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Engineering Management
The INFO.NET Engineering Module controls all part master, bill of material and routing definitions.

This module covers the following:
· Defining engineering management parameters
· Defining Inventory classes
· Defining units of measure
· Defining attributes and grades
· Defining resource classes
· Maintaining part numbers
· Bills of material
· Manufacturing routings
· Manufacturers.
· Manufacturer / vendor authorized part number definitions
· Part number aliases, cross references and substitutes
· Machines and tools
· Engineering Changes
· Document and library definitions
· Coproduct and / or byproduct definitions

Whitepapers are listed at the bottom of this page that further explain these areas.
Placing your cursor over any of the features listed below, will give you more information about the subject.

Inventory Item SpecificationsINFO.NET provides for inventory item specifications in two ways:

- Documents links are available that can point to drawings or written specifications as well as vendor web pages.·

- Specific numeric item specifications can be defined by means of item attributes. The item attributes can define specific acceptable values or acceptable numeric ranges. The attributes can be used for inventory control and/or for testing, as well as for various other purposes.

Engineering Document ControlINFO.NET provides the ability to link drawings, specifications, instructions and any other type of document to a specific part number. This includes links to vendor web pages that can be used to provide additional information on a purchased item.

The linked engineering documents can also include audio, video, graphic and/or text attachments or any link to a document stored accessable to a networked computer.

Although off-line documents will not be available on line, the engineering document system can also be used to reference off-line documents with instructions on locating the actual hard copy.

Inventory Item Revision ControlThe INFO.NET system provides the user the option of maintaining revision control over all inventory items. If revision control is not in use, no references to part number revisions will be seen on the system’ screens. If revision control is in use, every part number entry will be accompanied by a revision field. An exception is in the sales order definition where the default will be to sell and ship the oldest revision of an item currently in inventory. This, however can be overridden by the entry of a valid revision during sales order entry.

All inventory quantities will be segregated by item revision and all transactions will refer to specific item revisions.

Bills of Material Cost Roll UpIn a standard cost production environment, the rollup of all the standard material and labor costs within bills of material and routings is a required feature. The INFO.NET bill of material and routing rollup will calculate costs for any number of standard cost environments, including the full suite of fifteen individual cost elements for both the single level values and for elemental values.

Multiple Item Alias DefinitionsThere are often many different requirements for defining an identifier for an inventory item, or an item that is available for sales, or an item that the user may wish to buy. The INFO.NET system provides different methods of defining identifiers, in addition to the regular part number identifier. For purchased items, either vendor identifiers or manufacturer part numbers can be defined.

Any number of part number aliases can be defined for a part number, which can be linked to either a vendor or customer. These part number aliases can be used in place of the regular internal part numbers in any of the system transaction processes.

‘Quick Response Code’ (QRC) DefinitionsAny number of ‘Quick Response Codes’ (QRC) can be assigned to inventory items for use in documents or as an adjunct to the item’s documentation.

Manufacturer DefinitionsIndividual manufacturer definitions can be created that include their name, address and any number of communication entries, including web sites. The manufacturer entry will also permit the tracking of individuals within the manufacturer’s company including a log of contacts made with each of the individuals

Manufacturer Web Site AccessIf the user has specified a manufacturer web site as a part of the manufacturer data, the web site can be accessed directly from the manufacturer edit or query programs.

Multiple Units of Measure/Container DefinitionsEvery inventory item can be assigned any number of units of measure and these units of measure can be used in all of the system’s inventory transaction programs. In defining the alternate units of measure, a conversion factor will be used to adjust quantities between the units of measure must be specified. As an additional control, the number of acceptable decimals for each defined unit of measure must also be specified.

The system will use this entry to adjust quantities when calculating yields or planned order quantities – and will also use this entry to edit user entries when moving material with inventory transactions.

The system will use these alternate units of measure to permit the user to define a primary stocking unit of measure, a primary purchasing unit of measure and a primary sales / marketing unit of measure for inventory items. Containers are a type of unit of measure, indicating the amount or number of an item that can be held in the container. The container definitions will be used in car loading calculations and shipment tracking.

