The Kanban Item Master Maintenance function of the system authorizes items for kanban control. The item must already exist in the Item Master of the core system (in QAD EA).
The only required data in the Kanban Item Master Maintenance screen is the item number and the step number. The item number is the part number that you use to identify something that you make or buy. The step number is a loop identifier that normally would be set to 0 (zero). Step number can have other values, and typically these would be set as a way to have multiple loops for the same item, either one feeding another, or where there are two sources for the item. In the case of having one loop feeding another, this might happen when there are two distinct processes each running at a different rate or with different setups and where the second (downstream) process is not treated as a FIFO lane. Here you might identify one loop as loop 1 and the other as loop 2. The BOM and Routing Codes allow you to deviate from the normal bill of material and routing. Leave them blank and the system defaults to the standard BOM and standard routing as defined in QAD EA.
The Minimum Item EPE I is a kind of tool cycle based production interval and we will discuss it and its use when we review the Kanban Workbench.
Container type will be used in future material route and space calculations in the system. Cost allocation and Ave Inv Calc method control the Ave Inv calculations in the workbench. Run Out fields are reference only.
Supermarket Maintenance
The Supermarket Maintenance function of the system establishes the controlled inventory points in the value stream, as well as the default inventory location associated with each supermarket. In creating your value stream model you need to identify any supermarkets, which as we saw before are points in the value stream where you want to maintain a strictly limited and controlled amount of inventory, perhaps because you cannot achieve continuous flow from one process to the next.
The only required data in the Supermarket Maintenance screen is the site and the supermarket name. You can name your supermarkets anything you chose with the limits of the eight character name.
Supermarkets can be:
• Destination or source
• Inventory or work in process (WIP)
In most situations, a supermarket will be the destination for a manufacturing process or for inventory coming from a supplier, or for inventory coming from another supermarket as in the case of a transfer of material from a major warehouse to a factory point of use location. In this last situation, there would be a destination supermarket (the point of use) as well as a source
to be stored in two places because there's a physical distance between the two supermarkets or when you actually have material being pulled for several different source processes and it's a common component or a common sub-assembly that is used in multiple places.
You can identify supermarkets as being either inventory (INV) or work in process (WIP) supermarkets. You should identify a supermarket as an inventory supermarket (INV) if the material stored in the supermarket is part of the on-hand balance and is inventory reported as part of your financial statements. In other words if you want detailed inventory tracking across the entire value stream with an on-hand balance for each purchased part, fabrication, mix, blend, weldment, subassembly, etc., set your supermarkets to INV. With parameters set properly in the kanban loops, the system will maintain the on-hand inventory balances based on the kanban transactions. In other words, the kanban fill transaction will receive material into stock and backflush any stocked components to keep the inventory balances up to date.
You should identify a supermarket as work in process (WIP) anytime you choose not to track inventory balances for the item or items stored there. One way to use the system, for example, would be to identify every supermarket except for the one storing finished goods as a WIP supermarket. In this scenario, material could be received from the supplier (fill kanban against a specific purchase order) and the material would be transacted into stock and then immediately issued to WIP. Regardless of how many downstream loops it passed through in its value stream it would not be recorded as on-hand inventory. Only when it reached finished goods would it be received into stock.
Here’s one situation where you might want to code most of your supermarkets as INV with some selective WIP supermarkets. If you have a specific part that you produce where it is not possible to flow the part through all of the processes associated with its routing (operations 10 and 20 operate to a significantly different rate or with a very different setup time from operations 30 – 50), you can set up a supermarket between operations 20 and 30 to hold some semi-processed stock. This is not finished inventory; it has only been processed through operation 20 and consequently is work in process. Use the WIP supermarket to control it even though it is somewhat off the books. Like most of the other maintenance displays in the system, the Supermarket Maintenance function provides a way to attach free form comments to the record being maintained. Check the Comments checkbox and the system will open a frame where you can enter any amount of text that you would like to associate with the supermarket.
The Supermarket Fax, Supermarket Fax [2] and Email fields allow you to record fax numbers and an email address that can be used for directing dispatching information.