Shop Floor
Shop Floor Commander
The Shop Floor Commander brings together all the Shop Floor functions with the Job Record. Click the Run MRP button to have Merlin process the MRP for this job, create the necessary jobs for any subassemblies, purchase materials for this job and any subassembly jobs created, and allocate materials to these jobs.
Looking at the form above, you can immediately see the progress of the selected job. The on Shelf? Check (report) has been run (the date this was done is shown in the panel), and the tick in the check box indicates that there were shortages, but the button is still active so that the report can be re-run at any time.
The MRP process has not yet been run for this job, and consequently the Run MRP and Allocate buttons are enabled.
The Next Action panel on the right tells you what the next step is for this job (Run MRP or Allocate Stock), and reminds you to Fix Shortages! if appropriate. You can do these things manually if you wish, but clicking Run MRP will save you vast amounts of time!
In any event, you will need to print a Pick List for each job. You have the choice of generating a simple list adequate for picking the materials required for the job, or printing a fully detailed list with Build Instructions and BoM Item Notes against each item.
To issue the materials for the job (once they have been physically picked), simply click the Issue button. A dialogue will appear, asking how many assemblies you wish to issue for. This is because you do not have to issue the materials for the complete production run if you do not wish to.
The default offered will be either the entire run quantity, or, if a partial issue has already taken place, the balance of the issue for the entire run. Merlin automatically processes all the stock movements and (and movement histories), as at all other stages, you will be offered a printed report of the transactions.
You can then progress the job through the various manufacturing stages by clicking the Shop Floor tab - please see Shop Floor Progress below.
The command buttons are active or inactive according to the status of the job. You can click to print a Labour (Non-Physical Components) Analysis, and you can run Special Issue which we will detail below. You could also De-Issue materials if for any reason you wish to or need to, but the button is inactive here because no materials have yet been issued to this job. More information below.
The Special Issue button enables you to issue materials to the job additional to those on the BoM. (These can be additional quantities of items that are on the BoM, or entirely different items.) These items will be removed from stock and will show on any Job Costing subsequently run. This can be useful to replace breakages, or for ad hoc items like glue and solder which you may not wish to itemise on the BoM.
The De-Issue button does what it says and reverses the issue of materials to this job, returning them to stock. Please note, it does not currently reverse issue any items drawn using Special Issue.
The Job and Assembly Notes Tab contains edit boxes with any notes that have been entered on the Job record Card or in the BoM Library such notes can also be entered or edited here.
Run MRP
Unless you wish to do a lot of manual work, every top-level job on your system needs to have the MRP Process run against it. You can do this at job-level here in ShopFloor Commander, or more efficiently at Job Series Level or All Outstanding Jobs level in Buying Office/Run MRP.
You cannot Run MRP for subassembly jobs. This is because Merlin QuarterMaster will drill down and take care of the subassembly requirements.
Please note: if a job is part of a Job Series, the Run MRP option will not be available. Either remove the job from the series (in Manager/Job Management by clearing the Job Series field) if you wish to process it independently, or process the series as a whole in Buying Office/Run MRP.
The Run MRP feature, ( Merlin's legendary QuarterMaster), is immensely powerful. Not only will it raise Purchase Orders and Works Orders, but also will offer to AutoCreate Jobs for all the subassemblies required, and AutoAllocate Materials to the Top Level Job and all of the Subassembly Jobs that were AutoCreated. (Please see the note at the foot of this page headed AutoGenerated Job Numbers.)
Select Make-up Shorts or Full Kit for Job and then click OK. Numerous reports will be offered to view on screen or print (at your discretion), so you can see in detail what is happening, and back-out at the last minute if for any reason you wish to.
Please note: if Production Batch Quantities have been set for any assemblies on their Stock Record Cards, the Works Orders (and subassembly jobs) for these items will be generated only in multiples of the batch, even if shortages are being corrected and the whole batch is not required. However, if there are repetitions of the same subassembly, any quantities over-called because of the batch setting will be credited to the next encountered requirement. If this does not satisfy the requirement, a further Works Order will be generated at the batch quantity, or a multiple thereof.
Jobs AutoCreated for subassemblies by Run MRP will be Authorised ready for
Shop Floor processing.For more information, please see [Buying Office/Run MRP].
The Waiting Items Tab contains a list of all materials that were physically short when stock items were issued to the job. It is greyed out in the top screenshot , because no materials had yet been issued to the job (as it would be if there were no Waiting Items). Were materials to be issued at that stage, when shortages exist, there would be a record of the short (or Waiting) items shown on this tab, as in the example above. Note how the tab name has come alive to indicate the presence of data.
To issue the Waiting Items to this job from the Waiting Items list, click the Edit button on Merlin Navigator, use the drop down box at the top of the form to select the item you wish to issue, use the spinner to adjust (if necessary) the quantity to be issued from the Waiting Items List, and click the Issue button. Finally, click the Save button on Merlin Navigator. (Please note: the Revert Button will not reverse this action.)
Repeat this for each item on the list as it becomes available. (The Goods In module in Buying Office will notify you every time you receive materials that are on a Waiting Items list.) As these items are issued to the jobs, they will be removed from the Waiting Items Lists.
To enter the dates on which each Shop Floor Process was started and then finished, click Edit, Shop Floor and click the box in the grid that you want to edit. You can navigate around the grid using the tab key and up/down arrow keys on your keyboard.
Click the Save button when you have finished.
This tab uses the same Merlin Colour Alert system as Job Cards and WiP Shcedule - BLUE for DUE TODAY and RED for LATE.
AutoGenerated Job Numbers
As you will know, each job on your system must have a unique Job Number. In order to AutoGenerate Jobs we have had to use an algorithm that will generate a Job Number that is highly unlikely (impossible, we believe!) to exist already on your file. This has been done by using the first ten characters of the Top Level Job Number, (all of them, if there are ten or less) followed by an underscore, followed by an apparently meaningless 9 character alpha/numeric number.
This might look something like JOB1234567_WOKK36L95 You can see an example in the top screen illustration on this page.
The subassemblies in a series should have suffixes which flow logically, so the next one in this series would probably be JOB1234567_WOKK36L96 The suffix is not entirely meaningless, though its actual derivation is not useful to you! If you do not like working with these numbers, you can edit them once the jobs are created, but take into account that you never have to remember or type the job numbers in Merlin MRP 2000.
In the very unlikely (impossible?) event that an AutoGenerated Job Number is not unique to your file, the Job will not be created, and a report will be generated listing the job(s) for you to create manually. This is a fail-safe routine, and we are confident that it will never happen.