Rootstock

Materials Management Module

Cloud MRP

Rootstock Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is the software engine that will use the sales order and forecast demands in conjunction with the effective production bill of material and by reviewing item inventory balances will generate planned supplies in a time phase manner to offset the outstanding demands for end items and sub assemblies.

Specifically, MRP generates what are termed planned work orders for manufactured items and planned purchase requisitions for purchase or subcontract items. For firmed (or greater supplies) it generates reschedule or excess messages when, and if, appropriate.

Rootstock Material Requirements Planning (MRP) uses information from Sales Order Management to drive the top level demands. Forecast demands, or not only end items but any item can be entered as well. A forecast demand for an item denotes the start period date and the end period date and the quantity forecasted for that period. MRP will perform the traditional ​‘netting’ and plan to the greater of the Sales Order Demand and Forecast demand (by period).

The MRP Engine uses the typical algorithms in the industry and will proceed level by level through the Bill of Material starting with the top level (i.e. end item) of the BOM and review the demands and safety stock requirements, netting out the inventory and firmed (or greater) supplies and first suggest reschedules for firmed (or greater) supplies and then create planned supplies as appropriate.

The MRP Engine will always use the ​‘effective’ Bill of Material in its plan. It accomplishes this by reviewing the scheduled pick dates of the planned work order supplies or planned subcontract requisition supplies and using that date to extract the components that are ​‘effective’ and ​‘implemented’ as of that date in the generation of the work order and subcontract requisition demands.

MRP can be planned by division and by site as well as by project (in those divisions where project control is applicable). It uses planning policies such as ​‘lot for lot’ or days cover. Since many lead times can be stipulated at the item (or commodity code) level, the MRP Engine also determines for the work order supply the scheduled firm date, scheduled release date, scheduled pick date as well as the scheduled start date on the shop floor and the scheduled due date. For a requisition, it will determine the scheduled firm date, purchase order place date, date it is due on the receiving dock as well as the due date it is to be stocked. For those parts identified as items to be planned using ​‘re-order’ point, the MRP Engine can also perform re-order point computations.

Cloud Scheduling and Capacity Planning

Rootstock Scheduling & Capacity Planning provides the management and monitoring of the work order operations’ scheduled dates that are required to meet the Material Requirements Planning Work Order’s Scheduled Due Date into Stock.

The Rootstock Scheduler develops a schedule for all firmed, release and ​‘in process’ work orders based on the due date, standard times extended by the work order quantity, priority (as derived from compressed float), move and queue times and the work center’s standard for the hours in a production day.

The Capacity Requirements Planning will allow one to view a work center’s available capacity on a day by day basis (in terms of labor hours or machine hours) in a colorful graphical format. The ​‘drag and drop’ feature supports moving the schedule for a given work order within a work center from one day to another. If moving up the priority (and display) of a work order within a work center is required, this ​‘drag and drop’ feature allows the altering of the priority. The schedule is adjusted automatically when the ​‘work order’ is moved from one day to another.

Scheduling

The work order scheduling logic is performed for each work order, in a stepped method, establishing certain criteria at the end of each step before ultimately determining each work order operation’s scheduled start date and scheduled complete date. The determination of the operation standard time is influenced by a number of factors.

The first step in the scheduling algorithm is to establish the first work order’s operation’s schedule start date. If the work order has as not yet been started and the Work Order Production Release Dates is later than today’s date, then first operation’s schedule start date is the Work Order Production Release Date. If the Work Order Production Release Date is less than (or equal to) today’s date, then the first work order’s operation schedule start date is set to today’s date. If the work order has been started, then the first work order operation’s scheduled start date, not as yet completed, will be set to today’s date.

The next step is to determine the subsequent work order operations’ scheduled start and scheduled complete dates. This is accomplished by computing the scheduled quantity at the operation and then using that quantity in conjunction with labor and machine standards to determine the expected time to be expended in a work center for this operation. Considering the length of the standard production day will determine if this expended time (assuming infinite capacity) can be completed on the current scheduled date or a later date. The algorithm, when establishing dates for the next operation, will use the scheduled complete date of this operation that was previously scheduled and then add move and queue times to determine the present operation’s scheduled start date. The quantity to be scheduled will be adjusted based upon actual or expected scrap of the prior operation.

Given that this is a forward scheduling method, the next step in the process will determine the priority using a comparison between the standard (or natural) move and queue time and the compressed move and queue time required to meet the Work Order Scheduled Due Date into Stock. If a compression can be done, then the work order operations’ scheduled start and scheduled complete dates will be readjusted to meet the Material Requirements Planning Work Order Scheduled Due Date.

