Shop floor warehouses

Shop floor warehouses are special kinds of warehouses that store and control the materials needed for production. A shop floor warehouse is linked to a work center by which materials needed for operations can be pulled from inventory in the shop floor warehouse linked to that operation such as a location on the line.

A work center can have a unique warehouse for short-term storage of materials that are used called shop floor warehouse. The distinction is administrative, the same process to issue materials is used for both the standard and shop floor warehouses.

All materials needed for a production order are allocated to the warehouses specified in the bill of material (BOM) or the Estimated Materials (ticst0101m000) session. If a shop floor warehouse is defined for the operation's work center, and depending on the Move Allocation to Shop Floor Warehouse check box setting in the Production Order Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session materials are moved to this shop floor warehouse during generation or release of the production order.

After production starts, materials for the operations are issued from the shop floor warehouses that are linked to the work centers in which the operations are performed, this is done either manually or by backflushing. Shop floor warehouses are replenished from the warehouse specified in the Estimated Materials (ticst0101m000) session.

Shop floor warehouses are replenished from the warehouse specified in the Estimated Materials (ticst0101m000) session. Usually this is the warehouse specified for the material in the Bill of Material (tibom1110m000) session. The way in which a shop floor warehouse is replenished depends on whether a push system or a pull system is used:

  • In a push situation, replenishment is performed by generating planned orders of the Planned Distribution Order type in Enterprise Planning, or by manually created warehousing orders with a Transfer (Manual) order origin.
  • In a pull situation, replenishment is determined by the supply system defined in the Item Data by Warehouse (whwmd2510m000) session.

    The supply system can be:

    • Order Controlled/Batch setup and order generation, only applicable in Assembly Control.
    • Order Controlled/SILS setup, assembly kits, and order generation, only applicable in Assembly Control.
    • Order Controlled/Single setup and order generation, only applicable in Job Shop Control.
    • Time Phased Order Point (TPOP)
    • Kanban

Transfer orders

Every transfer order consists of two parts:

  • An Issue (outbound) line.
  • A Receipt (inbound) line.

If changes occur in material requirements during production, these changes are reflected in the transfer order. For example:

  • If the material quantity has changed, the quantity on the transfer order is updated.
  • If a new material is used, a new material line is added to the transfer order.
  • If a material is partly or completely canceled, the warehouse transfer can be partly or completely canceled if shipment is not executed yet. If the material is already shipped to the job shop, you must return the material. A return transfer order is created to ship back the material to the central warehouse.
  • If there is a shortage during the picking process, the remaining quantity is added as a new sequence line on the transfer order. Also if a shipping variance occurs, which means that more material is shipped then received in the shop floor warehouse, a new sequence line is added.
  • If a specific revision, a lot, or an effectivity unit of a material is modified, this is mentioned on the transfer order so that the correct revision, lot, or effectivity unit is picked.

Use the Production Warehouse Orders (timfc0101m000) session to view transfer orders in relation to JSC orders.

You can modify a transfer order manually by adjusting the properties on the Issue line. The transfer Receipt line is then automatically changed. In the Inventory Handling Parameters (whinh0100m000) session, you can use the Correct Outbound Quantity for JSC/RPT up to and including fields and the Correct Outbound Dates for JSC/RPT up to and including fields to indicate until when you can still modify a transfer order.