Order Control and Feedback

Before you start

The process can be started when the following prerequisites are met:

• There is a released order.
• Basic Data for Production Activity Control is defined.

Follow these steps

There are several tools in M3 that can be used to identify and correct production problems.

The following section describes the activities in this process.

1. Identify and prioritize production problems

   This activity involves identifying problems and putting them in order of priority. The priority can be based on many factors, such as urgency, the orders’ effect on costs, or whether they are customer or internal orders.

   In any PAC system, the following basic problems can occur:

   • Order problems related to specific orders (change in the delivery date, delay in a work center).
   • Resource problems independent of any order (unavailable resources, reduced capacity, shortages in material or tooling, etc.).

   The following tools can help to identify problems regardless of reason.

   • Capacity Requirements Planning tools, for problems with reduced capacity.
   • Component availability checks in PAC, for problems with components.

     For more details, refer to the following documents

     • Staging on Manufacturing Order
     • Creating Planned Manufacturing Order
     • Creating Manufacturing Order (for orders not yet released)
     • Work Center Scheduling Manufacturing Order (for released orders)
   • To identify order-specific problems, refer to Monitoring Production
   • Inventory control also contains tools for identifying problems.

2. Short-term solution

   Correcting the identified problems requires prioritization for short-term resolution. This evaluation includes determining what the alternatives are and whether they are sufficient.

   The actions to be taken should first be possible within the production limits. If not, planning changes (such as new need date, delete order, reducing load or order quantity) may be necessary.

   The following short-term solutions can be used for either problem type.

   • Overlapping, or compressing lead times, by starting downstream operations before upstream ones are finished. See Lead Time Compression.
   • Operation splitting, or assigning additional resources. This is used when the order can be performed in parallel at an operation using more machines or labor. Resources can be changed for each operation in 'Manufacturing Order. Open' (PMS100).
   • Split the order when it includes more than one requirement, and prioritize the more important. Order split can be done in 'Manufact Order. Split' (PMS055).
   • Use alternate operations and routings. Routings can be changed in 'Planned MO Open' (PMS170) (for orders not yet released).
   • Subcontract or purchase necessary components. This can only be done for operations that can be carried out externally. When the order is not released, the acquisition method can be changed to purchase in (PMS170). For released orders, an operation can be changed to subcontract in (PMS100).
   • Reschedule an operation. Rescheduling an operations can be done in 'MO Operation. Reschedule' (PMS020).
   • Reschedule the order. Rescheduling a manufacturing order can be done in 'Manufact Order. Reschedule' (PMS010).
   • Order cancellation can be used when it is more cost effective to delete the entire order and start again, rather than trying to correct the problems. Orders are deleted in 'Manufact Order. Delete' (PMS030) or 'Manufact Order. Mass Delete' (PMS640).
   • Implement overtime or hire part-time help. This may be enough to resolve problems with short-term capacity limits.
   • Safety capacity can sometimes be used to deal with unexpected demand or unexpected capacity fluctuations.

   Higher-level planning changes can include changing the need date, deleting the order, reducing expected load, or reducing order quantities.

   As an example, a short-term solution can be to implement an extra shift (overtime) for a week to improve the immediate situation.

3. Long-term solution

   Each problem requiring a long-term solution must be evaluated to determine why this problem occurred and how it is possible to prevent it from recurring. Long-term solutions often require closer cooperation and planning in the various affected functions.

   Feedback of information to the planning system is necessary to fully inform personnel of the current production status. For further details, see Monitoring Production.

   As an example, if a problem recurs several times, it may require a more long-term solution such as purchasing more machines to increase capacity. This kind of solution cannot usually be implemented immediately, but requires considerable review before anything can be done.