Consumption in Assembly Planner is critical to getting the most out of the system.
Consumption involves the mapping Items, phantoms, drawings, and other types of BOM entities to processes (activities in our case). In many situations, it is the responsibility of the Engineer to handle engineering change management. This process planning is vital to make sure that all necessary engineering Bill of Materials (engineering BOM) entities are used within the process to ensure everything is being assembled as intended for each model or option going down the line with properly updated procedures and work instructions. Traditionally this involved a lot of duplication of effort across variants.
Keeping Consumption Up-to-Date with Assembly Planner
Assembly Planner provides a space to attach the parts to processes by drawing/parent/model/option, in order to generate a configured list of all parts, tasks, time, tools, quality checks, and more(anything attached to the activity); all while re-using anything that is common between variants. The idea is to minimize the work required to keep consumption up to date as new assemblies are released.
A common occurrence in Assembly Planner is receiving a new Bill Of Material (BOM) from another system. That change can be the trigger for multiple changes downstream. One of these is the update of mBOM and the corresponding Work Instruction/Consumption data. In the example below, the eBOM is requesting the mBOM replace 559639 with 223697.
Figure 1. eBOM Request
After the change, the flags are clear, as the mBOM is fully consuming the requested eBOM.
Figure 2. Requested eBOM being processed by mBOM
The next step is to update work instruction information to use the new part. To do this, you will use consumption workbench.
Figure 3. Consumption Workbench located under 'Tools' within Assembly Planner
Populating the Assembly using the ‘Add’ function, then clicking the ‘Populate Routings from Assemblies’ button.
Figure 4. Workbench Input
The comparison shows you what needs to be done to get your consumption to match the mBOM based on a set of key fields. By default, the keys are Part Number, Parent Part number, Quantity, From date, and To Date.
If the part/parent combination doesn’t exist in the selected routings it shows as an add (ex. 223697). If the part/parent exists in the routing but isn’t in the mBOM at the date of comparison, it will show as a delete (ex 559639), but If the part exists but has an incorrect total quantity, mismatched from/to dates, or any other missing key, it shows as a change.
Figure 5. Comparison Results
The Comparison results screen shows a summary of what must be changed, once changed in the workbench, clicking the ‘Recompare’ button will apply the changes and update the Comparison results screen, showing all changes made in the workbench under ‘Pending Changes.’
Figure 6. Updated Consumption
Once the workbench is closed, the changes are applied to the routing. This tool is best utilized to run a comparison of mBOM>Consumption within a set of routings to be sure that the total number of parts consumed in an area for an assembly, matches the mBOM of that assembly.
Using this tool as a way to process Engineering Changes allows users to be sure that all ongoing changes are completely consumed within the work instructions; using reference parts, replaces, and other keys to provide input on what changes need to be made.
With consumption updated, You can automatically add all models/options that this part is required for using the mBOM or orders, or manually add as I see fit. Once that is complete, the generation of work instructions, kits, part lists, tooling requirements, etc. can be done as needed with our newly configured activity on a per model/option/order basis.
New Releases
For brand new releases, customers have begun using ‘item references’ and ‘like item’ logic to allow us to automatically find like assemblies and provide suggested updates.
For example, if you are switching suppliers and all of your part numbers are changing for an assembly, but the form/fit/function of the process is the same; Assembly Planner can find the previously consumed assembly and suggest a consuming location for all new part numbers based on the reference part number (old number) and the sequence or the part in the BOM.
These processes are then reviewed manually to see if they require more changes (time/tooling/etc.), but in many cases, you can simply accept the proposed changes and publish new instructions under a new model/option with the new part consumption included for the new release.
Make the Most of Proplanner
Proplanner makes managing processes (from product development and production orders to monitoring materials required and beyond) easier and more efficient so that you can streamline your processes while producing the best possible finished product.
If you have any questions or would like to make sure you are utilizing Proplanner, Assembly Planner, Flow Planner, and Workplace Planner to their full potential give us a call.
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