueness on SN that exist in the Qty at that time.

Question:   Why the system enforces the uniqueness per Product rule and will not base the uniqueness on SN that exist in the Qty at that time.

Answer:   The inventory Handling will enforce the uniqueness rule that has been assigned for Serial Number tracking within the System setup.  There was an request to have the Serial Numbers unique within just the Qty on hand at that time, so user could bring already used SN back into the stock through inventory handling.  We cannot permit users to assign serial numbers that have once been used to new receipts over and over again. To do so would negate the uniqueness of the serial numbers. If we did so, then we would be faced with a problem when a serial number returns to inventory.  If a customer sends back a serial number, both the customer and our user will probably want to know the history of that particular serial number. How would they know which one it was if we allowed new receipt records to be assigned Serial numbers already once used within the system?  So, no, we cannot allow serial numbers based on whether or not they are in inventory at the moment. Another situation could happen when they added a duplicate serial number to material on hand, then needed to receive the original back into stock for some reason. Then we would have to have two serial numbers exactly the same for the same product, which obviously, we cannot do.

Possible Resolution:  We recognize that the return of one Serialized item back into inventory might be needed.  We are reviewing the code within the Inventory Handling Receiving module, and looking to have any option to pick from already used Serial Numbers if the customer whats to bring it back in.  This way we will actually be maintaining the history of this Serial number by requiring the users to select the record that already exists within the system.  So we will not be createing a new Serial Number record, that could lead to duplicated information within the system, but rather requiring the users to select that information from pre-existing serial number records.

1.8. Why doesn't the Accounting Values match the Inventory reports?
Q.  Why doesn't the Accounting Values match the Inventory Reports?
 
A.   WO-WIP (Work Order-Work in Process)  is a term we use to describe inventory issues to a work order, but which exceed the needed quantity of the work order.  An example would be the issue of a reel of components containing 2000 parts, but only 1600 are actually needed for the work order.  Because it may not be feasible to portion out exactly the 1600 components, the complete reel is issued to the work order. Then from a data standpoint, there are 1600 actually issued to the work order (WIP) and 400 issued to WO-WIP.

So WO-WIP is actually inventory, NOT work in progress. We identify it as WO-WIP to make it easier to understand that it is not in a normal warehouse, and to identify the work order where these extra parts are currently held.

Doing this procedure allows us to identify the extra parts issued to a work order as being available to meet any demand requirements in MRP. Without the visibility of these WO-WIP parts, MRP would not know they were available and generate orders to obtain more parts, with the result being a likely duplication of the requirements.

At the end of the work order (or any time before it) the extra parts should be returned to the stockroom, and the kit adjusted to reflect the return. If it is not done, then when closing the kits, these parts may be absorbed by the work order, resulting in an unfavorable manufacturing variance.

It is also VERY important to note that in the Warehouse setup , the Account Number for WO-WIP must NOT be the same as the WIP account number.