Hi,
We’re having some issues with backflushing materials. I’ve just created a BAQ looking at complete jobs where the materials are flagged as backflushed but they have not been issued complete and there’s quite a lot of them…worryingly. Can anyone advise why this might be?
Jonathan
Did you complete the operations that they are related to?
I find this happens to us when the job is tinkered with after it has been transacted against. Not saying anyone did anything wrong or bad or whatever.
One trick I have done is schedule the job again, then backflush from Job Closing screen. I have found that to help.
We never complete the vast majority of ~200 operations that the parts are related to, and backflushing usually goes off without a hitch.
Do you have any problems with materials being backflushed twice? We seem to have been bitten by that before, so we don’t use the backflush on job closing.
As it happens I’ve been looking at our backflushing this morning. I’d forgotten how much of a minefield it can be.
You don’t mention the Job Completion Exception Tracker. I’d start there to see what’s going on with specific problem jobs.
We have had problems with that, but not in a while.
I mean, they tell you not to issue a backflushable part and then go backflush it, or it’ll double, and sure that’s true.
But I think you mean even beyond that, and yes, I have seen where it’s backflushed twice.
Ever since we put material issuing in the hands of one very responsible woman, it has not been a problem.
So basically you use one or the other for backflushing. Either you complete the operations that the materials are related to and they backflush. OR you backflush at job closing. But not both, because that causes problems. Which is dumb in my opinion, and I wish Epicor would actually look at that and fix it for real world, not so perfect scenarios.
Well, we do quite a mix, but the main problem is with our truck jobs, which are massive and complex (kinda redundant, I guess).
For those, we never report quantity by operation; we just backflush everything at job start and hope for the best and yell later.
Where it gets tricky (or it used to) is when we are trying to run out a part (deja vu) and we accidentally backflushed one we don’t have, so we have to return it.
Or I think more likely the problem was when we used to backflush later, at literal job completion, but we just wanted to issue (i.e. with the Issue Material screen) a run-out part right now so we could use up all the quantity and inactivate it and be done with it. Then somehow, despite unchecking backflush (maybe too late), it still backflushed a second quantity later.
Yeah I have wondered (1) how it remembers that you issued a part (not backflushed), and (2) why it remembers. Who cares if it was issued or backflushed? Quantity of it got to the job.
Did this get fixed in a later version?
I don’t know, they didn’t upgrade at my old job, and my new job doesn’t use backflush, so I haven’t really looked.
this is the first time ive seen it happen. we had someone DMR-MTL a backflush part which satisfied the required quantity and then then completed the op and it backflushed more. we are on 10.2.700
Anytime you complete an OP it will backflush. So if you issued some manually (or DMR’d) and then you complete quantity, it will backflush more. You can over produce, and it will keep issuing material.
In that situation, you want to DMR back to inventory, not the job. Backflush will pull it into the job then.