Introduction
The Production Plan is a powerful feature in Empress that facilitates efficient production and material planning for manufacturing items. These items can be allocated to fulfill either customer orders through Sales Orders or internal needs via Material Requests. This feature is crucial to streamline production, planning procurement of raw materials, and tracking manufacturing against multiple sales or material requests.
Remember, the Production Plan is your strategic tool to ensure that your business has the required quantity of finished products at the right time!
Accessing the Production Plan
To access the Production Plan list, navigate to:
Home > Manufacturing > Production > Production Plan
Before You Start: Prerequisites
Before you dive into creating a Production Plan, make sure you have the following:
- Item: This is the product you are aiming to manufacture or produce.
- Material Request: A request for the raw materials needed for manufacturing the item.
- Sales Order: The order placed by your customer for the item.
- Bill Of Materials (BOM): The list of raw materials, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture the item.
- Routing: The sequence of operations to be performed in the manufacturing process.
Creating a Production Plan
A Production Plan can be created against Sales Orders or Material Requests. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Against Sales Orders
- Select “Sales Order” in the ‘Get Items From’ menu.
- Use filters to select the Sales Orders you want to plan production for.
- Click ‘Get Items for Work Order’ to fetch the items from the selected Sales Orders.
- Use ‘Include Exploded Items’ to add the raw materials of sub-assembly items to the plan.
- Tick “Consolidate Items” to merge items with identical BOMs into a single entry in the plan.
2. Against Material Requests
- Choose “Material Request” from the ‘Get Items From’ menu.
- Select the Material Requests you want to plan production for.
- Fetch items for work orders from these requests.
3. Sub Assembly Items
- Fetch Sub Assembly Items from the BOM of Finished Goods.
- Combine Sub Assembly Items for common Work Orders.
- Skip available Sub Assembly Items using the respective checkbox if you already have them in stock.
4. Material Requests Planning
- Click ‘Get Raw Materials for Purchase’ for planning the procurement of required raw materials.
- Use checkboxes for specific actions like including non-stock items or ignoring existing projected quantity.
- Download the Material Request Plan as an Excel sheet for offline use or for sharing.
5. After Submission
- After you’ve submitted your Production Plan, create Work Orders for production items and Material Requests for raw materials.
- If necessary, you can close the Production Plan. You also have the option to reopen it later.
6. Work Orders for Sub-assembly Items
- Create Work Orders for Sub-assembly items based on their Manufacturing Type.
In Conclusion
The Production Plan feature is a vital part of Empress, designed to enhance your business processes, from production to procurement planning. It is your strategic tool to ensure timely production and delivery, helping you meet customer demands while efficiently managing resources. For further assistance, feel free to explore our non-technical resources or reach out to our support team.
Remember, efficient planning is the key to successful manufacturing and happy customers!