Tomerlin Knowledge Center

Epicor® Core Modules

Epicor® Production Management

Some modules are integrated within the core or basic modules; for example, the Advanced Planning and Scheduling module will appear embedded within the standard Scheduling module.

Epicor Production Management contains 6 modules:

  • Job Management
  • Scheduling
  • Engineering
  • Materials Requirements Planning
  • Quality Assurance
  • Data Collection

Job Management

Job Management is the heart of your Epicor Kinetic ERP software if you are a manufacturer. The Job Entry utility accesses information in the sales orders, purchase orders, inventory, and other sources and pulls this information into the job.

Besides using the Job Entry utility to create a job, you can use the Job Manager and the Planning Workbench. Use the Job Manage to review demand and do the supporting jobs. You can use the Planning Workbench to evaluate suggestions based on sales orders, other jobs, and inventory requests. Then you create the jobs which are needed.

Using the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), your shop employees can record their time against job operations which provides one of the four costs required for job costing. Use the Job Tracker to accurately review the current real-time status of any job. At any point in the process, you can check a job through three key reports: the Job Traveler, the Production Detail Report, and the Time Phased Material Requirements Report. Each report helps your supervisors manage job production from operation to operation.

The production cycle is completed when you indicate production is complete and when the job is finally finished or closed. The part quantity can then be shipped to your customers, completing the job management process.

Scheduling

Scheduling is the most powerful module in the Epicor Kinetic ERP software suite. Scheduling considers job quantity, job setup time, production time, resource capacity, and other factors when computing the time it will take for each job to complete. The schedule for all jobs can be reviewed on the Job Scheduling Board, the Resource Scheduling Board, and the Multi-Resource Scheduling Board.

To fine-tune your scheduling, consider using the “What If Scheduling Board.” This tool enables your scheduler to consider different scheduling alternatives and the impact each has on the actual schedule.

If you are performing Infinite Scheduling, use the Overload Informer to determine the resources which have more work than available capacity. Once you know where your bottlenecks are located, your scheduler can select the best alternative from using alternative faster resources, use multiple resources instead of just one, work overtime, subcontract the operation, or accept the job being late.

The real workhorse is Finite Scheduling. Finite Scheduling makes scheduling the most powerful module in Epicor ERP. Using this utility renders the Overload Inform useless because, with Finite Scheduling, no resource will be scheduled with more jobs than its capacity can handle in its standard capacity configuration.

Engineering

Engineering is used to define the materials, components, subassemblies, operations, resources, setup time, production cycle times for manufacturing any part. The materials, features, and subassemblies comprise the bill of materials (BOM). The series of operations define the bill of operations (BOO). Together the BOM and the BOO make up the method of manufacturing (MOM).

Each MOM is tied to a Part Revision. Once the part revision is created, it can be checked out to the Engineering Workbench. It is here that the MOM is linked to the Part Revision. This process tracks the description, reason, and approvals for the revision. You can have multiple Part Revisions for a Part Revision, and these are called Alternate Revisions. You would most likely use Alternate Revisions if you made the same part at numerous sites and each site had different resources.

Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a set of utilities you would use to determine demand supply and propose additional supply. This is accomplished by auto-generating jobs, purchase orders, and transfer order suggestions. MRP is typically used by companies made to stock or mixed-mode manufacturers that run both custom and stock products.

In addition to the demand created by jobs and sales orders, you can create future demand with the Forecast Entry and the Master Production Schedule. When your forecasts and master production schedules are entered, you run Process MRP. This process creates unfirm jobs, which you can then make for production within Job Entry. It also generates purchasing and manufacturing suggestions displayed within the Planning Workbench and the Buyer Workbench. Use these suggestions to create jobs, transfer orders, and purchase orders.

Before you use this functionality, you must have accurate methods of manufacturing designed for your part records, solid Engineering Change Order (ECO) control, correct inventory records, Lead Time values for purchased and transferred materials, and proven capacity estimates for resources and resource groups.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance and the Enhanced Quality Assurance modules tie together all quality functions. Some of which are: scrapping end parts, rejecting raw materials, tracking first article inspections, indicating when parts are not compliant, et al. With Enhanced Quality Assurance, develop Inspection Plans, perform Skip Lot inspection when receiving components from suppliers, and you can also track internal education and training for your employees.

Some of the quality functions you might use to process parts that require inspection are non-conformance, an inspection of purchase order receipts, first article inspections, DMR processing, and with Enhanced QA, you can record inspection results, and then you can run the Inspection Data Tracker to view the inspection results.

If a job material, job assemblies, inventory, customer returns, or purchase order receipts fail inspection, they appear on the Discrepant Material Report (DMR). Then the Material Review Board is responsible for rejecting or accepting these parts. They are then dispositioned to a job, reworked, or inventory if accepted. Corrective action can be added to the process. This records what happens to the material.

EPICOR® CORE MODULES

Sales Management

Service Management

Production Management

Material Management

Financial Management

Tools

EPICOR® ADVANCED MODULES

Job Scheduling

DocStar

Quick Ship

XL Connect

MRP

Mobile Warehouse

Enhanced Quality

EDI Demand

Configurator Service Connect

Commerce Connect

Human Capital

Advanced Quality

Salesforce

Product Lifecycle