This chapter covers the following topics:
Warehouse Management System is tightly integrated with the manufacturing modes supported by Oracle Work in Process and Oracle Shop Floor Manufacturing. Instead of using static paper-based picking lists to gather components required for a job or schedule, you can use the advanced features available from Oracle Warehouse Management. The integration is available for discrete, flow, repetitive, and lot-based manufacturing.
Supported features include:
Rules Engine based allocation
Task dispatching
Opportunistic crossdocking
Compliance label support
Pick Methodologies
Picking for Manufacturing is completely integrated with warehouse management. Features such as material status control, pick slip grouping rules, task skipping, and device integration are applicable to manufacturing requirements.
The items and quantities required for a job or schedule are specified on the bill of materials. With this as a main exception, component pick release for manufacturing and sales order pick release follow nearly identical processes. If you are familiar with the Warehouse Management sales order pick release process, you will recognize the following steps performed by the manufacturing pick release.
Allocate material using the warehouse management Rules Engine
Identify unavailable material as backordered
Determine the task type necessary to perform the task
The pick release process provides tasks associated to move orders (or material allocations). These tasks are then dispatched to you on the mobile device and sequenced by locator and subinventory picking order.
You then perform the task, and confirm the material identified in the allocation was picked. Depending on the supply type, performing the task either issues the material directly to the job, or moves the material to the supply subinventory and locator indicated on the bill-of-materials to be pulled later by an operation move or assembly completion.
You can view material requirements for a job when it is pick released. There are four different query windows available to use. The query window you use depends on the manufacturing mode. For example, you may use one window to query for a particular job number for discrete manufacturing, and use another window to query for repetitive manufacturing lines and assemblies.
Once the appropriate jobs are selected from the query criteria, you can view the material requirements for each job, and remove jobs from the pick release process. Select Release after you select the jobs.
A note appears on the desktop window that indicates if the Rules engine allocated all, some, or none of the material requirements. Material may not be allocated if none of the material available meets the rule restrictions. You can query the job in the Pick Release window to view the unallocated requirements. In addition, you can print the move order pick list report for the batch as part of the pick release process. The note includes the request number of the report.
Only jobs in a transactable status with open requirements appear in the Pick Release window. Transactable statuses are Released and Complete. Statuses such as On Hold, Pending, Cancelled, and Complete – No Charges are not transactable and jobs with these statuses are not returned by the query criteria. Because only open requirements display, jobs whose requirements are completely allocated by the pick release process, or fulfilled via material issues, are not returned by the query criteria. In addition, allocated and fulfilled material requirements on the bill of materials do not display in the Pick Release window. However unfulfilled requirements for the same job appear on the Pick Release window.
A concurrent process is available for each of the four manufacturing modes that release all requirements in a transactable state. If pick release of manufacturing requirements is done regularly and without any decisions of what to release, the concurrent request streamlines the process. The concurrent program picks up only transactable jobs.
Bills of Material supports several different supply types, including:
Push
Assembly pull
Operation pull
Phantom
Supplier
Bulk
Only push, assembly pull, and operation pull components can be pick released. The system ignores components with other supply types for the pick release process. However the other supply types behave the same as without Picking for Manufacturing. In addition, you can exclude pull components from the pick release process on the WIP Parameters window. If you exclude pull components, the system assumes they are replenished in the supply subinventory through some other means. See: Defining WIP Parameters, Oracle Work in Process User's Guide.
A requirement with supply type push and a null supply subinventory / locator creates a move order, where the source is inventory and the destination is the job. Transacting the task issues the material from the subinventory from which the allocation was made to the job.
A requirement with supply type of operation or assembly pull creates a move order, where the source is inventory and the destination is the supply subinventory / locator on the bill of materials. Transacting the task moves the material from the subinventory where the allocation was made to the supply subinventory. The material is pulled from the supply subinventory on the operation move or assembly completion. As the supply subinventory / locator are not required fields on the bill of materials, they default from the WIP Parameters form if they are left blank.
A requirement with supply type push and the subinventory / locator populated on the bill of materials creates a move order where the source is inventory and the destination is inventory. The only difference between this and a material requirement with supply type pull is that the material must be manually issued to the job. The job does not pull the material at assembly completion or operation move.
Move orders are created for the material requirements selected from the Pick Release window. The Rules Engine allocates material based on rules you define.
You can base rules on any attribute related to the job, inventory, organization, or other information related to the material requirement. For example, you may build rules that rotate stock, allocate a single lot, or clean near-empty locators. In addition, there are several objects that support attributes of the job. If you use these objects, you can allocate material from different subinventories based on the department, or inventory lots with particular attributes because of the comments on the bill of materials or routing indicate specific requirements for this job.
