6. Outside work, and what the floor hands back

Who this is for: the planner and whoever deals with contractors.

Outside work

A routing step done by a contractor (powder coating, galvanising, machining) is a sublet product on the routing. The product carries the default contractor and the turnaround in days: the number Find a time and Planning count (lessons 3 and 5). Keep it honest; a coater that takes a week when the product says three days makes every plan optimistic.

Send out

On a released order's Operations list, an outside step shows Send out: one draft PO to the contractor for the order's quantity (or every outside step at once with Raise POs for outside work now on release). Check it and send it from the PO. While the parts are out, the step says with the contractor and the steps after it on the floor say Waiting on outside work.

Received back

When the parts return, press Received back on the operation: it collects the PO and finishes the step, and the following steps free on the floor at once. The operation shows not sent, PO draft, with the contractor or back, so you can see at a glance what is out.

What the floor hands back

Everything the floor records lands on the order:

• Actual labour: each operator's clocked time per step, against the routing's standard.
• Machine time: at a centre with a machine rate, the minutes typed at Finish, costed apart from labour.
• Scrap and notes: per step, so you can decide to make more or accept fewer.
• QC: who passed or failed each QC step, when, and the note.

For those allowed to see cost, the order's Cost section shows material, labour, machine time, overhead and outside work against the standard, and the finished unit's cost follows into stock.

Record output and close

When the last step is finished, Record output: the good units go into the output warehouse (and are allocated to the sales order they were made for), scrap is written off, and the order completes. Close it once the paperwork is done. The components it was holding are released, and Planning sees the stock.

Finishing the course

Read every lesson for Bronze, pass the quiz for Silver, and run real orders for Gold: the Academy counts the orders you released that finished on or before their due date.