Capacity Planning

The Capacity Planning Work Bench is launched from the Manufacturing Menu. In the capacity planning work bench, the user, using the easy to use ​‘drag and drop’ capability, can move the ​‘work order operation start date’ forward or backward and the scheduling algorithm described above will be executed.

The work order operation’s start date (and scheduled complete date) will determine which work center day slots the work order will occupy. The priority will determine the order of the listing within the work center. Those work orders in green are expected to be started within the ​‘available capacity’ and those in red ​‘exceed capacity’. It is expected that the user may change the position of the work order within a work center by altering the priority and for those work orders in red, it is expected that the user, via a ​‘drag and drop’ capability, will move them to another day.

Lot & Serial Control

Rootstock Lot & Serial Control provides for an item’s lot or serial number to be registered through Purchasing Receipts, Inventory, Shop Floor Control and Sales Order Fulfillment functions.

The Purchasing Receipt function will note the Item Number classification and if ​‘lot controlled’, then the lot number must be assigned to the entire Purchase Receipt for the items being received prior to their ​‘acceptance’ into stock. There is an option that allows the user to assign the ​‘receiver number’ as the lot number which provides for an easy but practical application for the lot identification.

Sales & Order Management Module

Configure-Price-Quote

Rootstock’s CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote) module offers a robust selection of tools to help manage pricing and quotes efficiently and with complete visibility. Rootstock offers seamless integrations between Salesforce Opportunities/Quotes and Rootstock Quotes/Sales Order objects.

Configurator

The Rootstock Configurator provides accurate and immediate estimates for various product designs and customer needs. It is fully customizable making it easy to tailor the configuration process around specific business requirements. The Configurator guides the user thru process via user-defined, modular Selection Groups. Each selection can spawn sub-selections, and the user can eliminate certain options and require others based on prior selections. Each selection can also have an associated set of Components (Inventory Items, Labor Steps, Service Items, Entitlements, etc.) that function underneath the selections and factor into the total price of the configuration. At the end of the process the user can direct the resulting Configuration Set to a variety of destinations, the most common being a Sales Order or Quote Line.

Pricing Engine

Rootstock’s Pricing Engine provides companies with a multitude of options for an accurate, flexible, pricing system. Pricing models are Specific-to-General, all containing quantity tiered pricing and discounting options. Models include: Products, Customer Products, and Agreements (date effective and based on dollar and product qty volumes). Combinations of Customer Class and Product Group can also be used for additional discounting. Service Contracts and Contract Entitlements can be employed for the pricing of supplies and services of installed products. The Pricing Engine can also be accessed from Salesforce Quotes/Opportunities and can be made exposed via an API for external access to Web Stores etc.

Quotes

Rootstock’s Quotes share all features and capabilities of Sales Orders including all product types (Stock, Kit, Configured, Service, and Entitlement). Using Rootstock’s intuitive Capacity Planning Workbench, users can view the impact the quote would have on the Shop Floor

Sales Order Management

Rootstock Sales Order Management allows for the entry and processing of customer sales orders for products and services from order entry to customer invoice. All required sales order information including customer and product data is maintained within the Rootstock application.

As a native application built on the Force​.com platform, Sales Order Management offers automatic integration/synchronization with Salesforce customer and product databases and allows for the automatic transfer of Accounts Receivable data into Finan​cial​Force​.com Accounting and other accounting systems as needed. With Rootstock, manufacturers and distributors can streamline Sales Order Management resulting in reduced operating cost of sales, improved productivity, and improved customer service.

Order Entry

Sales orders can be created within the Rootstock application in a variety of ways. Using APIs, orders can be seamlessly transferred from existing web stores, EDI transaction sets or any other order entry system. Quotes created in Salesforce can be easily converted to Rootstock Sales Orders. Of course, sales orders can be entered directly by a Rootstock user. Product configuration is also supported with demand for all configured components being provided to the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) or Replenishment Planning (RP) systems.

Customer Data

Rootstock leverages a shared customer account data model with Salesforce, Finan​cial​Force​.com, and other Force​.com applications. This enables multiple addresses, (billing and shipping), multiple currencies, user-defined codes (terms, carriers, etc.), and commission tracking/processing across all systems. Customer agreements can be created in Rootstock Sales Order Management that support date-effective, customer-specific pricing and discounting.

Product Data

Product data is also common between Salesforce, Rootstock, Finan​cial​Force​.com, and other Force​.com applications. Rootstock enables multiple product types for inventory items including stock, kitted and configured. Service and other non-inventory products processing, as well as reoccurring order processing for items and services are also supported.

