Scenario
A customer free issues batches and a corresponding SO to a supplier who uses Match-IT. Only those batches can be used as kit for the WO satisfying that SO. No existing done or WIP top-level stock should be used.
Discussion
Match-IT’s default mode of scheduling is to do whatever it takes to minimise it’s loss function parameterised by a trade-off between lateness and cost. It performs hundreds of non-intuitive operations to achieve this including for example ignoring done stock in some circumstances, swapping WIP WO to SO assignments and merging/splitting unapproved WOs/POs as needed. Thus it has no concept of this WO is for this SO or this batch is for this WO. Our often-used mantra is: “to Match-IT a widget is a widget and if that’s not the case then use other our-part-numbers as needed to differentiate them”. However, in some scenarios multiple part numbers are impractical and a little manual intervention is needed; for example in the above scenario.
Setup
- For the top-level made parts: tick disable line merging, tick do not mix batches and tick lock instances. Make sure that re-order quantity and minimum stock level etc. are all zero. This guarantees one WO per SO, stops spare top-level batches being used and makes the WO stick to the SO across schedules.
- For the free issue parts: tick is free issue and do not mix batches (*). This makes the parts appear in the free issue schedule, from where they can be booked in (**). It also guarantees that only a single batch will be used for a WO.
Operation
- After approving a WO, go to the kit list and change the free issue batch to the one that you want to use.
Variations
- If you part book-in and dispatch multiple times against a SO leave do not mix batches unticked in the top-level parts.
- A more simple solution is to just mark the kit as do not mix batches and then when dispatching edit the pick list to use the batch you want to dispatch. i.e. just ignore the allocations that Match-IT makes until dispatch time. An alternative to editing the pick list is to change the batch allocated to the sales line and then raise the dispatch.
(*) Or set no mix on the PART record in the material. This method allows the material to still be used in other contexts that allow mixed batches.
(**) From here you can optionally raise a PO and book in the parts via a delivery note.