The Power of Process Routing

 

Some things are worth more than the sum of their parts! Not least in manufacturing, where the material costs of components are just the start of the true cost price of your shiny new finished goods. Extensive work, assembly, processing and labour goes into making something special – and this is where many businesses add their most value to the bottom line.

Process Routing is a special SQLWorks tool to help Production Managers organise, track and cost this essential part of the business workflow – ensuring finished goods are not only ‘made’ efficiently, but also priced appropriately.

If you have the Manufacturing module enabled, default Process Routes in SQLWorks can be assigned to the Bills of Material of any stock item, and these become the default process route for all new Works Orders instructing your team to make that item.

 

How Process Routing Works

Each Route is comprised of a series of process steps, each of which is given up to three attributes:

  • Process Type – a ‘type’ of work, from a list defined by your business (mandatory.)
  • Work Centre – a location where work happens, such as a piece of machinery or factory zone.
  • Employee – a specific person, authorised to carry out that step in the process route.

 

process routing

 

To build a process route, simply drag and drop processes, work centres and employees onto a BOM’s process route, building up the chain of default steps needed to make the finished item. The route is automatically added to each new Works Order for that BOM.

(However, if an individual Works Order needs a different route on a specific Works Order, you can either ‘Change’ to a different pre-saved route with different steps, or ‘Edit’ the steps given to that specific Works Order using the default as your starting point, but adding your variations. Future Works Orders for this item will still use the BOM’s default process route, unless it is also updated.)

Each and every step on a Process Route can optionally contain detailed costings – based on labour and setup fees/time expired. In addition to setting your ‘Expected’ costs, you can use progress tracking to generate an ‘Actual’ cost for every step, and compare the two for an accurate picture of profitability.

Your factory may be full of active Works Orders, all taking different Process Routes on their journey to completion.

 

how process routing works

 

Key Benefits

There are several key benefits here:

  • Organised Production

    Use a single pane of glass to define (or re-define) your shopfloor’s master-plan centrally. Redirect works orders and the instructions that appear on them when you need to respond to events, control how and where work should be done, assigning it to the right people for maximum efficiency.

  • Identify Bottlenecks

    With a structured view of types of work, the places where they happen, and the personnel assigned to do them, production reporting allows production managers to instantly shuffle the outstanding schedule of works orders to get an accurate sense of workloads – from any perspective.

  • True Profitability

    The real holy-grail of manufacturing: compare your expected vs actual production costs, factoring in setup and runtime, labour and overheads, for every item of finished goods – to establish exactly how profitable it was to make, and what the true sale price should be.

 

 

Optional Extras

Depending on how you use Production Routing we’ve included extra controls to better fit the different kinds of business operations – and help you make better decisions. You can choose how to use all of these to get the most value from our software – or speak with our software development team, to introduce something entirely new.

Setup vs Runtime

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step – but is this production run worth the effort? Factor in both the setup and runtime cost of each production step for an accurate costing of each stage of the process route, whether you’re making a single widget, or a thousand.

Labour vs Overhead

Personpower and overheads are not the same thing, so why cost them as such? Split your production costs for each step into overhead and labour, and know exactly where your profitability (or unprofitability) for any part of the production route derives from.

Completion %

You’ll finish it on Monday, right? Update any step on the process route with a completion percentage if you need more granular production tracking. Don’t worry about the maths – based on your predicted production costs, SQLWorks will automatically calculate how much cost has been incurred so far.

Role Restriction

Lock certain types of work to the employee with the training, skills and proficiency to do it, by setting defaults on your process routes for those steps. Need to make sure one of the old hands does the tricky bit? Make it part of the standard operating procedure.

Actual vs Expected

The Holy Grail of manufacturing – compare your predicted against actual costs incurred for any step on the process route, generating a forensically-accurate production cost for every stage, of every item of your finished goods. Get a detailed picture of profitability… and know exactly what to quote next time.

Production Reporting

Balance the load across your entire factory and identify bottlenecks at any machine, process type or employee. Production Reporting allows you to see exactly where the biggest burden of outstanding Works Orders will route via, and allow you to plan accordingly.

Thanks for reading! For Production Routing and manufacturing software expertise, please contact our team today.

Getting Started with Quality Testing

 

We’ve introduced some important quality assurance tools into SQLWorks – allowing users to formalise their quality tests at different points of the stock control lifecycle.

Quality tests can be customised extensively and introduced at various stages of your workflow – including when receiving goods in, when manufacturing finished goods, or whenever you choose to test a batch that is being held in stock. We’ve also included new abilities to generate, store and integrate Quality Certificates – which will be covered more fully in a future blog post.

 

qa test- types

 

About Quality Testing

Quality tests may be created as standalone templates for your business, and can be customised for a wide range of different metrics. Saved tests can be either advisory or pass/fail, and include numerical measurements, dates, text answers and more – as well as specifying a level of precision for measurement, up to five decimal places.

