Production orders and Production Runs as separate tabs

ideas
1

I would like to suggest another tab for Production/Manufacturing, let’s call it Production Runs tab which will have same function and purpose as the current Production Orders tab.
And another one Production Order which should act like Sales/Purchase Order tab and the BOM should flow to Qty reserved and Finished Item to Qty on Order. This will make it easier for tracking Raw Material Items and Finished Products.

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2

We already have far too many tabs. Although your idea is not bad please find a way that will not require any more tab. On top of that, I think collectively we need to ask for less rather than more and focus purely on business accounting and less on sales, purchases, inventory, employees, etc.

In my view the program has weakened a lot by trying to become kind of jack of all trades but a master of none, while it was so simple to help prepare for tax submission. I look at the forum, the requests, etc and surely quite some joined as form QB users but that does not mean this application needs to become QB or similar. It was unique, simple and strong but it is now a mix-match of too many thing from my point of view.

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3

I would’ve agreed only if users were forced to use this extra functionality. I don’t think Manager lost any functionality related to accounting over the years and its still really simple if you dont enable this extra functionality.
I put this idea forward because there are already Purchase/Sales orders tabs and inventory tracking is also supported so this felt like a missing piece.

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4

@shahabb, what is the point of a new tab that—according to you—would have the “same function and purpose” as a tab that already exists? You do not specify what you consider a “production run,” but ordinary interpretation would be the production of multiple units of a finished inventory item. You can already do that with a production order.

As for your second request, have you actually explored the results of entering a production order?

5

Any extra functionality, used or not will require application development time. Furthermore it enhances the potential of errors and bugs. There are good developments such as improving what already exists, for example where countries require businesses to engage in e-invoicing, better API and other connectivity without adding more. Some of the scarce time really should go into allowing some kind of better customisation of themes/templates, without adding further tabs. The essence is more is less and not only will it be more efficient but also more effective.

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6

What i meant is

  1. Simply rename the current Production Orders Tab to Production Runs (or another suitable name) while the functionality remains the same.
  2. Add new tab which could be called Production Orders. Similar to Sales/Purchase Orders, the finished item on Production Order will affect Qty on order while BOM items will affect Qty reserved
    In short Production Order will increase Qty to be available for Finished Items and decrease Qty available for BOM items with each created production order.

You are right but i already explained it’s something similar to what program already have. So, i don’t think it will require too much time even if it does it was just a suggestion.
For manufacturers when they get a Purchase Order from customer, they need to produce a specific qty which might not happen at once. So until you complete all the production which might take a week/month you won’t know the Qty to be available figure for items and can’t plan in advance.

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7

I understand his point. A Sales Order could be copied to a new Production Order, with the Sales Order reference number and related customer indicated on the form. This Production Order could then be copied to a new Purchase Requisition (optional), again including the reference number and customer details on the Requisition form (see here). The Purchase Requisition could then be copied to either a Purchase Order or a Purchase Invoice.

Finally, the Production Order could be copied to a Production Run, which would update its status from Pending (Amber) to Complete (Green) or Cancelled (Red) if the production is cancelled.

While I haven’t fully developed this idea yet, I believe the general workflow is clear and aligns with how Manager currently operates. It would be highly beneficial to link production workflows to Customers or orders and introduce a second production tab (e.g., “Production Runs”) to manage and track completed Production Orders. This would function similarly to how the delivery note module is used to indicate completed and delivered orders.

In many businesses, purchases are not typically made for specific customer orders. However, in cases where production is triggered by a customer order, including the customer name on forms would help track production orders made specifically for customer demand. This feature would also support generating customer-specific production reports.

Additionally, having a report to generate production details for a specific customer, similar to how sales invoices are tied to a customer, would be extremely valuable.

Regarding the number of tabs, @eko, this should not be a concern. Many organizations implement segregation of duties, where only admins have access to all tabs. Other users would see only the specific tabs relevant to their responsibilities. If more tabs mean simplicity, clarity and segregation of duty then so be it.

@lubos, The Bill of Materials, units, or quantities specified in the Production Order could be compared to the actual Bill of Materials or inventory units utilized in the Production Run. This comparison could be displayed within the Production Run tab or included in a specialized report, enabling users to efficiently track wastage and conduct detailed production analyses. Such insights would support the optimization of business processes and inform managerial decisions.

@shahabb I’m adding this to ideas, I hope my contribution is also considered. I may create a separate topic for my contribution in the future.

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My concern is not how many tabs one operates, it is with the fact that each Tab represents a distinct functionality that needs to be supported. There are hundreds of unimplemented ideas, some bugs have now stayed much longer than ever before and there are too many parallel issues that need addressing. The burden on application development and support of all that exists seems thus already overwhelming. Why not first sort things out before adding more to the pile?

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9

I understand. However, some feature requests have been fortunate in that they were easy to implement, while others will be addressed in the future after certain cleanups are completed. It’s hard to predict which ones Lubos will be able to implement quickly.

10

I don’t understand this feature request.

Can you give some example of real world scenario what is happening and why it’s not possible to capture it in Manager using existing tabs?

One issue that I agree with is that production order in Manager is currently instantaneous. That means raw materials are converted to finished goods immediately. But in reality, production can take some period of time. So there should be start date and completion date on production order so that we can track Qty in production.

That’s not an argument against adding new ideas to the list. I know the last year was a bit slower implementing new ideas. Mostly because I needed to pay off technical debt that has accumulated over the years. This work is not visible but makes it much easier to implement those ideas. As for the bugs, half of them are related to inventory one way or another that I’m actively working on. We will be at zero bugs soon.