Once you create and allocate the move orders for the material requirements, you must assign the task type to the move order. Task types model the qualifications or skill sets required to perform a particular task. For example, a task in a high rack may require an operator trained to use the high-bay forklift, while a task of hazardous material may require an operator trained in HAZMAT material handling.
You can base task type assignment on any data related to the material requirement, job, organization, or other attribute. Task type assignment also uses the Rules Engine.You can use several of the additional objects used for allocation rules for task type assignment rules.
The task is now ready to be dispatched. Indicate the initial dispatch subinventory, the available equipment, and the devices to use.
To confirm the material allocation, confirm the allocated item and, if applicable, the revision, lots, and serials. If you confirm the pick with an LPN that matches the allocation, instead of loose material, you can skip the confirmation fields.
You also confirm the suggested subinventory and locator; however, you can override the suggestions. You must also confirm the quantity picked, but can under pick if the required quantity is unavailable. You can configure the Pick Load page to accept an over or under pick without exception. When you confirm the picked quantity, the system treats it as an exact match. If you do not configure the Pick Load Page to accept an over or under pick without exception, you must enter a task exception for the pick.
You must load the task into an LPN if the material is loose or if you picked only part of an LPN for a task. The LPN identifies the material that was picked for a particular task. You can load multiple requirements into the same LPN as long as they are for the same manufacturing mode.
You can also access information about the job that created the task from the load screen. After confirming the allocated material, you can load the material on to the equipment and continue with additional loads, or drop the task.
Related Topics
Explaining Over Picking, Oracle Warehouse Management User's Guide
Explaining Under Picking Without Exception, Oracle Warehouse Management User's Guide
The issue transaction is integrated into the drop only for push supply types where the task is dropped to the job. You drop a pull requirement to the supply subinventory indicated on the bill of materials, and a push requirement to the job. The issue transaction is integrated into the drop.
You can also record exceptions on the drop of pull material. You can override the suggested supply subinventory. The override reason you enter can trigger a corrective workflow, such as updating the bill of materials to pull the inventory from the new drop locator.
Picking for manufacturing supports all the pick methodologies supported for sales orders. This includes cartonization / pick-and-pass picking, where the system suggests specific totes for tasks as part of the pick release process. It also includes pick slip grouping rules, where tasks are queued in groups, defined by user-specified criteria, such as job / schedule name, department, operation, source subinventory / locator, etc. As part of the pick slip grouping rules, bulk picking is also supported for manufacturing. Tasks for the same subinventory / locator, item, and revision, are merged into larger tasks. These larger tasks are then deconsolidated as part of the pick drop process. Manufacturing picking has full support for cluster picking, where the system dispatches you a pre-specified number of clusters of tasks with the first task.
You can cancel a job can at any point after the status has been changed to Released. If the job has not pick released, then no allocations or tasks exist and you do not need to take corrective action. However, if pick release was run for the job, then different corrective actions are taken depending on the status of the tasks.
The system deletes tasks in status of Pending, Queued, Hold, or Error and relieves the allocations. Completed tasks are not changed and manual intervention is required to return the material from the job to inventory, if appropriate.
Dispatched tasks enable you to load the material, but you cannot drop the material to the job. Similarly, you cannot drop loaded tasks. You must unload both loaded and dispatched tasks. You can view whether the job (or sales order) that created the loaded task was cancelled from the current tasks page. You also receive a message that indicates that dropping the LPN is not allowed.
You cannot drop push requirements without a supply subinventory because the destination of the task is the job, and you cannot issue material to a cancelled job. In addition, pull requirements require manual intervention to return the inventory to its initial locator. Therefore, you can unload the loaded LPN. After the LPN is unloaded, the task is cancelled and the allocation is relieved.
Completed tasks for a cancelled job are not affected. If a job was cancelled, and then pick released again, only the uncompleted tasks and backordered requirements are allocated.
Picking for Manufacturing supports limited change management beyond job cancellation. If the job quantity is increased, then the job can be re-released and the new material requirements for the additional job quantity will be allocated (or backordered). If the job quantity is decreased, then any backordered or unallocated requirements are reduced. When the job is pick released, material requirements are not created for the quantity that is no longer required.
You can manually issue material to a job. If the job is not pick released, then the manual material issue reduces the open requirements (and the allocation quantity) when the job is pick released. If the job was pick released, then a manual material issue posts to the job in addition to the allocated or backordered quantity.
A manual material issue does not reduce the backordered quantity until the job is pick released again. This means that if a material issue is made for a backordered component, if the job is not pick released again, additional material may be crossdocked to the job. However, if the job is pick released again, the backordered quantity is reset. If you use both manual material issues and crossdocking ensure material is not over-issued to a job.
You can also use a manual material issue to issue material to a job when the supply type is push but the bill of materials contains a supply subinventory / locator.