Rootstock delivers multiple pricing options including quantity breaks, date-effective specials, and customer-specific pricing capabilities as well as multiple discount options including by customer, customer class, and product class.

Order Processing

Robust order entry and maintenance capabilities support the sales order throughout the order fulfillment process. Rootstock enables material allocation and issue, product packaging and shipping, and customer invoice with integration to Finan​cial​Force​.com or other Accounts Receivable applications. Multi-site (multi-distribution center) order entry creates a centralized order that spans across all divisions, warehouses, and sites and transactions are linked back to the originating order as appropriate.

With Rootstock Sales Order Management, associated financial transactions and controls can be easily managed from order entry to customer invoice. Packaging, handling, and freight charges can be independently tracked and invoiced. Prepayments as well as payment schedules can be processed. Credit checking and other order processing controls can be leveraged throughout the order cycle. Rootstock also supports Return Material Authorization (RMA) processing including advanced replacements, material receipt, rework and shipment.

Sales Order Invoice Process

The Rootstock Sales Order Invoice Process creates an Invoice in Rootstock when a Sales Order shipment is completed. When using FinancialForce Accounting, a Sales Order Invoice can be approved and Transferred to AR, which creates a Sales Invoice within FinancialForce.

Reporting

Rootstock Sales Order Management delivers a wide variety of reports, forms, and analytics to enable manufacturers and distributors to better run their business.

Available forms include sales order acknowledgements, packing slips, invoices, RMAs, and Bills of Lading. Internal reports include bookings, sales history, shipments, gross margin, and order backlog. Online, real-time analytics include sales commissions data, orders in process, customer account inquiries, and product warranty information. This provides the information needed by the sales and manufacturing and warehouse operations organizations to communicate effectively with customers and make better business decisions regarding product offering, pricing, quality, customer discounting, and sales team effectiveness.

Financial Management Module

Manufacturing Cost Control

Rootstock Manufacturing Cost Control provides extensive Cost accounting capabilities required by companies that have a need to closely monitor and control manufacturing costs. The user may elect to use either standard costing or weighted average costing method for valuing inventory and computing cost of goods sold.

Eight (8) cost elements can be maintained using either a standard cost method or an average actual cost method. The method is set at the ​‘division level’ which means that in a multi-division installation, a company could have ​‘standard costs’ in one division and ​‘average actual costs’ in another division. Another item of note is that in a standard cost system these costs are maintained at an item level and in an weighted average cost system these costs are ​‘averaged’ at an item-project level.

Cost Elements

Up to eight cost elements can be tracked in inventory, work in process and finished goods. These cost elements are as follows:

1. Material Cost – This is the purchased cost. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard material unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ​‘averaged’ with the inventory’s current material cost.
2. Material Overhead Cost – This is the material burden which is calculated using a ​“Material Overhead Rate’ designated at the division level and applied to the material cost (or subcontract material cost) at the time of purchase order receipt. This rate is used in either a standard or actual cost environment.
3. Direct Labor Cost – In an actual cost environment, this is the labor cost associated with the hours charged multiplied by a labor grade rate associated with the employee that is booking the labor at a work order operation. In a standard cost environment, this is derived in a ​‘standard cost’ calculation accumulating all of the item’s routing operations’ hour standards multiplied by a standard rate for the labor grade expected to perform the operation.
4. Direct Labor Overhead Cost – There is a Direct Labor Overhead Rate associated with each Department and the Department is noted on each operation of the routing. In an actual cost environment, Direct Labor Costs extended by the Direct Labor Overhead Rate provides this Direct Labor Overhead cost. In a standard cost environment, when calculating the cost standard using the standard routing, this same rate is applied to the standard direct labor cost at each operation.
5. Fringe Labor Overhead Cost – Similar to a Direct Labor Overhead Rate associated with each Department there is also a Fringe Labor Overhead Rate. Given the rising cost of Fringe (medical and taxes for example) it is often desirable to separate this cost out from Direct Labor Overhead. This is calculated in the same manner as the Direct Labor Overhead.
6. Machine Overhead Cost – There is a Machine Overhead Rate associated with each machine and the machine can be specified on each operation of the routing where appropriate. In an actual cost environment, actual machine hours are extended by the Machine Overhead Rate providing this Machine Overhead Cost. In a standard cost environment, when calculating the cost standard using the standard routing, this same rate is applied to the standard machine hours at each operation.
7. 7Subcontract Material Cost – This is the value added cost of the vendor for their manufacturing/assembly work associated with a subcontract purchase order. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard subcontract material unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ​‘averaged’ with the inventory’s current subcontract material cost.
8. Subcontract Labor Cost – This is the value added cost of the vendor for their manufacturing/assembly work associated with an ​‘outside operation’ of a work order. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard subcontract labor unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ​‘averaged’ with the work orders’ subcontract labor cost.

