Automatic Assembly Creator

Enterprise & Corporate Edition Only

To access this feature, go to the Assembly Manager area and select from the menu Tools|Automatic Assembly Creator.

Use this feature to automatically create one or more assemblies based on your current stock ordering requirements or based on customer back orders.

When running the Automatic Assembly Creator keep in mind that:

Only stock items assigned an Assembly Build number will be considered for assembly.
If multi-locations is being used, all stock items must be assigned to locations. (A blank location is not considered as a valid location in this case.)

If assemblies are being built by stock group, the stock code of the finished item must be assigned to an existing stock group.
If assemblies are being built by supplier group, the stock code of the finished item must be assigned to an existing supplier group.

An assembly task must exist that corresponds to the stock item's Assembly Build number.

An assembly will be created if the quantity required by the system is less than the current available quantity of that stock item. If the Back Orders Only option is unticked, then CAPITAL considers the following factors:

the quantity on hand
the quantity on back order
the reorder and overstock levels
the stock already on order

the quantity already in production

The Automatic Assembly Creator considers all these factors and determines an ideal quantity to be built. It then tries to match as closely as possible the ideal quantity against the quantity to build on the matching assembly task.

If the Back Orders Only option is ticked , the Automatic Assembly Creator considers only the quantity already on hand, the quantities in production and the quantity on customer back order. The required quantity calculation is:

     the quantity on back order + any quantities
     being consumed in the process of building
     other assemblies.

minus the quantity on hand + the quantity already in
the process of being built

The difference is the quantity that is required.

Determining the Quantity To Build

Once the ideal quantity has been calculated, the Automatic Assembly Creator examines the assembly task used to build the finished stock item. The task number to examine is stored in the stock item's Assembly Build number field.

It then locates the stock item's product code found on the Finished Stock screen.

The first stock item found on the Finished Stock screen that matches the stock item in Stock Control that is being examined, is used to determine this quantity. If a matching stock item is not found, CAPITAL reports that there is a problem with the assigned Assembly Build number. For example, if the stock item being examined has the product code "ABC" and the product code "ABC" cannot be found on the Finished Stock screen of the associated assembly, the Assembly Creator assumes there is a problem with the assignment of the assembly task and reports the problem.

The quantity of the stock item on the Finished Stock screen will be used to determine the number of units to build. This quantity is treated by the Assembly Creator as the minimum quantity that will be built at any one time. The Assembly Creator can only build finished goods in multiplies of this quantity.

For example, if the finished goods quantity is 50, then the Assembly Creator can create new assemblies in quantities of 50, 100, 150 and so on. If it is possible to produce quantities of less than 50 units at a time, but there is still a minimum reasonable quantity that should be constructed, the finished goods quantity should be set to 1 (or whatever the smallest multiple should be, e.g., 2, 3, 4, 8, etc.) and the Build Minimum quantity in Stock Control should be set to the lowest reasonable number of units that should be constructed. Therefore, if the Build Minimum quantity was set to 20, at least 20 units would be built or whatever multiple is over 20 units, if any finished goods needed to be constructed to fulfill existing orders. Let's say that a particular Assembly Task built 15 units at a time. If the Build Minimum was 20, then (15 x 2) 30 units would be assigned to the Assembly Task created by the Assembly Creator, because 2 times 15 is the first multiple of 15 that is over the minimum to build for this stock item.

Automatic Assembly Creator Settings

Automatic Assembly Creator settings include the following:

All Products

Select to consider all stock items in the system that require construction.

Stock Groups

Select to order only those products assigned to marked (ticked) stock groups. Press the Stock Groups button in order to mark or unmark groups.

Supplier Groups

Select to order by marked suppliers. Press the Supplier Groups button in order to mark or unmark supplier groups.

If a stock item's stock group is ticked and you are generating assemblies by stock group, its supplier group does not also have to be ticked. The reverse also applies. If you are generating assemblies by supplier group, it does not matter whether the item's stock group has been ticked.

Remember that in all cases only stock items assigned to Assembly Build numbers will be considered.

Location

The department, store, warehouse, etc., you wish to order for. Only applicable if you are using multi-locations.

You may only order by one location at a time and you must always specify a location. The location you specify must match a supplier account that has been set to account type Internal.

Exclude Stock On Hold

Tick to avoid creating assemblies for stock items placed on hold. (This is the default selection.)

Back Orders Only

CAPITAL will create assembly quantities by considering the current physical stock holding level, the ideal holding level, the number of back orders, and the quantity of the item already in production. This option is useful if you do not have correct overstock and reorder levels in the system, and only wish to consider the physical stock holding level, current back orders and quantities already in production.

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