Build Engineering Prototypes
You can define prototype bills of material in two ways. The first is to use engineering change orders (ECO) to define future revisions to items on a bill. The second is to create a new engineering item and bill.
In either case, you may build a small quantity of these new structures to validate the design and to ensure manufacturability. You can use non-standard jobs to manage the prototype build process for both future revisions and new engineering items.
Business Example #1 - Future Revision of an Existing Item
You are an automotive parts manufacturer that wants to build a batch of fuel filter prototypes for next year's model. These fuel filters are only slightly revised from this year's models and are defined as a future unreleased revision rather than as a new item. You have decided to build these prototype assemblies on a non-standard discrete job.
Assumptions
Your manufacturing engineers have used engineering change orders to define a future open bill of material for the fuel filters with a revision identifier of 95 and revision date of 01-Jan. You can build the 95 revision in the regular fuel filter production area on a standard fuel filter routing. The engineers may modify the routing on the fly during the build process. Cost accounting has not performed a cost rollup for this future version of the fuel filter.
Setup
Use the Discrete Jobs window to define a non-standard discrete job for the fuel filter assembly, revision 95 with a revision date of 01-Jan, with a job quantity of 10. Since none of these prototypes will be available as supply, enter zero in the MRP Net Quantity field rather than the job quantity. Select an expense type non-standard accounting class since you are performing engineering activities. Use a class with accounts that correspond to your engineering prototype expense accruals.
Enter the current routing into the Routing Reference field to schedule the start and end dates of the job and to create the WIP operations and resources.
Enter the 95 revision with the revision date of 01-Jan into the Bill Revision and Revision Date fields respectively to get the correct component requirements into the non-standard discrete job. You must have the WIP:Exclude Open ECOs profile option set to No to allow you to define jobs for open revisions.
Print the Discrete Job Pick List Report and release the job using the Discrete Jobs window.
Transactions
Use the WIP Material Transactions window to issue the components to the non-standard discrete job.
Use the Move and Resource Transactions windows to move the fuel filters from operation to operation and to charge resources and overheads. You can also use these windows to add either operations or resources as needed.
Use the Completion Transactions window to complete revision 95 of the finished fuel filters into a non-nettable engineering prototypes inventory.
Costing
When all the fuel filters are completed or scrapped, the job status changes to Complete. Your cost accountants can run a Discrete Job Value Report to check all the charges.
The job must have an ending balance equal to the cost of material, resources and overhead charges less the current standard cost for the completed fuel filters (since this future version is not the current standard). The balance is written off as a variance when you close the job or at period end when expense type non-standard jobs are automatically expensed.
Business Example #2 - Engineering Items
You are an automotive parts manufacturer that wants to build a batch of fuel filter prototypes for a brand new model. These fuel filters are a brand new engineering item that does not meet the same window, fit, or function of any item. You have decided to build these prototype assemblies on a non-standard discrete job.
Assumptions
Your manufacturing engineers have defined a new engineering item bill of material for the fuel filters with a revision identifier of 95A and revision date of 01-Jan. You can build the new item in the regular fuel filter production area on a standard fuel filter routing. The engineers modify the routing on the fly during the build process. Cost accounting has not performed a cost rollup or a cost update for this new engineering fuel filter.
Setup
Use the Discrete Jobs window to define a non-standard discrete job for the engineering fuel filter assembly, revision 95A with a revision date of 01-Jan, with a job quantity of 10. Since none of these prototypes will be available as supply, enter zero in the MRP Net Quantity field rather than the job quantity. Select an expense type non-standard accounting class since you are performing engineering activities. Use a class with accounts that correspond to your engineering prototype expense accruals.
Enter the standard fuel filter into the Routing Reference field to schedule the start and end dates of the job and to create the WIP operations and resources.
Enter the 95A revision with the revision date of 01-Jan into the Bill Revision and Revision Date fields respectively to get the correct component requirements into the non-standard discrete job. You must have the WIP:See Engineering Items profile option set to Yes to allow you to define jobs for engineering items.
Print the Discrete Job Pick List Report and release the job using the Discrete Jobs window.
Transactions
Use the WIP Material Transactions window to issue the components to the non-standard discrete job.
Use the Move and Resource Transactions windows to move the fuel filters from operation to operation and to charge resources and overheads. You can also use these windows to add either operation or resources as needed.
Use the Completion Transactions window to complete revision 95A of the finished engineering fuel filters into a non-nettable engineering prototypes inventory.
Costing
When all the fuel filters are completed or scrapped, the job status changes to Complete. Your cost accountants can run a Discrete Job Value Report to check all the charges.
The job must have an ending balance equal to the cost of material, resources and overhead charges. No costs were relieved from the job by the completion transaction since the costs of the engineering fuel filter have never been rolled up or updated. The job balance is written off as a variance when you close the job or at period end when expense type non-standard jobs are automatically written off.
See Also
Defining Discrete Jobs Manually
Adding and Updating Material Requirements
Adding and Updating Operations
Charging Resources Manually
Issuing and Returning All Push Components
Performing Move Transactions
Completing and Returning Assemblies
Overview of Discrete Job Close