Cost Rollups and Standards Revaluation in a Standard Cost Environment

Standard costs for purchased and subcontract items are maintained by the user on the item standard cost master file. The standard costs for labor and overhead are calculated by Rootstock using the bill of materials and routing for each item using the cost rollup process.

Variance Calculations in a Standard Cost Environment

In a standard cost environment, the costs on the item (or item-project) master files are maintained at standard. Standard cost variance calculations are done as follows on the following transactions:

• Purchase Receipt – The difference between the purchase order price and the standard material cost (or subcontract material cost) will be calculated (and extended by the quantity) and will debit/credit a PPV (purchase price variance) account.
• Work Order Close – The sum of actual component material charges (as determined at work order issuance) and the sum of all labor and associated overhead, machine overhead, and subcontract labor at actual are maintained on the work order. At work order close the difference between the work order receipts and scrap – at standard are compared to these actual costs and there will be a debit/credit to a Work Order Variance WIP account as appropriate.
• Standards Redefinition- Whenever an item standard is redefined, all stock inventory and all WIP (work order) inventory is revalued at the new standard and a ​‘standards variance recalculation’ account is appropriately debited/credited.

Rootstock’s Manufacturing Accounts

Rootstock Manufacturing Cost Control maintains its own chart of manufacturing accounts which are then individually mapped to the General Ledger account. This permits the user to capture costs at one level of detail in manufacturing (e.g. multiple variance accounts), and then post these accounts to the same General Ledger account. The format of the costs to be posted to General Ledger is in the cumulative cost format and the eight cost components (whether in a standard or actual cost environment) are ​‘unitized’ as one cost for General Ledger purposes.

Financial Integration

As a result of the broad ​“Best of Breed” offerings (both front and back office) contained on the Salesforce App Exchange, Rootstock has leveraged expertise and investments by financial software vendors. This has allowed Rootstock to quickly build the most complete suite of Manufacturing, Distribution and Supply Chain Applications (including powerful functionality such as Sales Order and Purchasing) available on the cloud. Alongside the robust Manufacturing, Distribution and Supply Chain Applications, Rootstock has built integrations to popular Accounting Applications both on and off the Cloud (listed below), with many others on the Rootstock product roadmap.

• Although each Accounting System may differ in the depth and breadth of their offerings, ALL must offer the basic functionality of Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Cash Management, General Ledger (Journals) and the ability to generate accurate Financial Statements. In addition, Rootstock has sought to integrate with Financial applications that support our multi-company, multi-division, multi-site, multi-national, multi-currency and a multi-dimensional Chart of Accounts (providing the ability to track and report financial results by Project, Department, Sales Region, etc. while at the same time retain a simple Chart of Accounts) capabilities.
  
• To that end, Rootstock currently has built-in integration with the following Financial and Accounting Systems –

Financial Force​.com

FinancialForce is the ​“Top Accounting App on the Salesforce Platform” and, because it is 100% Native to the platform, Rootstock has been able to ​“seamlessly” integrate to their Accounting package.

• FinancialForce is a comprehensive accounting application built on the force​.com Platform. It offers a full suite of Accounting features such as the ability to, in conjunction with Rootstock Manufacturing, have real-time visibility of your financial data, streamline your order to cash and procure to pay processes, allow for faster period closes (always in balance) and improved cash flow by providing the following key features…
  
• Accounts Receivable – Customer related transactions
• Accounts Payable – Vendor related transaction
• Cash Management – post cash receipts and process payments
• General Ledger and Budgeting – record transactions to the Accounting General Ledger reporting period-to-period financial results and against established budgets
• Analysis Dimensions – optional elements of some accounting codes that form part of the Chart of Accounts enabling use to analyze business activity in additional ways such as by Cost Center, Projects, Sales Regions, etc., at the same time while retaining a simple Chart of Accounts
• Budgeting – ability to track and report variances of actual period balances against budgeted amounts
• Multi-Currency – transact and report across multiple currencies, including managing exchange rates and auto generated, periodic currency revaluations on defined General Ledger Accounts
• Multi-Company – including Inter-company Transactions
• Accounting Launchpads – provides a ​“Workflow” like view of the various Accounting features with immediate access to the Application
• SF Platform features •Create Profiles, Roles and user-based dashboards, with drilldown from dashboards to transactions instantly
• Opportunities/Quotes – ability to create Sales Order and Sales Invoices automatically from existing Opportunities and Quotes
• Reports – chose from a library of available Report Templates, or easily create your own across the multiple Applications on your Org.
• Dashboards – as a Finance professional you can see a full picture of your Company’s financials through various dashboards. Either utilize a set of available Dashboards, or easily create your own. You can also drill-down into these reports for analysis if needed.

