Introduction to Work Centers and Routings

This course covers work centers and routings and work order subcontracting.

• Work centers and routings require initial entry and occasional administrative attention

• Subcontracting, although not strictly a matter of work centers and routings, is treated here because it requires special operations in the routings

• Subcontracting processing also requires knowledge of purchasing and shop floor control; this course does not cover these topics

A work center is a production area with one or more people or machines having similar capabilities.

• QAD Enterprise Applications uses work centers for scheduling, planning, and determining costs for GL transactions

• Work centers and operations work with the shop calendar, which can be used to set up work center-specific schedules

Routings list the operations required for manufacturing a product. They also indicate the work center for each operation. They sometimes have printed instructions entered in as master comments.

• Each routing normally consists of one or more operations

• Routing operations are not always necessary when:

• Total item costs consist mainly of material and overhead and the labor component is small

• Each operation involves different machines, tools, skills, and tasks, such as grinding, smoothing, and assembly

• In process industries, routings are called processes

A routing used instead of the primary routing that results in producing an identical end item.

Backflushing is the automatic recording of component/raw material issues based on the quantity of end items received and the quantity per of the component from the end item’s bill of material. It can be used for both work order and repetitive production.

The time a work order waits at a work center before being worked on. Increases in queue time result in direct increases to manufacturing lead time.

The time a work order must wait after it has been worked on, but before it is moved to the next operation (drying, curing, cooling, for example).

The time required to move work from one work center/operation to the next

The ratio of usable output from a process to its input.

Yield percent is the percentage of acceptable quality of a manufacturing order.

Operation/process yield is the ratio of usable output from a process, process stage, or operation to the input quantity, typically expressed as a percentage.

Using outside vendors for all or some operations on a work order is called subcontracting. Subcontract costs are recorded on the routing for a product.

Work centers and routings require that product structures and formulas be in place.

The section in this course on subcontracting requires superficial knowledge of purchasing and receiving.