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Configure-To-Order (CTO) manufacturing challenges
Configure-To-Order (CTO) products made to exact customer specifications can be challenging to manufacture efficiently. CTO products typically have unique dimensions, designs, colors, styles, configurations, fittings, and/or materials with many different possible components and configurations. Some examples of highly-customized CTO products with many components include custom cabinetry and furniture, made-to-order window treatments, custom bicycles, and specialty gaming PCs. Each product is unique, even though there are common parts, components, or operations used in all products (installing hardware or painting with a specific paint color, for example). For these highly-customized products, a typical sales order contains all the items for one customer's order. To fulfill that order in the manufacturing process, multiple CTO processes are required to track the assembly of all the components that comprise the customer’s final, customized product/order. FactoryLogix can combine multiple CTO processes with batch attributes (to convey length, depth, and height measurements, for example) to provide the detail needed on the shop floor to build CTO products as efficiently as possible.
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Synchronizing work across batches
Fulfilling a sales order may require building or machining individual components where each component is processed in its own batch among many other batches on the shop floor at the same time. All batches for a single sales order—typically representing one customer’s product or order—are linked through the batch order facility in the Production client application.
In NPI, the Synchronize Work option in the Operation Properties dialog (Basics tab) provides the ability to synchronize all work in a batch, all work across multiple batches using the same process, or all work across multiple batches using different processes that all include a common operation and batch attribute value in their respective processes—this capability is referred to as cross-order process synchronization.
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Important |
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The Synchronize Work option is only available for process operations defined with Full Tracking. (By default, the Synchronize Work option is not set, indicating that no synchronization is required at the selected operation.) |
The Synchronize Work option ensures that all related items perform a common operation simultaneously (painting or hardware installation, for example) and ensures the work is synchronized across all batches with that common operation. The common operation is only performed once and greater efficiency is achieved since the same material lot is only used once across multiple units in the common operation. After the common operation is completed, units in different batches can continue to complete their individual process flows in Production.
Notice the following illustration where three different batches share a common Custom Paint Operation.
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Warning Cross-order process synchronization is only available for in-route work transacted using the Production client application. Work transacted outside of Production or work transacted in a re-route or just-in-time (JIT) flow is not synchronized. |
Example
When manufacturing custom cabinetry, all painting of the color Midnight Blue for a sales order needs to be done at the same time to ensure exact color matching across all pieces in the order (cabinet bases, doors, shelves, and drawers). The batches that comprise the sales order have different NPI process definitions, but each process definition has a common Paint operation. When those processes' Painting operations are defined in NPI using the Synchronize Work option and the batch attribute Midnight Blue is selected, the Paint operation will be synchronized across all batches so all the pieces in the sales order are painted Midnight Blue at the same time. Synchronizing work this way makes the manufacturing process more efficient: the Painting operation is done for all pieces in the order simultaneously, paint setup only needs to be done once, and exact color matching is achieved for all pieces in the order that require Midnight Blue paint.
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Batch attribute values used for the Synchronize Work option can only be set up and recorded through the use of the Batch Import integration service (FLX-XTD-JOB-01). See the next topic for more information. |
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Define batch attribute values for synchronized work
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Batch attribute values used for the Synchronize Work option can only be set up and recorded through the use of the Batch Import integration service (FLX-XTD-JOB-01). |
When you select the Synchronize Work option for an operation in NPI, you also select the batch attribute related to the common operation for synchronized work (a specific paint color for a Paint operation, for example). The batch definition in the Batch Import integration service FLX-XTD-JOB-01 XML file identifies the name and valueof that batch attribute:
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Synchronized work in Production
When cross-order process synchronization is set up in the NPI client application for multiple processes' operations, the operator experience on the shop floor looks like this:
When starting work at a synchronized operation, the system automatically lists all primary and secondary work to be done so that operators can verify they have everything physically in front of them they need to work on.
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The list of pre-populated work (items in current batch) is referred to as the primary work, whether it is a quantity of units or a list of serialized units. Secondary work (that is, items to synchronize in related/other batches) displays below the primary work in Production under Synchronized Work, as shown in the following illustration.
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When starting work at a non-serialized operation, the Quantity value is set automatically to the number of units required to satisfy the batch. (The control is disabled to prevent the operator changing the value and the option to enter a serial number is also disabled.)
When starting work at a serialized operation, the list of serial numbers is pre-populated with every active serial number required to satisfy the batch. (The ability to add or remove items is disabled.)
