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.

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 Production Order Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session:

  • Generate Serial Numbers
  • Only Serialized and Lot-controlled Items in As-built Components
  • As-Built Status Handling.

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 Production Order 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 Item - Warehousing (whwmd4600m000) 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 Production Order 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 Item - Warehousing (whwmd4600m000) details session to use serial numbers for tracking purposes.

Serial numbers

Operators in the job shop usually enter the serial numbers in the as-built structure. To enter the numbers, you can, enter 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 Generate Serial Numbers field in the Production Order 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

To generate serial numbers, you must use masks. You can define masks at these levels:

  • Item - site

    You can define a mask for a specific item and site in the Mask by Item/Item Group/Site (tcibd4505m100) session.

  • Item group - site

    You can define a mask for a specific item group and site in the Mask by Item/Item Group/Site (tcibd4505m100) session.

  • Item

    You can define a mask for a specific item in the Mask by Item/Item Group/Site (tcibd4505m100) session or, if the multisite concepts are inactive, in theMask by Item/Item Group (tcibd4505m000) session.

  • Item group

    You can define a mask for a specific item group in the Mask by Item/Item Group/Site (tcibd4505m100) session or, if the multisite concepts are inactive, in theMask by Item/Item Group (tcibd4505m000) session.

  • Company level

    You can define a mask for a specific company in the Item Base Data Parameters (tcibd9199m000) session.

When serial numbers are generated, LN searches for a mask in this order:

  1. Item by site.
  2. Item group by site.
  3. Item
  4. Item group
  5. Company

If no mask is defined, no as-built structure is generated, and you must manually specify serial numbers, for example, by typing or scanning. Without a mask, the Generate Serial Numbers parameter in the Production Order Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session is no longer applicable.

See also 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 Production Order 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 Manual.

  • 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. 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.