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Manufacturing software

Production orders and bills of materials. From proposal to closed order.

In Lean ERP, production orders and bills of materials (BOMs) are linked. The order knows what it has to make, with which components and on which workstation, and the shop floor books what is finished.

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How is a production order created?

In Lean, a production order does not appear out of nowhere. There are two routes, and both start from a real demand.

From material requirements. The calculation sees that something has to be made for a sales order or for stock, and prepares a provisional production order. The planner reviews that proposal and confirms it. Only then does the order get a definitive number.

From the sales order. For made-to-order work, you choose "Create production (job)" in the sales order. Lean shows per step which hours and items it derives from the bill of materials. You choose the job type and confirm. The job and the work orders per workstation are then ready to be planned.

Material requirements ›

Where does the order stand?

Every production order goes through the same stages. Everyone can see which stage it is in.

  1. 1
    ProposalThe order comes from the calculation and is waiting for the planner.
  2. 2
    CreatedThe planner has confirmed the order.
  3. 3
    ValidatedThe order has been checked. Logistics may stage the components.
  4. 4
    ReleasedThe order is on the shop floor and can be started.
  5. 5
    ClosedProduction has stopped; no more output is booked.

How do you follow progress?

The shop floor screen shows per order what has been made against what is required: 0 / 2 means none of the two is finished. The operator books output during the work, not afterwards.

The performance overview shows per order and per line the progress, the measured pace against the standard and an expected end time. So the planner sees before the end of the day whether an order will make its time.

If the quantity of an order changes, the component lines scale along. Nobody recalculates the material by hand.

Shop floor ›

Multi-level bills of materials and recipes

A bill of materials says what goes into a product. In Lean, every component is itself an item, and can therefore have its own bill of materials.

Semi-finished productsA mass, a frame or a subassembly with its own bill of materials, used in a finished product.
The full treeOne click shows all levels of a product beneath each other, down to the last raw material.
Where usedPer item, you see in which bills of materials it appears. Useful when a component changes or disappears.
Workstation per componentPer line, you record quantity, sequence and work centre. Per workstation: pieces per hour, fixed hours and cost per piece.
Cost build-upOptionally, Lean rolls up the cost price across all levels, with loss and yield per line.
RecipesFor food, nutritional values and allergens are attached to the tree.

Made-to-order: the order leads

In made-to-order work, almost every order deviates from the standard. That is why in Lean you adjust the bill of materials in the sales order itself: an extra component, a different size, fewer hours. The item's standard bill of materials stays untouched.

The production job you create from that order starts from the adjusted bill of materials. Each component follows its workstation, and the hours per step come from the hour lines in the bill of materials.

Today, bills of materials have no separate versions with a validity date. A deviation for one order is recorded in that order.

What information does the order need?

An order can be ready in terms of material and still be unable to start because a drawing or a measurement is missing. With IRP, you see on the work orders of a job, per step, which information is expected and what is not there yet.

How IRP works ›

Frequently asked questions about production orders and BOMs

Can I create a production order by hand?

In Lean, production orders start from a demand: a proposal from material requirements that the planner confirms, or a production job from a sales order. That way, every order is linked to the reason it exists.

How many levels can a bill of materials have?

A component can have its own bill of materials, and so can its components. The tree view shows all levels and protects against a bill of materials that refers to itself.

Does Lean manage versions of a bill of materials?

Not as separate versions with a validity date. A deviation for one order is recorded in the order itself, without changing the standard bill of materials.

Read more

Production planning ›Material requirements ›Shop floor ›Traceability and quality ›Job costing ›
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