Creating Outside Operations

If the actual work on an operation is performed at a location other than your shop floor, you must perform special steps to capture the status of the operation for accurate APS, scheduling, and costing. If you do not represent and manage an outside operation properly, the effects can ripple down through subsequent processes, resulting in an over-conservative plan and schedule.

To capture outside operation status, you can:

Because you may not necessarily have accurate information to post time or quantity remaining for an outside operation, we recommend you model outside operations using the cross-referenced purchase order method (although you can use that method and also post time or quantity to the operation if you have the status information).

This topic describes how to set up the cross-referenced purchase order method.

Setting Up the Outside Operation

In summary, to set up the outside operation, you must create a purchased material and issue it to the operation. Follow these steps:

  1. On the Scheduling Shifts form, create a scheduling shift consisting of one shift interval that starts on Sunday at 00:00 hours and ends Saturday at 24:00 hours (7 days x 24 hours). You will be using an infinite resource group to represent this process. Therefore, you need a 24x7 shift to ensure that the planning and scheduling programs process the infinite resource consistently (scheduling ignores the shift and considers the resource always infinite, while APS considers the resource infinite only while on-shift).
  2. On the Resources form, follow these steps:
    1. Create a new resource for the outside operation.
    2. On the General tab, you can accept the default values for the fields.
    3. Select the Shifts tab. In the ShiftID#1 field, select your 24x7 scheduling shift.
  3. On the Resource Groups form, follow these steps:
    1. Create a new resource group.
    2. In the Infinite Capacity After field, enter 0. This sets the resource to infinite capacity for planning purposes.
    3. Select the Infinite field to set the resource to infinite capacity for scheduling purposes.
    4. Select the Resources tab. Add your outside resource as a member of the group.
  4. On the Work Centers form, follow these steps:
    1. Create a work center to use for outside operations. You can use the same work center for more than one outside operation.
    2. On the Scheduling tab, select the Outside field. Defining the work center as Outside signals the planning and scheduling processes to perform special calculations so you don't have to enter the time the parts have been away from the shop. The Outside work center also captures the cost in the "Outside" GL account you set up on the Product Codes form.
    3. Select the Resource Groups tab. Add the infinite resource group you created earlier in this procedure.
  5. On the Job Operations form, follow these steps:
    1. In the WC field, select your outside work center.
    2. In the Fixed Schedule Hours field (if you are using fixed schedule hours) or the appropriate hours per piece/pieces per hour field, enter the number of hours that corresponds to the normal lead time for this outside operation.

      NOTE: Regardless of whether you specify Fixed Schedule Hours, the system temporarily switches the operation to fixed schedule hours during the planning or scheduling run.

    3. Select the Resources tab and verify that your infinite resource group is displayed. If it is not, select it now.
    4. Select the Costs tab and enter 0 in all the costing rate fields. The material you issue to the operation will capture the cost of the outside operation.
  6. On the Items form, follow these steps:
    1. Create an item to represent the item your outside operation will be providing.
    2. In the Source field, select Purchased. This allows you to cross reference the material on the bill of material to a PO.
    3. In the Type field, select Other. This Type code prevents the system from creating planned orders for this item (instead, you will use the cross-reference feature).
    4. Consider how to track cost for this purchased item. To apply the cost of the outside operation only to this order, set the Cost Type to Actual, set the Cost Method to Specific, and select the Lot Tracked field.
  7. On the Job Materials form, follow these steps:
    1. Find the job and your outside operation.
    2. Add a material record for the outside operation item.
    3. In the Quantity field, enter 1.
    4. Select the Lot field (so the quantity is 1 per lot).

Processing the Outside Operation

After setting up the outside operation, follow these steps to process it.

  1. On the Unposted Job Transactions form, enter a transaction to move the WIP from the previous operation to the outside operation.
  2. Use the Post Job Transactions form to post the transaction.
  3. On the Job Operations form, make sure all operations previous to the outside operation are marked as Complete.
  4. Create a cross-referenced purchase order line item. We recommend you do this as soon as you start the operation. Follow these steps:
    1. Open the Job Materials form.
    2. Find your outside material record.
    3. Select the Source tab.
    4. In the Ref field, select Purchase Order.
    5. Click the Source button to create the cross reference.
    6. Click the Source button again to display the Purchase Order Lines form.
    7. On the General tab, set the Due Date of the cross-referenced PO line item to the date you expect to receive the outside materials from the vendor.
    8. Select the Costs tab. Specify the correct cost on the purchase order.
  5. Physically send the purchase order and materials to your vendor.
  6. Adjust the PO line item due date as necessary.

Receiving the Outside Materials

  1. Use the Purchase Order Receiving form to receive the outside materials from the vendor.
  2. The receipt transaction automatically opens the Job Material Transactions form. On this form, issue the materials to the job.
  3. After you issue the materials, the Post Job WIP Move Transactions form opens automatically. On this form, record this operation complete and move the materials to the next operation.

How the System Calculates Outside Operation Duration

NOTE: If you are not using the cross-referenced purchase order method, and are posting time on the operation, the system plans the outside operation Run Duration normally (based on posted time/quantity).

The system considers the due date of the outside operation's cross-referenced PO line item when it calculates the operation duration. Basically, the system may reduce or extend the outside operation's duration, provided the operation is the first open (that is, not posted Complete) operation in the routing.

Related Topics

APS Overview

Scheduling Overview

Costing Overview

Cross-Referencing a Job Material to a Purchase Order

General Ledger Overview

Moving Purchased Items from a P O into a Job Operation

Receiving Cross-referenced Items