2. Releasing an order: priority, components and shortages

Who this is for: whoever releases orders to the floor.

Before you release

Open the order. Under Edit:

• Priority: Low, Medium, High or Urgent. Urgent and High run first on every centre's queue and on the floor; the workshop job shows the same priority. Use Urgent sparingly or it means nothing.
• Components from: the warehouse the materials are issued from, when it isn't the output warehouse (a sheet store, a bonded cage). Release writes it onto every material line.
• Planned start and Due, or let Find a time set them (lesson 3).

Release

Release → Release to the workshop. The BOM's released revision is locked onto the order, its materials are worked out (phantoms exploded, options applied), a workshop job is created with one task per routing step, each set to start after the one before, and the traveller can be printed. If the routing has outside work, tick Raise POs for outside work now and one draft PO per contractor step is raised to the default contractor (lesson 6).

Components are reserved

From release, what the order still has to issue counts as reserved on each component, so a sale or another order can't quietly take the last sheet. The reservation falls as materials are issued and goes when the order is completed or cancelled.

The Shortages card

On the released order, Shortages lists each component with:

• free: on hand less what other orders and sales hold (this order's own reservation given back);
• held by other orders: why the shelf count isn't all yours;
• on open POs: what approved, sent or partly received purchase orders still owe;
• after POs: what is still short once those land.

Raise PO for shortages buys only that last figure, one draft PO per supplier. Do this on release day, not the day the floor needs the steel.

Issue

Issue materials takes the components out of stock against the order. It starts at the order's components warehouse and can pick another for the batch; a backflush line is issued for you when the step finishes.