RO-C  Enter Work Centers

Purpose of the Program

Use this program to organize your factory into work centers for costing and scheduling purposes.  To use Routings, you must set up at least once work center.

Each routing sequence set up in RO-A  Enter Routings gets assigned to a work center. Work centers can be set up for in-house labor or for outside processing.  In-house work centers can be set up with standard rates for setup, labor, fixed overhead, and variable overhead.  If the Use Actual Costs in Labor Entry? field is set to N in SD-B  Work  Orders Defaults, these will be the rates that will be charged to work orders as labor gets reported.  Additionally, separate rates for fixed overhead and variable overhead are available for use with the Estimating module.

With in-house work centers you can specify the total hours per day and length of shift for scheduling and capacity planning purposes.  Actual work center loads can be compared to work center capacity via SH-I Print Work Center Schedule and SH-R Work Center Scheduler.

Outside processing work centers can be set up with minimum charges and cost formulas based on weight or surface area that may be applicable to certain outside processes such as heat treating or painting.  If you make any changes to these fields, the program will optionally update all your routings, operation templates, and work order routings.

Parent-Child Work Centers (Finite Scheduling only)

If you plan on using finite scheduling, you can set up parent and child work centers.  If you plan on using infinite scheduling, lead time scheduling, or manual scheduling, you cannot use parent-child work centers.  For more details on these scheduling methods, see Scheduling. Parent-child work centers work as follows.

It is common for work centers to be comprised of several identical machines or workstations, any one of which can be used interchangeably.  Rather than treat them as one work center, each machine or workstation can be set up as its own work center.  These will be known as child work centers.  A parent work center will be set up separately and represents all its children.  When setting up routings, you typically assign the sequence to the parent work center rather than a child work center (you can make an exception where a particular operation has to run on a specific child work center).  When the finite scheduling program goes to schedule a routing sequence assigned to a parent work center, it looks among its child work centers and schedules the sequence to the child with the lowest contention (waiting time).  

If you plan on using infinite, lead time or manual scheduling, in the above situation you would set up the group of interchangeable machines as one work center only.  For example, if you had five machines each running eight hours per day, you would set up one work center with 40 total hours per day.

Field Explanations

Work Center

The code for the work center.  This is a 12 character, alphanumeric field, upper case only.

WC Description

A 30 character description for the work center.

Department

The code for the department this work center is assigned to.  This is a four character, alphanumeric field, upper case only. Departments are optional, and provide a means of grouping work centers together for reporting purposes.  This must be a valid entry from the department file.  Departments are created in RO-H  Enter Departments.

Description

A description of the department.  This will copy in automatically from the department file.

Is this a parent WC?

If this is to be a parent work center, enter a Y in this field. Parent work centers are only used with finite scheduling.  See Parent-Child Work Centers above for more details.

Parent WC

If this is a child work center, you can assign it to a parent work center by entering the parent work center code in this field.  You can only use child work centers with finite scheduling.  See Parent-Child Work Centers above for more details.  If you are not using finite scheduling, leave this field blank.

Is this an outside processing WC?

If this is an outside processing work center, enter a Y in this field.

Use finite scheduling with this WC?

With finite scheduling there may be some work centers, such as inspection, where you do not want the scheduling program to consider work center capacity.  In such a case you can set this field to N and SH-E  Finite Scheduling will assume this work center has unlimited capacity.  If you are not using finite scheduling, you can also set this field to N.

Total Hours/Day

The total number of hours per day available in this work center for production.  For example, if you have five people working eight hours per day each, you would have 40 hours per day available.  This field is not used with outside processing work centers.

If this is a parent work center, the Total Hours/Day should be set to an average of its child work centers, not a total.  

Total Shift Hrs

The number of shift hours per day available for production.  For example, a work center working a single shift would have eight shift hours, two shifts would have 16 hours, etc.  This field value is used by the SH-M  Lead Time Estimator and SH-P Lead Time Scheduling programs to determine how many hours in a day are available to routing sequences (it does not assign the entire work center capacity to one work order; only the shift hours amount).   If this is a child work center (meaning that it is assigned to a Parent WC), the Total Shift Hrs must be equal to the Total Hours/Day.  In no case can the Total Shift Hours exceed 24.

% Utilization

Out of the total hours per day available for production, this is the percentage of time truly available.  The percent utilization accounts for normal down time due to maintenance, stoppages, etc.  Ninety percent would be entered as 90.00. SH-E  Finite Scheduling and SH-P Lead Time Scheduling use this field to determine how much run time to allocate to routing sequences.

Setup Rate

The standard setup rate to be charged for all setup that occurs within this work center.

Labor Rate

The standard labor rate to be charged for all labor that occurs within this work center.

Fixed OH

The standard rate for fixed overhead for all work that is performed within this work center.  The overhead rate will apply to all direct labor and setup hours.  It is expressed in dollars and may be a flat rate per hour, or the rate can be translated into a percentage of direct labor.  If the Post overhead as % of Labor? field is set to Y in SD-B  Work  Orders Defaults, labor transactions will be posted as a percentage rather than at a flat rate.  You still enter a dollar rate in this field; the program will compare it with the labor rate and will display a percentage amount to the right of this field.  For example, if your labor rate is $10/hour and you want overhead to be 250% of labor, you would enter an overhead rate of $25, and the figure 250.00% will be displayed to the right.  If the Post overhead as % of Labor? is set to N, the percentage will not be displayed.  Both fixed and variable overhead rates are offered; some companies use just one rate.

