Serialized items in Manufacturing

You can use serial numbers to track and trace the items in inventory, production orders, purchase orders, sales orders, service, and so on. You can determine, for example, to which production order a specific end item belongs, which components are used and where the components originate. This topic describes the aspects of using serialization in Manufacturing.

To set up serialized items

If you want to use serial numbers in LN, you must set up data first. For information, refer to To set up serialized items.

For serialization in Manufacturing, you must also set a number of parameters in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session:

As-built structure

The as-built structure is an important concept for serialized (end) items in Manufacturing. The as-built structure reflects the configuration of a product. Two additional concepts are important:

  • As-built header
    The as-built header contains the individual serialized end items for a specific production order or assembly order.
  • As-built component
    From a specific serialized item in the as-built header, you can zoom to the as-built components, that is, the components that are used in the configuration. The components can be serialized or non-serialized. Dependent on the setting of the Only Serialized and Lot Controlled Items in As-Built Components field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session, all components can be viewed, or only the serialized and lot controlled components.

You can use the as-built structure and the serial numbers in the structure for several purposes:

  • For information purposes, for example, how the product is assembled, and which components are used. If you want to use the serial numbers for configuration-information purposes only, you can choose to clear the Serial Tracking check box in the Items - Warehousing (whwmd4500m000) details session. In this way, the data is not stored for tracking and tracing.
  • As a basis for a product structure ( physical breakdown), which you can use in Service for service and maintenance purposes. For more information, refer to To create a physical breakdown from an as-built structure and To maintain physical breakdowns. If service engineers use the as-built structure, having anonymous items displayed in the as-built structure can be useful. In that case, you must clear the Only Serialized and Lot Controlled Items in As-Built Components check box in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session.
  • To update tracking sessions in Warehousing so that you can track and trace the serialized items that you used in production to purchase orders, sales orders, and so on. You must select the Serial Tracking check box in the Items - Warehousing (whwmd4500m000) details session to use serial numbers for tracking purposes.
Serial numbers

Operators on the shop floor usually enter the serial numbers in the as-built structure. To enter the numbers, you can, for example, type or scan bar codes. You can also choose to generate the serial numbers for end items in the as-built header. In that case, you must define a mask. The moment that serial numbers in the header are generated depends on the setting of the Moment of Generating Serial Numbers field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session. This parameter is important because this enables you to determine yourself on which moment in the production process you can assign serial numbers to the items in a production order.

You can view and maintain the as-built header in the Serial End Item - As-Built Headers (timfc0110m000) session, and the as-built components in the Serial End Item - As-Built Components (timfc0111m000) session. For more information, refer to To maintain as-built headers and as-built components

Masks for serialized items

If you want be able to generate serial numbers, you must use masks. You can define masks on three levels:

If you want to generate serial numbers, LN searches for a mask, successively on the item level, the item group level, and the company level. If no mask is defined, no as-built structure is generated, and you must manually enter serial numbers, for example, by typing or scanning. Without a mask, the Moment of Generating Serial Numbers parameter in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session is no longer applicable.

Refer also to Defining a mask.

To use serial numbers during the production order process

Serial number handling in Manufacturing is embedded in the production order process. The As-Built Status Handling field in the Shop Floor Control Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session determines how serialized items in Manufacturing are handled:

  • Automatic
    If the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Automatic, the actions a user performs on the production order result in status changes of the serialized end item. For example, if a number of items on a production order is reported as completed or rejected, the status of the same number of items in the as-built header automatically changes to Assigned or Rejected.
  • Manual
    If the As-Built Status Handling field is set to Manual, you must first update the status of the items in the as-built header before you can complete or reject the items on the last operation of a production order, or on the production order itself. For example, if you have completed two serialized items, and you have rejected one, you must first change the status of two items in the as-built header to Assigned, and the status of the other item to Rejected. Only then can you report these quantities as completed and rejected on the production order.

For more information, refer to Working with serialized items in Manufacturing.

If you want to handle serialized items in the most detailed way, you must use the Production Warehouse Orders (timfc0101m000) session. This session is especially useful to issue, return, and cancel serialized components for a specific end item.

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