SAP Routing Routing is defined with list of activities/operations which are required to perform & in which sequence and machine it has to perform and what are activity time required in order to produce an assembly or semi-finished product. Let consider the below Industrial example. Gears Manufacturing Industry which follows variety of processes like casting, forging, extrusion, powder metallurgy, and blanking. Each operations are performed in a different machines i.e. casting process uses Furnace and Molding Machines and Forging uses hammer forging machines etc. Routing for gear is defined as following sequences with machines and time. Casting-> forging-> extrusion-> powder metallurgy-> and blanking.
Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging Hydraulic press- Die press CNC Machine
Control Key in Routing Operation: We have discussed about the control key in work center tutorial. Control key from work center will be copied to Operation when we creating Routing. Depends upon control key System understand that whether the particular operation need to be scheduled and capacity and costing need to be calculated or not. Here the detail about the control key about each fields is explained.
Control key definition in OP00
If this indicator marked system schedule the operation using operation time, formula (from work center) and Production order quantity.i.e system calculate start date/start time and finish date/time. If it is not marked system consider the operation as only for information.
This indicator is set only when capacity need to be calculate for the operation. System uses scheduling calculation from the previous Indicator to calculate capacity. We cannot use this Indicator without scheduling Indicator activated.
This Indicator is only activated when there is an Inspection need to be done after this operation and its results are need to be recorded. Example, before furnace operation, Analyze of charge material composition and recording it against that operation using Inspection characteristics.
Automatic goods movement (GR-Goods receipt) of an assembly will be posted when this operation is confirmed. Generally This Indicator will be assigned to the final operation.
When Shop floor paper is printed from production order system uses this Indicator from operation whether this operation need to be included in time ticket or not
If this Indicator is activated, system Identify that rework can be occur in this operation so that automatic calculation of yield quantity at the time confirmation will not happen. For the rework quantity entered in operation no automatic GR will happen even though we activate automatic Goods receipt indicator. It must be posted manually
These indicators are considered by the system when order is confirmed and print is triggered at the of Order relase.Operation with the relevant Indicators will be printed in the shop floor
Cost for this operation will be calculated using operation details, Order quantity and costing formula from work center.
Let say a particular operation (let say die press) is performed outside the manufacturing premises by vendor. In this case we have to activate the system will generate Purchase requisition for this operation.
Operation with external processed will be scheduled based on lead time entered in the operation. If you want system to ignore lead time and schedule as per standard values (setup, Machine and labor time) activate schedule external operation Indicator.
When mile stone confirmation is selected here system will confirm the preceding operations automatically. Confirmation required will be selected when you want operator must confirm the operation and enter the relevant operation details. We can also restrict user not to enter operation details at the time of confirmation.
Structure of the Routing:
Routing has different levels in its structure and different type of data are maintained in each levels. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Header Sequences Operation BOM Components QM Inspection characteristics PRT Assignment Trigger point assignment
Creation of Routing
Routing creation in CA01
Header Details of Routing: Routing header detail contains information about Routing status, Usage, validity period, Lot size etc. Usage and Status: Usage decided for which application the routing can be used. i.e. Production or Plant Maintenance or all Applications etc. Status can be active and inactive. If routing is created with incomplete data and later user want to update the missing data, it can be kept with status “Inactive�. So that it cannot be used by the system until he make it active.
Routing Usage & Status in routing Header details
Routing usage selection- Routing header Status:
Routing Status in routing Header details
Validity This Start date and end date for the routing which decides its validity period.
Sequences in Routing: We have THREE sequences in routing 1. Standard sequences 2. Parallel sequences 3. Alternate sequences Production process operations which are carried out one after another is defined in the sequence. Standard sequence is a linear and simple sequence created in routing. When there is a possibility of an alternative operation or procedure for the standard sequence operation is defined in Alternative sequences.
When there is possibility of an operation which can be performed at the same time with main operation in standard sequence is defined in Parallel sequences. NOTE: 1. We have Routing and rate routing which are used in Discrete and repetitive manufacturing process respectively. 2. In routing we can use Alternate and Parallel sequences where as in rate routing we can only use parallel sequences. Examples from Industries: Consider the previous example of gear manufacturing where the standard sequences is as follows Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging Hydraulic press- Die press CNC Machine In this let say we have 2 Hammer forging machine which are used for depends upon the tonnage operated. When tonnage is less than 100 TONs business uses Forging Machine 1(FM1) and if it is greater than 100 TON they use Forging Machine 2(FM2).In this case Alternate sequence is created with lot size 100 TON to Maximum TON it can be operated with work center FM2 When order is created less than 100 TON system uses standard sequences Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging FM1 Hydraulic press- Die press CNC Machine When order is created more than 100 TON system uses standard sequences Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging FM2 Hydraulic press- Die press CNC Machine Let say we have 2 die press which can be operated parallel can be defined as Parallel sequences
Die press 1 Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging Hydraulic press- Die press 2 CNC Machine
Operation Details: Operation details contains 1. work center in which operation need to be perform 2. Operation description
3. Time required (Activity time) to perform the operation for the Base quantity 4. Interoperation times. 5. Additional Information for operation which system uses for scheduling and other purposes.
