We have an issue with a new Job Scheduling requirement.
We have a final assembled product that has a part created by a sub assembly in the MOM. There needs to be a lag from when the Sub Assy Job starts to when the 1st op in the main assy job starts (its actually a cooling period as the component in ASM 1 is injection molded). For efficiency reasons we don’t want to wait until the sub assy job has finished, we only want an “X” hour time difference between ASM1 OP 010 starting and the ASM 0 Op 010 starting. We know this can be done with ops in the same assy but can it be done from a sub assy to the main one.
The current job is scheduled as below, note that ASM 1 is finished before ASM 0b OP 010 is schedule to start
Does the cooling period consume a resource too? Like if it has to cool in furnace, thus preventing the furnace from being used for anything else.
Or could a “cooling” operation be created, that doesn’t require anything but moving from the furnace to a cooling area? Maybe make the “cooling area” a resource so that it doesn’t get double booked.
Hi Carl
Thanks for the reply
No resources used, essentially we just want to place the components in a holding area until the cooling period is up and then start consuming them into the assembly ops.
Our issue is that we can’t see how pull Op 010 of ASM 0 to start before the end of op 010 of ASM 1.
If we have 15 hours of molding and 20 hours of assembly, we dont want Epicor to be planning the start of the next job 35 hours after the start of this one( as per 1st image), we should have the molding start then 3 hours later start the assembly with an elapsed time of 23 hours (as per second image).
Hope this makes sense
Hi Chris
We’ve tried this and it only seems to work (and we’ve been told this by our local Epicor Consultants) for Operations within the same assembly, not between Sub Assemblies. Do you know if this should/does work across assemblies and any other tricks that make the magic happen?
You could add an Additional “cooling” operation to the end of the subassembly for a fixed number 1 hour prod time. You would probably want to set up some kind of 0 cost infinite resource to schedule this against.
Hi Zack, Thanks for the suggestion.
We’re not trying to push ASM 0 Op 10 out, we want to run it earlier.
At the moment (see 1st Image) if ASM 1 Op 10 “0210655 (1/10)” is planned to run for approx 10 hours. Then ASM 01 op 10 “0210655 (0/10)” starts and runs for approx 15 hours, this gives an elapsed time of 25 hours and means the next job would be planned to start at 18:00 on Friday.
What we want to happen is that “X” hours into “0210655 (1/10)” (as per 2nd image this is 5 hours) the 1st components of “0210655 (1/10)” will be cool enough to use so we want to start “0210655 (0/10)” at this point. This would give us an elapsed job time of 20 hours resulting in the next job planned start at 13:00.
If this was op 10 and op 20 in the same assembly we would be able to use Send ahead as per @cbradford suggestion, but its the Sub Assembly barrier that seems to cause the headache
Hello Greg, I see your post here and wondering what you ended up doing?
We have the same “flow” issue with a molded subassembly and the scheduling engine does NOT seem to allow you to overlap assemblies to adjust for starting the parent assembly level prior to the lower level being all completed.
I would add move time into the last operation on the child, which will create a gap between that and the starting operation of the parent. Either that, or add queue time to the starting operation on the parent.
The best solution is to create a single “Cool” operation as the last operation for the subassembly. This operation would be a no-value add operation… the resource attached to it would be no-cost, but could also have a 24/7 calendar, so that if you finished the job at the end of the shift, the 16 overnight hours would be counted and would not consume unnecessary time.
We do this trick all the time when an extra gap in the schedule is needed.
The ONLY problem in your case is that this is the LAST operation for that subassembly… someone will need to clock in and report it “completed” in order for it to move on.
Greg, I put a support call in on this “flow” topic for start to start with a subassembly with screen shots similar to yours.
I was told there was an enhancement put into 10.2.400 to add more options for this behavior. We are on 10.2.200 now and will go up to the 10.2.500 or 600 later this year.
Also it seems to me that forward scheduling acts differently than backwards scheduling with regards to the start to start setup.
FYI
Hi Brad
We have got a process that works now. We are on 10.2.400. We’re just testing a CSG mod update as we found an issue with a posting extension we have that splits material into 4 definitive buckets for COGS.
Once we’re through testing I’ll ask our tech to post our solution to this thread. Hopefully it’ll help you along the way as well
Any updates on this topic? We are currently on 10.2.500 Cloud, this feature still doesn’t seem to be working as expected. Start-Start has no affect on the subassembly. Can you confirm who told you that this enhancement was made?
