@Debbie Baldwin or anyone else familiar with this functionality in 2024R2. We were eagerly awaiting the ability to turn off backward reporting since we had built custom, complicated, resequencing logic to allow out-of-sequence reporting in 23R2. It worked well for the most part, but seemed to have some hidden issued that surfaced occasionally.
In testing this new functionality in 24R2, it doesn’t seem to support what we actually need. I’m hoping I just don’t understand it.
Example business case: Since we manufacture storage sheds, a production order may have the following operations. 1. Framing 2. Paint 3. Roofing 4. Electrical
1 is completed first, but then subsequent operations may be completed in any different order, resulting in (1, 2, 3, 4), (1, 2, 4, 3), (1, 4, 3, 2) etc.
From all my testing with creating/completing production orders with backward reporting turned off, it seems that the original “Last Operation” is fixed and only prior operations can be reported out of sequence.
Is that correct?
Best answer by andrewm
MichaelShirk wrote:
In most of my testing the “Control Point” box was checked for the last operation and could not be unchecked. However, on this one I was able to uncheck it on all operations. I then created clock entries and was able to complete the operations in the following order with no error messages. 1, 4, 2, 3. However, the production order stayed in the “In Process” state and didn’t get completed by the last operation as would usually be the case….
I am not sure how you were able to uncheck the Control Point here on the last Operation but the reason your production order is still “In Process” is because you haven’t technically produced inventory due to the lack of Control Points. In Acumatica the last Operation on a BOM is always marked as a Control Point, regardless if you marked it Control Point or not. This last Operation is what actually “Completes” Inventory. Notice how your Qty Complete on the Production Order is actually 0?
Regarding the Backwards Reporting, have you seen this Help article? I highlighted a section below that is most relevant to your problem.
With automatic backward reporting turned off, when a worker enters the quantity of completed items for an operation that is a non-control point operation or a non-last control point operation, the system does not verify the quantity entered for the current operation against the quantity recorded for the preceding operation.
For the last operation of a production order, which is a control point operation, a worker can report a quantity only if it is less than or equal to the minimum quantity reported on preceding control point operations. If this condition is not met, the system displays an error message and does not release the labor or move transaction until the worker enters the correct item quantity.
For example, suppose that a production order for producing a base unit contains the following operations:
0010 - Cutting (control point)
0020 - Sanding
0030 - Polishing
0040 - Inspection
0050 - Staging (control point)
Operations 0010 and 0050 are control points, and the quantity complete is 0 for all operations. Further suppose that on the Move (AM302000) form, a worker creates a move transaction for operation 0010 and enters 7 as the completed quantity. When specifying the completed quantity of the item for operation 0040, another worker enters 8. Because automatic backward reporting is turned off, the system accepts the entered quantity and does not report quantity completion in preceding operations 0030 and 0020. However, when another worker enters 8 for the last operation, 0050, the system does not release the move transaction until the worker enters a quantity of 7 or less.
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Anyways, my suggestion for solving this would be to create an additional Work Center with $0 Cost and add another Operation to the BOM. This one being the “last operation” which would allow you to report the others out of order. I believe you should also have the Frame (maybe not this one), Finishing, Roof and Electrical Operations marked as Control Points if you are using this new function. The only downside to this solution that I can think of is that it requires one more Move transaction to “Complete” the storage sheds into Inventory.
In most of my testing the “Control Point” box was checked for the last operation and could not be unchecked. However, on this one I was able to uncheck it on all operations. I then created clock entries and was able to complete the operations in the following order with no error messages. 1, 4, 2, 3. However, the production order stayed in the “In Process” state and didn’t get completed by the last operation as would usually be the case….
In most of my testing the “Control Point” box was checked for the last operation and could not be unchecked. However, on this one I was able to uncheck it on all operations. I then created clock entries and was able to complete the operations in the following order with no error messages. 1, 4, 2, 3. However, the production order stayed in the “In Process” state and didn’t get completed by the last operation as would usually be the case….
I am not sure how you were able to uncheck the Control Point here on the last Operation but the reason your production order is still “In Process” is because you haven’t technically produced inventory due to the lack of Control Points. In Acumatica the last Operation on a BOM is always marked as a Control Point, regardless if you marked it Control Point or not. This last Operation is what actually “Completes” Inventory. Notice how your Qty Complete on the Production Order is actually 0?
Regarding the Backwards Reporting, have you seen this Help article? I highlighted a section below that is most relevant to your problem.
With automatic backward reporting turned off, when a worker enters the quantity of completed items for an operation that is a non-control point operation or a non-last control point operation, the system does not verify the quantity entered for the current operation against the quantity recorded for the preceding operation.
For the last operation of a production order, which is a control point operation, a worker can report a quantity only if it is less than or equal to the minimum quantity reported on preceding control point operations. If this condition is not met, the system displays an error message and does not release the labor or move transaction until the worker enters the correct item quantity.
For example, suppose that a production order for producing a base unit contains the following operations:
0010 - Cutting (control point)
0020 - Sanding
0030 - Polishing
0040 - Inspection
0050 - Staging (control point)
Operations 0010 and 0050 are control points, and the quantity complete is 0 for all operations. Further suppose that on the Move (AM302000) form, a worker creates a move transaction for operation 0010 and enters 7 as the completed quantity. When specifying the completed quantity of the item for operation 0040, another worker enters 8. Because automatic backward reporting is turned off, the system accepts the entered quantity and does not report quantity completion in preceding operations 0030 and 0020. However, when another worker enters 8 for the last operation, 0050, the system does not release the move transaction until the worker enters a quantity of 7 or less.
--
Anyways, my suggestion for solving this would be to create an additional Work Center with $0 Cost and add another Operation to the BOM. This one being the “last operation” which would allow you to report the others out of order. I believe you should also have the Frame (maybe not this one), Finishing, Roof and Electrical Operations marked as Control Points if you are using this new function. The only downside to this solution that I can think of is that it requires one more Move transaction to “Complete” the storage sheds into Inventory.
@andrewm On further investigation, it looks like “Control Point” can only be unchecked for the last operation after our custom code has run that deletes empty operations from the production order. Something is apparently not being properly updated in that process.
What we’re considering as a solution for this is to make our QA process an operation on the production order, which will allow it to always be the last operation. We can have our QA process automatically complete the QA operation when the Inspection Document status changes to completed. We’ve had specific business reasons to not have the QA process as an operation on the production order, but we will need to reevaluate.
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