Conventional shop floor control functionality of an ERP system, for the most part, is suitable for discrete

manufacturing. However, during last two decades, interest surged for Just in Time manufacturing
technique which is suitable for high volume repetitive manufacturing. New functionalities in the ERP
system were developed to support repetitive manufacturing so as to maximize throughput, minimize
waste and reduction of set up time.

Although majority of manufacturing is discrete, process industries, consisting of chemicals, food
processing, paint, pharmaceutical, biotechnology etc., comprises an important segment of
manufacturing. Functional requirements for both process and discrete industries for various financial
and distribution modules are similar. However, functionality needed for production and operational
control is widely different. Under discreet manufacturing distinct items are produced using BOM and
routing whereas under process manufacturing, end product, produced out of continuous process, can
not be distinguished from each other.


Repetitive manufacturing: Important element of repetitive manufacturing is where schedules,
where production orders are consolidated into schedules. Another important consideration for
generation of schedule is capacity of bottleneck work center. On completion of schedule run, completed
units are moved to inventory and lot/serial number is assigned. Pull notes are used to transfer material
between work centers.

A repetitive type of manufacturing environment has the following characteristics:
Mass production with speed and high throughput.
Item produced are generic in nature.
Item produced are not linked to a particular production order and are normally made to stock for
distribution through warehouses and sales channels.
Supports rate based scheduling which includes setup and changeover time as well as maintenance
scheduling.
Cluster of work centers are grouped into assembly lines.

Repetitive manufacturing procedure: A schedule consists of production orders with completion date
that falls in the same period. The production orders under a schedule (with like delivery schedule) can
be grouped by item where different routing and production facilities are used for the same item.
Alternatively, production orders may be grouped based on production facility where different items,
following different routing, are produced in the same production facility. On completion of a production
schedule, status of all linked production orders is changed to complete and related financial, cost and
variance transactions are generated.

Repetitive manufacturing history: A strong analytic capability is available with repetitive manufacturing,
which effectively supports panning and control. Some of such reports are I) A production history
provides current date, month to date and year to date results and calculation of average and maximum
production results. II) A purchase schedule report shows scheduled receipts of materials on daily/hourly
basis during the planning period III) A downtime analysis reports highlight of all cases of downtime IV) A
production work list compares production plan to the capacity plan for rate based items.

Process Manufacturing: Under process manufacturing, final product along with by products and co
products are produced from ingredients through continuous production process which is identifiable by
batches. During the production process, the ingredient is gone through chemical changes such as mixing,
blending, and encapsulating. The functionality needed for production module of process industry is
distinguished by the following:
Instead of BOM and routing (as used in discrete manufacturing), functionalities such as recipe (process
routing)and formula (process bill of materials) managing is needed.
Governance and compliance requirement is more stringent, due to various statutory necessities.
Production is made in batches and batch traceability become critical in the event of a product recall.
Therefore, extensive lot control functionality is needed. Ingredients often enter the system on a
quarantine status and are released for processing only after extensive quality testing. This type of
quarantine management is also a required functionality for pocess control software.
Another important functionality is the ability to adjust batch sizes depending upon available inventory of
ingredients/ other materials.

Recipe Management: Recipe management is a key functionality related to batch processing in a process
industry. This improves control of sequential batches. Another important feature is version control of
which ensures that correct version is always used. Recipe management also helps in monitoring of
expiry date, self life and potency for a batch