Hello. I am new to using Epicor and am looking to get an idea of how other manufacturers utilize Epicor to create and release jobs to the production floor. Currently, I enter the job, print pick list, check material availability, release the job, print job traveler and walk it out to the floor. What I’d like to get to is utilizing Epicor to the point where it works for US and we do not have to print out so much paper and hand it off.
Can anyone give me feedback on how you use Epicor in production without printing everything?
Haven’t thought about it, you can Print to a PDF and then store the PDFs on a Shared Location by JobNumber.pdf and have Operators use Computers/Tablets to read the PDF instead?
Thats my thought. Let’s wait and see what others are doing.
It is all about technology and how much your company wants to invest in this paperless world… Using tablets, scanners, etc are very costly if you want them to be drop proof !!! It will happen !!!
In my company, pick list are printed, job travellers are printed as the investments in technology to replace this process is not a priority…for now.
My only request at minimum is to be able to scan the products when we ship…in order to avoid errors in shipping…but even that is a long way to go…
At the last few places I worked. Operators / Welders etc were more comfortable and preferred the paper version… They even write scribble notes on the back. But I guess if your Job will take 2 months to build then yeah that Traveler will become a mess… Almost like you need a “Operations” Traveler, that you hand out as you make progress… We build trucks and building a truck takes sometimes 12 months it has 200 operations and involves 5 departments, 2 plants and 80 operators.
We have a cell where we do more standard work and that’s handled quite differently than our other manufacturing areas, which get full job traveler, and typically are custom orders.
For these standard designs we have laminated workflow pages (i.e., pick list, operations description) in cell, then we just print up single work card, similar to below, and it is given to cell personnel for their planned weekly work. The work card travels with the job (materials) on a cart. We had these work cards (jpg) on a trello board on big screen at the cell to start but it was determined nifty but unnecessary. (I suspect if the planner understood the kanban of the trello a bit better, it may have been determined a good way, but that’s not my job so…)
The planner uses MRP suggested jobs to determine weekly schedule. In addition, for material availability on summary level we have made an Excel pivot table tool with download of PartDtl data (this is what Timephase uses) to visualize cell shortages and when we’re hitting safety stock, per below screenshot.
