The Project Setup module gives the user the capability to tie multiple Sales Orders and Work Orders together. Projects can also have sub-projects or Parent projects associated with them.

Multiple Projects can be established for a specific sales order.  A Project (only one) may be assigned to each line on the sales order.  Multiple lower level Projects (“sub-Projects”) can be established within a Project if necessary.  These Projects do not have an assembly number, and do not drive MRP requirements.  They simply define a structure into which Work Orders (WOs) are assigned and cost information is collected.

Once a sales order and related Projects are established, one or more WOs are released at a level equal to or below the Project.  These WOs are identified as belonging to the Project, they have an assembly number, and they drive MRP requirements through an indented BOM.  Following release of this top level WO(s) and assignment of the WO to the Project, ManEx knows that all lower-level proposed WOs driven by that assembly also belong to the same Project.  MRP reports will define all those actions required for the full assembly build, and will clearly indicate the Project number assigned to the top-level WO that is driving MRP demand.  MRP will, for Sales Orders and Work orders with Project tags, necessarily revert to a Lot for Lot MRP policy, over-riding any MRP policy established for the individual parts required.  This is required to maintain the Project information through the lower level requirements.  Minimum and Multiple Order Quantities, if any, would still be applied to the individual order actions.

MRP is done without regard to allocations.  It runs strictly off of the demand and supply requirements, and the timing for each.  Therefore, when MRP runs, if a part is on hand and allocated to another Project, MRP will consider it available for all Projects which have requirements for the part.  If there are insufficient parts available to meet the total demand, then MRP will create order actions for the part (and Project) at the point the part becomes unavailable.

Parts may be purchased and “pegged” to the Project at purchase by the buyers, using the MRP order action information.  Purchases into general inventory and to specific work orders are also allowed.  Through the receiving process, parts are automatically allocated to the Project consistent with the PO.  Parts that are not on any BOM may be purchased, received, allocated, deallocated, and reallocated to an existing Project.

For the purposes of allocation to or kitting of lower level WOs that belong to the same Project, ManEx considers any part allocated to the Project to be available (without deallocation/reallocation) for the lower level WO, as long as the work order refers to the project.   

• Track Buy and FGI Material by Customer 
• Track Various Sales Orders and/or Work Orders by Project or Customer

 Track Material by Customer

In the Electronic Contract Manufacturing environment, it is important to be able to identify materials purchased for each customer and provide visibility to the current status of the inventory balances and open purchase orders.  The Inventory Control module is able to keep track of all internal material and customer consigned material but it does not track the internal inventory by the customer for which the material was purchased.  Keeping track of internal material by customer is important because if a customer’s order for products are cancelled or becomes obsolete, you will need to know the FGI and raw material exposure (quantity in the inventory and open purchase orders) for back billing the customer. Also, some customers request the status of inventory material value purchased specifically for them, including the open purchase orders.

There are several possible ways to track open purchase orders and inventory quantity by customer not using the ManEx’s Project Management module but they requires number of manual processes, and the system has to be bent in a creative way to make these work.  A couple of those methods are:

1.                  Assign a warehouse for each customer, with manual provision for tracking the material requirements by customer.  Track the inventory requirements through the purchase process and during the kitting and shortage process.  Some custom reports are needed to report the material activities by Customer.  The option prevents the use of auto-kitting.