Alternate Bills of MaterialIf a bill of material for an assembly has multiple legitimate versions, an alternate bill of material code can be used to define any number of versions of the assembly structure. An example of an alternate bill of material is the possibility of different components being available for the same use in an assembly.

The standard bill of material (defined by a “null” alternate B/M code) will define the default structure, and the second structure could be defined by an alternate code of “alt1” (as an example). Any ten alphanumeric character code can be used to define an alternate bill of material. The alternate codes can be used when creating new work order or repetitive schedules in the work order add routines.

Use to Deplete (Exhaust)An instruction that an item should be used until its stock is exhausted. A 'use to depletion' replacement process is usually defined when the date on which such an out of stock condition will occur, is unknown. Exhaust dispositions can be assigned in the engineering change system for components being replaced in assemblies, and this disposition will then be used during the MRP calculations to plan the introduction of the replacement inventory item.

Pending and Historical Engineering Change TrackingEngineering change control is available at the assembly and component level including multiple engineering disposition categories. Once defined, the engineering change data will be used in the MRP calculations and the results of any number of pending engineering changes can be seen at any time by indicating a future date in the bill of material queries and reports.The implementation of an engineering change will result in one or more user specified line items in the engineering change being closed and results of the change will be implemented in the bill of material.

Routing Cost RollupsIf routings are defined, the manufactured item costs will be computed at the operation level.If alternate bills of material or routings have been defined, a cost rollup may be made through a user specified set of alternate bills and / or routings. In addition to calculating standard cost, the rollup procedure also calculates assembly time fences.

Labor and Equipment Resource DefinitionsEvery employee and defined tool and machine must be assigned to a resource class in the INFO.NET system. In a standard cost environment, the resource class will provide the employee or equipment standard cost – and for capacity planning purposes, the resource classes will provide a means of categorizing the types of labor or equipment.

Routing Operation DocumentsAny number of documents can be assigned to routing operations to assist in describing the operation or to provide instructions in performing the operational task. The documents can provide text, video, audio or web site access.

Preventive Maintenance Tracking and SchedulingIf required, each tool or machine can have a preventive maintenance schedule algorithm defined. Once available, the system will produce a listing of the tool or machines scheduled for preventive maintenance between user specified dates.

The preventative maintenance type codes include:
· Hours of use. The shop floor transactions are required to produce the data that can be used to schedule this type of preventive maintenance
· Processed units. As above, the shop floor transactions are required to produce the data that can be used to schedule this type of preventive maintenance.
· Number of days between preventive maintenances
. · Day of month. The number of months between maintenances will also be requested.


Routing Operation Machine / Instrument AssignmentsAs an integral part of a routing operation definition, any number of predefined tools, machines or instruments can be assigned to an operation. As in the case of the operation’s labor requirements, the assigned equipment costs will be included in the total routing cost.

Standard Yield Definition / CostingIf a manufacturing environment contains defined yields at one or more routing operations, the INFO.NET system can define the yield at each relevant operation within a routing, and the standard cost rollup will use these individual operational yields when calculating the standard cost of an assembly.

The user defined planned yield entries will be converted into a standard yield through the standard cost update routines and will subsequently be used in determining the quantity of material required during the MRP planning process and in calculating work in process material and labor requirements.

Coproduct / Byproduct DefinitionsA coproduct is a product that is usually manufactured together or sequentially with another item because of product or process similarities. The coproduct is defined under an assembly bill of material including a multiplier to align the coproduct’s quantities with the assembly primary part number.

The coproduct will be considered an acceptable receipt for work orders based on the assembly’s primary part number.

A byproduct is material of value produced as a residual of, or incidental to, the production process and can be defined in the INFO.NET bill of material, specifying the operation sequence at which the byproduct will be available. Defined byproducts are considered in the standard cost calculations.


Whitepapers are available to further explain the Engineering functionality

Engineering Module
Quality Assurance Module
 Configuration Control / Engineering Changes
 Part Number Definitions
 Bills of Material
 Facilities / Departments / Work Centers
 Routings
 Tools / Machines
 Manufacturer / Vendor Part Numbers
 Units of Measure / Packaging
 Attributes / Grading
 Document Control
 Project Control / Contract Administration
 Discrepant Material (DMR) Control
 Business Process Control
 Alerts

 
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