Re: Engineering Changes & Revisions (was MDM02 menu) -- BPCS-L

From Al Macintyre BPCS 405 CD mix AS/400 V4R3

Here is how we handle engineering change document control, which I think 
should work the same way on all versions of BPCS.

1. We recognize that BPCS can only properly handle one version of an item at 
a time, so if we have a customer that needs us to work on more than one 
version of an item at same time, we have to deal with this either by using 
method codes, or by using a different item number.  For repairs we sometimes 
copy the item with an R appended, then adjust the R for what needs to be 
handled differently than making the item from scratch.

We modified the shop order production labor ticket printing so that revision 
level at the time of printing is included, as insurance against more than one 
version being in production at the same time, which can overlap when a 
customer implements a change.

2. We recognize that people using the various inquiry screens need to rapidly 
see what revision level of an item they are referencing, so we reviewed all 
the reference fields on the top of inquiries like INV300 BOM300 SFC300 SFC350 
etc. to find one that we at Central are not using for the standard BPCS 
purposes ... ie. not using at all so it is blank on those screens, that can 
be adopted to fill in revision #, and what literal is associated with that, 
so that we can change that literal to Rev or EC or whatever, so that it shows 
up properly identified on all BPCS inquiry screens & reports without 
requiring a formal modification, other than the literal.

This does not touch the DDS, so IBM tools like DFU Query RPG SQL etc. have 
the earlier naming.

3. We recognize that people looking down the Bill Structure connecting items 
to items will need to know something about the document history on both the 
parent part and the linked parts, so we have created Engineering Changes as a 
phantom part to insert into our BOM.  They do absolutely nothing within BPCS 
processing.  They are there purely from perspective of visibility to users 
that these Engineering Drawing Changes impact these items.  EC's use the item 
class EC & their item # starts with the characters EC then a unique # 
assigned by our engineering department.

4. The really critical thing for a company is a change control information 
flow document, in which various different departments sign off on approval of 
a change & confirm that their department has done everything that needs to be 
done.  This can include work done inside BPCS, inside our drawing software, 
and in other areas.

Our document goes through periodic evolution & review.  If you have not had 
one in the past, it might help you in crafting yours to look at what other 
companies have created.  We have relevant personnel in different cities who 
need to participate in this process, so a key element is how you get the 
drawings to people, and how you share the latest story on what is holding up 
the parade & how long the latest participant has had the work, so we do not 
blame someone when the hold up was before if got to them.  

There's been a lot of benefits provided in network document sharing, so that 
you are not reduced to coping with quality print issues off fax machine, or 
snail mail delays inter-office, but whatever system works well for you in 
having many people able to access your drawing software, there will always be 
customers & vendors using a different drawing software package than you, so 
you need to be able to get your drawings into a form that can go by e-mail to 
them or come from them & be imported into your drawing software, and not all 
customers & vendors will use the same standards there either.  This topic is 
not BPCS, but overall drawing management.

Something that has been rising in importance for us is the notion that we 
have raw materials stock piled so that we can deliver requests by customers 
in which their lead times are 2 weeks, but our raw material lead times are 2 
months.  Now if an engineering change means that we now have some excess raw 
materials with no other usages, we need to seek compensation from the 
customer responsible for that engineering change ASAP, unless the vendor can 
take it back.

5. A related topic is when we have a new customer part, or a revised customer 
part & the customer has not yet approved our samples of the design, but as 
soon as they do, we want as short a time period as practical between 
acceptance and our ability to deliver the goods in volume.  This means that 
we need to be ordering the raw materials before the samples are approved, but 
because the sample approval process is also a re-design process with the 
customer reacting to our suggestions about how their part could be engineered 
better, more economically, etc. we do not yet know if the latest samples will 
be how the part will end up being made.

How we deal with this is to enter the BOM ASAP & enter the customer's 
forecast against that end item, but we do not add the routings & we do not 
release shop orders, but we do run it through MRP, so that purchasing knows 
what will be needed.  Since we use MRP to launch shop orders, this can cause 
accidental release of shop orders on the items which do not yet have sample 
approval & also do not have any routings.  This is an area we are still 
experimenting with to seek an ideal solution.

6. Something that BPCS does poorly, or not at all, is to support delivery of 
latest drawings to personnel who need to associate current production with 
inspection points & what exactly is the latest drawing, or provide a net 
change picture of what was impacted in the change from one version to next.  
This means that we have gotten creative in our use of notes & additional 
description in the routings, and new reports that go down the BOM to build 
correlated stories.  But if you are interested in what is possible, that BPCS 
is missing, for integrating re-design engineering with modern factory 
operations, you might check out

http://www.pdmic.com/IPDMUG/IPDMUGfaq.html

This is why I think the logical approach is to get the best of breed ERP or 
BPCS to handle what ERP does best, and to get a good package of drawing 
software, then link the two using optical indexing software ... so that you 
release a shop order ... it could include the latest relevant drawings, or 
someone uses SFC300 to view info on that shop order & they have a new command 
to get at the drawing unless they are on green screen.

Linking actual drawing images with the ERP references to the drawing numbers 
for any AS/400 user is doable for under twenty thousand dollars in current 
IBM state-of-art of optical indexing, if I remember correctly ... if that 
notion interests you at all, check out IBM.COM main site links to optical 
storage.  I saw an IBM demo in which even green screen users can see the 
directory of documents containing drawings that need a GUI screen to view, 
then click on what interests them to attach to e-mail.

I hope my answers get you to where you want to go.

>  From:    hason@pbsvb.cz (Otto Hason)
>  v.6.0.04 mix, AS400
>  
>  Hi all,
>  there is a need in our company to document and control drawing and 
> engineering changes.
>  I hope it is solved by MDM02 menu - i.e. BOM100d1, BOM110d1 ...
>  I have no idea about steps we have to do - in right order - helps dont 
help 
> much as well as SSARUN02.
>  Could anybody help me?
>  
>  TIA  
>   oTTo

Al Macintyre  ���
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor

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