In Katana, prioritizing manufacturing orders (MOs) is essential for efficient production scheduling and material allocation. Adjusting the priority of an MO impacts ingredient availability, production deadlines, and task management.
How to adjust MO priority
To change the priority of an MO:
Navigate to the Make screen and select the Schedule tab.
Locate the MO you wish to prioritize.
Click and drag the MO to the desired position in the list.
The topmost MO has the highest priority. Adjusting the order will automatically recalculate ingredient reservations and production deadlines.
Importance of MO priority
Ingredient availability
Higher-priority MOs reserve required materials and subassemblies first. Materials are not directly linked to any MO or Sales Order (SO) but are always reserved based on order priority.
Even if you have the required ingredient in your inventory, the Ingredients availability for a lower-ranked MO may still show Not available if a higher-priority MO or SO has already reserved the same ingredient. Reprioritizing orders can change the Ingredients availability status.
Example:
You have three MOs, each requiring 4 pcs of "Material X".
Inventory shows 5 pcs In stock and 4 pcs Expected.
The highest-ranking MO shows In stock availability.
The second MO shows Expected availability, as the first MO has already reserved most of the in-stock material.
The third MO shows Not available, as the combined in-stock and expected quantities are insufficient after reservations by higher-priority MOs.
Changing the priority order can alter the Ingredients availability status for each MO.
Production deadlines
If you have enabled automatic calculation of Production deadlines, the deadlines are calculated based on the production time of MOs and your average weekly throughput, considering the order priority.
The Production time for a product can be set in Production operations on the product card.
Task management
The production team can organize their tasks according to MO priority. If you manage production tasks at a detailed level, you can define Production Operations for each product and assign each step to a specific Resource and Operator.
Use the Shop Floor App and the Tasks tab in the Make screen to manage a detailed task list for Resources and Operators. The production operations in the Tasks tab are ordered in the same priority as the connected MOs in the Schedule tab.
Effects of reprioritizing MOs
Ingredients availability status is automatically recalculated based on the new priority.
If you change the position of a Make-to-Order (MTO) MO, the priority of the linked SO will also be updated in the Sell screen.
The production operations in the Tasks tab and tasks in the Shop Floor App are reprioritized based on the new order of MOs.
By effectively managing the priority of MOs, you ensure optimal allocation of materials, adherence to production schedules, and efficient task management within your manufacturing processes.
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