Controlling Production (Buyoff, Hold, Release)

When completing the bicycle's pre-assembly, the supervisor must ensure that the steps in this operation were performed correctly, for quality assurance. This validation helps to reduce the likelihood of rework later on in the production process.

Buyoffs are an electronic way to log the completion of a manufacturing activity performed on a shop floor.

Buyoffs are an electronic substitute for the physical stamps applied to paper travelers in manufacturing to record (or warrant) that they performed, checked, or acknowledged completion of a manufacturing activity. The objective of the buyoff is to facilitate the elimination of paper documents in manufacturing. At the same time, providing at least the same level of recording or warranting of the manufacturing activities performed. It refers to an action performed by personnel on the shop floor to validate the completion of manufacturing tasks performed on a product at an operation activity within a work center. 

Manufacturing tasks can include the installation of components, the collection of data values, or the completion of an operation activity.

Buyoffs are used by manufacturers where high-quality standards must be adhered to.

Some of the benefits of performing buyoffs are as follows:

• Reduction in rework time through real-time task validation.
• Reduction in manufacturing cost through real-time task validation rather than validation later in the process, where it would be more costly.
• Conformance to federal guidelines mandated by regulatory agencies such as the FDA (Title 21 CFR Part 11) and FAA.

The Manage Buyoffs application allows you to create and manage buyoffs. Each buyoff is associated with a supervisor who has the authority to log buyoffs. Only these designated supervisors can log buyoffs. You can specify when a buyoff applies, such as to a material, routing, routing step, operation activity master, resource, work center, or production order.

During production, the SAP Digital Manufacturing system evaluates the relevant buyoffs for the current step and displays them in a POD plugin.

During the production of the Model A bicycle, the quality department has identified that the pedals from a certain batch were defective. As a consequence, all the bicycles that were assembled with pedals from this batch have to be identified and placed on hold, if they still are within the manufacturing facility. Placing the bicycles on hold allows to replace the pedals and prevent them to be shipped to the customer. After the pedals have been changed, the bicycles can be released to continue the production process.

Occasionally, as a product is being produced on the shop floor, production may need to be halted on particular items. Shop floor controls (SFCs) can be placed on Hold to fix any problems, and then released to finish the production process. The SFC Place Hold activity allows you to place an immediate hold against one or more SFCs that have been released to the shop floor.

Holds are maintained in the Manage Holds application. Here, the Place Hold activity lets you place an immediate hold on SFCs. The Release Hold activity enables the continuation of production on a held product. You can release a hold on an SFC or multiple SFCs.

SFCs with the Hold status have a red status icon in the production operator dashboard (POD).

You cannot perform the following activities with SFCs with the Hold status:

• Start an SFC.
• Complete an SFC.

You can perform the following activities with SFCs with the Hold status:

• Log a nonconformance.
• Sign off an SFC from an operation activity.

You can:

• Place a hold on SFCs with the status of New, In Queue, or Active.
• Release a hold on SFCs with the status of Hold.
• Search for SFCs by SFC status, material, or order.

You can also add comments when placing an SFC on hold or when releasing it.