To maintain efficiency, product operations might need to be routed in a specific order in manufacturing.
Operations can maintain dependency from each other in several ways.
Some operations can only be done only — an operation needs to be finished in order to start the next
Some operations can be done parallel to others — 2 operations are done simultaneously
There can be a mix of consecutive and parallel operations
Understanding operation routings
Operations can have 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.
Changing the 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 the Operations are in sequence option is turned on, the operations table will display step numbers to identify the order operations active on your MO and Shop floor app.
Reordering sequence operations
Drag and drop operations in the operations table to your preferred order.
When dropping an operation between two separately numbered operation rows, the operation is set as consecutive to the previous operation.
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 the Operations are in sequence option is enabled, the operations table will display two different times for producing the product.
Production time is the amount of time the product operations need to be completed. In the case of 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.
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.
The workflow starts with parallel steps of cutting the table legs and table top simultaneously 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