You can unload an LPN at any time. Unload reverses the load transaction and returns the task to a status of pending. If you cancel the job (or sales order) that created the task, then the task and allocation are cancelled as well.
If you loaded a complete LPN then you must unload the entire LPN. If you picked the items from loose material, then return loose material to the original locator. Please refer toCommon Problems.
There are several limitations to the unload process. A loaded LPN can contain several tasks, and you must unload each task individually. If you scan an LPN instead of selecting it from the list of values, the system assumes you mean to unload the first task associated with that LPN in the list-of-values. In addition, you cannot unload a loaded LPN that contains loose tasks unless you first unload the loose (or partial LPN) tasks.
If you cannot allocate the material at pick release, the system backorders it. Backordered material requirements for jobs are similar to backordered material for sales orders. You can re-release backorders, or use opportunistic crossdocking to fill the demand. If you do not enable crossdocking, you can only fill backordered requirements by re-releasing the job.
The component Pick Release window queries jobs with at least one open (unallocated) material requirement. It displays only open material requirements so a job with multiple requirements displays the necessary requirements. If the system backordered one of the required components at pick release, you receive a message when you select the Release button.
Warehouse management does not support backordering component requirements for flow manufacturing. The component requirements for a flow schedule are allocated in total. If material is not available for one or more of the operations, the entire schedule is not allocated and a message appears on the desktop window.
Warehouse management supports opportunistic crossdocking to jobs.If you enable crossdocking for an organization, then when you put away from purchase order receipts, the system checks for backorders first before trying to put away to inventory. If there are existing backorders for the component, then the system directs you to drop the material to the job for push requirements or to the supply subinventory for pull requirements.
Multiple job backorders are filled in sequence of the material requirement date. You can also backorder an item for both a job and for a sales order. An organization parameter controls the fulfillment order.
Warehouse management also supports paper assisted picking. Instead of the system dispatching you tasks on the mobile device based on task types, you can dispatch tasks to yourself based on the task identifier on the Move Order Pick Slip Report. You can print the report for all untransacted move orders for jobs, as well as for other additional criteria. You can print the move order pick slip report automatically as part of the pick release process.
Label printing is integrated with the business flows, so you can print defined labels automatically as part of any transaction. Use the System Rules Engine to determine the best label format of multiple different formats.
An additional label type, WIP Contents, can be printed automatically as part of the pick load or the pick drop process. This label includes details of the job or schedule, the LPN into which the material is packed, and attributes of the specific material requirement and operation for which the material has been picked.
In addition to the WIP Contents label, the LPN, LPN Contents, LPN Summary, and Material labels can be printed with these business flows.See: Label Printing Integration Kit .
You can update move orders allocated for job material requirements on the desktop Transact Move Orders window. You can change the quantity, allocated lots, allocated serials, or the destination subinventory. These changes are reflected in the task the system dispatches to you.
In addition to the allocations visible on the desktop, the tasks are also visible on the Control Board. You can re-prioritize and reassign tasks as appropriate. You can query tasks by job name or other criteria specific to discrete, flow, repetitive, or shop floor manufacturing.
When you press F2 tasks normally tasks return to the status of queued or pending; however, you can such a form function parameter so the tasks status remains dispatched even if the user logs out of the system. The next time the user logs in, the system dispatches these tasks before it sends other tasks to the user depending on the menu option, and the sign on details. To enable this feature, you must set a form function parameter.
You can set a form function parameter to control if dispatched tasks execute prior to queued and pending tasks. When you set the parameter to Yes, then the user must complete the dispatched tasks first. If you set the parameter to No, then the system dispatches dispatched tasks with queued and pending tasks.
You must make several decisions when implementing Picking for Manufacturing that impact functionality.
An organization may not want to create tasks for individual pull requirements if it is easier to use a different method to replenish material. For example, if you define inexpensive fasteners as an assembly pull requirement, then min-max replenishment of the supply subinventory is likely the more appropriate way to manage the pull material. However, an organization may want to create tasks for the pull material if the business processes requires this control.
The parameter “Release Backflush Components” controls if pull requirements are included in the pick release process. This flag is located on the WIP Parameters window and is organization specific. If pull components are not included in pick release, then they do not appear on the Pick Release window and no tasks will be created for them. Those components will be pulled from the supply subinventory at operation move or assembly completion. Note that this pull happens unchanged by component pick release. The system considers a job completely allocated, if all the push requirements are allocated, regardless of the status of the pull requirements. These jobs are no longer available on the pick release window.
After performing a task to drop a pull material requirement to the supply subinventory, the material is backflushed automatically into the job as part of the operation move or assembly completion. However, the system loses visibility to which lots or serials were transferred for that particular job. Rather than pulling lots allocated by the Rules Engine, the system pulls lots based on the “Lot Selection Method” indicated in the WIP Parameters window.
