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Product operation routings

Optimize production with routings, managing parallel and consecutive operations.

Michael De Giovanni avatar
Written by Michael De Giovanni
Updated over a week ago

Katana supports structured routing of production operations, allowing for the organization of tasks either consecutively or in parallel. This guide explores how to set operation sequences and group operations for simultaneous execution, providing flexibility in production planning.

To maintain efficiency, product operations may need to be routed in a specific manufacturing order.

Operations can maintain dependency in several ways:

  • Some operations can only be started once a different one is finished

  • Some operations can be done in parallel β€” 2 operations done simultaneously

  • A mix of of both consecutive and parallel operations

Understanding operation routings

Operations can use a dedicated sequence number so that they are all consecutive to each other.

Operations can be grouped together so that operations in a single group are considered as parallel operations and have the same sequence number.

  • Read more about Manufacturing operation routings

  • Read more about operations sequence in the Shop Floor App

Changing an operation sequence

You can change the operation sequence for each Item by navigating to Items screen > opening an Item card > and navigating to the Production operations tab.

Here you will find the Operations are in sequence switch.

Once Operations are in sequence is turned on, the operations table will display a Step # column to show the order of operations on your MO and Shop floor app.

Shows the Step # column on production operations

Reordering sequence operations

Drag and drop operations inside the Operation steps table to rearrange.

  • Dropping an operation between two numbered operation rows will place it between those 2 operations.

GIF showing the reordering of Operation steps
  • When dropping the operation on top of another operation, the two operations will form a group and are set as parallel operations to each other

Manufacturing time

If Operations are in sequence is enabled, the Operation steps table will display two different times for producing the product (note: this will not show if the product has more than 1 variant).

  • Production time is the time it takes for the product operations to be completed. If there are parallel operations, the time here is the longest operation of the group

  • Total time for cost calculation is the total time for resources used. This time is used for cost calculation.

Shows the production time and total time breakdown of operation steps

Example

Below you'll see a simple table that was produced using a combination of parallel and consecutive operations. An inspection step is in the middle of the process forcing the shop floor team to ensure the semi finished product quality.

Shows consecutive and parallel operations in the Operation steps table

Diagram of operations:

Diagram of operation steps
  • The workflow starts with parallel steps of cutting the table legs and table top simultaneously while using different workstations

  • Before the final assembly can start, an inspection step is added to verify quality

  • Once all of the pieces are verified, the table can be fully assembled


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