Introduction
Welcome to a comprehensive guide on Empress’s Capacity Planning feature. This tool can be a game-changer for your business. It enables you to monitor and manage the production jobs allocated to each workstation, ensuring your resources are used efficiently and your operations run smoothly.
Getting Started: Adding Operations
To begin, you’ll need to add operations to your system. This can be done by following these steps:
- Navigate to the Manufacturing section in your Empress account.
- Select Bill of Materials.
- Click on Operations.
In this section, you can add all the operations your business performs.
Setting Up Workstations
Next, let’s set up the workstations where these operations take place:
- Go to Manufacturing.
- Choose Bill of Materials.
- Select Workstation.
In the Workstation master, you can define the operations performed at each workstation, along with the associated costs and the working hours for the workstation.
Understanding the Bill of Materials (BOM)
The Bill of Materials (BOM) is a crucial element of your capacity planning. It not only lists the raw materials needed for production, but also outlines the operations and workstations that process these materials.
Introducing the Production Order
After finalizing your BOM, you can create a Production Order. When you submit a Production Order, a Timesheet for Operations is generated. This timesheet allows you to allocate production jobs to each workstation and update the actual time taken for each operation.
Troubleshooting: Solving an Error Message on Production Order Submission
Occasionally, you might encounter an error message when submitting a Production Order. Usually, this happens if the working hours in the Workstation master have not been updated.
To resolve this, ensure that your working hours information is up-to-date. When you submit a Production Order, the operations (as added in the BOM) are allocated to the workstation. Each operation should start and end on the same day.
If an operation cannot be scheduled within a day, the system will suggest dividing the project into smaller operations that can be completed within a single day. If you’ve updated the working hours but still see the error message, it’s likely that one of your operations is too lengthy. In such cases, divide the operation into smaller tasks for easier allocation and completion.
In conclusion, Empress’s Capacity Planning feature is a powerful tool that enhances your business processes by ensuring effective and efficient use of resources. By mastering this feature, you can streamline your production, minimize errors, and keep your operations running smoothly. For additional assistance, refer to our non-technical resources or contact our support team.