Understanding Shortage Information

Shortages occur when you do not have enough of the required materials to complete the quantity of the parent item requested on a work order. When you review the availability of items and compare it to a bill of material or a work order, the system indicates items that are short by displaying a negative available quantity.

You track shortage information for parts with these characteristics:

• Purchased parts that you obtain from a single source

• Purchased parts that are difficult to obtain

• Parts that have a long lead time

• Parts that, if absent, stop the production line

• Parts that are expensive to purchase or manufacture

• Parts that must be closely monitored

• Parts that are produced at critical work centers

You can change component shortage information by item, work order, branch/plant, work order type, or any combination of these by using the Shortage Workbench program (P3118). You can also review and revise information that indicates how the system fills shortages.

You can locate and review shortage information for an item that is associated with one or more work orders. Use this program to determine the amount of a shortage and how the shortage will be filled. You can locate item shortages by using these criteria:

• Branch/plant and item number

• Branch/plant, item number, order number, and order type

• Order number and order type

• Order type

You can print a report that lists all shortages or only the component shortages for a specific work order. The system retrieves the shortage information for these reports from the Shortage Maintenance Master File table (F3118).