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For both non-serialized and serialized operations, scrap is accounted for according to the Allow Replacement Units During Scrap Handling global setting (NPI>System Configuration>Production Portal>Option Type: Scrap Handling Replacements).
When the operator selects the Submit button, FactoryLogix identifies all other active batches that have the same value for the identified batch attribute and an operation identified to be synchronized using the same batch attribute.
The system validates whether all work in each of the identified batches that hasn't completed the synchronized operation (referred to as secondary work), can be started at the operation in each batch’s process that has its Synchronize Work option set to the same batch attribute.
In the following example, ROTARY-HEAD-SN-035 is currently at a different operation, so the synchronized work can't be started until that particular unit completes the current operation and arrives at the workstation for the synchronized operation.
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Require Validation at Synchronized Operations global option
The Require Validation at Synchronized Operations global option (NPI>System Configuration>Production Portal>Option Type: Synchronized Operations>Require Validation at Synchronized Operations) specifies whether synchronized operations (primary work) must be confirmed by shop floor operators in Production—by scanning the barcode of a serialized item or by checking a non-serialized quantity—before they can move on to thesecondary work. The default setting for this option is False (no validation is required).
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When Require Validation at Synchronized Operations is False (default) and the operator selects the Start button in Production, the system displays a list of all primary work to be completed. The operator selects the Submit button to move forward.
When Require Validation at Synchronized Operations is True and the operator selects the Start button in Production, the system displays a list of all primary work to be completed. The operator must confirm that they have each item listed by scanning the barcode of a serialized item or by checking a non-serialized quantity.
When every listed serialized item is scanned and every non-serialized quantity is checked, the operator selects the Submit button to move forward. When the primary work is successfully validated, the secondary work is listed for the operator.
When all validations for all primary and secondary work are successful, the primary work is started and all secondary work is started behind-the-scenes.
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Warning When starting work at an operation in Production, the validation of items the operator is working on is typically quite limited, although barcode ranges do allow the number of items to be considerable. When validating the work to be done at a synchronized operation, the number of items to be validated will likely be greater than normal. As with the current validation, the more items that require validation, the longer the validation will take. Synchronizing the work of hundreds of items can impact systemwide performance and should be avoided. |
If the primary work is for a non-serialized batch, the ability to serialize units during the WIP transaction is disabled when working at a synchronized operation. When work at the synchronized operation is underway, the operator executes the steps and activities for the primary work only (none of the steps and activities for the secondary work are transacted).
When the WIP transaction is completed for all primary work, the primary work is closed. The operator then specifies how the secondary work will be completed so the system can record WIP transactions for the secondary work. Similar to finishing the primary work, the operator specifies the exit pathway and status of each item.
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Important Exit pathways that route to a just-in-time (JIT) route aren't supported for primary or secondary work at a synchronized operation. If an exit pathway has a JIT route defined, it won't be offered in Production when finishing a WIP transaction. |
Secondary work validation
Validation of secondary work for each identified batch:
If the corresponding synchronized operation for the batch is a non-serialized operation, the system verifies whether the quantity needed to satisfy the batch is queued to be processed at the synchronized operation—if it is, the validation is passed, otherwise the validation fails.
If the corresponding synchronized operation for the batch is a serialized operation, the system verifies whether the number of units initialized into the batch equals the batch quantity and every serialized unit that needs to be transacted through the operation to satisfy the batch is queued to be processed at the synchronized operation—if it is, the validation is passed, otherwise, the validation fails.
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For both non-serialized and serialized operations, scrap is accounted for according to the Allow Replacement Units During Scrap Handling global setting (NPI>System Configuration>Production Portal>Option Type: Scrap Handling Replacements).
SynchronizeWork property in FactoryLogix integration services
The Route Export integration service (FLX-XTD-ROUT-01) includes the Synchronize Work operation property and value. A <SynchronizeWork> tag is a child tag of the <Operation> tag. When the Synchronize Work property of an operation is set to a batch attribute name, the <SynchronizeWork> tag value is the batch attribute name.
The Process Revision Import integration service (FLX-XTD-ROUT-04) includes the Synchronize Work operation property and value. A <SynchronizeWork> tag is a child tag of the <Operation> tag. When the <SynchronizeWork> tag value is a case-insensitive match to a batch attribute name the Synchronize Work property of the imported operation is set to the specified batch attribute name (the presence of this tag in the XML is optional).