Variable OH

The standard rate for variable overhead for all work that is performed within this work center.  The overhead rate will apply to all direct labor and setup hours.  It is expressed in dollars and may be a flat rate per hour, or the rate can be translated into a percentage of direct labor.  If the Post overhead as % of Labor? field is set to Y in SD-B  Work  Orders Defaults, labor transactions will be posted as a percentage rather than at a flat rate.  You still enter a dollar rate in this field; the program will compare it with the labor rate and will display a percentage amount to the right of this field.  For example, if your labor rate is $10/hour and you want overhead to be 250% of labor, you would enter an overhead rate of $25, and the figure 250.00% will be displayed to the right.  If the Post overhead as % of Labor? is set to N, the percentage will not be displayed.  Both fixed and variable overhead rates are offered; some companies use just one rate, which is usually the variable overhead rate.

Estimating Fixed OH

The fixed overhead rate used for estimates within the Estimating module.  This allows your Estimating overhead rate to be different than your accounting overhead rate.

Estimating Variable OH

The variable overhead rate used for estimates within the Estimating module.  This allows your Estimating overhead rate to be different than your accounting overhead rate.

Lead Time

The default lead time for outside processing performed in this work center.  The lead time represents the average or typical number of days between sending items out for outside processing and receiving them back in.

Cost/lb/in/ft

If this is an outside processing work center that has a standard cost per pound, per inch, or per foot, such as with a plater or heat treater, enter that cost in this field.  This will be a default that will be multiplied by the manufactured item's Weight or Foot Factor field (depending on the Surface or Wt? field described below) to create an entry in the Cost field in the routing.

Minimum

If this is an outside processing work center that has a standard minimum charge, enter it in this field.  This will be a default for the Min Charge  field in the routing for any outside processing assigned to this work center.

Surface or Wt?

This field determines whether the outside processing cost is determined by the weight of the part, using the Weight field from the part's inventory record, or the surface area of the part, determined by the part’s Foot Factor field.  Enter an S for surface and a W for weight.  You can enter either inches or feet in the inventory Foot Factor field.

Queue Times

Clicking the Queue Times button allows entry to the fields for Average, Priority 1, 2 and 3 Queue Times.  These values are used by SH-M  Lead Time Estimator, SH-N  Generate Lead Times and SH-P Lead Time Scheduling and represent the typical number of days a Work Order has to wait upon arriving in a work center before production can begin due to other work orders already occupying the open capacity in the work center.

General Program Operation

When you start the program you are presented with an opening screen that lists your existing work centers in a window.  To edit an existing work center, highlight the work center and click on it or click on the Edit button.  To enter a new work center, click on the Add button (or press <Insert>).

Enter a Work Center code.  This is a 12 character, alphanumeric field.  The code can be anything from a sequential, non-significant number to a short word or phrase that identifies the work center.  A work center can be a department, a machine, an area, an employee, even an entire plant (if you want to keep things very simple).  Generally (unless you are using finite scheduling with parent-child work centers), a group of interchangeable machines or employees would be combined into a single work center.  A unique machine can be its own work center.  Just remember that work orders are costed and scheduled by work center, so organize the factory as finely or as broadly as is necessary.

Next, give the work center a Description.  This will be used on reports and screens.

Work centers may be assigned to Departments for broader groupings.  At present the department is only used by the system as a selection criterion on a few reports.  If you use departments, they must be setup in advance in RO-H  Enter Departments.  You may type in the department code or select a department from a pop-up window by clicking on the Lookup icon (or press F2).  The department Description will copy into the screen automatically.

If the work center is a parent, enter Y in the Is this a parent WC? field; otherwise enter N.  If this is a child work center, enter the parent work center that it belongs to in the Parent WC field (or select a parent by clicking on the Lookup icon). Parent-child work centers are only used in conjunction with finite scheduling.  See Parent-Child Work Centers in the Purpose of the Program section above for more details.

If the work center is for outside processing, enter Y in the Is this an outside processing WC? field.  You can lump all outside processing into one work center or you can have separate work centers for plating, heat treating, painting, etc.  The cursor then moves to the OUTSIDE PROCESSING section in the lower right of the screen where you can enter an average Lead Time for the work center, and a Cost/lb/in/ft, Minimum, and Surface or Wt? defaults, if applicable.  See Field Explanations above for more detail on how these fields are used.

If you make changes to any of the OUTSIDE PROCESSING fields, when you save the work center you will be prompted to update your standard routings and operation templates, and your work order routings.  For example, if the Lead Time changes, this will allow you to update all your routings for the new Lead Time.

If this is not an outside processing work center, you can enter the hours per day available for production in the Total Hours/Day field.  If you have four machines in a work center, each working an eight hour shift, you would have 32 hours available for production.  Enter the Total Shift Hours, which in the above example would be eight hours.  If you run two eight hour shifts, you would enter 16 hours in this field.

You can enter a % Utilization factor, which is used by SH-E  Finite Scheduling and SH-P Lead Time Scheduling to determine how much time to allocate for production in this work center.  For example, if you felt the work center is down 20% of the time, meaning that it is only 80% utilized, you would enter 80.00 in this field.

Enter the standard rates at which all the routing sequences performed in this work center will be costed.

If you are using the Estimating module, you can enter overhead rates in the Estimating Fixed OH and Estimating Variable OH fields.

If you wish to enter queue times, click the Queue Times button and enter the desired values.

Keep pressing <Enter> until the system asks you if you want to save the record, or save the record from any point within the screen by pressing the Alt-S key or by clicking on the Save button.  After the work center is saved, you are returned to the opening screen where you can make another entry or click Exit or press Alt-X to return to the Routings menu.