An example of resource capacity / usage calculations in Produce / Operator, Produce / Manager and SAP Business One - Resources with identical Setup time

For the more complex case when the resources in a production order have different Setup time values in Netronic Manufacturing (i.e. Additional Time values in SAP Business One), see An example of resource capacity / usage calculations in Produce / Operator, Produce / Manager and SAP Business One – Resources with different Setup times.

Throughout this article, we assume that the resource master data in SAP Business One are set to the following values:

• Unit of Measure Text = min;
• Time per Resource Units = <0:01:00>;
• Res. Units per Time Period = 1.

For other cases, see Resource time management in Netronic Manufacturing with proprietary resource master data in SAP Business One.

You may also be interested in Understanding resource related production order data in SAP Business One.

Let us create and release a production order in SAP Business One. We will use this example to walk through the processing steps in Produce / Operator and Produce / Manager, and then return to SAP Business One to describe how resource quantities are issued.

Our example production order is for 3 printers (item A00004). We have one route stage in the order: Assembly. We use two resources with issue method Manual:

• Assembly Machine and
• Senior Technician.

Let us now have a look at the different time-related columns in the production order for each resource.

1. Assembly Machine

The Base Qty for the first resource is 2, meaning that it takes the Assembly Machine 2 minutes to complete one printer. As we are planning to produce 3 items, the Production Time will be 3*2 min = <0:06:00>. Additional Qty for the first resource is 0.5, i.e. the assembly machine needs 30 seconds to get ready for production. Consequently, Additional Time will be <0:00:30>. Run Time is then <0:06:00> + <0:00:30> = <0:06:30>.

2. Senior Technician

The Base Qty for this resource is 1, thus the Senior Technician needs 1 minute to finish the job on a printer. The Production Time for 3 items will be 3*1 min = <0:03:00>. Additional Qty for the third resource is again 0.5, i.e. the technician gets ready for production in 30 seconds. Consequently, Additional Time will be <0:00:30>. Run Time is then <0:03:00> + <0:00:30> = <0:03:30>.

The Production Time, Additional Time and Run Time of the whole route stage (i.e. operation in Produce terminology) are shown on the top row of the production order. The values displayed here are the corresponding durations that belong to the resource with the longest Run Time. In our example, this is the Assembly Machine, thus the values on the top row are <0:06:00>, <0:00:30> and <0:06:30>, respectively.

Processing an operation in Produce / Operator

In Produce / Operator, the operation’s detail view displays the following three time values for each resource used in the operation, in <hh:mm:ss> format:

• Setup time – The time it takes to make the resource operational (which is the equivalent of Additional Time in SAP Business One and Setup time in Build).
• Planned time – The time it takes for the resource to produce the planned quantity of items (which is the equivalent of Production Time in SAP Business One). It can also be expressed using the Job time parameter specified in Build as

<planned time> = <job time>*(<completed quantity> + <scrap quantity>)

• Completed time – The time period while the resource has actually been used so far during the operation.

The screenshot below shows the details of the Assembly operation of our example production order (issued to produce 3 printers). Before registering any work on the operation, Completed time will obviously be <00:00:00>.

PDC Step 3 - Resources

Now let us register work for this operation. In the example below, we completed the order with 2 printers and 1 scrap in 5 minutes and 45 seconds. In Step 3 (Resources) of the PDC workflow, Produce / Operator displays the Expected time and Calculated time of resource usage. The top of the screen shows the actual Time spent, in our case <00:05:45>.

Expected time is based on the resource setup and the produced quantity of items:

<expected time> = <setup time> + <planned time> = <setup time> + <job time> * (<completed quantity> + <scrap quantity>)

So, for example, for the Assembly Machine, Expected time should be <00:00:30> + <00:06:00> = <00:00:30> + <00:02:00> * (2+1) = <00:06:30>, just as seen in the screenshot.

If there is only a single resource in a production order, then Calculated time is equal to the actual time used (i.e. Time spent).

If the operation has more than one resource, like in our example production order which uses two resources, then Calculated time is determined by distributing the actual time into setup and job time components using the following formula:

<calculated time> = [<setup time> or <time spent>, whichever is shorter] + {<time spent> - [<setup time> or <time spent>, whichever is shorter]} * <job time>/<longest job time of all resources>

The above basically may have two outcomes.

1. In a typical case, the Time spent would be longer than the Setup time of the resources. Then the formula would be reduced to:

<calculated time> = <setup time> + {<time spent> - <setup time>} * <job time>/<longest job time of all resources>

Please note that, as mentioned before, for a single resource, the above yields Calculated time = Time spent.

If there are several resources in the production order, the formula means that we take the Setup time of the resource, and then add a proportional part of its job time to it, based on the time that remains from the total Time spent once the resources have become operational.