Intuit QuickBooks

Intuit offers an expansive list of popular Accounting products, both Online and Desktop, with varying levels of functionality. Rootstock has developed ​“Integration” tools that facilitate the transfer of financial data across their product offerings.

• QuickBooks Online – Rootstock utilizes QuickBooks API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) to automatically creates the appropriate recording of the related financial transactions in the accounting system from a click of a button, such as…
• Journals to record all of the Cost Transactions
  
• Customer Invoices to record Accounts Receivable and associate Revenue, and to which to record cash receipts
  
• Vendor Bills (which have been matched valid Purchase Order (Price) and PO Receipt (Quantity) to record Accounts Payable and associated expenses and from which to pay vendors
• QuickBooks Desktop – since there are no API’s available to automate the transfer to the QuickBooks Desktop products, Rootstock has developed the following series of Export Programs (utilizing Intuits’ IIF file format) to facilitate the export of financial data to be then imported in the Accounting System…
• Export/Import of all Cost Transactions as Journals
  
• Export/Import of Sales Order Invoices as Invoices to record Accounts Receivable and associated Revenue, and to which to record cash receipts
  
• Export/Import PO Receipts to be recorded as Item Receipts in QuickBooks that can then be matched to a Vendor Bill, and then paid

Multi Site & Multi Company

Rootstock Multi Division, Multi Site, & Multi Company capability offers a sophisticated structure to support manufacturing and distribution companies that have multiple plants or distribution centers in various locations throughout the world. Rootstock provides comprehensive inter-division and inter-site capabilities throughout all applications.

Within Rootstock, multiple divisions may exist within a single company while multiple sites exist within a single division. Each site maintains its own inventory and a site in Rootstock is typically identified with a warehouse. Forecasting and MRP functions can also exist separately for each site (or across sites) to satisfy inter-site requirements. Each Division has a ​‘main site’ and it is that main site that does the manufacturing and purchasing while the other sites can be warehouses.

Inter-Site Requirements Planning allows a supply site to plan, acquire and transfer material to meet the needs of a requiring site. Materials that are manufactured, purchased or subcontracted at the main site can be transferred to the requiring site. A central sales site enters orders for products coming from other sites, such as warehouses and manufacturing plants.
Production Engineering can be centralized within a company as well as all of the divisions within a company. If the Engineering function is decentralized at the plant level, then each division will have its own Production Engineering Bill of Material and Change Order Process.

In a company that supports centralized Production Engineering and Product Management, each manufacturing division that maintains information such as product masters, item masters, and bills of materials (if applicable) may share the data, rather than duplicating it at each division. Work orders and other inventory functions can be validated against centralized master records at the inventory divisions. Each division can maintain their own ​‘sub ledger’ of cost accounts that can be rolled up into the main ledger for a company’s financial statements. The costs can then be identified and controlled at a division level from a general accounting perspective

Project Control

Rootstock Project Control provides an additional capability to the inventory control tracking, as well as planning and costing of items. In a project control environment not only does the manufacturer or distributor want to control and plan material purchases, manufacturing, and inventory for the division but also wants to additionally identify inventories and costs by project.

Project Workbench

The Rootstock Project Workbench is the focal point for Project information. The Project Workbench provides a real-time interactive access to all Project data including a snapshot of the actual costs to date compared to the Budget costs. This data also includes project inventory, PO requisitions, manufacturing work orders, forecasts, sales orders, and all transaction associated to the project.

In a discrete manufacturing operation where all planning, costing and tracking is ​‘item number’ based, there is typically an additional requirement in a manufacture to order, assemble to order, engineer to order or even contract manufacturer – and that is to plan, cost and track by ​‘item within a project’.

To meet these needs, Rootstock Project Control provides these additional capabilities of planning, tracking and costing within the Rootstock manufacturing modules of:

• Inventory Control
• Shop Floor Control
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
• Manufacturing Cost Control

The Project Control module also enables identification of a project to Purchase Order and Sales Order lines.

