[Web-erp-developers] Re: Re-Ordering

[Phil D. <ph...@du...>]

I have been going through the re-ordering problem with a couple of =
knowledgeable friends. We were looking at it from the industrial and =
manufacturing side. It seems that the system is even more complicated =
than I originally thought.

>We came up with the following issues :
>1) If a stock Item has a reorder level and has a BOM all sub level =
items should have at least the same reorder level multiplied by quantity =
required. Enforcing this >will solve the problem later when we need to =
determine which items need re-ordering.

But wait there's more ..... what about uneven stock levels of the =
components - the stock of nails comes in boxes of 50,000 they are in the =
BOM for coffins x 20 peices per coffin. 2000x600 sheet of ply is also in =
the BOM x 2. and the warehouse is not that big to hold 50,000/20 =3D =
2,500 x 2 =3D 5,000 sheets of ply. Nor would the cash required for this =
much want to be held. It makes more sense to do the ordering based on =
EOQ and reorder quantity by each item - assembly items excepted - but =
the components of assembly items NOT excepted.

Bottom line .... everyone will want to do it differently - just my 2c. I =
do it using the planning report I wrote for the purpose.


>2) ???Should customer orders be deducted from LocStock Available =
quantity or is it already deducted. If not they should be included in =
the calculation process. >Or better yet we should add the field to =
LocStock although I am pretty sure I saw it there.

The quantity on order from customers -demand should be deducted off the =
stock on hand in the calculation - this is how it appears on the stock =
status inquiry -but this is derived from the orderdetails table and is =
not held as a quantity in the LocStock table. If we add the field to =
LocStock this needs on going maintainance better just to re-caclulate it =
when we need it. .... in my view.


>3) Some variable in config.php which will state how long after =
non-delivery a supplier order should still be considered as stock =
already ordered and therefore >included/discounted from re-ordering =
calculations

>This will then solve the problem for most retail shops when re-ordering =
is calculated.


I can't follow this logic.


>For Industrial companies we came up with the following issues.
>When placing an order for manufacturing is become important to =
calculate a delivery date for each order line containing manufactured =
item. We will also need to >distinguish between different delivery =
times. Also project planning/management will probably be a good way to =
get more accurate delivery dates and in order to >get that we will need =
basic human resources with employee skills / job descriptions, as well =
as availability, leave and sick leave.

Manufacturing Materials Requirements Planning - (MRP) is quite another =
long and tortuous story. However, one that I am eager to get stuck into. =
There is a whole area of manuafacturing that web-erp does not do ...yet. =
Work Orders, issues, receipts, variances, labour routings - how long it =
should take to make something. Cost roll ups from bills of materials. =
Master Production Schedule, Capacity buckets and capacity planning. So =
there is plenty to work on!

Project planning I see as outside the scope of the system - there are =
some pretty good ones about - dotproject looks good to me.


>Issues discussed around additional fields, are
>1) latest delivery date with customer order item line, would be used =
for project planning /  management.

There is currently only one delivery date per order - why not a new =
order when good to be delivered on different days?


>2) employee, leave, sick leave, job-sheet, customer importance/priority =
in terms of project planing and emergency re-planning in event of sick =
leave interfering or >breakdown of machinery.

>3) employee skill/job specification with priority and rate / hour which =
will be used to increase production speed and decrease cost, also =
minimum hours required >per month/week. Management substitutions must be =
allowed for projects.

>4) sales cost calculation should be available either on worst possible =
normal operation and average cost per hour, or average time per =
job/operation at average >cost.
>5) true cost is calculated with each job, average cost could then be =
maintained.

There is no HR stuff in the system at all - HR is different for each =
country although there may be some commonality. I think there is a =
danger in one system claiming to cover all bases. I would rather HR =
payroll be outside the scope of the system. Sick leave, holiday are part =
of a payroll system.

What you are considering is part of MRP and master production =
scheduling. There are 1000s of reasons to put one job (work order) ahead =
of another - this is the most complex part of manufacturing and needs =
very careful design and a whole lot of coding. I will confine my work to =
the work centre level though avoiding individual employees.

>This seems like a very tall order.

No doubt about that! We are some considerable way from being capable of =
offering manufacturing functionality to clients.



>I have been concentrating on getting WebERP 2.8 in a position where I =
can give it to a prospect without him asking me what a field, function =
or report is for when >it is not as yet used or required by him. When I =
do disable functionality or fields I disable them with a variable flag =
in the config.php file. I have for instance >disabled account checking, =
and re-ordering. I am also in the process of adding some quick links =
such as add new customer when order entry does not return a >customer =
for search criteria. I still need to add security check to this so it is =
only available for the correct security level. I will continue to do =
both the variable >adding / function disabling and the Manual writing =
process.=20

>I have already seen an advantage for this in customer configuration =
where he does not require full functionality. A simple installation =
wizard could enable and >disable these variables based on requirements. =
We could even incorporate them into the database at a later stage =
although I think this might slow things down.

There is some abiliity to tailor screens based on login from the user =
set up screen - individual clients could have links removed as =
necessary.

Phil