You cannot pull serial controlled items from all of the mobile completion pages. The LPN based completion pages, the flow completion page, and the work orderless completion page support pulling serialized components. These pages require you to enter the serials to pull. However, the mobile operation Move and the mobile Non-LPN Based Discrete Job Completion window do not support entering serial numbers. Any requirements you must pull from transactions entered on these pages cannot be serial controlled. Warehouse management supports entry of serial numbers for backflushed components on the applicable desktop window. Lot based jobs do not provide mobile support for any transactions beyond those provided to perform component picking.
Because the job has no visibility to particular lots or serials allocated for pull requirements, if you must use specific allocation logic to allocate lots or serials setup the material requirement as a push requirement. Otherwise, with manual selection of the lots and serials for pull, it is possible that two jobs could stage different lots or serials of the same item to the same supply locator, and then each job may receive lots and serials that had been staged for the other job. However, this may not pose a problem if it does not matter which lot or serial goes into each job.
The supply subinventory must be setup in a particular fashion for it to function properly.
As Oracle Work in Process only supports pulling loose (unpacked) material, the supply subinventory must not be LPN-controlled. All LPNs moved (or dropped from a task) into a non-LPN controlled subinventory are unpacked. The empty LPN is updated to the context 'Defined but not Used' so it becomes available for other processes in the warehouse.
The supply subinventory must also be non-reservable. This prevents picking of dropped and staged material from the supply subinventory for open requirements for other jobs or for sales order lines. When the system pick releases the job, the allocated material for the move order is no longer available for other transactions. However, once you drop the material, the allocation is transacted and there is no longer any connection between the dropped material and the job. In an ordinary subinventory, this material is available. The system can only avoid allocating other requirements from the supply subinventory if it is non-reservable.
These first two requirements are enforced during pick release. That is, if any of the supply subinventories for an operation pull or assembly pull component are reservable or LPN-controlled, the system halts pick release for the entire batch. The system makes this check prior to committing any allocations. After correcting the erroneous subinventory settings, you can use the same query criteria to build the batch. For the purposes of this validation, push components for which a supply subinventory / locator has been populated are treated identical to pull components.
The supply subinventory must be locator controlled. You can set the locator control to either dynamic entry or prespecified. However prespecified is easier to control and maintain for a supply subinventory.
Do not set capacity for the locators defined for the supply subinventory unless modeling capacity is critical. The bill of materials determines the supply subinventory / locator. The Rules Engine will not override it; it can only validate it. Therefore, if the supply locator is full, then no pull move orders with that supply locator are created. A null capacity value on the Stock Locator window indicates infinite capacity.
You can use any of the object the Rules Engine provides to build allocation rules. These objects include the following: lot number, the WIP bill of materials, and the bill of materials routing. Some of these objects may not be applicable for all jobs. For example, a rule that uses the objects WIP Operations, BOM Operations, or BOM Routing applies only to jobs with routings. Rules that include the object WIP Repetitive Schedule are only applicable for repetitive manufacturing..
If no specific logic is necessary for allocating move orders for sales orders or jobs, the quickest implementation would be to define a single rule, perhaps with sort criteria to ensure stock rotation, and to assign the rule as the default pick rule in the Organization Parameters window. However, complex allocation logic can be modeled with the objects. Refer to the Rules Engine chapter of this guide for additional assistance in defining rules.
Along with picking rules, a dummy rule that validates the supply subinventory must exist. Each material requirement creates a move order. The source and destination of a move order that resides inventory goes through the Rules Engine. Even though the supply subinventory and locator on the bill determine a pull move order destination, the Rules Engine must validate the destination to ensure the material status and locator capacity are honored. Therefore, unless there are specific requirements for why pull move orders should not be created, the put away rules setup must have the supply subinventory as a valid destination. This is similar to the requirement for sales orders that the staging lanes be valid destination locators.
You must also perform task setup. This enables you to assign tasks with particular attributes to different task types. Only operators with the appropriate qualifications, or signed on with the required equipment, can perform the tasks. This setup is identical to that performed for outbound sales order tasks.
Setup steps include the following:
Defining equipment items
Defining resources
Defining departments,
Defining task types
Assigning employees to resources,
Defining task type assignment rules.
Set up User Task Type Attributes
You can use job related attributes to define task type rules. For example, you can assign task types so only certain operators may pick components required for operations in a manufacturing department. See: Overview of System Task Management for more information.
Manufacturing picking supports the same pick methodologies supported for sales order picking.
A delivery grouping rule is used to stamp a carton grouping ID on the lines for both cluster picking and cartonization at sales order pick release. The system uses this rule to indicate which lines you can pack together, and includes criteria like Customer and Ship Method. However, the criteria are not relevant for manufacturing. All tasks for a single job or schedule are considered in the same group and eligible to be packed together (for cartonization) or picked as a single cluster (for cluster picking).