Rootstock Project Control therefore associates inventory items, sales orders, work orders, purchase requisitions, and purchase orders with a project. Material Requirements Planning (MRP) can plan either by a single project – or by all of the projects within a division. Usually in every project environment there are common parts across projects. These common parts can be identified as such on the inventory item master (or on the commodity code) as common parts (or other terms used in the industry include company inventory or ​‘global parts’ or ​‘home project parts’).

Rootstock Project Control not only allows users to determine how materials are allocated to specific projects but the cost method can be either standard or average costs. If the cost method is average cost then the cost is identified at the item-project level. If the cost method used is standard cost, then all projects within a division will share the same standard cost.

In a project control environment, cost accounts for inventory and cost of sales can be designated by project. This allows the business to look at financial reports with a project accountant’s view. For those firms that have few customers and large portions of their business are allocated to these few, then this capability is helpful. In the case of a job shop which may have hundreds of customers (and many one time only customers) yet function as a ​‘to order’ business, the cost accounts can be identified at the commodity code or item level and this delineation of project accounts is not necessary at the General Ledger.

With Rootstock, each manufacturing work order and purchase order line item is associated with an individual project. This allows a user to access online Project Status information at any point during the life cycle of a project. Entering a project, the user receives immediate online information in the Project Work Bench regarding purchase requisitions, purchase orders, work orders, sales order, cost transactions, and inventory.

Production Management Module

Production Engineering

Rootstock Production Engineering includes the following
capabilities: Item Master Maintenance, Bill of Material Maintenance, Item and Bill of Material Revision Control, and Engineering Change Control.

Item Master Maintenance

Within Item Master Maintenance, the Direct Material Item Characteristics are maintained. Key information such as Item Description, the Commodity Code, Responsible Engineer, Lot or Serial Tracking within Inventory, Part Status and Part Type is recorded. Additionally, Inventory attributes such as lead times and MRP policies and purchasing policies such as vendor lead time and Responsible Buyer are noted as well.

Of importance is the identification as to how the supply of an item is ​‘sourced’. Rootstock supports manufactured, purchased and subcontract sourcing. The assignment of the Commodity Code for the item is of key consideration because the item can inherit many of the Commodity Code attributes thus reducing users having to enter every field on the Item Master.

Bill of Material Maintenance

The Manufacturing or Subcontract Assemblies are identified within Bill of Material Maintenance. Each component contains a separate record and standard information associating the component to the assembly can be kept on the Rootstock Bill of Material. Required information such as the quantity per assembly and add and delete effectivity data is maintained on each component link. Required Add and Delete effectivity information includes status and date with optional information including revision and engineering change order. Additional capabilities includes a scrap factor, ​‘issue to’ work centers on the Shop Floor and lead time offset for planning purposes.

Bills of Material are also used in a Standard Cost Rollup to compute the material cost and the subcontract material cost of the purchased (or subcontract purchased) item.

Item and Bill of Material Revision Control

All items are added with a revision (zero). If Revision Control is desired, then the user can maintain status (planned, released, implemented) as well as effectivity date which can facilitate the setting of effectivity status and date information on multiple bill of material component links. Additional revisions to the part (drawing changes, bill of material structures and even routing changes) can be maintained by the user and referenced to the appropriate bill of material and/or routing operations.

Another capability of maintaining an item revision is that a work order’s demands can be generated by specifying the appropriate revision on the work order. This enables the system to copy the correct bill of material in generating the work order’s demand records.

Engineering Change Control

Engineering Change Control is the process that ​‘manages’ the related items’ revisions that are associated with an Engineering Change Order. Revision Control denotes the change and Engineering Change Control denotes the process that manages the revisions to the bill of material and the routings. Since the management of item revisions can be accomplished by the Engineering Change Control process, Engineering Change Control therefore enforces discipline and management control over modifications to bill of materials and shop floor routings based on revision control.

Component and operation changes can be tracked through an authorization and approval process and are logged into an ECO history database. MRP and Work Order Bill of Material Explode will retrieve component records based on correlating the work order’s scheduled pick date to the add and delete effectivity dates associated with a revision. Work Order Routing Operation Extract will extract those Routing’s operations using similar add and delete effectivity comparisons.

All Rootstock programs that use bill of materials and routing master records to ​‘explode’ or ​‘extract’ components and operations contain ECO capabilities. Material Requirements Planning explode bill of materials to create the component demands for each work order and subcontract PO requisition. These configurations are based on the scheduled pick date of the orders compared with the ECO effective dates on the bills.

