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titleGeneral considerations

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General considerations
General considerations

Note that Fortee offers an advanced configurator, which can automate the creation of parts on the basis of how a user answers a pre-defined set of questions. This allows for a good control of the quality of the records created. However, we recommend you start by filling the information manually to get more familiar with their impact. Automation with the configurator often comes high on your roadmap of continuous improvement after you have gone live with the product. 



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titleIdentification

In this section you will enter the main information allowing you to identify your product:

  • Code* - alpha - also known as part number, this can be an automatic counter, a manual entry, or calculated by the configurator.
  • Description* - alpha - this is how you usually name your product.
    • Foreign descriptions: in case you are selling the product cross borders, you can enter descriptions in other languages, which the system will display on commercial documents you issue.

  • Family - reference to another entity - also known as product or part groups, they make a nice axis for different sorts of analysis and allow to store family specific information, named characteristics. They are also used for some advanced configuration of MRP calculation and general ledger records creation.

  • Type - dropdown list - identify here whether the product is any of:

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    titleBehaviour of the various types


    Info
    • Material, Tool, and Part are interchangeable, and will behave similarly. They are useful to sort and filter results in a list.
    • Phantoms have a  specific behaviour and can only be used in Engineering programs.
    • Kits have a specific behaviour and can only be used in Sales programs.



    • Material: characterises goods you cannot count and must measure, typical of raw material.
    • Tool: what you use in bills of materials but are not components of the finished good.
    • Part: characterises finished goods as well as components used in bills of materials, which you can count (as opposed to Material).
    • Phantom: when used in a bill of materials, a phantom disappears in production to the benefit of its components. 

    • Kit: kits are used to regroup several products you bundle together in sales.

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      titleMore on kits


      Info

      There are 2 types of kits: bundles, and efficiency kits.

      • Bundles: when creating a line of sales order with such a kit, the system will keep the link between components and kit.
        • E.g. you cannot ship if you have not completed the kit with all components.
      • Efficiency kits: when you call such a kit in a line of a sales order, the system removes the parent item, but creates a line for each component. You can then remove parts independently, ship them at the pace you want, etc.



  • Image - document - when you upload a *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.gif or *.png file in this dedicated frame, you will be able to display the image throughout the product.
  • Source* - dropdown list - can either be manufactured, or purchased. This is the preferred way of how you procure a product. It does not prevent you from purchasing a manufactured product and vice versa, which can happen to manage workload, shorter lead times, and the like.

  • Validation status* - radio button - can either be validated or not validated. Parts that are set to invalid cannot be sold, purchased or used in production anymore.

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    titleMore on validation status


    Info

    This is especially useful when:

    • Decommissioning a product: you will be able to complete the process for existing orders, but not take any new orders for this part number.
    • Preparing the launch of a new product: not yet available for sales, but you can work on the engineering side of it.
    • Preparing the replacement of a deprecated component: you can add an invalid part number to a bill of materials, but it will not be added to the manufacturing BOM when raising a works order.



  • Stock unit of management (UOM) - reference to another entity - this unit reflects how you count or measure the product in stock and bill of materials.
  • Unit weight - numeric - used to calculate the total weight of products making a despatch note, which you will use in turn to place transportation purchase orders.
  • Unit volume - numeric - used to calculate the total volume of products making a despatch note, which you will use in turn to place transportation purchase orders. 
  • Question scenario - reference to another entity - this is the list of questions you can prompt to the user when calling the product when recording a quotation or sales order, creating a works order, or directly from the management of parts to configure a product (and therefore, create a new part with some form of automation to fill in the data).
  • Formula scenario - reference to another entity - this is the calculation steps followed after answering the questions of the scenario aforementioned. These steps will calculate various information about the product, such as part number, description, comments, price, etc.
  • Schema reference - alphanumeric - a reference to the schema of the product is usually expected here. It can be the name of the CAD drawing, electrical schema, recipe, etc.
  • External reference - alphanumeric - when you use a design software, this is the unique id of the CAD file or reference.
  • EDI id - alphanumeric - unique reference you use to communicate about this part number using EDI with suppliers and/or customers.
  • Version/List of versions - alphanumeric or collection of references to another entity - there are several ways to manage versions in the system. The easiest being a simple alpha in the part record, but you can make it a collection of several versions, which will allow for finer traceability and management, with specific structure(s) or stock management of each version.
  • General comment - text area - this text allows you to store additional information about the product, which will be automatically pushed on commercial and production documents.



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titleSales

Here you will store the few useful details to define how you sell the product in general.

  • Sales price- numeric - enter here the least applicable price if no other can be found.
  • New sales price- numeric - allows you to plan for the update of your the least applicable price for the product.
  • Applicable date - date - this is the date upon which the new sales price becomes applicable. From this date on, you should update the sales price in order to plan for a future evolution of your price list.
  • Number of months warranty - integer - when deploying the after-sales module, this calculates the end date of the warranty period of a product based on either delivery date or invoice date.



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titlePurchasing and production

The information you store here are among the most important in the system. They will drive how it behaves for this part number and those it interacts with.

  • Strategy* - drop down list - this is probably the most important information in the application. It can be either one of On stock, or On order, or eventually On project (in case project management is activated and relevant).
  • Management type*- drop down list - combined with the strategy, this field dictates how the system will suggest you resupply the product, and whether you count the stock.
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titleOther P&P data
  • Batch number counter- reference to another entity - this allows you to use automatic numbering for batch numbers.
  • Serial number management - boolean - this is used to tell whether you want to record serial numbers for this product.
Info

Note that traceability demands diligence and discipline. Whenever entering products in stock, or issuing from stock, the system will ask for traceability information.

