Where I work, we use MPS/MRP to generate requirements for both factory
production orders and purchase orders. MPS/MRP can also be used in
conjunction with DRP to generate inter-facility resupply orders, and in
conjunction with CAP Capacity Planning. We have extensively modified the
production order paperwork so that the factory workers get a package of
how-to step by step make our product, provide supervisors with work load
management guindance, then streamline reporting of what they did, so as to
insure speedy updates for inventory accuracy.
There is an MRP report listing items that need shop orders. We modified
this to show which of those items already have an order in production,
because sometimes it is more effieient to increase quantity of an existing
shop order, than to add a new one. We also modified it to show for what
customer parts were being made, because final part production in the
factory is laid out by customer the parts are going to, so it can be
productive to release shop orders in batches by customer area.
Yhis report is currently underutilized because of efforts to reduce
corporate paper consumption. I am thinking that if that data was presented
in an Excel format, our production control dept would be better
served. They would have the data they need to act on, without being
harrassed because of the volumes of paper consumed.
BPCS has something called a Dispatch Report, which tells supervisors of
each point in the factory, details of the work flowing through there. We
modified this report to group parts by similarity of setup, to help reduce
overall setup time in our operations.
If someone sees something on the paperwork that seems to be in error, we
have a process for getting it figured out and corrected. Quality Control
compares final product to blue print supplied by end customer, and we have
special testing equipment to check out the electrical conductivity of the
entire product that we make. So we have high degree of assurance that the
engineering is correct for the making of out products.
Perhaps it would be educational for you to locate another company in your
geography or industry which is using BPCS, and perhaps get some kind of
tour or visitation of how they are doing, and what's important to their
success.
BPCS shines at production scheduling. It is one of its reasons for
existence and why thousands of manufacturers worldwide are very successful
using it. But for it to work effectively, it relies on relevant data base
accuracy, and personnel using it properly, which in turn requires a modicum
of ERP education for the work force.
See if you have access to menu DOC, or go into PDM, then select file
BPCSDOC in library *LIBL and position the list to member names starting
SSARUN to see documentation on individual application areas of BPCS. Pay
close attention to the Prerequisites ... where for one application to work
well, some other application ought to have been setup first.
In today's work place, people are using software tools that they're
comfortable with, familiar with, have access to. It does not matter
whether those tools are not the best available for the task at hand. It
does our careers no good to make disparaging remarks about software tools
that are loved by co-workers and managers. I am not a great fan of Excel,
but my co-workers and managers are my customers, so I try to deliver data
to them in the formats they dictate as their preferences.
I have designed several "reports" that are more characters wide (e.g. 300)
than will fit on any of our printers, because one or more of my "customers"
needs to see the "report" in Excel format.
If we have 2 companies competing in some market.
One has a great tool like BPCS, but is using it poorly or incompetently,
because no one there has a clear idea how to work it..
Other has a tool that is not good at ERP, like Excel, but everyone is great
at using the tool.
The second company will win out in competition, because success comes from
what the people know, are able to work as a team, get the job done.
There's also what the work force was accustomed to using before some new
software came along to the company. People want to see the new software
delivering the old reports that they were familiar with using.
The most popular report where I work is something that we call THE SCHEDULE
or sometimes THE PRODUCTION SCHEDULE. There is a summary form of it with
total work to be done by customer, where the quantities have been
multiplied by the dollar value that management calls THE SALES FORECAST
because if we are able to stay on schedule, this reflects our coming cash flow.
I have got a bunch of variants of this report setup to run at like 4 am
every morning, in the names of various co-workers, then be sitting on their
printers when morning crew shows up. GO CMDSCDE is where I set that
up. Thus each morning they are acting on the latest BPCS data. When
decisions are made, based on the data in the reports, the consequences are
keyed into BPCS.
This is a green bar report where I wrote the software to extract the data
from BPCS, and it is very similar in appearance to an earlier report that
the company used before we went on BPCS. Some other company might use same
kind of info in Excel format, or whatever floats their boat. In fact, one
of my co-workers is experimenting right now with an Excel version of the
report.
For BPCS to do its job properly, there has to be total corporate people
cooperation with MRP II, because significant bad data anywhere in the
manufacturing cycle can mess you up badly.
You need accuracy in the high 90% all over the place.
The parts, to be manufactured, have to be described correctly in the
engineering files ... BOM, manufacturing steps, lead times, type of
product. Engineering changes handled in a coherent structured way.
Customer Orders need to be promptly entered, with realisitc delivery dates.
If you, like us, have customers expecting very short lead times, and
vendors that can't deliver as fast, then you have to have a system of
economical minimum balances.
Use systems for validating inventory accuracy evey step of the process.
I believe ISO can play a key role in keeping your data accurate. Not
everyone shares my opinion.
If many people in the company are doing their jobs using data extracted
from BPCS into an Excel ... is that data dynamic important to running the
business, data that changes rapidly? Are decisions to run the business
being made based on dated info copied to an Excel? The manner in which the
data flows into the Excel ... do you get a report of BPCS data, then feed
that report into the Excel, or is the Excel linked to the BPCS data such
that every time they open the Spread Sheet, it is getting the latest
story? Is the Excel then, just another way of displaying data like GUI,
green bar report, on screen inquiry?
In any ERP there is a humongous mass fo data that we want to digest,
interpret, act on. Many of the reports that come with BPCS can be
unsatisfactory for that purpose, so any manufacturer needs to create their
own reports. Presenting the data in Excel is one of many inexpensive
options. Did you know you can put formulas in the Cells to color code
extreme conditions, to help things stand out in Excel format, that might be
less obvious in traditional formats?
Al Macintyre
BPCS/400 data janitor
We use BPCS 405 CD to make electrical products for OEM customers
Hello All,
We manufactor ATV's and I was wondering was any one using BPCS for
Production Scheduling and can you give me an idea of how to use it or the
menus to research for Production Scheduling. I am new to BPCS but I assume
it has all the ability already packaged up to meet our needs. For some
reason our users have a bad habit of always wanting to extract data out of
BPCS and manually do things in Spreadsheets, etc. Currently they go
through some crazy process within excel sheets to come up with the daily
production plan. At one time the company bought the APS Software thinking
they could use that but I think they came to the conclusion it wouldn't
work well with manufactoring Production Scheduling. I assume that most of
the ability resides within BPCS so I am trying to get the company to start
using more of the power of BPCS instead of always extracting data out of
BPCS and doing the processes manually. We use MPS/MRP to generate Purchase
Orders but this question is Production
Scheduling for the ATV units.
So any information about Production Scheduling with BPCS will be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks
____________________________________________________________________________________
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