An organization may wish to control cartonization for sales order picking independently of cartonization for manufacturing picking. There are two flags on the organization parameters window to configure this functionality. You can perform cartonization for tasks coming from only one of those sources, both, or none.
Task dispatching uses pick slip grouping rules to queue all tasks with the same pick slip number to a single operator when the first task in that group is accepted. Some criteria on a pick slip grouping rule are applicable only for sales orders, other criteria are applicable only for manufacturing, and yet other grouping criteria are applicable for both manufacturing and sales orders. Only those criteria that are applicable for the mode in which the rule is used are honored by the system; other criteria that are not applicable are ignored. For instance, if a particular grouping rule indicates the sales order number is one of many grouping criteria, and that rule is used for manufacturing pick release, than the sales order grouping criteria is ignored, while any other criteria potentially applicable to manufacturing is honored.
Crossdocked material is put away to the supply subinventory for pull requirements, but push material is crossdocked directly to the job. However, Oracle Purchasing requires a delivery be posted to a subinventory; a job is not a valid destination. Therefore, push material is received to a subinventory and locator, and then immediately issued to the job. This receipt and issue is invisible to the end-user; it appears as a single put away transaction to the job. A close examination of the transaction history shows the two transactions.
The Organization Parameters window provides the ability for the implementation team to determine what subinventory / locator these crossdock receipt and issue transactions post to. They need not necessarily be a subinventory or locator set up particularly for this purpose, but the subinventory must be LPN controlled and must not have any material statuses assigned to it that would disallow purchase order receipt or issue to WIP transactions.
The following section contains the most common causes of the problems, and some basic debugging scripts.
If the job is not available in the Pick Release window, there are several potential causes.
Verify the job status is either Released or Completed. If the job status is something else, it does not appear in the list of values.
If the job status is Released or Completed, and is in the list-of-values on the Component Pick Release window, open requirements for the job may not exist. Recall pull components are included only if indicated on the WIP Parameters window, and that Bulk, Phantom, and Supplier supply types are not included in component pick release. If applicable, check the autocharge flag. Discrete job and repetitive requirements with this flag disabled are not included in pick release.
For push and pull material requirements, view the job details to verify if any of the components were issued to the job. For discrete jobs, this information is available from the Components window. For lot-based jobs, the applicable window is Define Lot Based Jobs. Check for any material allocations on the Transact Move Order window. If the sum of the allocated material and the issued material is equal to the material requirement, then the requirement is not available on the component Pick Release window. If all the component requirements for a job are allocated or issued, then the job is not displayed on the Component Pick Release window, even though the job number is displayed in the list-of-values.
You can also check for open material requirements from the tables if the WIP_ENTITY_ID of the job in question is available. The following query shows all material requirements for a given WIP_ENTITY_ID:
select item.concatenated_segments as item,
operation_seq_num,
meaning as supply_type,
required_quantity as reqt,
quantity_issued as issued,
nvl(quantity_allocated,0) as alloc,
quantity_backordered as backorder,
required_quantity
-nvl(quantity_allocated,0)
-quantity_issued
as remaining_to_allocate
from wip_requirement_operations wro,
mtl_system_items_kfv item, mfg_lookups
where wip_entity_id = &wip_entity_id
and item.inventory_item_id = wro.inventory_item_id
and item.organization_id = wro.organization_id
and mfg_lookups.lookup_type = 'WIP_SUPPLY'
and wro.wip_supply_type = mfg_lookups.lookup_code
Search for any record for the job where REMAINING_TO_ALLOCATE is greater than zero. If no records are present, then the job is not available to pick release because all requirements were issued or allocated. This script is also useful to view allocated and backordered job requirements.
Prior to allocating any material, the system verifies that all the supply subinventories are non-reservable and not LPN-controlled.
By performing these verifications you avoid potential problems further along in the supply chain. Verify the supply subinventories included in the release meet the requirements.
If the system did not allocate all of the requirements, you receive a warning in the component Pick Release window. If you query the Pick Release window with the same criteria, you can view the backordered requirements.
Backorders generally occur when the Rules Engine does not find enough material available to allocate to a job. The debugging steps are similar to the debugging steps required for sales order pick release. Verify that enough material is on-hand, and that material is available for allocation. The available quantity is visible on the desktop Material Workbench or on the mobile Item Inquiry window. Verify the available material is not restricted by any picking rules, and that it resides in a reservable subinventory.
Check the material statuses of the subinventories and locators where the material is located, and if applicable, the material statuses of the available lots and serials. Any material that has a material status that disallows the transaction types WIP Component Issue or Backflush Transfer is ignored for push requirements or pull requirements.
