- Simplifies Product Setup and Bill of Material Definition
- Provides Advanced Bill of Material Functionality
- Minimizes Engineering Maintenance Effort
This module provides your engineering departments with advanced information processing technology that will greatly improve their ability to define and maintain accurate item and Bill of Material (BoM) information.
Since these functions provide the framework upon which the entire planning and costing processes are built, an accurate Bill of Material sub-system is a necessity for all successful manufacturing operations. Towards that end, the Engineering Control module provides leading-edge engineering solutions, from advanced CAD importing tools to powerful on-line Bill of Material maintenance and inquiry capabilities, and more.
The Engineering Module also offers an Add-by-Copy (same as except) transaction that can circumvent much of the data entry function that is required when establishing item records in the system. This transaction allows you to add a new item by copying the attributes of an existing item; thus, bypassing much of the initial data entry work involved when adding an item into the system.
When a new item is created from an existing item, all item parameters and item notes of the existing (source) item are copied over to the new (target) item. In addition, this screen provides the following three copying options:
- Copy the source item’s Bill of Material only
- Copy the source item’s routing only
- Copy both the source item’s Bill of Material and routing
Even though the new target item is created with all of the parameters of the existing source item, the system still leaves the Q/A status of the new item as “not signed off” (unless you have set the option on the Q/A Site Master screen to have all new items considered “active”, in which case the new item will be set to “active”). This will require that the Q/A department review the new item to insure that it has been properly setup.
Item Maintenance
Each item in the system must be uniquely identified before it can be further processed. The basic features of identification consist of an item description and a unique item number. Available in the item maintenance process is the ability to maintain an almost endless array of engineering notes per item.
As each item maintenance transaction is processed, a corresponding audit trail is automatically maintained with the system and is available for immediate viewing via the Engineering Audit Trail Inquiry transaction. The audit trail contains the date and time the transaction was processed, along with the pertinent information concerning the item being maintained.
DMACS only plans for the quantity defined by the quantity-per in the Bill of Material, regardless of the production quantity. For example, an order for 10,000 pieces of a parent item will explode all components normally except for the mold, tool, or die component, where only the quantity-per will be required.
DMACS allows molds, tool and dies to be identified as items with an on hand inventory. Handling a mold, tool or die this way enables all the benefits of inventory control, such as tracking all issues and returns and auditing all inventory activity for the mold. It should be noted that the return of a mold, tool, or die back into inventory can be automatically posted by the system when the work order to which it has been issued has been closed.
DMACS also records both the number of times a mold, tool, or dies was needed for production, in addition to the usage (number of hits) for the mold.
As with all other items, monthly totals are maintained for the last 36 months. This information is used for a multitude of purposes, such as mold re-tooling and mold amortization costing.
Finally, the amortized cost of mold, tools, and dies has been identified as a separate element of the total unit cost of an item. This cost is rolled up through the Bill of Material so that all items show the detail composition of mold amortization cost separately. This enables the mold, tool and die cost to be considered a fixed cost in the contribution margin analysis features within the DMACS Sales Analysis module.
Bill of Material Maintenance
Since Bill of Material structuring is the foundation on which the planning process depends, DMACS offers an extensive assortment of aids to assist you in maintaining an accurate Bill of Material subsystem. To begin with, multiple Bills of Material can be defined for each item. For each item, a standard Bill of Material number (defaults to the Bill of Material number 1) must be defined for planning purposes. Multiple Bills of Material allow you to define alternative, or replacement formulas or product structures that may reference substitute components, etc. for each end item.
Within each bill, parent/component relationships are defined using dual Bill of Material effectivity dates. This gives you the ability to phase components in and out of a product, providing an historical record of past, present and future product structure components.
As with the item maintenance process described above, you can maintain an almost endless assortment of notes within each Bill of Material. These notes can be viewed among the components on selected Bill of Material inquiry screens.
A Bill of Material add-by-copy transaction is available to ease the data entry burden when setting up Bills of Material. Common Bill of Material structures can be copied from one item to another, thus alleviating the task of rebuilding similar product structures.
Similarly, when each Bill of Material transaction is processed, an audit trail record containing the pertinent data involving the transaction will automatically be stored within the system. This audit trail is also immediately available for viewing through the Engineering Audit Trail Inquiry.
Additionally, the system provides a wide variety of Bill of Material-related inquiry transactions and reports, all of which should assist you in maintaining an accurate Bill of Material system.
The Bill of Material subsystem of the Engineering Control module also provides for the maintenance of phantom, or transient, subassemblies. These phantom subassemblies later come into play in the Work in Process (WIP) Module, as component requirements are passed from the phantom item down to each of its single level components.
Reference Designators
The DMACS Engineering Control module also provides the ability to define reference designators at the Bill of Material level. Reference designators are an invaluable tool used throughout the electronic assembly industries (e.g., circuit board assembly, etc.).
At the time parent/component relationships are defined, you can identify the specific locations on the parent item where each component should be placed. These reference designators will then be linked with the component on future inquiries and reports. In addition, all reference designator maintenance is fully audited and available for immediate viewing via the Engineering Audit Trail inquiry.