You can assign tests (or a subset) as the default to any stock item in the stock ledger, formalising the ‘official’ set of tests that apply to that item.

 

qa tests 2

 

Quality Testing on Receipt

One of the most useful places to perform quality testing is at goods-in, at the point you receive inbound stock from a supplier. This can help check that you received what you purchase ordered, and that nothing is defective, damaged or missing.

To support this we’ve extended quality testing to the line-level of our purchase order receipt window – where the user can specify not only what goods were received, any variation to quantity, and those goods’ supplier lot number – but also save quality tests applicable to that line.

The correct tests for each line are automatically derived from that stock item’s defaults saved in the stock ledger, and results are automatically saved onto each new batch of stock that is created in the system when you receive the goods in – confirming that new stock has had its quality verified.

 

qa testing goods in

 

Quality Testing Manufacturing

Quality testing is also now available within Works Orders, helping you to verify that your finished goods have been manufactured correctly for sale.

Testing is listed under the ‘Inspection’ tab of a Works Order, and can be completed for each batch of finished goods that will be created by the works order.

Once again, the default tests are drawn directly from those specified on that stock item’s defaults.

 

qa inspection

 

Batch Quality Testing

Alternatively, a quality test may be completed for any given batch of stock via the ‘Batch Info’ tab of the stock ledger.

This is useful when you want to complete quality testing as a standalone process, test a batch at random, or look for something advised by a supplier (such as during a recall.)

SQLWorks gives businesses exceptional traceability over batches, the quality of your component stock, and the quality of your finished goods.

Introduction to Backflushing

Backflushing is an alternative method of allocating components or materials to manufacturing, whereby stock is deducted only after production has been completed.

Backflushing makes it easier to work with quantities that would otherwise be highly impractical to ‘pick’ for use on Works Orders, and is a particularly useful technique when:

    • Components are too small or numerous to be ‘counted out’ in a sensible timeframe. (e.g.: screws, nuts, bolts, other low-cost parts used in volume.)
    • When materials are divisible, liquid, molten, gaseous, in lengths, weights, or otherwise issued ‘approximately.’ (e.g.: paint, ingredients, chemicals etc.)
    • Where a ‘spare’ quantity needs to be returned to stock after manufacturing is finished. (e.g.: scrapings, leftovers, recycled material.)

In SQLWorks every component on a Bill of Material (BOM) has a default allocation method – either ‘Standard’, ‘Backflush’ or ‘Return’ which defines how stock of this item will be ‘used up’ in the Stock Ledger. These work as follows:

    • ‘Standard’ – This is the default, and is used for all items that need to be counted out in advance of production. Components will be removed from stock when the user clicks ‘Take’ on the Works Order, before production begins.
    • ‘Backflush’ – Components will only be removed from stock after the Works Order is built, and the user is then asked to specify how much has been used.
    • ‘Return’ – Similar to backflushing, however components will only be removed from stock after the Works Order is built, and the user is then asked to specify a ‘spare’ quantity that gets returned to stock.

By changing a component stock item to ‘Backflush’ on a BOM, nothing will be removed from stock at the ‘Take’ stage, instead being deducted only after that BOM has been ‘built’ on a Works Order. The user can then specify how much has (or hasn’t) been used.

This is significantly more practical for certain items – although production managers may need to initially estimate the stock quantity of a Backflush item that they expect to use on its BOM (e.g.: how much paint an item typically needs.)

The user can edit a component’s default type by right clicking on it in a BOM, and choosing ‘Change Component Type.’ Components set to Backflush will be marked with a small ‘B’ symbol in the BOM.

When ‘Taken’ within a Works Order, only Standard items will listed as being removed from stock, and Backflush items will always show a taken quantity of zero (with the user then prompted after the ‘build’ stage for the correct quantity used for Backflush, or quantity excess for Return.)

backflushing

For many manufacturers, drawing down stock ‘post-production’ in this way may be the only way to accurately update your usage of resources. Using backflushing is an efficient way of tracking manufacturing using more fluid components, and allows SQLWorks to keep your production precise.

Video: Manufacturing Brilliance

 

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How to set pricing & discounting rules


Setting up pricing and discounting rules enables the end user to better manage customer accounts, and stock items.  Rules are restrictions or qualifiers that qualify the rule, and they are only applied if that condition is met.  You can create and set, specific rules for stock item costs and descriptions which are linked to individual customers.  As well as set parameters for when these price and discount rules will be automatically applied.

Managing pricing and discounting rules across multiple customer accounts and stock items can sometimes get quite complicated and tricky to keep on top of.  SQLWorks has made this process easier to set up, control and manage giving you greater flexibility and accuracy ensuring rules are adhered to across the whole of your customer portfolio.