In the case of pull materials, verify the material to allocate does not reside in the supply locator. If you create move orders for pull requirements, then the material must be available for allocation in a subinventory other than the supply subinventory. This is for two reasons: the supply subinventory is non-reservable, and also the Rules Engine cannot create a move order where the source and destination locator are the same.
Pull components are dropped to the supply subinventory. The Rules Engine validates the supply subinventory, for material status and capacity restrictions. If the material status of the supply subinventory or locator disallows Backflush Transfers, you cannot create pull move orders to this subinventory or locator.
If the supply locator has capacity restrictions, verify the capacity is not exceeded. It is suggested that you do not assign capacities to locators in a supply subinventory.
Finally, the destination locator (supply subinventory) must be a valid location for put away of the move order. Verify the setup of the put away rules allows put away to the supply subinventory.
There are two main reasons you receive an error message when you drop a task to a job for a push requirement.
You cannot post material issues to a job that has a status other than Released or Completed. If the job was pick released, and then changed to a status other than Cancelled, then tasks for push material requirements error on the drop. If allocations (and tasks) need to be cancelled for a job, cancel the job before changing to the desired status. The only job status that impacts move orders and tasks after creation is Job Cancellation.
If you create a task and the supply type of the material requirement is push, but the supply type on the bill of materials is changed to pull, then the task errors on the pick drop. This prevents material from being doubly issued for a job. Two corrective actions can be made. You can revert supply type to push temporarily to allow the task drop to complete, and then make corrections which include a material return and changing the supply type back to pull. You can also cancel the job and unload the task. This cancels the task. You can then change the job status back to Released and pick release the job again.
The last field on the pick load page is the LPN to which the task is loaded. You cannot load tasks with different manufacturing modes or for different document types to the same LPN. For example, you cannot load a sales order task and a discrete job component to the same LPN, nor could you load a discrete job component and an Oracle Shop Floor Management component to the same LPN.
The unload option enables you to reverse a pick load. This is useful if you start a task but cannot complete it by the end of the shift. You must also unload a task if you loaded it for a push requirement and the job was cancelled before the LPN was dropped.
The LPN list-of-values in the current tasks page contains an entry for each time you select Load for a task. This means if you load a full LPN that partially fulfills a single task, and load the remaining quantity loose into the same LPN, there are two lines in the current tasks list-of-values, even though you loaded one LPN. If you load additional to the same LPN, each Load adds one more entry to the current tasks list-of-values.
Entering an LPN to drop from the current tasks page drops all lines loaded to the LPN; this is the most common flow through the page. When you unload you must select an individual line. You have loaded the LPN may from multiple locators and only part of the process may need to be reversed. The LPN information may not be enough to determine which line to unload.
If you enter only an LPN to unload (rather than selecting a detail line from the list-of-values), the system selects the first line to unload. It directs you to drop the material exactly as it was picked.
This means that an LPN that was fully consumed or loaded intact for a task cannot be unloaded before any other tasks which were subsequently loaded to the same LPN are first unloaded. In the example above any additional tasks must be unloaded before the first pick load that loaded the full LPN can be unloaded.
You can print the WIP Contents, LPN, LPN Contents, LPN Summary, or Material labels at either pick load or pick drop. Two business flows, WIP Pick Load and WIP Pick Drop, are available so the WIP Contents label can be printed for manufacturing picking tasks, but not for sales order picking tasks. If you do not print labels for manufacturing picking tasks, ensure the label types are assigned to the WIP Pick Load or WIP Pick Drop business flows. Labels for manufacturing picking tasks are not printed for the business flows Pick Load and Pick Drop.
Must a Warehouse Management enabled organization use picking for Manufacturing?
Picking for manufacturing is an optional feature. The WIP picking report that lists material requirements can be used in concert with the mobile or desktop manual material issue forms to continue with a fully manual process. However, in order to use the Rules Engine, tasks dispatching, and other warehouse management features, you will need to migrate to the component picking process. This migration can be done at any point.
It is suggested that if this functionality is not going to be used for an organization, then the component Pick Release forms be removed from the menu to avoid mistakenly pick releasing a job.
Is any of this functionality provided without Warehouse Management?
Some of the functionality provided with Picking for Manufacturing is also available for an Inventory organization that is not WMS enabled. Material requirements are pick released in the same fashion. Instead of creating tasks that are dispatched to qualified mobile users, the system creates move orders that are available on the desktop Transact Move Orders window and on a new Mobile page (for Mobile Supply Chain Applications). The functionality here is very similar to allocating and transacting move orders for sales orders.
Many of the advanced functionality relies on features available only with Oracle WMS, such as opportunistic crossdocking, rules based allocation, exception handling, and task management.
Which job statuses are transactable?
A transactable job is a job to which charges, such as resource usage and material issues, can be posted. Jobs in either a status of Released or Completed (not Completed – No Charges) are transactable. Only transactable jobs can be pick released, and material issue transactions can only be posted to transactable jobs.