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11

While @shahabb did not mention this, after the answer to my question was given, I came to believe this was actually the original issue. The request for a new tab and/or form seems to have been a distraction from the underlying need. I think you are on the right track, @lubos.

12

He is requesting an additional tab to manage actual production. He suggested repurposing the current Production Order tab to serve as a space for entering production requests, allowing it to track the fulfillment of actual production, similar to how a Sales Order tracks the fulfillment of delivery and invoicing.

In response, I highlighted the advantages of such a tool and how it could be optimized to improve Manager functionality:

  1. The “Production Order” tab could include the estimated Bill of Materials (BOM) or estimated production costs, while a new “Production Run” tab could record the actual BOM or the total costs incurred during production.

  2. A Copy To function could be implemented to link these tabs/documents, transferring information such as the related customer and reference numbers from documents that triggered the production.

  3. Implement a Cost Variance Report to compare the estimated Bill of Materials or production costs in the “Production Order” to the actual BOM or costs recorded in the “Production Run.”

  4. Add a status tracker with color-coded indicators (green, amber, grey, and red) in the “Production Order” tab to inform users about the progress of the production run. The statuses could include:

  • Pending Production
  • Partially Produced
  • Complete
  • Cancelled
  • Possibly Past Estimated Production End Date (to flag overdue production runs).
  1. Ensure customer orders that trigger production are tagged to the corresponding customer to enable analysis of customers and their production orders. No customer or sales order should be selected if the production order is not tied to a customer order.
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  1. Lets say there is an Item which is Purchased and sold only.
    Inventory Tab makes it easy to know how much quantity i am going to receive and how much is reserved. So the resultant qty that i will have on hand after fulfilling all orders is known. From here i can plan how much more i need to order or the remaining qty is enough for future anticipated demands.
  2. Now take another item which is only produced, and raw materials are purchased. I got order from customer for this specific item. Now this item is linked to its Raw Material. I know from Inventory Tab how much to order the finished item but at this point i don’t know how much the raw materials i need to order to maintain my inventory level until the actual production takes place.
    If my suggestion is implemented for manufactured items when you get order from customers Qty to order column will get updated
    image
    Now i cant purchase this item so instead of Purchase Order i have to create a production order which will update the Qty to order column for all the items that will be used in the actual production which might take place later.

Thats what i suggested when Insufficient Qty status was removed from Production orders tab. Start date and end date would be a nice addition, but it doesn’t address the issue i am talking about.

14

Even if separate tab is not the way to go, i would suggest a report where we can select an item and enter qty that is needed to be produced then all the BOM items associated to it could be tracked from there. From there we can see what we need to order and how much to maintain our inventory level.

15

Brilliant

16

OK, it seems like the issue is that production order immediately consumes all the raw materials but in reality, if production takes multiple days (or even longer), raw materials are consumed in steps. Not all at once. If raw materials are consumed all at once, then Qty on hand is not really accurate.

So production order should not remove raw materials from Qty on hand, it should merely just remove them from Qty available (raw materials are still on hand but reserved for consumption).

Then actual consumption when producting the finished item would be handled by different transaction.

Is this what you are thinking?

Now, I think this could be still handled within production order. We can have on each BoM line within production order optional date column when that BoM line was actually consumed. Once all BoM lines have been consumed (date entered), then production order is complete. End date of the production order is the last BoM line date.

If you want your production orders to have immediate effect like it is in current version, then you will simply not see additional date column on individual BoM lines.

17

Yes exactly this is what i meant. If a production is planned that raw material qty should be considered as Qty reserved and the finished items as Qty on order on the inventory tab.
Then another transaction which i suggested to be in a separate tab that should be created when actual activity is taking place.
About including date column on BOM line that would do the job but separately handling Orders and Actual Production seems more logical to me as it would be consistent with the rest of workflow for selling/buying. Maybe this needs further consideration.

18

Two points I would like to make.

Typically, for a production order, raw materials would be “Issued” to the production order on a specific date when the stock is pulled from the inventory floor. This is removed from the raw materials inventory and placed in a WIP (work in progress) general ledger account, as the raw materials no longer exist in their original form. This may be a minor point as your idea for dates in the BoM would probably be sufficient for most small production environments.
However:

This is not the best idea to default production order completion based upon the last date of R.M. issue. There could be several days difference between the last issue of materials to the production order and its completion. Completed quantity should not post to available inventory for the finished good until the production order is implicitly closed. Material costs would be removed from WIP at this time.

19

Software packages aimed at manufacturing materials management do this far better than a general accounting package such as Manager. Actually addressing this well requires:

  • customisation for a manufactures actual work flow
  • training to support the software packages approach. Trouble shooting support
  • Integration with process monitoring equipment (bar codes, production line counters)
  • production run, serial numbers, use by dates
  • Maintenance of the software features

Manager may be able to do some of this, and it could evolve to do a lot of it however the support required for such a product would require a completely different price structure and core target market.

So while it is easy to just add a little bit more to Manager, doing so results in a less targeted product with less development of basic accounting functionality. Which is a risk for the current user base.

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20

I don’t know how this idea evolved into production line counters and serial numbers.
You are not getting the point here. This idea is about making the current inventory tracking system useful for manufacturers. The current system hasn’t been well thought out from manufacturing side.
By your logic Sales Order/Purchase Orders shouldn’t be the part of Manager either. This Idea is similar to that, but it will deal internal orders similar to external ones.