Production Plan
A Production Plan facilitates production and material planning for the Items slated for manufacturing. These production items can be committed via Sales Orders (for Customers) or Material Requests (internally).
The Production Plan aids users in scheduling production for multiple Sales Orders or Material Requests. Additionally, it assists in planning material procurement for raw material items, taking into account the quantity of finished products to be manufactured.
To access the Production Plan list, go to:
> Home > Manufacturing > Production > Production Plan
1. Prerequisites
Before creating and using a Production Plan, it is advised that you create the following first:
2. How to Create a Production Plan
As mentioned earlier, a Production Plan can be used for planning the manufacture of Items against Sales Orders or Material Requests.
The common steps are:
- Go to the Production Plan list, click on New.
- Select whether to get items from a Sales Order or a Material Request.
A Production Plan can also be created manually where you can select the Items to manufacture.
2.1 Production Against Sales Orders
- Choose “Sales Order” from the ‘Get Items From’ drop-down list. The system will display filters, allowing you to retrieve Sales Orders relevant to production. If you have only a few Sales Orders within a specific time frame, you may not need to utilize all of these filters.
- Click on “Get Sales Orders” to retrieve Sales Orders based on the specified filters.
- Click on “Get Items for Work Order” to extract items from the aforementioned Sales Orders. Only items with associated Bill of Materials (BOM) will be retrieved.
- Expanding a row in the “Items to Manufacture” table reveals an option to ‘Include Exploded Items’. Selecting this option includes raw materials of sub-assembly items in the production process.
- If “Consolidate Items” is selected and saved, items with identical BOMs are merged into a single item with the aggregated total planned quantity.
2.2 Production Against Material Requests
- Choose “Material Request” from the drop-down list labeled “Get Items From”. The system will display filters, which can be utilized to retrieve Material Requests for production purposes.
- Click on “Get Material Requests” to acquire material requests based on the specified filters.
- Select “Get Items for Work Order” to retrieve the items from the aforementioned material requests.
2.3 Fetching Sub Assembly Items
Clicking on ‘Get Sub Assembly Items’ will fetch Sub Assembly Items from the BOM of the Finished Good Items.
2.3.1 Sub Assembly Items
Users will have the option to generate In-House (Work Order), Sub-contract Purchase Order, or Material Request for Purchase for Sub-assembly items based on the Manufacturing Type.
If users wish to create a Material Request for both their Sub-assembly items and their Final Raw Materials, they should select the Manufacturing Type as “Material Request” for Sub-assembly items. Then, they need to click on the “Get Raw Materials for Purchase” button to retrieve Sub-assembly items in the Material Request Plan Item table.
2.3.2 Combining Sub Assembly Items
When there are Finished Goods that utilize the same Sub-Assembly Item, these Sub-Assembly Items can be consolidated. The criteria for consolidation include having identical Item, Warehouse, Bill of Materials (BOM), and Manufacturing Type.
By employing this method, a unified Work Order can be generated to efficiently produce Sub-Assemblies for multiple Finished Goods simultaneously.
2.3.3 Skip Available Sub Assembly Items
If the Sub-Assembly Items are present in stock or will become available in the future via open Purchase Orders or Work Orders, and you prefer not to manufacture them, you can activate the “Skip Available Sub-Assembly Items” checkbox. Enabling this option ensures that raw materials required for manufacturing sub-assembly items are not included in material requests.
2.4 Planning for Material Requests
Clicking the ‘Get Raw Materials for Purchase’ button will populate the Material Request Plan table with the required raw material Items. For instance, if you need to manufacture 200 plastic canes but only have 20 raw plastic Nos in your Warehouse, clicking this button will add a row indicating 80 in the Required Quantity column.
Utilize the following checkboxes for specific actions:
- Include Non-Stock Items: Incorporates non-stock items in the material request planning, such as items for which the ‘Maintain Stock’ checkbox is unticked. Refer to the Item page for further details.
- Include Subcontracted Items: Adds raw materials of subcontracted items if the ‘Include Exploded Items’ option is disabled.
- Ignore Existing Projected Quantity: If enabled, the system will generate the Material Request even if the user has already ordered or requested the respective items. For example, if you require 100 units of raw material A and already possess 150 units, enabling this checkbox will generate a request for an additional 100 units of that raw material.
- For Warehouse: Users can designate the Warehouse for which they wish to create the material request. During the production process, the system will search for raw material stock in this Warehouse when generating Stock Entries.
2.4.1 Download Material Request Plan
When the “Download Material Request Plan” button is clicked, the User will receive an Excel sheet containing the required raw materials for completing this Production Plan. Users can choose the Warehouse to review the available quantity in the respective Warehouse. Upon clicking “Download Material Request Plan,” a popup will appear allowing users to select warehouses. If users wish to run the plan for multiple warehouses, they can select those warehouses in the popup to download the plan in Excel sheet format.
2.5 After Submitting
Once the Production Plan is submitted, the User gets an option to make Work Orders for the production items and Material Requests for the raw materials. Users can also set the Status as Closed in the Production Plan.
2.5.1 Closing a Production Plan
There may be situations where a Production Plan is partially executed and needs to be terminated. This could arise for various reasons, such as:
- Independent production of one of the items outside the scope of the Production Plan.
- Changes in plans resulting in the cancellation of pending items.
In such scenarios, Users have the option to set the status of the Production Plan to “Closed,” preventing the creation of new Work Orders or Material Requests associated with it.
Similarly, the Production Plan can also be “Re-opened” if necessary.
2.6 Making work order for the sub-assembly items
Users will have the option to generate Work Orders, Sub-contract Purchase Orders, or Material Requests for Purchase against the Sub-assembly items using the Manufacturing Type.
If users intend to create Work Orders for sub-assembly items, they should select the Manufacturing Type as “In House” and proceed to submit it. After submission, they need to click on the “Create -> Work Order / Subcontract PO” button.