Re: Prebuild Inventory in BPCS

Choices include:

. Your scheme, sounds like DRP to me

. Safety Stock

. FOR / MRP100 / ORD-Coded

. How we sometimes do parts needing repair-or version conversion

Each method has advantages and disadvantages to be weighed.



This installment explains the 4th option on my above list.



If you were to view a list of items we make for any given customer, you
would notice cases where we have some item 1234567 etc. with high volume
activity, and then that item with some letter on the end, and lower volume
of activity.



Letter on end:

. S = Sample . when starting some new model, engineering change
version, etc. we first send the customer a small quantity of the new
version, for their quality control to sign off on perfection, before we make
thousands that way.

. P = Pilot . sometimes the customer is re-engineering some part
using us for beta testing . we make the same product more than one way, with
more than one alternative components, then the customer compares the
different pilot runs, and they decide which they prefer, based on costs and
other factors, before we make thousands that way.

. R - Repair . unfortunately, sometimes something passes inspection,
which should have been caught, then later we have a batch to be repaired,
where the BOM and routings for the repair will be similar to, but not
exactly same as the regular correct part.

. C = Conversion . sometimes when a customer sends thru an
engineering change, they have stock on an old engineering version, which
they want us to replace with the latest version, and sometimes doing this
with a repair process is cheaper than redoing from scratch.

. R and C processes are virtually identical. Difference is that we
pay for repair, while customer pays for conversion.

. Similarly S and P are very similar. P is paid for by customer. S
can go either way, depending on our arrangements with their engineering and
quality control processes.



In BPCS, the item with the letter on the end, may have same engineering as
the parent item, in case of Sample or Pilot. While Repair or Conversion the
1234567C or 1234567R is typically started with it needing quantity 1 of
1234567 in its BOM, then the copy gets some engineering adjustments. I
think this latter may make sense for your pre-build.



We have a unique item class for each of these letters on the end, such as SA
for Samples.



Reason for this is if you list everything in a BPCS category, you can get
500 pages.

We have reports listing ONLY what someone needs to see, where one basis of
their need is the item class coding.



If you went with this approach, the pre-build inventory would end up on-hand
in BPCS with right item# but code letter on end, that you use for that
purpose. Demand for that inventory could be generated via safety stock,
MRP100, bogus orders, DRP, whatever floats your boat.



When the time comes for the pre-build inventory to actually be used, you
would have something added to the ITE transaction effects, unique to the
process of subtracting some quantity of 1234567-pre-build, and adding same
quantity to 1234567 - at the same time you would need to update whatever
system you used to generate the demand for that pre-build inventory.



The item creation last step from 1234567 to 1234567-pre-build, might use the
same ITE transaction effect = replace item# of item - some name which is not
going to confuse people.







Alister William Macintyre (Al Mac)

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