Creating Suboperations and User-Defined Fields

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to create suboperations and user-defined fields

Suboperations

Suboperations are subordinate to an operation and are hierarchically structured under it.

You can perform the following functions with suboperations:

Carry out detailed planning for the process step that the operation describes.
Carry out detailed planning for capacity planning or costing for an operation.
For example, a company uses suboperations at manufacturing centers. You can use suboperations to assign several people or machines (that are required at the same time) to an operation.
A suboperation can be used with the same work center as the main operation to make a detailed description of every necessary step.
A suboperation can be used with different work centers as the main operation to operate parallel at different work centers.
A suboperation can be costed, but you can only schedule it relative to the higher-level operation.
Cumulate standard values from suboperations in the corresponding operation.
Determine whether suboperations belonging to an operation are copied to a production order.

Note

Control key

Be aware of the following:

With the control key you are able to define, whether an operation is relevant for scheduling, costing or capacity planning.
The scheduling takes always place at the main operation.
Costing and capacity planning can take place at main operation and / or sub operation side. Therefore you have to define the right control key at main or suboperation level. It is important that you ensure that costs and capacity requirements are not calculated twice.

In the figure Scheduling Suboperations, operation 20 is responsible for ensuring compliance with the production schedule. Suboperations 20/10 to 20/40 are used for detailed capacity planning and costing.

The control key has an important influence on this process when using suboperations.

Scheduling Suboperations

Suboperations can be used to determine scheduling information, but you have to sum them up manually.

When you specify an offset value, the system determines the start and finish dates of the suboperations.

The reference dates for the start and finish of a suboperation are as follows:

Start date for setup
Start date for processing
Start date for teardown
Finish date for execution
Start date for wait time
Finish date for wait time

If an operation is divided into suboperations, the standard values for the suboperations can be cumulated under the main operation. If the suboperations run in parallel, this kind of accumulation is not possible because the cumulated values will be too high. For example, if you set a start reference for a suboperation to start processing with a time offset of 5- (5 minus) hours, processing (in the suboperation) will start 5 hours before it starts in the main operation.

You can assign an operation which is not to be carried out in the plant (in the operation or routing) to another plant. The plants should belong to the same controlling area. You can assign a suboperation to another plant as its main operation. The unit of measure in the suboperation can differ from the one in the operation.

You cannot assign material components, production resources/tools, or inspection characteristics to suboperations. You can assign them only to operations.

User-Defined Fields

You can use user-defined fields to assign data fields to an operation or suboperation. You can define the usage and meaning of these data fields. You can enter business information or values for formula parameters that are not included in the standard system.

Depending on the field key, up to 12 data fields with various field formats are available.

Data Field Formats

The data field formats are as follows:

Up to four general fields for any text:
You can use them, for example, to store information about people responsible, substitutes, or telephone numbers.
Up to two quantity fields:
You can assign additional formula parameters to the quantity fields in the field key. With the help of formula parameters, you can use the values of the quantity fields in work center formulas to calculate processing times, capacity requirements, and costs. In addition, there is a field for the unit of each quantity field. The system transfers default values and their units, which you have maintained in Customizing for formula parameters, but you can change this data. If you have entered data in the quantity fields and then change the field key, the old values remain unchanged.
Up to two value fields:
In addition, there is a field for the unit of each value field.
Up to two date fields:
For instance, you can enter internal start dates.
Up to two checkboxes:
For instance, you can use these to indicate whether the system should include an operation in evaluations in the Info System.

You can define a field key in Customizing for routings in which the required combination of user-defined fields is stored. By assigning a field key to an operation or suboperation, you determine which user-defined fields are available in the particular object and which field names or key words are used for these fields. You can then enter data in these user-defined fields. Note that the system does not check whether the data is valid.

User-Defined Fields Keys

User-defined field keys are used to add data entry fields for user data on the Operation Detail screen.

User-Defined Field Keys

User-defined field keys offer the following fields:

Quantity	Field Type
2	Text (20 characters)
2	Text (10 characters)
2	Date
2	Quantity and unit of measure (can also be used by assignment to a parameter of origin 4 in the formulas)
2	Value and/or currency
2	Checkboxes

Create suboperations

Watch the following video and understand the creation of suboperations and the use of user defined fields.

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