Work Orders associated with a Sales Order

Work Orders are used to manage the production of Assembly items (i.e. finished goods). If you enter a sales order for a finished good that you do not have in stock, this lesson will show you how to get a Work Order in the queue to build it!

If you're looking for instructions on how to auto-build assemblies, see HERE (link forthcoming).

1. Setup

There are three conditions that must be met for this feature to work:

  1. Include in Auto Work Order setting must be enabled on the Product record.
  2. The Sales Order must have a backordered quantity > 0.
  3. The Sales Order must be in Committed status.

Note: Current inventory levels have no bearing on the creation of the Work Order. Further processing of the Work Order does follow standard rules (e.g. must have enough components to build the assembly).

1.1. Enable the Assembly to be included in Auto-Work Order

Navigate to the assembly's Product > Bill of Materials tab.

  • Include In Auto Work Order: Check this box to be able to create Work Orders from Sales Orders.
    • One Work Order Per Line Item: If you are selling 5 units, this will create 1 Work Order to build all 5 units.
    • One Work Order Per Unit: If you are selling 5 units, this will create 5 Work Orders (1 Work Order for each unit).
  • Create Sub-WO: If the Assembly includes any Sub-Assemblies, then checking this box will create work order(s) for sub-assemblies. This only goes one level deep. Nested sub-work orders will not be created automatically.
Enable the Assembly to be included in Auto-Work Order

1.2. Create a Sales Order that includes the Assembly item

To generate the Work Order, the Sales Order must have a backordered quantity for an assembly. The BO Qty will be the build quantity for the Work Order. The Sales Order also must be saved in Committed status.

Create a Sales Order that includes the Assembly item

2. Generate the Work Order

Highlight the Sales Order, open the Action Menu and select Create Work Order(s)

Generate the Work Order

2.1. Confirmation

After you approve the "Are you sure ..." prompt, you'll see a feedback dialog confirming the work order was created.

Confirmation

Once you've generated the Work Order, you can find it by using the cross-reference search. Leave the sales order window open.

  1. Navigate to Warehouse Management ➤ Work Order.
  2. Cross-reference from the Work Order window to the Sales Order window.
  3. Click the Find button. The Work Order created from the Sales Order will be displayed.
Finding the Related Work Order

3. Filling a Sales Order from a Completed Work Order

When a Work Order is complete and the finished good added to inventory, the associated Sales Order (or Back Order) can be filled automatically. If the user selects "Yes" in the below dialog, the assembly created by the Work Order is automatically used to update the Qty Ship (unshipped an Sales Order) or used to fill the Back Order (if the original sales order has been posted).  

This bypasses the Qty Reserve system so the inventory is not allocated to other transactions.

This is controlled by a setting in Administration > System Configuration > Work Order. Find the setting for Auto-fill related Sales Orders and set it to Ask in order to see this dialog, set it to Always to auto-fill the orders without seeing this dialog or set it to Never if you don't want to fill the order.

Filling a Sales Order from a Completed Work Order