Item Process

An Item Process is defined as the simple processing, such as cleaning, trimming, or freezing, of a raw material to produce an intermediate item. While small amounts of additional ingredients, such as preservatives or seasonings, may be added, an item process typically revolves around a single raw material. In this way, it differs from a formula, in which a number of raw materials are blended together to the point that they become inseparable within the output product.

Production is generally driven by the presence of a raw material rather than a requirement for a manufactured item. Oftentimes, the intermediate that is produced as the output of an item will not be packaged into finished goods as part of the process, but rather stored in bulk in the inventory. At a future time the intermediate will be used as a component in a production order or packaged into a finished item.

A Note On Items

Before entering an item process into the system, it is first necessary to create an output intermediate item in the inventory. This output item must then be assigned to the item process before the item process can be certified. The purpose of this requirement is to prevent the user from inadvertently creating an item process without a defined output item, then attempting to schedule quantities of the associated raw material for processing.

Some of the information for the output item, such as the Production BOM Number and the production grouping item, can not be filled in initially because the item process has not yet been created. After the item process is created, this information must be manually entered on the item card.