  • Inspection process plan - reference to another entity - this allows you to refer to a question scenario that will be triggered when you book goods in, whether at the end of a works order or when receiving a purchase order. It will allow you to record the details of a quality control.
  • Storage sites - reference to another entity - default locations from where you record stock entries, or take stock of for this product.
    • Main entry: used by default whenever the program you are using leads to entering products in stock (from MRP suggestions, to booking works orders in or recording supplier deliveries).
    • Main exit: used by default whenever the program you are using leads to withdrawing products from stock (from dispatching sales orders to consuming components in production, or transferring parts to a subcontractor).
  • Batch policy - dropdown list - can be either one of batch by batch, or minimum batch quantity. In the latter, the system will initiate any action leading to entering products in stock with the minimum quantity defined in the field minimum batch size (see below). When batch by batch however, the system will initiate the quantity with what is precisely required.
    • Note that when the strategy is set to On order, the batch policy cannot be different than batch by batch, as you will restock for the line of sales order specifically.
  • SIMP part - reference to another entity - this is very advanced utilisation of the system, and subject to specific documentation still to come on S&OP, forecasts, and MRP.
  • Consumption type - dropdown list - this information is used to define how you issue components in production. To get more familiar with the system and more swiftly live, we recommend you leave it empty. This way, you can either do components issuing manually or let the system issue them automatically when booking finished goods in. Otherwise, you can specify whether you want components issuing to be:

    • Pre-consumption: components must be issued before booking finished goods in.

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      titleMore on pre-consumption


      Info

      Pre-consumption is also frequently named "declarative" in the sense that it forces the user to declare the material he or she has used to manufacture and book in finished goods. Although it is essentially true, on some very rare use cases Pre-consumption can be used to automate components issuing to works orders at the beginning of the operation they are attached to.



    • Post-consumption: this mode allows you not to care about issuing components. The system will issue them automatically at the end of a works order or operation. Quantities issued vary depending on product settings, and can either be based on quantity of finished goods made (pro-rata basis), or issued in totality.
  • Purchase unit - reference to another entity - enter here in what unit you purchase the product. It can be different than the stock unit of management, in which case the system asks you to define the conversion rate between the two units.
  • Last purchase price - numeric - you can initiate this value for parts you create, which will be used by default for the first purchase orders you place for these parts. It will then be updated each time you record a supplier invoice.
  • Main supplier - reference to another entity - by default, Fortee will suggest you procure this product from this supplier (important for purchased goods). 
  • Lead time - integer - number of days required to restock the product.
  • Security time period- integer - comes on top of the lead time for Fortee to suggest when you should place purchase orders or works orders and book goods in on time.
  • Minimum batch size - numeric -  in case you manage the product on MRP, this is the minimum quantity you would procure, either purchased or manufactured. It is also usually referred to as Economic Quantity of Order.
  • Packaging - numeric -  when you need to order a quantity above the EOQ or Minimum Batch Size, this is the minimum size of the batch over.
    • Example: for this product, EOQ = 100. Whenever you place a supplier order, or a manufacturing order, by default, the quantity is set to 100. If the packaging info is set to 10, and you need 107 units, the system will suggest you procure 110.
  • Security stock - numeric - minimum level of stock you want to hold.
  • Order point - numeric -  in case you manage the product on Order point, this is the stock threshold which will trigger a suggestion of procuring new products.
  • Labour unit - numeric - interesting to fill when you have very little knowledge and/or data about your routings to get rough estimates of the load of the plant vs. its actual capacity. The company has a volume of labour units available, and to make each product consumes some of these units. This reflects what portion of a day's total capacity it would take to make one unit of this product. Note that total capacity and labour unit should be set against bottlenecks only.
  • GTIN-13 code - alphanumeric - international standard describing consumer goods.

  • Suggestions grouping - alphanumeric - this is used by the MRP calculation to group procurement suggestions by label.

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    titleExample

    Label screws: you do not want to place a purchase order for screws every day, and would rather restock once a month. It allows you to place one purchase order for the combination of {Supplier, list of Parts known as screws, list of Dates of requirement within upstream horizon}, instead of the combination {Supplier, Part number, list of Dates of requirement within upstream horizon}, thus reducing the number of purchase orders you place. More information on this in the coming documentation about MRP calculation.

  • Maximum stock - numeric - this is advanced utilisation of the MRP calculation. It will help you not overstock material. In the case where procuring additional stock would bring you to exceed this value for the product, the system pushes the procurement suggestion to the latest possible.
  • Coverage time period - integer - this is advanced utilisation of the MRP calculation. You can either use Maximum stock, or Coverage period (at the product level). The latter allows to bring some form of Reorder point at the MRP level. If the level of stock is not foreseen to be back to security level.





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titleFinancial information
  • VAT type - reference to another entity - crossing VAT system from companies (whether customers or suppliers), with VAT type from products allow the system to initiate the tax rate and amount in all sales documents.
  • Accounting classification - dropdown list - 
  • Sales account - reference to another entity - 
  • Purchase account - reference to another entity - 
  • Valuated on- dropdown list - this allows you to select against which cost information you value the stock of this product. It can be either one of Last purchase price, Weighted average cost, Planned full cost or Standard price.
  • Price expressed for - numeric - for parts which have a very small value, and in order not to display 8 decimals everywhere for your main currency, this allows you to express prices for a quantity different than 1.
  • Weighted average cost - numeric - 
  • Planned full cost- numeric - 
  • Standard price - numeric - manual price you enter to be the value of the product.