Re: Production Process Change -- BPCS-L

We operate with shop orders using a mixture of JIT & SFC in BPCS 405 CD mixed 
mode with some modifications & it is a constant struggle.  We have invested 
in teaching people how to work the system, but there is periodic turn-over & 
details falling out of our brains & documentation that no one reads.

We had not considered the notion of producing items without using shop orders.
I would be interested in seeing where this theory of yours leads, in terms of 
what is doable & what the trade offs are.

MRP250 generates a list of what requirements there are for the shop floor.
We have modified the MRP252 report to make it more readable & to provide such 
information as the production control personnel need to decide what items 
should be released (translation - do not have to do any inquiry to get at 
facts not in evidence - put them on the one report).

MRP540 is used in conjunction with MRP252 report for the actual releasing of 
shop orders.  The sequence (logical file) has been modified to make the data 
more user-friendly (translation - do not waste our people time).

99% of our labor transactions are reported via JIT600 which is SFC600 under 
the covers.  We have added a query/400 over FLT file WORK member in which 
user selects facility (from shop order) & employee first digit (I 
transactions do not have facility) to see an edit proof listing of what they 
keyed in which is much more readable than 610 to the clerical staff, to check 
if there are any keying errors easily fixed.

Let us suppose we had a team of 10 employees working together to produce a 
part which has 25 sub-components.  We very heavily use what we call Merry go 
Rounds ... this is a collection of panels on a conveyer belt operating in a 
loop moving very slowly - one person does a standard taks on a panel when it 
comes to them - first person in the loop starts the part - last person in the 
loop does the last action & takes it off the panel.

Using JIT600, we can enter the TEAM NUMBER, shop order & operation & quantity 
made & other information
 ... the team number is like a special employee clock number in the CEM file
and whatever quantity was produced.
... using team number takes you to a special TEAM SCREEN
where you key in a chart the ACTUAL employee clock numbers & any variations 
by individual hours ... normally for us it is just a list of clock #s in that 
team & they all did 4 hours each, because we do not bother to track 
subtracting out their potty breaks etc.

The quantity made / scrapped input translates to a bunch of inventory 
transactions AUTOMATICALLY ... we entered only the one labor ticket, but BPCS 
updates the part being made with whatever was made, and also BACK FLUSHES out 
all the raw materials & sub-assemblies that must have been consumed to make 
that part, based on BOM needs, as can be modified in shop order as needed.

We do NOT have to enter transactions to do the individual materials consumed.

I am in the process of modifying JIT600 right now to reduce the amount of 
keying needed to get the job done.  Basically user keys which transaction 
type R M S D I then F17 (which we added) & it gives them screen in which all 
the fields that are not relevant to THAT transaction type are blocked from 
cursor (PR protected) and also invisible on screen (ND no display).

This means I have had to stick my nose into some of the RPG logic & I am 
seeing stuff that normally end users are not exposed to.

It seems to me that when someone keys in item # on JIT600 screen, the program 
looks for a shop order that exists on that item/facility combination, then 
applies the posting to that shop order, so that while the screen might appear 
to someone who has not read the documentation that you have the CHOICE of 
doing shop order or item, it looks to me like you do have to have shop orders 
in the system for this to work.

I suggest that Rick locate the on-line documentation (BPCSDOC file) for JIT 
(SSARUN prefix) then teach Ernie how to use the search engine (SEU FIND) to 
locate explanations specific to the functions he is interested in.

> From: RickCarter@holley.com

>  BPCS Version 6.1.01  AS400   Mixmod
>  
>  My Material Mgr would like to know if he can......
>  What I'm looking for is to PRODUCE a quantity of an item, KEY one
>  transaction, and have BPCS Backflush both material and labor (actual)
>  without having to open and close a shop order.  JIT lets you post
>  production either by ITEM or by SHOP ORDER where 
> SFC requires SHOP ORDER only.
>  
>  It would be nice to find someone I can talk to who is actually using JIT on
>  our version of BPCS.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
AS/400 Data Manager & Programmer for BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 mixed mode (twinax 
interactive & batch) @ http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies - fax # 812-424-6838

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