Skip to main content

Looking to understand how the release of materials on a production order relates with the production ticket.

 

We are looking to use the production ticket as a picklist in our manufacturing facility, but the production ticket is driven from the Production Detail. The Production Detail only shows locations for items ordered through Critical Materials or items that have been manually allocated in Production Detail. We can have up to 60 line items on a Production Detail so manually allocating each item is not an efficient use of time. Additionally, most of our items are purchased through MRP, not Critical Materials. Is there anyway to automate inventory allocations to a production order?

 

When releasing materials for a production order, the system will select a location by default but you can manually change the locations prior to release. In my mind, it makes sense to have a printable version of the material release which can then be provided to the warehouse staff for picking purposes (since it includes the actual location being depleted from Acumatica inventory).

 

Currently the production ticket generates a pick list from the production detail that doesn’t include inventory locations. In this scenario, how would the warehouse staff know which location to pick from?

 

Am I missing something here? Are the individuals picking and releasing typically the same? What is best practice as it relates to picking items for production and releasing the materials in Acumatica?

 

  1. Should we be releasing material in Acumatica and then generating the production ticket for picking purposes?
    • How do we ensure the location in the material release matches the actual location picked? Without locations on the production ticket, how does a new warehouse staff know where to find the items?
    • My only thought here is that the material is released and then production ticket is generated and printed. The individual releasing material marks down the locations on the production ticket and provides to the warehouse staff assigned with picking for production. This seems backwards since the locations are already present on the material release so it appears redundant to indicate it again.
  2. Should we be generating the production ticket, collecting the items and then releasing the material?
    • Once again we seem to be in a situation where we are generating a picklist without locations on it. Is this common practice? 
  3. Any other options?

 

Thanks,

 

Jack

 

Good question Jack, a lot of people in manufacturing work in different ways, so there are a few ways we have dealt with this. The easiest way is to build a sub report on the Pick Ticket that pulls in the locations available for that production order. 

There is another option to move all material to a single location, and a single step (PRODUCTION LOCATION- STEP 05 RELEASE MATERIALS). This works in some cases, because you are essentially building a staging area and releasing the materials at the very beginning. This helps with discrepancies, as well as making sure that you have the production materials available for that order. This works great in quick turn assemblies and production, but not as optimal on a longer lead time item where you are afraid of losing an item, or you are using the sequences to control what parts go where (for example: Bar Material on step 10, but bolts on operation 50 after Outside Process. You don’t want to track the bolts until the part comes back)

I am assuming you are backflushing your material? In this case, Acumatica will pick based upon the pick priority. In order to change the location, you will have to reverse the move, or turn off backflushing.

 

I hope this helps. 

 


Good question Jack, a lot of people in manufacturing work in different ways, so there are a few ways we have dealt with this. The easiest way is to build a sub report on the Pick Ticket that pulls in the locations available for that production order. 

There is another option to move all material to a single location, and a single step (PRODUCTION LOCATION- STEP 05 RELEASE MATERIALS). This works in some cases, because you are essentially building a staging area and releasing the materials at the very beginning. This helps with discrepancies, as well as making sure that you have the production materials available for that order. This works great in quick turn assemblies and production, but not as optimal on a longer lead time item where you are afraid of losing an item, or you are using the sequences to control what parts go where (for example: Bar Material on step 10, but bolts on operation 50 after Outside Process. You don’t want to track the bolts until the part comes back)

I am assuming you are backflushing your material? In this case, Acumatica will pick based upon the pick priority. In order to change the location, you will have to reverse the move, or turn off backflushing.

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Thanks Jeremy.

 

We are going ahead with the creation of this subreport. I’ve sent you a direct message looking for possible examples we could use to base our subreport off of. Anything you could provide would be appreciated.

 

Jack


Hi @jeremyd45 that was a great suggestion have you built the sub report ? is this something you can share? Thanks 


Even with the sub-report, I am still struggling to wrap my head around this:

  1. You generate a sub-report with locations available, does the sub-report also shows quantities per location, in case you need to go pick from 3 locations?
  2. The picker will go and physically pick from any of the locations populated in the sub-report.
  3. Do i still need to go into the system and allocate these quantities from the locations the picker chose to pick, one by one?

Scenario:

Sub-report shows:

  1. 15 units in location A
  2. 30 units in location B
  3. 15 units in location C

Picker physically grabs 30 from location B.

 

How does the system knows that it needs to allocate / release 30 pieces out of location B instead of 15 from A and 15 from B? Is this still a manual process in the production order detail screen or release materials (if you don’t backflush)?

 

 


@jeremyd45 @jwarren did you guys figure out how to add the locations to the sub report? Could you post a screen shot of your sub report schema? I’m trying to accomplish the same thing, however I don’t have default bins set for my items because we do not backflush. I’m trying to add inventory locations to the production ticket but so far have only been successful adding it IF there is a default location set.

Thanks! -Mary Elisa


Even with the sub-report, I am still struggling to wrap my head around this:

  1. You generate a sub-report with locations available, does the sub-report also shows quantities per location, in case you need to go pick from 3 locations?
  2. The picker will go and physically pick from any of the locations populated in the sub-report.
  3. Do i still need to go into the system and allocate these quantities from the locations the picker chose to pick, one by one?

Scenario:

Sub-report shows:

  1. 15 units in location A
  2. 30 units in location B
  3. 15 units in location C

Picker physically grabs 30 from location B.

 

How does the system knows that it needs to allocate / release 30 pieces out of location B instead of 15 from A and 15 from B? Is this still a manual process in the production order detail screen or release materials (if you don’t backflush)?

 

 

I also am looking for the answers to this question. It is really important that our inventory gets allocated and picked as First In First Out. The picker may go pick 30 from location B, but we should have asked them to pick 15 from A and 15 from B so inventory is moved correctly. 


Reply