Tooling, engineering and programming work
Before a part can be made, someone often has to design a fixture, program a machine or review a drawing. That work takes real hours and can gate the whole job, but it doesn’t fit neatly into a routing of machining operations. This page compares the ways to model it in Epicor, from simplest to most granular.
Option 1: an operation on the main job
Section titled “Option 1: an operation on the main job”Add a Tooling, Engineering or Programming operation at the start of the routing, assigned to the resource group whose people do the work. Employees clock into it like any other operation.
- Pros: nothing new to set up; the cost lands on the job that needed it.
- Cons: the planning work usually happens weeks before production. If the operation is modelled as a few hours of production time, scheduling assumes it finishes just before the next operation. Also, operators can often clock into later operations before the planning operation is finished.
To make the schedule reflect the lead time, give the planning resource group a large Queue Hours value (for example, 720 hours for a 30-day engineering lead time) and link the next operation with a Start-to-Start relationship where overlap is allowed. Queue time pads the schedule without loading the resource. See Operation time.
Option 2: subassemblies on the main job
Section titled “Option 2: subassemblies on the main job”Put each planning activity in its own subassembly under the top assembly, with the planning operation inside it. This keeps everything on one job but separates the costs and lets you track serial numbers per subassembly. It still doesn’t stop operators clocking into the main routing early.
Option 3: separate feeder jobs that make “time”
Section titled “Option 3: separate feeder jobs that make “time””Model the planning work as its own manufactured part whose output is hours, and feed it to the production job as a material.
- Create a part per activity, for example
PART-1001-PROG. Set Type to Manufactured and give it a UOM Class of Time so its quantity is hours. - Give these parts their own Part Class and Product Group (for example class Programming, group Job Planning) so their costs report separately. A dedicated warehouse for planning parts keeps them out of normal stock reports.
- Add the planning part as a material on the production job, related to the operation that can’t start without it.
- Create the feeder job for the planning part. On its operation, set the labor entry method so employees report their time as the completed quantity.
- Link supply to demand, either:
- Make To Job: the feeder job supplies one specific production job. The material on the production job must be flagged Make Direct. Costs follow precisely.
- Make To Stock: time goes into a general pool and is issued to whichever job uses it. Simpler, but you lose the job-by-job link.
- Let MRP create the feeder jobs from the demand, and handle only exceptions by hand.
Grouped vs individual feeder jobs
Section titled “Grouped vs individual feeder jobs”| One group job per month (per activity) | One feeder job per part | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | A generic planning part at assembly 0, with a subassembly per production job it supports | The part needing the work is the top assembly |
| Month-end | Easy: close one job per activity | Many small jobs to close |
| Demand visibility | Poor: demand links sit on assembly 0 only, so you can’t see which subassembly served which job | Clear: each job’s demand link says exactly what it’s for |
| Reporting by assembly or operation | Hard, because subassembly sequences get shuffled | Straightforward |
| Part master | A few generic parts | One planning part per production part and activity, which can multiply the part count |
Pick the group job if month-end simplicity matters most, and individual jobs if you need true cost per part.
Option 4: link the work with a project
Section titled “Option 4: link the work with a project”Project Entry ties quotes, sales orders and jobs together. You can create jobs purely for engineering or programming under the same project as the production work, so their hours roll up to the project and can be reported against the part as a whole. Jobs created from a project default to Auto Receive on their last operation.
A related case: test coupons
Section titled “A related case: test coupons”A test coupon is a piece of the raw material sent out to an outside processor (a subcontract operation) to confirm its properties, for example hardness after heat treatment, before the rest of the material is machined. Model it as an early subcontract operation, or a separate subcontract job, whose completion gates the machining operations.