The pricing and discount summary page gives managers and admin personnel the ability to view all rules that have been created, as well as the control to amend and save at a top level, which will automatically apply these rules across the platform.

The module can be found on the main nav bar under the Products Extras section.  The rules can be viewed on multiple tabs, and pricing rules can be imported and exported in bulk quickly and efficiently using an xls or csv file.  Discounting rules can be applied as line discount or an order discount, giving you the flexibility and control to apply rules at various stages of the ordering process.

Price & discount tab

Alternatively, rules can be viewed and managed from the Sales Ledger or Stock Ledger.  In both ledgers the Price & Discounts tab can be found in the top section of the window.  The rules listed apply specifically to the sales account or stock item selected and can be added, deleted and edited from this tab.  Once added the rules are linked to the corresponding ledger automatically and any order created that meets the criteria of one of these set rules, will adjust automatically..

Examples of the different types of rules that can be applied:

  1. Qty or value price breaks to reduce cost for higher value orders
  2. Limited time promotions
  3. Discounts by brand or other custom fields
  4. Specific prices or discounts by delivery site or currency
  5. Order level discounts based on value
  6. Customer specific part names & descriptions
  7. Priority based rules for complex ordering systems
  8. Rules targeting categories of SL account or product
  9. Separate rules for trade or retail customers
  10. Combinations of all of the above

To use customer specific part names & description to search for the item when creating a new customer order it is slightly different, using the customer lookup icon – as shown below.  Part names and descriptions automatically adjust on the item line once the criteria of a rule is met.

customer lookup

For more information, please see our full guide on Pricing and discounting features, or contact our team today.

Managing Assets & Machinery

Asset Register


If a business harnesses important physical assets, keeping track of these over time quickly becomes essential.

Whether it’s your own machinery, or a piece of equipment you maintain for a client, attributing costs to these accurately is an key part of your business financial planning – and helps you make smarter decisions about future investment.

SQLWorks supports this process with a dedicated asset register – allowing the user to save a range of information (including make, model, warranty and more) for both in-house and client assets to aid day-to-day business operations. Asset Register can be found in the Stock Ledger, and helps the user build a centralised and definitive list that can be controlled with permissions groups, like any other SQLWorks Ledger.

For in-house assets, SQLWorks users can also link these assets to Purchase Orders – ensuring that asset’s data contains a detailed maintenance history that includes financials.

Helpfully, this also works across multiple Purchase Ledger suppliers, so that maintenance costs (such as repairs or replacement parts) remain accurate even if an asset’s service contract changes hands. This helps a company stay flexible, since accounting and contract periods may be much shorter than machinery lifecycles.

Assets may also be optionally enabled as a special tab in a customer’s Sales Ledger account – ensuring a service engineer can easily access known information about a client’s asset as a part of routine account maintenance. This might include location, serial numbering for identification, or notes on past repair work.

SQLWorks ensures business managers can properly document and maintain a full asset register – itself an asset to a well-informed team.

 

For expertise and software assistance, please contact our SQLWorks Team today

SQLWorks a Made Smarter UK Technology

Made Smarter Update:

Lineal’s SQLWorks Software is officially registered as a specialist UK digital technologies provider for manufacturing.

Made Smarter is a UK-Government backed initiative launched in 2017, following a nationwide review of the manufacturing sector – and includes a number of private and public sector organisations helping to modernise industry and drive adoption of productivity-boosting technology in the sector.

Recognised fields include a wide range of next-generation technologies for manufacturing such as robotics & process control, data and systems integration, mobile and wearable devices, sensor innovations, machine learning, additive manufacturing and augmented reality technology.

sqlworks on made smarter site

“We’re delighted to see SQLWorks listed among some of this country’s most advanced and cutting-edge technology solutions for manufacturing” said Lineal’s Managing Director Mike Matthews. “The Made Smarter review highlights adoption of modern technology as a keystone for industry in this country, and we want SQLWorks to underpin real advancement and strength in the industry.”

Businesses can read the original findings of the Made Smarter Review here, and learn more about Made Smarter UK here.

 

For Business Software expertise and support, please contact our team today.

Getting Started with Dispatch Planner

Dispatch Planner


Managing outbound goods often requires an overarching view of business operations ‘as-a-whole’ – looking across all sales accounts, orders and products. We’ve given users the power to do this via SQLWorks Dispatch Planner.

Dispatch Planner gives order managers and warehouse teams a comprehensive dashboard to maximise visibility and control over orders. Dispatch Planner is accessible within the Stock Ledger, and (by default) loads a comprehensive list of all outstanding customer sales Orders with key information about each order.

dispatch planner

Double clicking on an order allows a drill-down to the exact order, meaning shopfloor teams don’t need to access individual customer sales accounts to understand workloads and even check line-level detail.

