Create work centers
Work centers are where the production work takes place. A work center can contain a certain machine or a group of similar machines. For example, the packing department has five identical packing machines.
For each work center, you'll create a work center card. The work center card contains all fields that define a work center.
The following demonstration reviews the Assembly department work center:
Select the Search for Page icon in the upper-right corner of the page, enter work centers, and then select the related link.
Select the No. field of the Assembly department work center.
On the General FastTab, you'll find the following relevant fields:
No. and Name - Where to assign a unique identifier for the work center and a description.
Work Center Group Code - A mandatory field that specifies the work center group that the work center belongs to.
Alternate Work Center - Where you'll enter a work center to use if the current work center isn't available. This entry is for information purposes only and isn't automatically processed.
On the Posting FastTab, you'll enter the work center's unit cost at one unit of measure. You can define the unit of measure in the Unit of Measure Code field on the Scheduling FastTab. For example, if the unit cost of the Assembly work center is 1.20 LCY, and the Unit of Measure Code field is set to MINUTES, then the work center cost will be 1.20 LCY for each minute. Specifically, if the Assembly work center needs 10 minutes to finish the assembly of one coffee machine, then 12 LCY of assembly costs is included in the total cost of the coffee machine.
You can enter the total cost manually in the Unit Cost field or have it calculated automatically by entering the direct unit cost, indirect cost percent, and overhead rate. You can also use the Indirect Cost % and Overhead Rate fields for costs that you can't directly assign to a unit, such as maintenance costs of the work center.
Other important fields on the Posting FastTab are:
Unit Cost Calculation - Specifies whether to calculate unit costs based on one of the following two options:
Time - Bases the calculation on the time that's used.
Units - Bases the calculation on the number of units that are produced.
Specific Unit Cost - Specifies where you can define the unit costs. If you select this field, you can define the unit costs in the Unit Cost Per field on each routing line. If you clear this field, costs are based on the work center's Unit Cost field.
Subcontractor No. - Specifies the vendor number of a subcontractor that supplies the work center. You'd use this field to administer external work centers that process work under contract.
Flushing Method - Specifies the method that's used to calculate the output quantity for production order operations at the work center. The three options are as follows:
Manual - Post the output manually by using the output journal.
Forward - Have the program automatically calculate and post the output when you change the status of a simulated, planned, or firm planned production order to Released. The program uses the quantity on the production order line as the output quantity. You can still post output manually by using the output journal if necessary.
Backward - Have the program automatically calculate and post the output when you change the status of a released production order to Finished. The program uses the quantity on the production order line as the output quantity. You can still post output manually by using the output journal if necessary.
The setting that you make in the Flushing Method field is copied to the Flushing Method field on the production order routing line according to the machine/work center of the master routing. However, you can change the field for an individual production order to allow for a different output (or consumption) posting of that order.
- Gen. Prod. Posting Group - Specifies the work center's general product posting group. Combined with the general business posting group, the general product posting group specifies the general ledger accounts for costing purposes.
On the Scheduling FastTab, you can enable the following fields:
Unit of Measure Code - Specifies the time unit in which the work center's cost calculation and capacity planning are made. For example, if you specify minutes in this field, the program will calculate all capacity planning and costing values for the work center in minutes. This selection also applies to any machine centers that are assigned to the work center.
Capacity - Specifies the capacity of the work center. Generally, the capacity is how much work that a work center can finish in a specified time. The capacity of a work center refers to how many machines or people work in the work center at the same time. If you enter 2 in this field, the work center can finish double the work in the same time. In other words, if a work center's availability is eight hours, and you specify a capacity of two, then the total availability is 16 hours. The program uses this field when you run the Calculate Work Center Calendar batch job to calculate the capacity calendar.
Efficiency - The efficiency rate is a percentage of the work center capacity. The efficiency measures the output of a work center in relation to the expected standard output. Therefore, it indicates the degree of use of the work center.
For example, a work center's capacity is eight hours. Because of daily maintenance on the machines in that work center, you've specified an efficiency of 90 percent. Therefore, the net capacity for the work center is 7.2 hours.
The program uses this field when you run the Calculate Work Center Calendar batch job to calculate the effective capacity in the capacity calendar.
Consolidated Calendar - With the Consolidated Calendar field enabled, the work center has no capacity of its own. Instead, its capacity is equal to the sum of the capacities of all machine centers that are assigned to the work center.
For example, if you select this field, and the work center has two machine centers assigned to it, each with a capacity of eight hours, then the work center's capacity will be 16 hours. If you don't select this field, the work center's capacity is based on values that are specified on the work center card.
You'll use this field when structuring your routings to schedule production operations at the machine center level. When you consolidate the calendar, the Work Center Load page and reports become an overview of the aggregate load in all machine centers that are assigned to the work center.
Shop Calendar Code - Specifies the shop calendar on which to base the capacity calendar for the work center. You can use this field to calculate the available time for the work center.
Queue Time - The queue time indicates the expected time that a part must wait at a work center before processing starts.
For example, if a part arrives at a work center at 10:00:00 AM, but processing doesn't start until 12:00:00 PM, then the queue time is two hours. Alternatively, the queue time represents the time between when the previous routing operation is finished and when the routing operation at the work center starts.
The queue time always refers to the time unit of measure that you enter in the Queue Time Unit of Meas. Code field.
The value of the Queue Time field on a machine or work center, plus the sum of the values in the Setup Time, Run Time, Wait Time, and Move Time fields on the item routing line, combine to represent the production lead time of the item.
Queue Time Unit of Meas. Code - Specifies the queue time unit of measure code.
For example, if you select minutes in this field, then entering 40 in the Queue Time field means that a 40-minute wait is established.
On the Warehouse FastTab, you can enter the location to indicate where the work center operates. If a production order at the same location uses the work center, then warehouse activities that are related to consumption and output are defined by the work center setup. The location code that's defined in this field also applies to any underlying machine centers.
You can only assign locations with Directed Put-away and Pick enabled to a work center. Basically, in these locations, you'll first need to pick components before you can consume them. Then, when the production is finished, you'll need to put away the produced items. For that reason, you'll need to specify on the Warehouse FastTab the bins that you want to use for these processes.