This is going to come off like I have no idea what I’m doing… and that’s partially true.
I am looking into the KanBan function of Epicor to report simple assemblies as completed. I saw somewhere that you use either MRP OR Kan Ban – not both. If I don’t use MRP, what is going to generate purchase suggestions for the components used in the assembly I am KanBan-ing. Is that going to cause confusion or downright blow something up if I leave MRP on but also use Kan Ban to report the assemblies?
you can use both…
your jobs can be kanban, and can pull the inventory when you complete the kanban job… this will reduce your inventory for purchased items.
MRP will then create suggestions to purchase based on being below the minimum.
BUT ALSO… you can let MRP generate suggestions for jobs as well… just dont firm them. When you complete the kanban job, the system will automatically reduce the size of the oldest kanban job to account for the completion. The MRP jobs will also suggest material purchases and other sub-jobs as well.
ALSO, you have the ability to create KanBan POs… the system will automatically update POs that are supplied with Kanban pos.
So you have lots of options.
So if I am building assembly A, which consists of parts 1, 2, and 3… If I leave MRP off for Assembly A, MRP will still pick up the demand for parts 1, 2, and 3 because it’s below the minimum for Assembly A? Or are you referring to a purchased replenishment where parts 1, 2, and 3 are setup to be replenished by a purchasing kan kan and it sees those inventory quantities fall below their minimum?
I was hoping this was the case.
The more it looks like everything else we do the easier it will be for me to get buy-in. So I was hoping demand for the children parts would look and feel like normal - but I could tell the guys who build up PCB assemblies to start reporting them when completed using kan ban receipts. (instead of just setting them by the production line and waiting for the highest level job to be completed before anything is reported).
for the first option… if you are NOT running MRP, then you will not be told to purchase more of parts 1, 2, and 3 until AFTER you have consumed them… so you would need to make sure that you have adequate Min/Safety to complete any jobs that come along.
For option 2… running MRP will be predictive. When the job is created it creates demands for all lower level items.
My recommendation is to allow MRP to create the jobs, but also “mark” these parts in some way to know that they are kanban parts that you don’t want to firm. You can create a BPM to make sure that nobody firms these types of jobs (based on Assembly Analysis code that is on the job, or based on Product group…etc).
You’re picking up what I’m putting down and vice versa. Thank you.
I’ll give it a try.
I ended up creating a BPM on JobHead.JobFirm changed from false to true. I look up if there is a KBCode on PartWhse for the part number that the job is tied to, then I raise an exception. Does that sound about right?
@dr_dan
Dan,
Sounds right - you want to prevent firm the jobs that have a Kanban flag set.
After you are done with Kanban for mfg parts, check out Kanban for purchased parts. It is magical how it will automatically create PO releases when you need to buy more material.
Works well for the short leadtime components that you don’t want to create PO’s for.
Buyers would then run the Open PO report for the few suppliers that you have setup with Kanban PO replenishment alerting them to deliver parts.