Shop Floor Control

Rootstock Shop Floor Control manages the life cycle of the work order and the routing that is used as a basis for defining the steps or processes that are required in the assembly and/or manufacture of the item on the shop floor. Scheduling and Capacity Requirements Planning is contained in a separate module.

Rootstock Shop Floor module capabilities include: Routing Maintenance, Work Order Add and BOM Explosion, Work Order Firming, Work Order Release and Operation Extract, Work Order Pick, Work Order Operation Time Booking, Work Order Operation Quantity Recordings, Work Order Receipt and Backflush, Work Order Cost, Rework Work Orders, and Refurbishment Work Orders.

Routing Maintenance

Before defining the Routing, the labor grades, departments, work centers, machine master files and processes must be defined by the manufacturing engineer (and cost accountant when denoting the labor grades and departmental standard labor and overhead rates). Those master files having been defined, a Routing can be established for each item.

The Routing will be comprised of a series of steps (i.e. operations). Each operation will denote the work center, machine (if appropriate), labor grade and process – and the time it takes to do a unit or a batch of work. These times can be a) setup, or b) labor assembly or c) machine time. An operation can also be identified as an ​‘outside operation’ where the assembly is sent to a vendor for additional processing. For those organizations that want to control the operation’s effectivity date (e.g. the ability to phase in/out certain operations) by item revision or by change order, this capability is also provided.

The Routing can be defined at an item grouping level so that one isn’t required to develop a specific routing for each item yet can still gain the benefit of shop floor operation tracking for a given work order. Routings are also used in a Standard Cost Rollup to compute the labor, direct labor overhead, fringe overhead, machine overhead and subcontract labor cost components of the standard cost of the manufactured item.

Work Order Add and BOM Explosion

Typically the work order is added by MRP and then firmed by the material planner. However, the capability exists to manually add the Work Order in the Work Order Work Bench at a ​‘firmed’ status. The user only needs to denote the Item, the Project (if project control is active), the Due Date and the Quantity (and if this is a special type of work order termed ​‘rework order’ or ​‘refurb order’).

The Work Order Work Bench enables the user to explode the Bill of Material. This process will use the derived scheduled pick date of the components and retrieve the effective bill of material and create work order demands, one for each component. The work order demand quantity required is calculated by multiplying the bill of material quantity per by the work order supply quantity required. There is additional capability to get bill of material ​‘override’ information that will denote which work center components should be issued to, so that the work order demand will be added with work center ​‘issued to’ information. (Operation Extract – below will link that work order demand to a work order operation). By using this capability the user can control the timing when material is move to the shop floor (only move it to the floor when needed in the manufacturing process).

Work Order Firm

Planned work orders generated by MRP can be firmed by the material planner. This action will indicate that the planner has taken control of this order and insure that MRP will not delete or modify this work order in the next planning run. MRP may make suggestions to the planner of required changes.

Work Order Release and Work Order Operation Extract

Prior to picking the material from stock, the work order is ​‘released’ which is an indication that Production Control now supervises the management of the work order. As part of the work order release process, the work order operation extract will create the work order operations from the effective routing. If there are any work order component demands that designate that components are to be issued to the work center, as part of this extract the work order component demand will be linked to a work order operation.

Work Order Pick

The next step in the process is the Pick Process of components from stores. Production Control will denote that the work order is to be picked and a work order pick list for all components that are not backflushed will be made available to the store room for picking and sending to the shop floor. Stores will also record the quantity issued.

Work Order Time Booking

The direct laborer can record the times spent on an operation. These times are recorded in terms of hours (or fractions of hours). Machine times can also be recorded where appropriate.

Work Order Quantity Recordings

The quantity completed and moved to the next operation can be recorded. Based on the routing operation indicators, one transaction could be used to record both a ​‘complete and move’ or one transaction can be used to record the ​‘complete’ and a second to record the ​‘move’.

Work Order Receipt and Backflush

The quantity that is completed at the last operation and is received into inventory is the Work Order Receipt. For those work order component demands identified as backflush items, the appropriate ​‘work order demand issue’ from inventory will automatically be done as part of the work order receipt.

Work Order Cost

The work order contains all of the costs associated with material component issues and labor and machine time recordings. In a standard cost environment, the work order close process will compute the work order variance.

Supply Chain Management Module

Purchase Order Management

Rootstock Purchase Order Management provides for the entry and tracking of purchase orders for direct and indirect materials and services. This is supported throughout the entire purchasing process, from generation of the requisition through receiving of materials or approval of service provided including accounts payable integration. Rootstock also maintains all vendor information and reporting required by buying organizations to make better-informed purchasing decisions.

