Read alot of threads around this issue but i’m still struggling to find what the right fit for us is.
A job is created and we manufacture a pallet of product, package that product using 3 materials Strapping, TopSheet, Pallet.
A new job is created for a different operation. The pallet of product we just produced and packaged is the raw material for this operation, no new material is being added. The pallet is brought to that operation, the Strapping/TopSheet/Pallet are removed, the product is put through the new operation, that product is then stacked back on the pallet it came on, TopSheet and Strapping is reused as well to package that bundle up and put it in the yard to be sold to customers.
What is my best practice to reuse all the packaging materials in Epicor so the job cost doesn’t duplicate the cost of packaging materials?
If i have all the packaging materials in the BOM then the packaging materials are costed in the final product twice. From the original job that did the initial manufacture and packaging, then again when we run that finish product through another operation on a new job.
‘Job Receipt to Salvage’ is one option. This doesn’t feel like a perfect fit as the materials being ‘salvaged’ are the exact ones being used back in the BOM. So we pull all the materials from inventory then we salvage and send all those materials back to inventory?
Other option would be just to remove the packaging materials from the BOM of this second job. Production will just reuse the packaging they took from the raw material bundle. They can always manually issue more materials if they need.
So the packaging (pallet etc) is shipping to the customer / being stocked? If so I would think to leave that on the BOM of the first operation. ie your 2nd thought seems best.
Then on the 2nd operation, don’t include another pallet etc. Could think of it as part of the operation “take it off pallet, do operation, put back on pallet”.
On the second operation since it’s already there you really don’t need them as materials since they are already committed to the job but if you want them on the BOM for reference you can set them as a Fixed Qty of 0 and Epicor will include them in the Bill as a reference material.
Curious as to why 2 jobs are used? Maybe one job with two operations, and the materials tied to the first operation?
A few years ago I had an implementation for something similar, where we did an operation in one area, did a “request move” to put it in a WIP location until ready for the second operation. We found a single job with two operations best reflected what was happening in the physical world.
We don’t really need them on the BOM, it was more for reference, and those looking at the Job paperwork should know what’s required. Let’s avoid “I didn’t know it needed to be palletized, strapped with a top sheet, there’s nothing in the BOM about that” excuse.
Setting them as a fixed qty of 0 is something i had not thought of or heard of yet. I will definitely explore that as my solution.
@jgreenaway
I didn’t state this in my OP, but the first manufactured product could actually be sold as is. So we mfg stock of that part, if an order comes for that, great. Otherwise when we get the orders that require the 2nd operation we pull from this stock to produce. It is abit of an exception to sell the stock before the 2nd operation but still a possibility and im operating with that in mind.
We are not yet that sophisticated in our Epicor environment where we could do this quickly/easily. We are aware of the ‘request move’ functionality but have little to no idea how it actually functions. So that is a large project in and of itself to figure out and implement. Mobile Warehouse has been talked about for a few years, if we ever pull the trigger on that im sure it’ll come up.
Additional Info:
I am coming at this from the angle of std costing and job variances. Our variances and inventory goes out of whack due to double costing packaging, double pulling packaging from BOMs. Setting BOM to 0 should solve this, adds visibility, doesn’t add cost.
In the past i’ve been told by our cost account that BOMs could not have a qty/parent of 0, i don’t remember the reasoning. Is there anything you can think of?
Does ‘Fixed Qty’ operate differently?
I believe 0 Qty/Parent was added somewhere around Epicor 10.1 or 10.2 - before that Epicor wouldn’t allow you to approve a method with 0 qty/parent. I know that on 10.2.700 we are able to have BOMs with 0 qty/parent to do this exact same thing. We want the packaging on the BOM for reference, but we’re able to reuse packaging from previous operations so we don’t want to include it in the cost or drive demand for it.
I normally see this done as two different part numbers, since the fit/form/function is being changed by the 2nd job. Part #1 is created by job 1 where the packaging materials are in that BOM. Part #1 then becomes the material for job 2 where the work done turns it into part #2. This also lets you track the sales for each and cost them appropriately.