For the Assembly Machine the formula yields <00:00:30> + {<00:05:45> - <00:00:30>] * <00:06:00> / <00:06:00> = <00:00:30> + <00:05:15> = <00:05:45> .

For the Senior Technician, the calculation is <00:00:30> + {<00:05:45> - <00:00:30>] * <00:03:00> / <00:06:00> = <00:00:30> + <00:05:15> * 0.5 = <00:00:30> + <00:02:38> = <00:03:08>. (37.5 seconds have been rounded up to 38.)

Both values coincide with the ones shown in the screenshot.

2. If the operator spends shorter time with the operation than the longest Setup time, then the calculation becomes:

<calculated time> = <time spent>

In this case, there is no time left for the job itself. The whole Time spent has not been enough to make the resources operational. In other words, we simply take the total time spent for trying to set up the resource.

Let us test this latter scenario with a production order identical to the previous one. However, now we stop working on the operation after 15 seconds, without producing a single printer or scrap.

The Calculated time for both resources is the Time spent, i.e. <00:00:15> as seen in the screenshot above.

For resources that have Issue Method = Manual in their Resource Master Data form, the last, Time, column in Step 3 of the PDC workflow contains the Calculated time value by default (like in the screenshot above). This value can be overwritten manually by the operator to enter the actual time used by the resource, provided that the operator's Time change allowed setting is set to Yes.

For resources with Issue Method = Backflush, the Time column shows a lock icon (). No value can be entered manually, since the usage will be issued by SAP Business One automatically.

PDC Step 5 - Review

If a resource’s Issue Method = Manual in SAP Business One, then in the last (Review) step of the PDC workflow we have two time values displayed for the operation as a whole: Resource time, and Expected time. The formulae used for their calculation are shown below the next screenshot.

The Resource time value for manually issued resources can be edited manually by clicking Change ().

Resource time

<resource time for the operation> = <actual time> of the manually issued resource with the longest job time

(“Actual Time” in the formula above is the value displayed in the Time column in Step 3 of the PDC workflow which, by default, is the Calculated time of the resource, but, as mentioned, can be changed manually.)

In the case of our first production order, the Setup time is <00:00:30>, and the resource with the longest Job time is the Assembly Machine. Its actual Time was <00:05:45> (was not edited manually). Therefore, the Resource time for the whole operation is also <00:05:45> as seen above.

Expected time

<expected time for the operation> = <setup time of manually issued resources> + <longest job time of manually issued resources> * (<completed quantity> + <scrap quantity>)

In our example for 3 printers, the Setup time is <00:00:30> and the longest Job time is <00:02:00>, which yields:

 Expected time = <00:00:30> + <00:02:00> * (2+1) = <00:06:30> as seen above.

Now let us see a case when the operator overwrites manually the value displayed in the Time column in Step 3 of the PDC workflow. For this, we use a production order identical to the first one shown in this article, and will spend the same <00:05:45> on the operation, producing 2 printers and 1 scrap. In the example below, the Assembly Machine was used much less than expected: no longer than 4 minutes. Therefore, its Time value has been changed manually from the Calculated time of <00:05:45> to <00:04:00> as shown below.

This should not affect the Expected time in Step 5 of the PDC workflow, but it does impact the Resource time which now should be the actual Time of the resource with the longest Job time, i.e. the Assembly Machine. As its actual Time has been changed to <00:04:00>, the Resource time is also the same value as seen in the following screenshot.

If all resources have Issue Method = Backflush in SAP Business One, then the Resource time box will contain the following text:

Issuing resources in SAP Business One

Once the production order has been completed, and the transaction has been processed, the production order in SAP Business One gets updated with the resource usage data. This information is shown in the Issued column of the production order. Below you can see these values for the last production order we presented in this article – those for the one where the Calculated time was changed manually to <00:04:00> for the Assembly Machine in the Time column in Step 3 of the PDC workflow.

As you can see, the Issued column registers the Time values that are either calculated or entered manually in Produce / Operator. For the Assembly Machine, Issued = 4 minutes, as set manually. For the Senior Technician, the 3.133 minutes issued are equivalent with the <00:03:08> shown in the Time (and Calculated time) column of Produce / Operator.

Resource time values in Produce / Manager

When opening a production order’s detail view under the Production orders menu item Produce / Manager, among other data, you can see the Expected time (as in Step 3 of the PDC workflow in Produce / Operator) and the Used time for each resource involved in the execution of the production order.

Used time – which is equal to the Time value in Step 3 of the PDC workflow in Produce / Operator – is shown only for resources that are set to Issue Method = Manual. For resources with Issue Method = Backflush, the Used time column contains a lock icon ().

The following screenshot shows the details of our last production order in Produce / Manager.

Produce / Manager also displays actual resource time usage in the Time column of the Transaction details screen (under the menu item Transactions). Again, here you can see the same values as in the Time column in Produce / Operator.