Manufacturing · Setup & configuration · 7 min read

Routes and operations

Define the steps, work centres and minutes needed to make a product, and get the route approved.

Before you begin

• Work centres exist (see Work centres and calendars).
• You have manufacturing.route.edit. Another engineer holds manufacturing.bom.approve.
• Optional: standard operations in Manufacturing > Configuration > Operations and quality templates for checks.

Steps

Create the route

1. Go to Manufacturing > Configuration > Routes and click New Route.
2. Enter a Code (required, upper-cased, unique, for example RT-OT-1000).
3. Enter a Name and, if the route belongs to one product, the Product.
4. Save. The route opens with version 1 in Draft.

Add operations

On the draft version add one line per step and fill:

1. # the sequence number. New lines get 10, 20 and so on. Each must be positive and unique.
2. Operation, the name.
3. Work Center.
4. Setup min and Run min / unit. The minutes of a work order are (setup + run x quantity) divided by the work centre's efficiency.
5. Dependency: FS (finish to start, the default), SS, FF or SF.
6. After #: the sequence of the operation it depends on. Empty means the previous one.
7. Quality: a quality plan whose checks are raised on the work order at release.
8. Skill: a skill the assigned resource must hold, not expired, at release.
9. Instructions: shown on the Shop Floor.
10. Click Save version.

Approve and activate

1. Another engineer clicks Approve. Without operations: 'Add the operations before approving.'
2. Click Activate. The route is now live.
3. Attach it to the BOM through the BOM's Route field.

What happens next

• A new order takes the route from the BOM version, else the BOM, else the product's own route, and creates one work order per operation.
• Worked example: Cutting at CUT with setup 30 min and run 12 min per unit, and Assembly at ASM with run 18 min per unit. For 10 tables Cutting takes 30 + 120 = 150 minutes and Assembly 180 minutes. At 100 % efficiency that is 2.5 and 3.0 hours.
• Work order times are scheduled on the work centre calendars.

Changing a route

Use New version on an approved or active version, edit, approve and activate. Orders already released keep their snapshot. More has Archive route and Restore route.

Good to know

• The author cannot approve: 'The person who drew up a route version does not approve it - ask another engineer.'
• Two lines with the same sequence are refused: 'Each operation has its own positive sequence.'
• After # must point at another operation of the same route: 'An operation depends on another operation of this route.'
• A route chosen on an order must have an active version: 'That route has no active version.'
• The skill you type is saved as an employee resource with that skill. If a work order's resource lacks it, release is refused: '<resource> is not qualified for <operation>: <skill> missing or expired.'