Working with serialized items in Manufacturing

During production, operators on the shop floor can link, manually or automatically, serial numbers to end items in a production order and to specific components. This handling of serial numbers in Manufacturing is embedded in the production order process. When handling serialized items, the status of the serialized items is changed. For example, when serial numbers are assigned to items, the status changes to Assigned. In addition, the status of the serialized item also expresses other handling of the serialized items, such as rejection, sending to the warehouse, and receiving in the warehouse.

This topic describes the statuses of serialized items, and how status handling is carried out.

You can view and maintain the status of the serialized items in the Serial Status field in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session. The possible statuses are:

  • Created

    The initial status of the serialized end item. The status is Created after serialized numbers are generated. This is a moment based on the value of the Moment of Generating Serial Numbers field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session: On Printing Documents, On Release, or On Completion. If the the value is Manually, the status becomes Created when the user generates serialized numbers at a moment in the production process determined by the user.

  • Assigned

    The product is finished. A serial number is linked to the serialized item, and the serialized item is ready to be transferred to Warehousing.

  • Rejected

    The serialized item is rejected in the production order. The serialized item cannot be transferred to as-maintained in Service, and cannot be used in another production order.

  • Sent to Warehouse

    The serialized item is reported as complete and sent but not yet received in the warehouse. The inbound procedure must still be carried out.

  • Received in Warehouse

    The serialized item is received in the warehouse. The inbound procedure is carried out.

  • Recalled from Warehouse

    The serialized item is in the warehouse but must be returned to the shop floor.

  • Returned from Warehouse

    The serialized item was in a warehouse in Warehousing but is now returned to Shop Floor Control. The outbound procedure must still be carried out.

  • Transferred to As-Maintained

    The serialized item is transferred to Service.

Assigning serial numbers

You can handle serialized items in Manufacturing manually or automatically, which is determined in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session by the As-Built Status Handling field.

Automatic

If the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Automatic, the actions a user carries out on the production order automatically result in status changes of the serialized end items. For example, if a number of serialized items on a production order is reported as completed or rejected, the status of those items in the as-built header changes automatically to Assigned or Rejected, respectively. To report one specific serialized item as completed or rejected, you can insert the item's serial number.

Advantages if the As-Built Status Handling field is Automatic:

  • You can handle the serialized items for Manufacturing directly in the session in which you report your operation or production order as completed (the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session, or the Report Orders Completed (tisfc0520m000) session). Consequently, you do not need to start an extra session (the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session) to handle serialized items.
  • You can easily use a scanning device. The scanned numbers are directly entered in the session in which you report the operations or the production order as completed.

Disadvantage if the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Automatic:

  • If you want to report as completed a number of serialized items with specific serial numbers, you must report these items as completed one by one in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session, or the Report Orders Completed (tisfc0520m000) session.
Example

Suppose that a production order has an order quantity of five serialized end items. One of the five items is finished. As usual, you report the item as completed in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) details session (on the last operation), or in the Report Orders Completed (tisfc0520m000) details session. You must enter the serial number of the item in the Serial Number field. The serial status of that item in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session changes from Created to Assigned.

For detailed information about handling of serialized items with status handling, refer to Serialized items on the shop floor - automatic status handling.

Manual

If the As-Built Status Handling field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session is set to Manual, you must first update the status of the items in the as-built header ( Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session) before you can complete or reject the items on the last operation of a production order.

The advantage if the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Manual:

  • You can maintain and handle several specific serial items simultaneously in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session. For example, you can reject a number of specific serialized items, or you can set the status to Assigned for a number of specific serialized items.

The disadvantage if the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Manual:

  • You always need two sessions to handle serialized items: First you must change the status of serialized items in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session. After that, you must report the items completed or rejected in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session, or the Report Orders Completed (tisfc0520m000) session.
Example

Suppose that you have finished two items (serial numbers 10400003 and 10400004) out of a production order quantity of three. Usually, you must directly report those two items as completed in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) details session (on the last operation), or in the Report Orders Completed (tisfc0520m000) details session. However, if the As-Built Status Handling field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session is set to Manual, you must first change the serial status of items 10400003 and 10400004 in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session from Created to Assigned. Only then can you report the two items as completed.

For detailed information about handling of serialized items with status handling, refer to Serialized items on the the shop floor - manual status handling.

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