Oracle Work in Process (WIP)

1. What is Flow Manufacturing?

Answer: Flow Manufacturing is an innovative manufacturing method which synchronizes production
with customer demand.
The characteristics of flow processes are:
Straight and short product flow patterns
Make to order strategy
Single-piece production
Just-In-Time materials/pull/dependent demand scheduling
Short production cycle times
Highly flexible and responsive processes
Highly flexible machines and equipment
Quick changeover
Continuous flow work cells
Compressed space
Multi-skilled employees
Empowered employees
High first inspection - pass yields with major reductions in defects
It initiates schedules as soon as customer orders are received, and ensures shipment as soon as build
is complete.
Flow manufacturing production lines are designed to support the inter-mixed production of multiple
products within a family on the same line at a constant rate. It can be used in Inventory module to
replenish Kanbans and in Work in Process to complete assemblies without having to create a job or a
schedule (work order less job)

2. What is Project Manufacturing?

Answer: Project manufacturing meets demand driven production requirements for large contracts or
projects. It allows you to plan, schedule, process and cost against a specific contract or a group of
contracts or project for a specific customer.
Oracle Project Manufacturing supports companies in the Engineer-To-Order, Make-To-Order
manufacturing strategies and Aerospace and Defense industries.
If Oracle Projects is installed and the Project References Enabled and Project Control Level parameters
are set in the Organization Parameters window in Inventory module, you can assign project and, if
required, task references to planned orders, jobs, purchase orders, sales orders, miscellaneous
transaction and other entities within Oracle Manufacturing.
If the Project Cost Collection Enabled parameter is also set in inventory organization parameters, you
can optionally collect and transfer manufacturing cost to Oracle Projects module. Project costs are
tracked by project/task and expenditure type.
3. What is Process Manufacturing?
Answer: Process manufacturing is different from Discrete manufacturing.
Manufacturing is not in discrete batches but is a continuous process of pressing/mixing/chemical
processing/heating/boiling liquid/semi liquid/solid and powder or raw materials. Once you
manufacture a product by using process manufacturing, the output cannot be brought to its original
basic form.
For example, orange juice with sugar added cannot be put back in to the Orange and Sugar separately.
On the other hand, a computer manufactured by a discrete manufacturing process can be
disassembled and the parts can be returned to stock to a large extent.
Examples of process manufacturing are food products, beverages, paints & coatings, chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods, Bulk drug pharmaceuticals, cosmeceutical and
biotechnology industries.
Note: In Process Manufacturing, there are ingredients and not parts; there are formulas and not bill of
materials; and bulk, not Unit of measure Each

4. Which are different manufacturing strategies?

Answer: There are 4 manufacturing strategies
a) Make to stock(MTS)
b) Make to Order(MTO)
c) Assemble to Order(ATO)
d) Engineer to order(ETO)
In MTS, stock is created by companies for items without receiving an order from customer. Examples
are manufacturing of refrigerators, washing machines and Television sets. They are manufactured in a
flow schedule and stocked in finished goods subinventory until they are shipped to a customer. It has
the least lead time as items are already build.

MTO are manufactured after receiving customer order, which means customer is willing to accept
longer delivery period. The examples are commercial dish washers and refrigerators for hotels. In
order to reduce lead time, the factory often uses ready components to manufacture a product. It has
the moderate lead time.

In ATO, stock of existing items is kept on hand but they are sub-assemblies, not the finished product.
The company uses final assembly orders to put the finished product together according to
specifications of the customer order. This involves some extra lead time but not as much as MTO.
Private aircrafts, commercial trucks and computers are the examples of ATO. ATO offers many
variations in standard product because of the choices the customers have in deciding final product
from options provided.

ETO item is built on the customer product specifications such as large commercial aircrafts. Such
product cannot be produces according to existing specifications of the company because some
engineering skill is required to incorporate customer specifications in to the design of the final
 product. Companies using this manufacturing strategy, always quote longer lead time. The engineering
and manufacturing costs involved are also high and are tracked for each order separately.

5. What is Discrete Manufacturing?

Answer: 1) Discrete manufacturing is a manufacturing process in which distinct items/products (which
you can easily count, see and touch) are built or manufactured in discrete batches on manufacturing
floor. It creates physical products which go directly to business and consumers, and assemblies that
are used by other manufacturers. The resulting product is easily identifiable. It is different from
process manufacturing where products are undifferentiated (cannot tell the difference between one
product and another) such as oil, natural gas and salt.

2) A typical characteristic of discrete manufacturing is the frequent switching from one manufactured
product to another. Costs are calculated on the basis of orders and individual lots.

3) Discrete manufacturing, Units can be produced in low volume with very high complexity or high
volumes of low complexity. Low volume/high complexity production results in the need for an
extremely flexible manufacturing system that can improve quality and time-to-market speed while
cutting costs. High volume/low complexity production puts high premiums on inventory controls, lead
times and reducing or limiting materials costs and waste

4) The order of work centers is determined in routings, which can often be very complex. There can be
waiting times between the individual work centers

Examples are Transportation equipment, Automobiles, toys, Computer and accessories and electronic
products, consumer electronics, furniture, Lego Blocks, Appliances and other house hold items,
Industrial and electrical equipment, Medical equipment and supplies, etc.