Manufacturing

Work orders are where the BOM and work centers come together on the shop floor. A work order supports routing, material issue, and operation tracking, describing the sequence of operations, the issuing of materials to the run, and the progress of those operations.

Material handling is captured through material issue and material consumption tracking. As a production run proceeds, the components defined in the BOM are issued to the work order and their consumption is tracked, so the materials used by a run are recorded against it. This connects manufacturing to the inventory module, where issuing stock to consumption is one of the recognised stock movement types.

Operation tracking follows the individual operations that make up the run, and routing defines how the work moves through the assigned work centers. Together these let an operator see what has been done and what remains for a work order.

A worked example: a confirmed work order is started and its materials are issued according to its BOM; as operations are performed at their assigned work centers, operation tracking records progress and production quantity accumulates. Material consumption is tracked against the order so the actual inputs used are known, and when all operations are finished the work order is completed. Because work centers carry hourly cost rates and the BOM supports material cost calculation, the run links both resource time and material inputs back to the production it delivered.