Phantom items are used in manufacturing to define items that are made and consumed in the production process without being kept in inventory. For example, a wire harness that exists only briefly on the assembly line as a separate subassembly is defined as a phantom. Phantoms can be defined as local, global, or both. For more information on phantoms, see QAD Manufacturing User Guide.

Global phantoms identify an item as a phantom on all bills of material. You can perform routing cost rollups on global phantom items. Only lower-level labor, burden, and subcontract costs of a global phantom item are included in the parent item’s cost when the product structure cost rollup is performed.

In some cases, a global phantom can also require the issue of work orders to build the item as a stockable item, such as a service part. If you need to build and stock a phantom item, the routing and product structure cost rollups calculate this-level costs correctly.

Local phantoms are treated like phantoms only in specific product structures. The use of local phantoms is discouraged because this-level labor and overhead costs for local phantoms roll up into the parent item’s cost, causing manufacturing variances.