Create Sales Order

This is  where you enter Sales Orders and authorise them to create active manufacturing  jobs.

Each time you enter this screen, you will be prompted if you have Late Jobs, and asked if you want to view them.  Clearly, these are items which might need your attention.

The Sales Orders & Jobs screen is very similar to the Job Record Card in Job Tracking, and functions in most ways the same, except for three important items.

Firstly, you cannot add new records in Job Tracking, which is to say that you cannot enter Sales Orders, nor Authorise them to create active production jobs.  This has to be done here.

Secondly, following from the above, you will note that the Sales Orders & Job Authorisation card has the additional command button marked Authorise.

Thirdly, you will also see that the screen has an Auto-Set Job Series control.  Each time you enter the Sales Orders & Job Authorisation screen, this will default to the value you used for the last Job Number in your sequence (as per the Sales Order Card you first see).  When you enter Edit Mode (ADD New Record or EDIT Record) this control will become active.  Click the appropriate radio button to select the option you require, if not the currently selected value.  This will reposition the cursor in the Job Number field.  Unless you change it, the current selection will remain active throughout this session.

You enter a Sales Order by clicking Add New Record, entering the job details in the appropriate fields, and clicking Save Record.  But this is not an active job, and will not be accessible for manufacturing until you click the Authorise command button.

Until this is done, the items in question will not be visible anywhere else in 
Merlin MRP Factory, and will be ignored by the system in every way, except that they are visible in Job Tracker/WiP Schedule and shown as Not Authorised.

This means that you can enter customer orders as they are received, but that the jobs to satisfy these orders remain inactive until it is time for them to go into production, or some other criteria has been met, and you Authorise them when ready.

You can, if you wish, plan out and create jobs for the subassemblies that are required by your jobs for top-level assemblies, in which case some extra fields will appear for top-level job details.  However, there is no need to go to all this trouble.  You need only create the job for the top-level assembly and allow the MRP Process to analyse the BoM Tree and set up associated subassembly jobs as and where needed.

If you wish to build subassemblies for holding in stock in anticipation of future need, you can create production jobs for these as top-level jobs with HOUSE as the customer.  However, the same principle applies: create the job for the "top-level" subassembly, and allow the MRP process to do the rest of the work for you.

Entering the Data

The information required to create a new job is pretty minimal and obvious, but even so Merlin uses intelligence to try to provide most of the detail for you.  When you click the Add New Record button, a new Record Card will be created and Merlin will suggest a Job Number for you.  You can accept this or change it, but please see the important Job No. Note below.

Tab into the Raised (date) field and you will see that today's date has been suggested.  Change this if you wish.  Merlin tries to help with the Start Date and Finish Date for your job, and for the time being will suggest this date as the Start Date, and calculate the Finish Date and Delivery Due Date from this point.  Don't worry if these dates are not correct!  You can change them you get to the appropriate fields.  If you have selected an Auto-Set Job Series option, a Job Series number will be proposed at this stage.

Hit tab again and you will enter the Job Series field.  You can use this to give any number of jobs a common Job Series Number which will link them together as a group (or more precisely, a Buying Group) for purchasing materials.  (Please see Buying / Run MRP.)  In this way you can link all of your jobs for, say, each week or calendar month by giving them a common
Job Series Number (or name) such as [MNTH_5/2005].  In this way you can control precisely when you process each Job Series.

If you have selected an Auto-Set Job Series option as described above Merlin may already have proposed a Job Series number, because whenever a Start Date for the job is entered or amended, the appropriate Job Series number will be generated.

Now select the Assembly Number for this job from the drop-down combo  Check (click) the Subassembly check box (click again if you want to uncheck it) if you are manually setting up a job for a subassembly required by a Top Level job..  A field will then appear asking you for the Works Order Number for this job (see Buying / Shopping List).  However, you do not need to manually create jobs (or Works Orders) for subassemblies unless you really want to.  Please see Msanufacturing / Run MRP and Buying / Run MRP.

Next set the run quantity in the Run spinner by typing it in or using the up/down arrows, then enter the appropriate information (if any) in the remaining fields.  If you already hold stock for this assembly, Merlin will warn you and ask if you wish to set-off the stock holding against the job run.

Now use the drop-down box to select your customer ID from your
The Market / Business Contacts records.  (you can key-in the ID code if you know it.)
The customer's name will then appear in the field to the right.

You will note that Merlin has suggested a Start Date for the job as previously explained, which will be the same as the Raised date; a Finish Date based on the Start Date plus the Lead Time for the assembly, as set on its Stock Record Card, and a Due Date which is the Finish Date plus  1 day.  You can change these if you wish to.

Merlin will then check the feasibility of these dates taking into account whether or not sufficient free stock of materials is available, lead times if not, and the time required for the
Manufacturing Processes, calculated against the daily Working Hours specified in
Admin / Set Parameters, and whether or not the track is clear at the appropriate times.  Warnings with optional actions will be issued if problems are encountered.

If you have selected an Auto-Set Job Series option (above) and you change the Start Date (or the Delivery Due Date, which will recalculate the Start Date) the Job Series Number will be recalculated as necessary.

Merlin will also have set a Cost for the job based on the Stock Record Card Cost Price (please see Resources / Resource Record Cards and Design / Assembly Costing) and a Value which is the Cost Price plus any percentage Mark Up and Rounding, according to the settings in Set Parameters (Please see Admin / Set Parameters).  These also can be changed if incorrect.

The Route dropdown will automatically be populated with the Default Route for the assembly in question (as defined in Assembly Library).  This can be changed by selecting an alternative Route from the dropdown.  An analysis of the Route activity spanning any period can be generated from Job Tracking / WiP Schedule.

A Job Record Card can be deleted manually until the job is Authorised, provided it is not for a subassembly with a linked Works Order No.  Otherwise jobs can only be Stopped.

"Old" closed or Stopped jobs can be flushed from the file using the Admin tab, if they precede the date specified in Set Parameters to define old records.

Job Numbers

Merlin can take care of your Job Number sequence for you.  All you have to do is set your Next Job Number in Admin / Set Parameters one time.  Each time you create a new
Job Record Card in Sales Orders & Jobs,  Merlin will suggest a job number in the form of the Job No. Prefix (if specified) in Set Parameters or the first three letters of your company name, followed by an underscore character, followed by the next (auto incremented) number in the sequence.  This will look something like MER_123456.

You can change this Job Number if you wish to, but if you are doing this for an exceptional reason and wish to maintain the integrity of your running job number sequence, then you should be aware that if you use other numbers in place of those suggested it could cause the auto incrimination to jump forward.  It cannot be adjusted backwards again, so as you tab from the Job Number field watch Last Used Auto Number box to see if the sequence number increments by more than one.  If it does, go back and amend your Job Number.

To avoid this happening, ensure that the character which follows the position of the original underscore (i.e. the fifth character in the string) is not numeric.

Job Status

Please see Job Tracking / Job Record Cards.

Job Progress

If you have set a Shop Floor Sequence for this assembly in BoM Editor, then when you Authorised the job, the Shop Floor Sequence will have been taken from the BoM and will be shown on the Progress tab.

This screen uses the Merlin Colour Alert system.  If a date is shown in BLUE it indicates that the process DUE to start or finish TODAY.  If a date is RED it indicates that the process is LATE.

This information will also be used by WiP Schedule in Job Tracking.

For more information, please see Manufacturing / Shop Floor Controller.

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