Working with Resources in SAP Business One, Web client

In this example, OEC Computers produces custom gaming tables based on customer specifications.

To manufacture these products, they defined their employees and machinery as resources in the system. Now they can manage their availability and capacity for the production process.

The resource is defined as master data in the system. There are three types of resources:

• Machine type - this is a resource that can be linked to one or more fixed assets, taken from the fixed assets master data list.
• Labor type - this is a resource that can be linked to one or more employees, taken from the employee's master data list.
• Other type - any other resource that is not a machine or labor.

Much like items, resources can be used in bill of materials and marketing documents.

When a bill of materials is produced - a machine resource is often needed in a production process and an employee resource may be needed as well, for example, to operate this machine.

In marketing documents - resources can be ordered/purchased/sold or have other action performed.

To do this, we first need to connect a non-inventory item to the resource. This item, which represents a resource, is then used in a marketing document.

Resource capacity - unlike items, resources are not accumulated in quantities. They are managed by capacity. In SAP Business One, Web client, we can plan and define a daily capacity for the resources. By monitoring this capacity, we can optimize the production plan and avoid bottlenecks.

A significant part of the production process involves the consumption of resources. We can define available capacity, consume it in production, and manage resource capacity availability.

This functionality allows the production manager to plan and monitor the capacity of the resources, to avoid bottlenecks and optimize production planning.

In this example, OEC Computers produces custom gaming tables based on customer specifications. They use a make-to-order production process in which deadlines are derived from the delivery date of their customers' orders.

Managing resources and their capacities is crucial for them to assure timely deliveries to their customers. They need to identify whether production can go ahead as planned or whether manual scheduling adjustments need to be made to meet deadlines.

To manage the capacity of a resource, I need to generate the available capacity. I do this in two steps:

• In step 1, I define a weekly plan, where I set the expected capacity of the resource for each day of the week.
• In step 2, I generate the capacity for a whole period (such as a quarter) by copying the weekly plan I defined in step 1 to the whole period. Alternatively, I can set the capacity manually for each day in the period.

There are two types of daily capacities that should be defined: internal and single run capacities.

• A single run capacity assumes only one production order can be produced using a certain resource in a certain period.
• With internal capacity, this kind of limitation is not taken into account.

The result of these steps is the available capacity (internal and single run) that allows me to manage and allocate capacities in the production process.