Is allocated material available for other transactions?
Allocated material is not available for other transactions. It is not allocated to other material requirements, nor can it be issued or transferred. However, after a pull task is transacted the material it transferred is no longer allocated. The only way to ensure the material staged in the supply subinventory is not available for other transactions is to make the supply subinventory non-reservable.
How are non-reservable items handled?
Non-reservable items are allocated in the same way as any other item. The pick release process creates an allocation for the item. No reservations are necessary to allocate this material.
How are by-products handled?
The pick release process ignores by-products. By-products are indicated by negative requirements on the bill of materials. The functionality surrounding by-products is not changed by the Picking for Manufacturing features.
Are non-standard jobs supported?
Non-standard jobs are fully supported with Picking for Manufacturing.
Must jobs have routings?
A job does not need a routing to be pick released. A routing provides additional detail on the requirement, including the department and operation sequence. This additional information is provided to the operator on the mobile pages when material is being dropped to a job. This information would not be available if the job does not have a routing.
In addition, several of the Rules Engine objects are related to the routing on the job, and no allocations would be made by a rule that uses a routing-related object for a job without a routing. However, other than these two limitations, jobs without routings behave identically to jobs with routings within the scope of Picking for Manufacturing functionality.
How do the autocharge and countpoint flags impact pick release?
If the autocharge flag, located on the bill of materials, is disabled for the material requirement, then the material requirement does not appear on the Component Pick Release window for discrete and repetitive manufacturing, and no move order is created. Flow and lot-based jobs still include these items for allocation.
Other then the impact of Autocharge to Component Pick Release, the behavior of countpoint and autocharge within pick release is not modified with this functionality.
What happens if the material pull occurs before the task is completed?
There is no restriction preventing the assembly completion or operation move from occurring before the task is dropped; the completion and move have no direct visibility to the status of the task that replenishes the supply subinventory.
Therefore, the pull is still attempted. If the organization allows negative balances, or inventory exists in the locator, the pull is successful. If the locator does not contain any of the required material and the organization does not allow negative balances, the pull fails and the operation move or assembly completion does not complete.
How does the system know which material should be pulled?
The system selects pulls material from the supply subinventory / locator indicated in the bill of materials.
If the material is revision controlled, the revision located on the bill of materials will be pulled. Note also that only the revision located on the bill of materials will be allocated as that revision is placed on the move order before the Rules Engine allocates the move order.
If the material is lot controlled, the lots are pulled into the job in the sequence determined by the Lot Selection Method on the WIP Parameters window. Note that because this selection method has only three options (receipt date, expiration date, and manual entry), it cannot capture the same decision criteria that the Rules Engine used to allocate particular lots. Therefore, if any of the automatic lot selection methods are used, lots that were allocated for a different job but are staged at the same locator could potentially be pulled into a job. It is suggested that manual selection be chosen as the lot selection method so that the operator can pull the appropriate lots into the job.
If the material is serial controlled, backflush transactions are only supported on the desktop. You must indicate which serials in the supply subinventory should be pulled into the job. Operation move and assembly completions are not supported on the mobile device if some of the material that will be pulled is serial controlled.
Are manual material issues supported?
Manual material issues are supported. As component pick release is optional, if component pick release is not used then manual material issues is used to issue material to a job.
Even if an organization is using pick release, manual material issues are still supported, but care must be taken to ensure that material is not doubly issued to a job. Manual material issues can be used to issue material above and beyond the requirements to the job, of items that may not even be on the bill of materials. In addition, manual material issues of materials that are on the bill of materials that are performed before the job is pick released will reduce the requirements of that component for pick release.
However, manual material issues that are performed after the job is pick released will be added to the any components that have already been allocated or that have been backordered. To restate, backordered requirements will not be decreased based on material issues.
Note that manual material issues are a necessary part of the process flow when the supply type of a material requirement is push and a supply subinventory has been entered in the bill of materials, as the task will have been created to transfer the inventory to the supply subinventory and the material will not be pulled into the job.
How are material returns supported?
Manual material returns are supported. You can use a material return if the system issues excess material to a job, or if you need to return defective components to inventory.
A material return does not increase the quantity on the job to pick release. Specifically, if material is returned from a job, and then the job is pick released again, the quantity returned will not be considered as a material requirement. If additional material is required, a manual material issue must be performed.
Which revision of a revision-controlled item is allocated?
The currently effective revision of a component is allocated for the move order. The revision is not stored on the bill of materials, but the bill always displays the current revision of the component, and the Rules Engine does not override this restriction.
Is yield taken into account in the material requirements?
Yield is taken into account when calculating the material requirements. The quantity that you see in the form View Material Requirements is used as the quantity the Rules Engine attempts to allocate.
