In SAP Digital Manufacturing, an order refers to a request to produce a quantity of a product. In our bicycle manufacturing example, a production order is a request to the Shop Floor Personnel to manufacture a number of bikes. Review the following figure for an example production order and the information that it contains:
Like all objects in the SAP Digital Manufacturing system, an order has a specific structure:
On the Header and Order Information tabs, the system displays the important information, such as the material to produce, order release status, order execution status, and the planned production quantity.
In our example, this production order requests the Shop Floor Personnel to manufacture 125 bicycles within the displayed time frame. As indicated by the Release status, all bikes have been released to production. The execution status Active indicates that the Shop Floor Personnel currently carries out the order and assembles the bikes as requested. When they assembled all bikes, the execution status of the order changes to Completed.
Note
For more information on order statuses, visit the Help Portal of SAP Digital Manufacturing.
On the Planned Operations tab, the system displays how to carry out an order: Here, you find the list of manufacturing operations that the Shop Floor Personnel must carry out on which work center. This information originates from the routing that the order references to. Note that, in SAP Digital Manufacturing, an order always references to a routing that the system manages as a separate master data object in the Manage Routings app. This behavior is in contrast to SAP S/4HANA, where the order has its own order-specific routing that the system copied from the master routing to the order when the Production Supervisor created the order.
In our example, you see a list of four mandatory operations (preassembly, assembly, quality inspection, and packaging) and an optional operation (repair). When manufacturing this product, the Shop Floor Personnel must carry out all four mandatory steps in the displayed sequence. They only carry out the optional repair step if they discovered a defect during quality inspection.
On the Planned BOM tab, the system displays a list of components the Shop Floor Personnel must assemble to manufacture the desired product. For each component, the system displays the assembly operation, the sequence in which the Shop Floor Personnel must assemble the components, and the respective component quantity. Similar to the routing, the list of BOM components in the order originates from the BOM the order references to. Like the routing, the BOM is a separate master data object in SAP Digital Manufacturing. The system manages the BOM data in the Manage Bills of Materials app.
In our example, there are three components to be assembled (frame, wheel, and light): Two in the step "Preassembly" and one in the step "Assembly", as indicated by the arrows.
How to Create Orders
To manually create orders in SAP Digital Manufacturing, the Production Supervisor uses the Manage Orders app. They specify the material to be produced and reference the BOM and routing master data objects that define the production process. After entering the build quantity that corresponds to the number of items to be built, and the order execution schedule, they save the order entry and release it to production. If the Production Supervisor wants to create an order that is similar to an existing order, they can also copy an existing order using the Manage Orders app.
In our bicycle manufacturing example, the Production Supervisor receives an urgent request to manufacture 100 bikes. They then create a new order, reference the default make-to-stock routing and the corresponding BOM, and maintain the order execution schedule. Finally, they release the entire order quantity (or a lower quantity if there's, for example, only a limited resource availability due to other orders that the Shop Floor Personnel is currently working on) to the shop floor so that the Production Personnel can produce the urgent order.
In a standard make-to-stock manufacturing scenario, the BOM and the routing are fixed and used in multiple orders. In this case, the Master Data Specialist can also predefine the default routing and BOM in the material master data record of the product to be manufactured. In this case, the Production Supervisor creates an order without referencing to a BOM and routing. During release, the SAP Digital Manufacturing system takes the default routing and BOM entries from the material master and uses that information as a basis for manufacturing execution.
Note
In an integrated scenario, the Production Planner creates a production order in SAP S/4HANA and transfers the order to the SAP Digital Manufacturing system upon release.
How to Release an Order
Once the Production Supervisor maintained all order data, they release the order using the Manage Orders app. They can either release the entire order quantity or only a partial quantity (if there are resource constraints) to production. During release, the system creates Shop Floor Control (SFC) numbers to track the items through the entire production process. To calculate the number of SFCs that the system creates, it checks the lot size in the material master. If the lot size is 1.0, the system creates one SFC number for each produced item. If the lot size is higher, the system groups several items together in one SFC number. If you, for example, manufacture 13 bikes and the lot size is five, the system creates three SFC numbers. The first two SFC numbers manage five bikes, while the third SFC number manages the remainder three bikes.
Note
The Master Data Specialist defines the numbering scheme for the SFCs when they configure the system. You can, for example, include the manufacturing plant, the order number, the week and year of manufacturing, and so on, into the SFC number.