Viewing Assembly Part Shortage - Assembly Orders

To create new/updated lists of orders, run the Generate Assembly Order Lists for Critical Parts (tiasc2245m000) session, through the appropriate menu. If you run that session, you can update existing lists or create new lists, which are displayed as new groups.

Each list/group is defined by date and assembly part, that is: Each possible combination of date and assembly part results in a new list, unless for that combination no shortages occur or no orders can be found. So, if you specified a range of two days and three assembly parts, this may result in six order lists. Several lists may contain the same orders if these orders use more than one of the specified assembly parts and/or occur on several of the specified dates.

The generated lists may be displayed themselves or they may be used to update existing lists. This depends on the Regenerate Order Lists check box in the Generate Assembly Order Lists for Critical Parts (tiasc2245m000) session. Refer to the field help for this check box for further details.

If you choosed to display a Number of Extra Orders in the Generate Assembly Order Lists for Critical Parts (tiasc2245m000) session, not all orders that are displayed are actually affected by the shortage problem. Displaying extra orders is useful if you want to block orders, other than those LN suggests. This can be necessary if, for example:

  • The actual priority of orders does not match the priority attached to them by LN, based on the predefined sets of criteria.
  • You want to unblock orders that were already blocked. You may be required to block other orders for them, else the shortage problem will increase instead of decrease.

Solving shortages

If assembly part shortages occur, you can try to solve this problem. This can be performed manually, for example, by calling your supplier, and so on. But you can also block orders and/or change the sequence of orders, to ensure that the affected orders are not started until the required assembly parts are present. In this session, you can only block orders. You can reschedule planned orders in the Move Assembly Orders (tiasl3210m000) session and sequenced orders in the Reschedule Assembly Orders (tiasl4220m000) session.

Of course, blocking orders does not solve the problem of assembly part shortages itself. You must look for the cause of these shortages and take appropriate action there. But if that is not possible now, blocking your orders is a method to ensure that the production process carries on, giving you time to solve the shortage problem. To solve the supply problem, you can, for example:

  • Ask you supplier to deliver the goods on time or earlier.
  • Run Enterprise Planning. If you have not run Enterprise Planning for a long time, no purchase schedules or production orders are generated to remove the shortages.
  • Reschedule ASC orders
  • Reschedule JSC orders that use the same parts. Perhaps a less important JSC order exists, that can be rescheduled to free assembly parts.

Blocking orders

If you want to block an order you must select a blocking reason. Blocking reasons are grouped in types. The type of the reason you choose, must be Inventory Shortage. If an order already has a blocking reason, you can add another blocking reason, but only if this reason is another type. To block orders you must:

  • Insert the blocking reason in the header of the session, either by typing the blocking code, if you know that already, in the Inventory Blocking Reason field, or by zooming to the Reasons (tcmcs0105m000) session and selecting this reason there.
  • Select the orders/records you want to block.
  • On the appropriate menu, click Block Assembly Order.

Unblocking orders

You can unblock an order by removing the blocking reason. To do this, you must:

  • Select the orders you want to unblock.
  • On the appropriate menu, click Remove Inventory Shortage Blocking Reason for Order. You can also unblock orders by using the option Blocking Reasons on the appropriate menu. This starts the Assembly Order - Blocking Reasons (tiasc2103m000) session.

Display options

Several display options exist to give you the correct view:

  • In the header of this session, the totals of the Shortage Quantity, the Blocked Quantity, and the Remaining Shortage Qty are displayed. The total Required Quantity is shown at the bottom of the column Required Quantity.
  • If you want an overview of all blocked orders, click View Blocked Orders Only, on the appropriate menu. This view does not affect the totals of the several quantities that are shown in this session.
  • On the View menu, click Sort by to select a different view. This re-sorts the records according to the order of characteristics mentioned in that view. Although two of these views look like the set of selection criteria in the Generate Assembly Order Lists for Critical Parts (tiasc2245m000) session, they are not directly related. The criteria determine which orders are selected, while the views determine only the display order of these orders (rows/records).
  • In this session, orders are always displayed by assembly part (and date). If you want to view the reverse, assembly parts by order, you can zoom to the Assembly Order - Assembly Part Shortages (tiasc2546m000) session, through the appropriate menu option Assembly Part Shortages. If an order requires several shortage parts, this view gives you a better overview of the effects of blocking this order, because it shows all the shortage parts for this order in one view.