Purchase Requisitions for Direct Materials

Requisitions for direct materials can be manually entered or automatically generated by the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) or the Requirements Planning (RP) application as it identifies demands that are not being met by scheduled supply orders. Requisitions created by MRP or RP are based on the part’s purchasing parameters (i.e. lead times, planning policies, safety stock level, etc.) and entered in ​‘planned’ status. A material planner or purchasing agent must firm these requisitions before becoming available for conversion to purchase orders once approved.

Purchase Requisitions for Indirect Materials and Services

Purchase requisitions for indirect materials and services are also supported by Rootstock Purchase Order Management. An employee manually enters requisitions for indirect materials or services. Once approved, these can be converted to either a purchase order or can be designated as an employee reimbursable expense.

Purchase Order Control

Rootstock Purchase Order Management provides critical, centralized control over direct material, indirect material, and service tracking as well as vendor performance. Inventory and non-inventory purchased items and services can be consolidated on a single purchase order. Purchase requisitions can be converted to new purchase orders or placed as line items on existing orders. Additional items can be added to open orders, providing purchasing flexibility and efficiency. Buyers can make decisions on purchase order quantities and due dates supported by price and delivery history for approved vendors. Comprehensive purchase revision control management capabilities are also included as well as Purchase Order approvals.

PO – AP Match Process

The Rootstock PO – AP Match Process begins with the matching of PO Receipts to Vendor Invoices. Once this matching is completed, Payable Invoices will be created when a batch is closed.

Vendor Maintenance

With Rootstock, buyers can easily associate vendors with purchased parts. This allows for the retrieval of all open requisitions for an item and simultaneously reviews the approved vendors. Buyers can then make their decisions on purchase order quantities and due dates, having considered the lead times and delivery history of the vendors.

Receiving Control

Material receiving capabilities include complete order access/review, receiving history for each item, including quantity ordered, outstanding and due. The application provides an automatic warning if a transaction will cause an over receipt or if the material arrives early. Parts can also be received to an inspection or other inventory locations. Receipts are then automatically posted to an accrued Accounts Payable account.

Reporting

Rootstock delivers full purchasing reporting and analysis capabilities including purchase requisition, open purchase order, shortage, expedite and vendor performance reports. This provides the information needed by the buying organization to communicate effectively with vendors and make better business decisions on vendor selection, pricing, delivery dates, and quantities.

Replenishment Planning

Rootstock Replenishment Planning (RP) is the software engine that will use the sales order and forecast demands in conjunction and by reviewing item inventory balances will generate planned supplies in a time phase manner to offset the outstanding demands for Products being sold (or forecasted sales).

Specifically, RP generates what are termed planned purchase requisitions for purchase or subcontract items. For firmed (or greater supplies) it generates reschedule or excess messages when, and if, appropriate.

Rootstock Replenishment Planning (RP) uses information from Sales Order Management to drive the Product level demands. Forecast demands, for not only these end items can be entered as well. A forecast demand for an item denotes the start period date and the end period date and the quantity forecasted for that period. RP will perform the traditional ​‘netting’ and plan to the greater of the Sales Order Demand and Forecast demand (by period).

The RP Engine uses the typical algorithms in the industry and review the demands and safety stock requirements netting out the inventory and firmed (or greater) supplies and first suggest reschedules for firmed (or greater) supplies and then create planned supplies as appropriate.

RP can be planned by division (P&L entity) and by site (DC) as well as by project (in those divisions where project control is applicable). It uses planning policies such as ​‘lot for lot’ or days cover. For a requisition it will determine the scheduled firm date, purchase order place date, date it is due on the receiving dock as well as the due date it is to be stocked. For those parts identified as items to be planned using ​“re-order” point logic, the RP engine can also perform re-order point computations rather the balancing of demands and supplies.

Services & Support Module

Warranty/Entitlement Management

Rootstock’s Warranty/Entitlement Management module provides a flexible system for assigning and maintaining user defined Warranty types to initialize warranty durations and expiration dates. Information can be maintained for both Products and Product Components (subassemblies). The Device History Record shows ​‘as built’ vs. ​‘as maintained’ as well as maintains the unit Installation Address (vs. Ship-To Address). Serial Numbers can be assigned during the manufacturing process or at Shipment time. Maintenance is simplified as you can link Cases, Returns, Service Orders, etc. for quicker access to related information.

Entitlements within a Service Contract accumulate consumption and usage data which is used to determine pricing for the sale of supplies and services associated with a Covered Product or Component. Entitlements themselves are a type of Product that can be priced, bundled and sold.