Manufacture orders are an essential element of most manufacturing companies. They can be used for all sorts of production jobs. In addition, they help with structuring the workload and making sure workers know their place in the manufacturing process. What does all of this mean? Let’s get into the specifics of what a manufacture order is and how it helps to facilitate the job of manufacturing finished goods.
Definition of manufacture order
What is a manufacture order? When you boil it down to the basics, it is a collection of bills of materials and work orders that are geared toward a specific manufacturing job. When a manufacturing job gets too complex for a single work order, it becomes necessary to organize all of the additional work orders in one place so that nothing in the manufacturing process gets done out of order or gets forgotten in the course of the operation. Thus, a manufacture order’s purpose is to house all of the work orders associated with a job and their attendant bills of materials to keep everything nice and organized.
Now that we have defined manufacture orders, let’s continue with the many types of work orders that you can create and put into a manufacture order to help you perform all sorts of manufacturing jobs.
5 Types of work orders
There are five main categories that work orders fall under. They are:
Standard – Most run-of-the-mill manufacturing jobs will use the Standard type of work order. It is basically a methodical means of putting together a product that includes multiple ingredients, parts, or other raw materials. The Standard work order only works if you already have a bill of materials ready to go that can be associated with it. It allows you to combine the two and follow their instructions in your manufacturing software.
Reverse – A Reverse work order, as you might expect, is the exact opposite of a Standard one. It goes in reverse order to transform a finished good back into an earlier stage of production. Again, if you already have a bill of materials, this is a helpful option because you can simply reverse the steps in it to go backward instead of forward and reverse the existing bill of materials, step by step.
Disassemble – The Disassemble type of work order is interesting because on the surface it seems to be exactly like the Reverse work order. It is true that it is intended for the purpose of bringing a finished product back to its earliest state of being as a group of separated raw materials and parts. But the difference is that a Disassemble work order is based on an existing work order, not a bill of materials.
Repair – A Repair work order is pretty self-explanatory. You simply select an item from your inventory that is in need of repair and then you choose any individual parts that will be necessary to use in the repair process. When all is said and done, you will have a refurbished product.
Custom – You can create a Custom work order and use it to perform repairs, manufacture finished goods, and more in a single work order.
It is helpful to have access to each of these work order types because not every manufacturing job will be the same, and you need to be able to be flexible. When something goes wrong and you need features that go beyond a Standard work order, it is quite helpful to have a manufacturing and warehouse solution that offers that kind of functionality.
A manufacturing solution
Fishbowl Manufacturing is a manufacturing solution that allows you to create manufacture orders, work orders, bills of materials, and more for all of the manufacturing jobs mentioned above. It also allows you to assign workers to each production stage and check the status of work orders that are in the process of being completed. See how much Fishbowl Manufacturing can help you speed up your business processes through the use of manufacture orders, production stages, and many other features.
TL;DR SUMMARY
A manufacture order is an umbrella which contains all of the work orders and bills of materials that go into a specific manufacturing job. There are five types of work orders that can be housed under a manufacture order:
- Standard
- Reverse
- Disassemble
- Repair
- Custom