Subassemblies are intermediate components used in product recipes, or bills of materials (BOM), to simplify complex manufacturing workflows. This helps streamline manufacturing processes, reduce errors, and maintain accurate records of material usage and costs, facilitating smoother operations and better resource management.
A subassembly is an item that is produced in your factory (or a contractor's factory), designed to be used in making a larger assembly or a final product.
In Katana, subassemblies are products, not materials. Each product can be a subassembly and also sold to customers simultaneously. There is no difference between products and subassemblies in Katana. Both are included in the Products table and the same characteristics (including a product recipe and production operations).
Including subassemblies in product recipes
In the Product recipe / BOM tab of a product card, you can select other products as ingredients. Include a product in the recipe of another product to create multi level product recipes (multi level bill-of-materials). You can also include this product in a recipe for the next product, and so on. There is no limit to the hierarchy levels.
Note: Katana does not block creating a recipe loop (i.e. including a product in the product recipe of its own subassembly). However, be aware of loops as the manufacturing cost can't be calculated.
Make products that include subassemblies
When you create a manufacturing order (MO) or an outsourced purchase order (OPO) for a product that includes a subassembly in the recipe, the subassembly is shown in the ingredients list similarly to any other materials. Katana will also show the material availability status for the subassembly.
If the material availability status for a subassembly is Not available, you need to create a MO or OPO for producing the subassembly. You can use the quick-add button at the end of the ingredient line item to quickly create the required MO for the subassembly.
If you create a MO for a product that includes at least one subassembly in the product recipe, you have the option to automatically create MOs for subassemblies.
If you create a MO for the subassembly, it will appear in the Schedule tab of the Make screen similar to any other MOs. You can manage the priority, production status, and ingredients availability for those orders.
Effect on sales items / ingredients availability
As subassemblies are products in Katana and could also be sold to customers, the same item could be required by a sales order (SO), MO or, OPO at the same time (e.g. you have a customer order for a product that is also used as a subassembly and required by existing MOs). SOs, MOs, and OPOs all take part in the sales items availability calculation for this product.
Click on the Sales items availability status (on SOs) or Ingredients availability status (on MOs or OPOs) to see the list of all orders that require a product. You can access the information by clicking in the Committed column of the item from the Inventory tab of the Stock screen.
Inventory list
If you create a MO or OPO for a product that includes subassemblies in the recipe, the Committed value for the subassembly will increase by the required amount. If the MO or OPO is completed, both Committed and In stock quantities for the subassembly product will decrease.
Cost calculations
In a product recipe, the unit cost of the subassembly is the average cost of this subassembly in stock. If In stock quantity is zero, thus there is no average cost, the manufacturing cost is used for the subassembly. Manufacturing cost is the sum of materials cost and production cost and is calculated based on the product recipe and production operations of the subassembly.
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