Is overpicking supported?
Overpicking is supported for WIP tasks. You can overpick tasks on the mobile device. The system would allow to overpick provided the additional material is available within the given LPN, Subinventory , locator and allocated Lot, whichever is applicable.
What happens when a task is underpicked?
Underpicked tasks backorder the missing requirements, so that they are available for re-release at a future time, or may be crossdocked to, if enabled. In addition, you must enter an exception reason at the time of underpicking. This exception reason is recorded in the task history and can be viewed from the Warehouse Control Board. The exception reason can also trigger a user-defined workflow, which might e-mail the material manager, request a cycle count, or perhaps even place the job on hold.
Will the task be split based on equipment capacity?
The task could potentially be split into multiple smaller tasks if the equipment required by the task cannot handle the weight and/or volume of the task.
Will the tasks be merged based on picking methodology?
Manufacturing picking supports bulk picking. Tasks that meet the bulk picking criteria, which includes same source subinventory / locator and item / revision will be merged into a larger consolidated task. You are directed to drop off the material from the larger task to the specific jobs or supply subinventories that require it.
What types of exceptions are allowed for tasks?
The same exception handling supported for sales order tasks are also supported for Picking for Manufacturing tasks. You can override the subinventory and locator from which the material was allocated. For pull tasks, you can override the drop subinventory and locator.
Ordinarily, the suggested drop locator is the supply subinventory / locator specified on the bill of materials. This is the subinventory / locator for which the material is pulled at the operation move or assembly completion. Overriding the drop locator does not update the supply locator on the bill of materials. Material is pulled from a different locator than where the material was staged, unless the bill of materials is manually updated.
Can the task be transacted on the desktop?
You cannot transact tasks on the desktop Transact Move Order window. You can only transact tasks on the mobile device. Only manual move orders can be transacted on the desktop. You can update allocations for any move order on the desktop Transact Move Order window.
Can tasks be prioritized?
Warehouse management supports manual task prioritization via the Warehouse Control Board. You can assign priorities to tasks, and tasks to users from the task control board. Higher priority tasks are dispatched to qualified users before lower priority tasks. Queued tasks are always dispatched before pending tasks.
What types of changed management are supported?
Once the job has been pick released, several attributes about the job can be changed. If the job has been cancelled, the move orders are deleted if possible. If the job quantity is increased, then re-releasing the job allocates the additional requirements. If the job quantity is decreased backordered (or un-allocated) requirements is reduced appropriately.
If the job is changed to a non-transactable status other than Cancelled after pick release, then tasks for push material fail when you attempt to drop them. You can unload the tasks, but the only way to cancel the allocations and tasks is to change the job status to Cancelled.
If the supply type of the material requirement is changed from push to pull on the bill of materials, then the task cannot be dropped. If the supply type has been changed from pull to push, then the task is dropped to the supply subinventory and a manual issue is required to issue the material to the job.
If the supply subinventory on the job has been changed after pick release, the move order does not recognize the new supply subinventory. However, the job pulls the material at operation move or assembly completion from the new supply subinventory.
For discrete jobs, a copy of the bill (and routing) is made when the job is created. When the bill is changed after the job has been created and pick released, the system considers the lot-based job to have changed. However, the discrete job is only changed when the copies have been changed; changing the bill for the assembly (rather than for the copy) has no effect on the job.
Do all tasks need to be loaded to an LPN?
If the LPN has been picked for a pull requirement, it will be dropped to a non-LPN controlled subinventory and thus unpacked as part of the transaction. If the LPN is picked for a push requirement, the material is emptied from the LPN and issued to the job. In both cases, the LPN is empty after the transaction is complete and thus is available for reuse. The subinventory and locator on the LPN will be blank, and the LPN will be given the context “Defined but not Used”.
What happens to the LPN when it is dropped?
If the LPN has been picked for a pull requirement, it is dropped to the supply subinventory. The supply subinventory should be non-LPN controlled. The task drop unpacks the LPN, and the LPN is left empty in the supply subinventory. You cannot pack material in to the LPN while it resides in the supply subinventory. You can reuse the empty LPN at a later point if you move it out of the non-LPN controlled subinventory.
If the LPN is picked for a push requirement, the material is emptied from the LPN and issued to the job and the LPN itself will get a context indicating that it can be reused: Defined but not used. The subinventory and locator on the LPN are null, so that the subinventory can be reused for any transaction, including another Picking for Manufacturing task.
What kind or receipts support crossdocking?
Put away from both standard routing and inspection routing purchase order receipts can be used for opportunistic crossdocking. In addition, completions for the LPN-based completion window, which support discrete and flow manufacturing, first check for crossdock opportunities before being directed to inventory. Direct purchase order receipts, as well as miscellaneous receipts do not check for crossdocking opportunities.