The job lifecycle

A job is Epicor’s record of one production run: a part, a quantity, a method of manufacture (the assemblies, materials and operations copied from the part’s engineering method) and the demand it satisfies. Almost everything the shop floor, scheduling and costing do hangs off the job, so it’s worth knowing what each stage of its life switches on.

Where jobs come from

Jobs are created from demand. The demand can be a sales order release, a stock shortfall, another job’s material, a transfer order or a forecast.

Source	How the job appears	Typical screen
Sales order line for a Non-Stock part (make direct)	A planning suggestion to create a job or link to an existing one	Planning Workbench, Order Job Wizard
Stock below minimum, safety stock or forecast	MRP creates an unfirm job	Job Manager, Production Planner Workbench
A manufactured material on another job	MRP creates a job for the child part (see Material consumption)	Job Manager
Anything else	You create it by hand	Job Entry

Unfirm jobs are MRP’s proposals. They are regenerated on each MRP run until someone firms them, at which point they become ordinary jobs that MRP no longer deletes.

Demand links

A job records what it’s for through demand links:

Link	Meaning
Make To Order	The quantity is for a specific sales order release and ships straight from the job
Make To Stock	The quantity goes into a warehouse when finished
Make To Job	The quantity feeds a material or assembly on another job

A job can carry more than one link, for example 75 pieces for an order plus 25 for stock. The link type decides where finished quantity goes, which matters for how inventory flows through jobs.

Status flags

Flag	What it does	Gotcha
Firm	Marks the job as a committed plan rather than an MRP suggestion	Unfirm jobs can be deleted and rebuilt by MRP
Engineered	Confirms the method is complete. Only engineered jobs can be scheduled, and labor can’t post to a job that isn’t engineered	Every operation needs a resource, resource group or capability before you can tick it. Clearing it after scheduling removes the schedule
Scheduled	The job has start and due dates from the scheduling engine	Engineered is a prerequisite
Released	The job is ready for the floor. Only released jobs accept labor	Releasing too early fills work queues with jobs whose material isn’t there yet
Complete	Production is finished	Remaining unissued backflush material can be issued at completion
Closed	No more costs can post. The job’s remaining WIP moves to cost of sales or variance	See Job costing and WIP

Note

If Prevent Changes is selected in Company Configuration (Modules > Production > Job), an engineered job is locked: you can’t add demand links or edit the method without clearing Engineered first. When you do change it, Epicor asks you to log the change. See Deleting jobs, audit logs and locked labor.

Manufactured materials: stock or make direct

When a manufactured part is used as a material on a higher-level part, the child part’s Non-Stock Item flag (Part, Site detail) decides how Epicor plans it:

Child part setting	What MRP does
Non-Stock clear (a stocked part)	Checks inventory first. If there’s enough on hand, the parent job simply issues it from stock. If not, MRP suggests a make-to-stock job to replenish.
Non-Stock selected	Plans supply directly for this demand every time, whether or not any are on the shelf. The job material is flagged Make Direct and the child job is linked Make To Job.

The same idea applies to purchased materials: a non-stock purchased part is bought and received straight to the job instead of into a warehouse.

Tip

If you want to consume existing stock but also want a child job when stock runs out, leave the part as stocked and let MRP handle the shortfall. Use Non-Stock only for parts you never intend to hold.

A material-readiness check before release

Releasing jobs as soon as they’re engineered sends work to the floor that can’t start. A simple discipline is to review upcoming jobs in two windows:

1. Remediation window (for example, jobs starting in the next 30 days). Flag a material line as a problem when it’s needed within the window and is still unfulfilled, when a purchase-direct line has no receipt, or when its PO is due after the material’s required date.
2. For each problem, expedite the PO or substitute the material. If neither is possible, push the job back so it leaves the window, and review it again later.
3. Release window (for example, jobs starting in the next 14 days). Release only jobs with no outstanding material problems.

A BAQ over JobHead, JobMtl and PORel can drive both lists: compare JobMtl.ReqDate with the linked PO release due date, and JobMtl.IssuedQty with JobMtl.RequiredQty.

Related pages

• How inventory flows through jobs
• Scheduling overview
• Job costing and WIP

Sources

This page is written in our own words. It was informed by:

• EpiUsers: Material consumption from inventory