Replenishment Areas

Depending on a production environment, the level of control that is required when working with warehouse picks may be too restrictive. Because production picks are generated from source documents, the pick lines are limited to the items and quantities that exist on the related production orders.

For example, we have a raw material that is stored in a 20 case per pallet configuration. If a production order requires 15 cases of the item, a pick that has been generated for this order will instruct the user to pick 15 cases, when in reality the warehouse personnel will probably move a single pallet to the production area.

If you require more flexible material requisition processes for production (or are recording production activities in a bin-controlled environment that does not use picks), you can utilize the replenishment area feature. Warehouse movements are used to move production materials to replenishment areas, from which they can be consumed in production. Because there are no warehouse picks tied to the source documents, the user is not required to pick quantities based on the exact amounts that appear on production orders.

Replenishment Areas

A replenishment area represents a physical production site, such as a kitchen or a production line, within a location. Each replenishment area has its own inbound and outbound production bin. When a production order is created, it is assigned to a replenishment area.

Rather than generate production picks for orders, you instead run a replenishment report for production orders that are assigned to a particular replenishment area. The program calculates a list of materials that are needed, which you can then move to the replenishment area's designated consumption bin.

Because these movements are not connected to a specific source document, the material in a replenishment area's consumption bin can be consumed by any production orders that are assigned to that replenishment area. If an item is used in multiple production orders, you can move a single quantity of the item to the consumption bin, then consume from this quantity as each order is completed. Unused materials can either be moved back to storage or left in the consumption bin. Whenever you ask the program to suggest replenishment movements, any materials that are already stored in the consumption bin are taken into account.

In some manufacturing environments, production materials must be processed before they are suitable for consumption. It is possible to instruct the program to generate pre-process activities that represent these procedures. If a company wishes to utilize this functionality, separate replenishment areas must be defined for pre-processing. These pre-process replenishment areas are assigned to other replenishment area records. If a production order's replenishment area has an associated pre-process replenishment area, any pre-process activities that are generated from the order will be assigned that pre-process replenishment area.

Fixed Production Bins

In some instances, it is not necessary to physically move an item from its storage location to a production area. For example, a liquid raw material may be stored in a tank, then pumped directly to a production area as needed.

To avoid the unnecessary task of issuing movement instructions for items that do not need to be moved, you can define fixed production bins. If an item is stored in a fixed production bin, it does not need to be moved to a replenishment area's inbound production bin before it can be consumed. Instead, consumption is posted directly from the fixed production bin in which the item is stored. If you ask the program to suggest replenishment movements for a replenishment area, any required materials that are stored in fixed production bins will be excluded.