Re: Tracking WIP

>From Al Macintyre 405 CD mixed mode

Happy T-day

Thanks Marc - There's some really neat ideas here which are applicable to 
more than just WIP, such as populating customer # through BOM children 
through non-common, and a concept unique to our industry known as "Master 
References."

After testing some ideas on a small scale on a particular customer model 
line, we are in the habit of automating the "populating" of fields for the 
rest of our data base using programs with names like MRP80W or INV80S - all 
items whose item type / class / planner combination is relevant to some 
scheme, plug in some value in a particular field.

We are make-to-order wiring harnesses with heavy use of commons across our 
total product line, irrespective of final customer.  Sub-assemblies close to 
final production are item numbered such that it is pretty obvious to anyone 
who understands our customer number systems what "belongs" to what customer, 
but we do have growth in business & personnel & a periodic need to 
"inventory" what data is due to which customers, so that we can evaluate 
efficiencies of safety stock & higher volumes through work centers that have 
heavy setup overhead on WIP that have heavy setup or frequent customer date 
adjustments & quantity changes but a low rate of engineering changes.  

There's also ways of viewing a wiring harness in which we have had discussion 
of which types of sub-assemblies we would like to "seed" some code into so 
that we could have very specialized BOM reports that chart all what goes into 
individual wires from an inspection points perspective.

>From here there are TWO big questions for me.

1. Where is it documented what inventory of fields, by version #, SSA has set 
aside in perpetuity for their software customers to use for concepts like 
this? 
I suspect David Slicker's BPCS Reference Manual, except it is for V6, might 
be the best place to start.

2. Which of these fields show up on existing *100 maintenance programs & *300 
inquiry programs or can easily be added by modification?  

This also raises another interesting notion.

Programs/36 had ceilings on what could be jammed onto 1 busy screen - related 
to the need for a blank space between fields (not run together) which 
contained controls relating to the nature of the fields, and also on total 
numbers of fields & there was a practical 2K ceiling from a performance 
perspective.

I see the need here to 
1- check out equivalent rules on OS/400
2- locate some tool that would study DDS source & render a story in simple 
report format so friendly it is shareable with end users who might want stuff 
added to some inquiries & other interactive screens - it would identify which 
screens have how much growth space & the sizes of contiguous spaces available 
to stick in more fields & some warning if they cannot all be used due to 
proximity to other ceiling rules.

Then users armed with this picture on *300 etc. in applications they use all 
the time, and the David Slicker or whatever identification of fields it is 
safe to muck with, have a shopping list for modifications doability with a 
minimum of research.

We over-used the concept of embedding strings in standard description fields 
on BPCS/36 & have been trying to shy away from that now ... it is useful to 
remember that some fields often get truncated on reports & screens, so that 
the LAST few positions become very invisible in ordinary usage, when it comes 
to assigning sub-strings functionality - do they need to be in plain sight 
for everyone or do we want to stick them on ends of fields in a particular 
fixed location from perspective of screen of *100 maintenance and easily 
stated SUB STRING in various languages like a corporate data base of 
exceptions to external object layouts.

Al Macintyre

> Subj:  RE: Year End Advice & tracking WIP
>  Date:    99-11-05 10:08:40 EST
>  From:    LACELLE@rcmint.ca (Lacelle, Marc)
>  
>  Hi Ho.
>   
>   Your WIP problem is easily solved. 
>   We have many ways to track our WIP.
>       1. Group Tech Code1, this field is in your item master.
>  Populate that field with the word WIP for all of your WIP item numbers. You
>  need to populate the Group Tech codes found in SYS105 (Act = 8, Table = GR,
>  this will bring you to GROUPTEC, enter a 9 beside GROUPTEC and populate.
>  
>       2. Your Item number description. We use the first two
>  characters to identify a product grouping. Example: PM Capsule Top (PM =
>  Packaging Material). We have about 40 different ones. It's easy to query on
>  these fields.
>  
>       3. In your item master (INV100 or API100) your will find
>  what they call SIRF codes. There are 5 of them, and you can find them on 
the
>  second screen of you Item Master. These fields are for your use in
>  identifying in detail an item number. You can "RENAME" the SIRF codes in
>  SAL820D (system parms SYS800). The SIRF codes tables are found in SYS105.
>  Populate them there. Again these fields are easy to query on.
>  
>   These are only a few ways to info for reporting. There must be over
>  40 ways to extract the info your looking for. 
>   
>   PS: No fowl language please. 
>  
>     Marc Lacelle
>   Royal Canadian Mint
>  > ----------
>  > From:  ScotConslt@aol.com[SMTP:ScotConslt@aol.com]
>  > Sent:  Wednesday, November 03, 1999 11:47 PM
>  > 
>  > Hello all,
>  > 
>  > I am working with a client who just went live on BPCS V6.0.04 in June.   
 
>  > 
>  > They are having problems reconciling WIP at the end of the month.  
>  > Before going live, they did not do a physical inventory so they 
understand
>  > that "some" (probably all) of their inventory balances are screwed.  
>  >  Any quick ways to track WIP 
>  > at the end of the month and tie back to shop orders?
>  > 
>  > TIA
>  > 
>  > Jeff
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