In order to be able to use repetitive manufacturing (REM), various master data must have been created beforehand. The main master data required are:
- Materials
- Bills of material (BOM)
- Routings
- Work centers
- Production versions
Materials
Material master records must be created for the materials that are produced and procured in a company. As already outlined in the previous unit on production order processing, in our bicycle company, material master records were created for the finished bicycles, for the required assemblies that are produced in-house, such as frames or wheels, and for raw materials to be procured via purchasing, such as rims or tyres.
As already described in the unit on production order processing, the production of the bicycles is controlled by production orders in our bicycle company. However, since the same wheels are needed for different types of bicycles and the wheel production should be quantity and period-oriented, it was decided to use repetitive manufacturing for the wheel production. In the material master of a product (finished product or semi-finished material) that is to be manufactured in repetitive manufacturing, the Repetitive manufacturing indicator must be set and a Repetitive manufacturing profile must be assigned. As illustrated in the figure, the material master record for the wheel was configured accordingly.
Bill of Material (BOM)
The material components required for products are to be defined via bills of materials (BOMs). The bill of material for a wheel manufactured in our bicycle company consists of the material components tyre and rim.
Routings
Routings in repetitive manufacturing often have only one operation. You assign a work center representing the production line to this operation. Our bicycle company has two production lines for the production of the wheels. Therefore, as shown in the figure, two routings, Routing 1 and Routing 2, with the respective work centers, Assembly line 1 and Assembly line 2, have been created. The total production rate of a production line is specified in the respective operation. It defines how many products per time unit can be produced on this production line. The production dates, quantities and capacity requirements of the planned orders are scheduled and calculated according to the production rate using formulas in the work center.
Production Versions
A planned order in repetitive manufacturing is created with reference to a production version of the corresponding product. A production version defines which routing in combination with which bill of material is to be used for the planned order. If a planned order is to be used in repetitive manufacturing, the corresponding production version must be allowed for repetitive manufacturing and the work center of the routing must be assigned as production line in the production version. As already mentioned, our bicycle company has two production lines for the production of the wheels. Therefore, as shown in the figure, two production versions 0001 and 0002 with the assignment of respective routings and the respective work centers as productions lines have been created. Both production versions are allowed for repetitive manufacturing. A suitable production version is automatically selected when the order is created according to criteria such as production quantity and production time. If several production versions are suitable, another production version can subsequently be assigned manually, e.g. in the planning table of repetitive manufacturing.