Planning and the creation of all projects, work orders and work cards are carried out using this system. A group of related work orders can be combined under one project. A project can have work orders of various types such as “Routine”, “Non-Routine”, “Warranty”, “Shop”, …etc. There is no practical limit to the number of work orders that a project can have and this allows the maintenance of the long-term projects such as yearly contracts.
Planning sub-module lets the planners reuse the existing data in the system. It enables users to copy frequently used cards as new tasks for the new projects. The system enables one to one copying of existing work orders as well as copying bits and pieces from different projects and work orders. Planners can even flag certain projects as templates and design their projects without affecting the Production Department. It is also possible to enter the already known material requirements during planning. If requested, such material entries can automatically be routed to the Inventory Control system and the necessary actions can be taken by the Materials Department.
Specific work card statuses can require management authorization and customer approval. Authorization and approval functionalities can be turned on and off at the work order level. Customizable validations and automatic events can be attached to work order and work card status changes. For example, system can check the existence of open work cards before a work order can be closed or system can force certain columns to be entered by the user before a project status can be changed to a specific status. Production Control & Planning system can also carry out automatic actions in addition to these validations such as, automatically creating all part requisitions and routing them to the assigned purchasing agent and stockroom leads, when a work order status is changed to a specific status.
Another important feature of this system is its close integration with Labor Collection & Employee Attendance system to provide full control on “who can do what” on which work card. It’s possible to grant or deny access to technicians for a complete work order as well as individual work cards. Once a work order or a work card is locked, nobody can clock on to that job until the management takes further action.
Resource Planning can be done using Microsoft Project interface once all the resource types are defined properly. Detailed and management reports are available to track the minute by minute or overall progress of individual projects, work orders and even work cards.
Furthermore, this system also provides means for the inspectors to enter the discrepancies found on routine jobs. These discrepancies can later by reviewed by lead inspectors and they can be used to automatically create “Non-Routine” work cards. It is possible to group more than one discrepancy and create one work card or create a different work card for each discrepancy found. This automated process eliminates duplicate user input in order to save time and prevent potential human errors.