Process Routings

Configurable Routings

If you don't control the definition of the process, you can't control the process. Configured routings are the solution.

For example, an international appliance manufacturer went from managing 15,000 to 400 tasks with this solution. There were 400 tasks performed on one assembly line, but across the various work instructions documents, ERP records, and other databases used for planning purposes, users had unknowingly created redundancy and duplication and over time defined over 15,000 records of tasks for that single line. Not to mention the other lines in a single facility. Every document and everyone had a different definition of the process, which caused significant confusion and, ultimately, delays and errors on the floor. 

Creating one configurable routing with a total of 400 tasks, each model-option coded to be filtered later on, allowed for detailed work instructions with up-to-date part information, intelligent mixed model line balancing, detailed lean, and ergonomic analysis to be performed.

While Assembly Planner supports traditional item-based routings, the preferred approach is to represent an entire assembly line as a single routing. Each routing has operations that each represent a location where activities are performed (station/work center).

The activities represent the actual 'work' assigned to the operator or machine. Each activity is then mapped to the applicable set of product models, options, or variants. This means that tasks can easily be filtered to generate a traditional unit- or item-specific routing, without the redundancy.

Activity Library

Create a library of common and reusable activities. Define activity properties such as standard time, consumed parts, required tools, ergonomic factors, and more to reference during process design and to populate reports.

ERP Exports

Routings and operations serve as a collection or roll-up points for summarizing activity data necessary for external systems, such as ERP, product routings, labor standards, and mBOMs.

Assembly Planner's process routings are the structured records that represent how all of your products will be assembled

• Create a library of reusable activities with properties such as operator assignment, sequence numbers, time, work instruction images, videos, PPE, safety, and quality notes.

• Use workbenches to compare differences between the BOM and process plan and drag and drop parts from the BOM to the consuming activities.

• Identify tools required to complete activities from a common tooling library.

• Edit in spreadsheet interfaces that support cut, copy, and paste with advanced filtering and sorting capabilities.

• Perform 'Where Used' searches to find all usage instances of activities, parts, and tools.

• Use one of many views to review and edit model and option mapping for activities with supported complex option rule logic. 

• Automatically map models and options to activities based on parts that are consumed by each from the BOM.

• Control user privileges, access controls, and change history records in this collaborative environment.

• Use Check-In, Check-Out, and Undo Check-Out functions with standard and custom validation logic to verify data complies with business rules.

• Set process effectivity based on dates and unit serial numbers, which allows for process data to be updated in advance of ECO releases.

• Allow multiple users to author different segments of the same routing concurrently.

• Run reports for the entire routing, single operation, activity. Filter reports by effectivity date, model-option configuration, or other criteria.

• Save advanced searches to filter process data by user-defined criteria.

• Create and save Mass Update routines to selectively update process data based on user-defined criteria and a series of update statements.