Simple ‘traffic-light’ statuses indicate whether the required stock quantity is available for each order to be shipped in full. By selecting an order, dispatch managers can also view the same information for each order line of the order – with the same status indication based on free stock availability. Orders will only be considered ready to ship in full once every line on that order is available to ship.

When ready to ship, dispatches can be sent to dispatch and invoiced (and emailed automatically to the customer) in one smooth workflow, removing the outstanding order from the Dispatch Planner list.

dispatch planner

High volume companies may lengthen or shorten the time horizon of the viewed orders, or filter by warehouse. Where goods are not ‘Ready to Ship’, SQLWorks will make the user aware of why an order is delayed – for example, showing Purchasing Delays.

For companies that use Delivery/Dispatch Notes prior to invoice, the Dispatch Planner will also allow the generation of new delivery notes from here, list any valid delivery note numbers for each order for cross-referencing, and require the user to select an existing delivery note before invoicing a previous dispatch.

Dispatch Planner shows the real power of SQLWorks: as the ability to cross-reference stock control and ordering globally across the business allows you to manage operations quickly, efficiently, and with confidence.

 

You can find more detail about how to use Dispatch Planner here

Introduction to Production Planning

Production Planning


We’ve extended SQLWorks to include more powerful production planning/process routing in Version 10 – allowing Production Managers to masterplan working spaces, types of work, and employee skills to organise manufacturing capacity more effectively.

Workshop Map can be opened via the Products module in the NavBar, and uses three key elements:

  • Work Centres
These are places where work is done – normally a specific location or tooling area on the factory floor, and remember important data such as available working hours, setup/lag costs and more.
  • Processes
This is a type of manufacturing process – such as assembly, welding, mixing, painting etc, and can be restricted to specific work centres or employees.
  • Employees
This is the employee table used in SQLWorks CRM – listing your company’s available staff.

Each Process Route has a series of numbered steps (carried out in a specific order) called a Work Flow. To organise the Work Flow, the production manager simply chooses the Work Centre, Process, and Employee that is assigned at each step – by dragging and dropping them into the Workflow builder.

Workflow steps each carry associated costs and manufacturing times, allowing the system to build a comprehensive picture of the process route a finished product must follow to be completed in full.

production planning

Production managers can save Template Process Routes and assign these to Bills of Material – with the right default process routes being loaded automatically on new Works Orders to save time. Expected completion times are estimated automatically, and progress can be logged as each step of the Workflow is underway

Any Process Routes that are currently in use will be shown in the ‘Active Process Routes’ table, along with the details of the BOMs being produced which follow that process route.

Production Managers can also use this part of SQLWorks to generate reports (either from the perspective of Work Centres, Processes or Employee) to see outstanding and current Works Orders, and to gauge capacity from each.

This helps inform staffing decisions, shift patterns or identify production bottlenecks. Where there is a clash (for example, if a ‘Welding’ process employee has more welding hours due on Works Orders than is available in the calendar), SQLWorks will display ‘CLASH’ in red next to that Bill of Materials.

Overall SQLWorks’ Production Planning gives Production Managers the power to coordinate working spaces/resources, types of work, and personnel for maximum control. Production Routes help structure and streamline the manufacturing process, and organise manufacturing capacity more intelligently.

 

For expertise and software assistance, please contact our SQLWorks Team today

Using Engineering Documents

SQLWorks Document management has reached the next level, enabling tagging of engineering documents and automated printing alongside Works Orders.

As shown in our Introduction to Document Management, many types of files can be added and stored within SQLWorks, linked to other data, downloaded or referenced whenever required. Our development team have also enabled tagging of specific files as ‘engineering’ documents so they can be automatically transferred through to production.

Saving a .jpeg or .pdf to a stock item’s document tab is a simple drag-and-drop process, supported by tagging with the engineering tag. When a Works order is created for that Bill of Materials, those supporting documents can be pulled through for printing automatically.

engineering documents

This is especially useful for assembly instructions, photographs, blueprints and similar that help guide during the production process.

Setting specific criteria in ‘Accounts preferences’ and ‘Document Analysis’ which can be found on the Navbar, allows a specific ‘tag’ such as one named Engineering, to be selected when saving a document on a stock item. Tagged documents appear in the ‘Documents List’ in the top right of the Works Order automatically, and when printing or previewing your Works Order SQLWorks finds the associated document and asks you to confirm whether you would like to print the engineering documents.

engineering documents

 

This feature is especially useful if you have drawings, assembly instructions or diagrams for example, that need to accompany the Works order when sent to the shopfloor/workshop for the build process.

If you would like to find out more about how SQLWorks can make the Manufacturing processes more efficient and less time consuming, please get in touch with our SQLWorks team via email [email protected] or call 01271 441570.