IFS/Manufacturing has flexible reservation management which can vary, depending on the requirements for delivery assurance for different parts. Availability checks are a major part of IFS/Manufacturing. Each time a part is received into or issued from inventory, its quantity on hand changes. In the same way, the availability of the part changes each time you plan an issue or receipt.
The availability check monitors the development of the available balance within the product's lead time. This means that each time a change occurs, the system determines whether all shop orders can be delivered on the promised date. The change can be an order entry, an issue, or a reservation. Only changes within the part's lead time are taken into account, since the availability of the part outside the lead time is considered to be under control.
You can reserve material for a shop order automatically for the entire order. Material also can be reserved automatically for one material line at a time.
Alternatively, you can reserve material for a shop order manually. This option allows you to select the inventory location and quantity to be reserved.
Note that the shop order must have Released status before material can be reserved for it. If you park a shop order that has reserved material, all reservations are then deleted.
When material is reserved automatically, it is issued from an inventory location that is selected according to a certain priority order, such as FIFO (First In, First Out). This principle is not used if the material has an expiration date. In this case, the material with the earliest expiration date is issued first.
By manually reserving material, you ensure that you get exactly the material you want. When you use this method, the material cannot be used for any other shop order, and it must be determined that the current shop order will not come up short. You cannot reserve more material than the demand.
When a shop order is entered, material is allocated for it. This is only a general reservation; it does not indicate exactly what material will be used. You can make a physical reservation manually to specify the inventory location from which the parts are to be issued. Depending on where the cursor is placed in the window, you can reserve material for the entire shop order either at once or line by line.
When reserving material, you can specify a date up to which reservations will be made. This means you do not have to reserve all the materials at once, only the materials needed up to that particular date. The date indicates how far in time the availability check should reach. You can also order an onhand analysis and automatically print the pick list. Note that the shop order must have Released status before material can be physically reserved.
Material reservations are created in IFS/Manufacturing when you have finished entering or revising shop orders. Reserving material for a shop order means that the components of the part to be manufactured are reserved or planned for manufacture. Material reservations are always general; they are not linked to special inventory locations where the material must be issued. You can manually choose the inventory location from which the material is retrieved by making physical reservations. This lets you specify the inventory location from which a given part is to be picked.
Use this function to reserve material linked to a specific operation. By linking material to the operation in which it will be used, you do not have to reserve material too far ahead in time. This is a way of making sure that material is not reserved for an unnecessarily long period.
Use this function to unreserve previously reserved material. Note that the shop order must have Reserved status before you can use this function.
Use this function to issue material for a shop order automatically or manually. If you manually issue material, you can control how much is issued and from where. The shop order must be released before material can be issued for it. You do not have to reserve the material before issuing.