Routing Operation Overview
Control Key selection in Operation Overview Input all Operations in sequences with work centers on which It performed
Assigning Component to the Operation When a routing is created for an assembly, system will copy its Bill of material to it. During production process all the BOM item might be consumed at the first operation itself or few components can also be consumed at the later operations. SAP uses this information to post the Goods issue automatically during backflush when operation is confirmed. By default system assign all the components to the FIRST operation. Procedure: Click on
and select the component you want to assign
Allocate BOM Components to Operation Here for example purpose I have added only below components in BOM and need BARSTOCK, DUCTILE IRON and CAST IRON in furnace operation and rest in die press stage. 1. 2. 3. 4.
BARSTOCK Cast_Iron Ductile Iron PLASTIC RESINS
Select components which you want to assign to the Furnace operation (here first 3 components) and click on
Click on Button to which you want to assign.
to display all associated operations then select the required operation
First 3 components are assigned to Operation 0010
Plastic resin is assigned to the operation ‘050’ i.e. die press Example Business case: The following raw materials are used in Gear Manufacturing which are components of its BOM. Bar Stock Cast Iron Ductile Iron Forgings Gear Blanks Gear Steel Near-net Forgings Other Gear Materials Plastic Resins Plastic Stock Forms
Powder Metal Materials Tool Steel Operation sequences: Furnace/Mold-Hammer forging Hydraulic press- Die press CNC Machine Here not all materials are required and consumed at the start of operation (i.e. furnace and molding).There are few items which are consumed in subsequence operations also. Like powder metal material and tool steel required in die press. If no component assignment is done, system will assign it to first operation by default.
To create Sequences click on By default standard sequences will be created
Sequence Overview in Routing
To click parallel or alternate sequences click on
Sequence Overview – Alternate sequence creation Choose relevant (alternate seq.) radio button and press enter It asks operation after which you want to branch and return before which operation
Sequence Details in Routing Select operation from which you want to craete alternate operation.Let say here we are creating Alternate sequence for hydraulic press for lot size more than 10 TONS
Sequence details Screen
Then click Operation to maintain alternate Operation that you want
Operation details for Alternate sequences
You can see this as graphical layout by clicking
in sequence overview screen
Sequence Overview-Graphical display
Here click on
Sequence Overview-Graphical display
QM Inspection Characteristics: When quality inspections are required to carry out during the manufacturing process, Quality Inspection characteristics has to be assigned for the relevant operations. This Inspection characteristics called as in process Inspection chractertics. When an operation assigned with Inspection characteristics is confirmed an Inspection Lot will be generated and Quality person will enter result recording. Click on Inspection characteristics.
after selecting the operation and assign suitable
Assignment of QM Inspection characteristics
PRT Assignment: PRT (Production resources/tools) which are used for testing during production, can be assigned to the corresponding Operations in routing/Inspection characteristics. PRT can be an any of the below types 1. Material PRT 2. Equipment PRT 3. Document PRT Each PRT has its own behavior and usage. When you want to measure wear and tear of the tools used for treating, we can create it as equipment PRT. A material PRT can be procured, also keep it in stock and we can track its value and quantity at any time. We need valid material master for this. (Transaction MM01)
Equipment production resources and tools are serviced at regular intervals. We need valid equipment master for this. (Transaction IE01) An instruction or guide for manual testing can be attached as document PRT.We need valid document master info record for this. (Transaction CV01n)
Click on
in operation overview after selecting operation
Assignment of PRT to an Operation Select suitable PRT (Material or equipment or Document) you want to assign suitable master then save.
Trigger Point Assignment: Trigger points are assigned to an operations in a routing to trigger certain functions in the production order. The below are some of the common functionalities used for trigger point ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Release succeeding operations Release up to stop indicator Release preceding operations Create order by copying Insert reference operation set Start workflow task (for example, send mail to a user)
The detailed functionality of trigger points and its functionality is explained in next tutorial.
Other Operation Specific Details used Routing: Apart from this details, there are some information which can be maintained at Operation level which primarily controls “Scheduling” and “Capacity”. Here some important information alone explained.
Select the operation for which you want to maintain the operation specific details.
Routing Operation Overview (CA01)
Operation details in CA01
Routing Operation details in CA01/CA02 Reduction strategy controls scheduling of an operation when its production start date and end date are not within the Basic dates. This topic is explained in detail in next tututarial. Inter operation time also considered by the system at the time of scheduling which was explained in tutorial “PP Scheduling” and also you can find relationship between Reduction strategy and Interoperation time in next tutorial.
Splitting section in Routing Operation details
If required split indicator is activated, system uses “Number of Individual capacity’ in work center at the time of scheduling. (Refer work center tutorial) Number of Splits entered here will be consider by the system to split the capacity load to number of splits. If this number of split is not matching with the number of individual capacities entered in the work center, then system schedules with the smaller of these two values.
Minimum processing time entered here will be used by the system after system calculate processing time by considering number of splits. The system will make sure that the processing time calculated will not drop below this value during splitting.
Rate routing vs routing: • •
Rate routing has same behavior and structure as routing, but in Rate routing there is no Alternate sequence. Routing will be generally used in Discrete manufacturing whereas rate routing will be used in repetitive manufacturing.