Maintain Materials

Owned by Mac Jacob
Last updated: Feb 04, 2022 by Mia Nall
8 min read

Purpose

Create or maintain Materials in Phenix.

Prerequisites

Material types and attributes have been created. See Maintain Material Attributes and Maintain Material Types.

Material Types and Attributes

Material attributes are used to determine the time and cost of most setups in Phenix, and can also be used for other reporting and information purposes during planning and scheduling.

Material types allow for the grouping of materials by shared attribute categories. Material Attributes are assiged to Material Types, and when a Material is created, it’s Type determine what Attributes it has.

Materials

Materials Page

  1. Click on the menu path Setup > Materials.

    Screenshot of Phenix's left-side menu Setup section, with Materials link highlighted.

  2. This page shows you all Materials currently in the Phenix organization.

    Screenshot of Materials page.

  3. To create a new Material, click Create Material at the top of the page.

    1. See Material Data Definitions below for more on the Material Data inputs.

  4. To create and edit Material Types, click Material Types. For more on Material Types, see Maintain Material Types.

  5. To create and edit Material Attributes, click Material Attributes. For more on Material Attributes, see Maintain Material Attributes.

  6. Clicking Export Materials will download a .XLSX (Excel) file containing all Materials in the organization and their data to your computer.

  7. Clicking Export Production Rates will download a .XLSX (Excel) file containing all Production Rates in the organization to your computer.

  8. Clicking Export BOM Items will download a .XLSX (Excel) file containing all BOM and Resource Consumption Rules in the organization to your computer.

  9. Use the Filter by Type drop-down to filter the current display of Materials by Material Type.

  10. Use the search bar above the Materials display to search Materials, either by entering the Material ID, or by filtering the Materials by Attribute values using Phenix’s filtering syntax (see Phenix Filtering Syntax for more information).

Material Details Page

  1. On the Materials page, click on a Material’s entry or on the Details button to the right of the entry to go to that Material’s details page.

  2. To edit the Material, click Edit at the top of the screen.

    1. For more information on the data entries here, see Material Data Definitions below.

  3. Create a copy of the Material by clicking Make a Copy at the top of the screen. This will open a window like if you clicked Edit, only the Material ID will be blank. Enter a unique Material ID and make any other changes.

    1. If you would like to also copy over Production Rates and BOM Item consumption, make sure the following boxes are checked at the bottom of the window:

    2. Click Make a Copy to create the copied Material.

  4. To archive a Material, on the Material’s details page, click Archive at the top of the screen.

  5. To view the status and future state of the material, click Inventory.

  6. Below the Edit, Make a Copy, and Archive buttons, the Material’s current data is displayed:

  7. Below this, under the header Production Rate Rules, all Production Rate Rules that apply to the Material are displayed. Production Rates can also be created via the menu path Setup>Production Rates. For more information, see Maintain Production Rates.

    1. To create a new, Material-specific Production Rate Rule, click Create Rule.

    2. To edit a Production Rate, click Edit under the right “Actions” column.

    3. To delete a Production Rate, click under the right “Actions” column.

    4. Note: This section shows all Production Rates that could apply to the material. This means that all Production Rates specified to a line but not to a Material will be shown here, even if the Material will not be run on that line.

  8. Next, under the header BOM Items and Consumption Rules, all BOM Items needed to produce the Material, as well as the amount needed, are displayed. For more information on maintaining BOM Item consumption rules, see Maintain Material BOM Item and Resource Consumption Rules - BOM Item Consumption.

  9. The final header, Resource Consumption Rules, shows which resources and how much of them are needed to produce this Material. For more information on maintaining BOM Item consumption rules, see Maintain Material BOM Item and Resource Consumption Rules - Resource Consumption.

Material Data Definitions

Materials in Phenix can be created manually, as show on this page, or en masse using Phenix’s Import functionalities. To learn more about Phenix’s Import functionalities, see the How-To article Import Data.

The data entries when creating or editing a Material in Phenix fall into four categories. Definitions are given by each category.

General Identification Info

  • Material ID: Material code. Should be the same as in the ERP system, if that is being used. Used by Phenix to recognize the Material for Production Rates, Wheel Design, Order Creation, etc.

  • Description: The plain words description of the material. Often displayed by Phenix alongside Material ID for user ease.

  • Type: The Material Type, chosen from user-defined types created in Phenix. Determines what Material Attributes the Material has. See the work instruction for Maintain Material Types and Maintain Attributes. for more information.

  • Dependent Requirements: This parameter defines how Phenix creates dependent requirements for upstream lines, necessary for multi-level scheduling. It is maintained for upstream component materials only.

    • Options:

      • Leave Blank: Blank is only available for materials that are not listed BOM Items for other Materials.

      • Create: Phenix creates dependent requirements for the material. To create production orders Plan to Make for the material must be run. This will create and schedule orders for the material.

      • Create and Schedule: When scheduling consuming material, Phenix creates orders for the consumed material on the upstream line and schedules them. Use this if the upstream line should be scheduled according to its own Wheel or otherwise independently from the feeding line.

      • Create and Link: When scheduling consuming material, Phenix creates orders for the consumed materials and schedules them in sync with the production orders for consuming material. Use this when the upstream line must be synchronized with the consuming line.

    • Warning. It is strongly recommended to use the same value of this parameter for all materials produced on the same upstream line. The value of it should be defined by the operating strategy for this line.

  • Max Inventory Level: Reference level for maximum inventory that should be on hand. Enter the value and then select the unit from the drop-down.

  • Safety Inventory Level: The target inventory level.  Inventory should never be planned to be below this level, although it should drop below minimum in practice due to variability. Enter the value and then select the unit from the drop-down.

Production Line Assignment

By default, only one set of entries will be displayed under this header, for the Preferred or default line. Click Add Alternate Line to add another line the material could run on. Each line has the following entries:

  • Line: The Line ID of the production line.

  • Minimum Order Amount: The minimum amount of the Material made every time the Material is run on the line. In ERP systems this is typically called Minimum Lot Size or Minimum Batch Size. Enter the value and then select the unit from the drop-down.

  • Order Amount Increment: The increment amount of a production order of a Material, used if more than the Minimum Order Amount is needed. In ERP systems this is often called Rounding Value. Enter the value and then select the unit from the drop-down.

Attributes

The Attributes present in this section are user-defined. Which Attributes are shown depends on the Material Type selected in the Type entry above.

For more on Material Attributes, see Maintain Attributes.

Wheel Authoring

These entries are for data used in Wheel Design. To learn more about Product Wheels and Phenix’s Product Wheel Designer, see Product Wheel Designer.

  • Inventory Carrying Cost (annual): The cost of holding and storing the material, as a percentage of the total inventory annually. Enter as an integer (i.e. if the Inventory Carrying Cost is 0.5 or 50%, enter 50).

  • Forecast: The average expected sales forecasted over the coming months. Enter the value, the unit, and then select the period of the forecast. Not used in scheduling, only in the Wheel Designer.

  • Forecast Coef. of Variability: Expected Coefficient of Variability of the forecast given above. The Coefficient of Variability is the Standard Deviation divided by the Average. Enter the value as an integer (i.e. if the Coefficient of Variability is 0.5 or 50%, enter 50), and then select the period.

  • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The standard cost of one unit of the material. Enter the value and then select the unit. Used in the Wheel Design process to define optimal production frequency.

  • Customer Order Lead Time: The average number of days between the date a customer places the order and the order shipping date. Used in Safety Stock calculation and Inventory Simulation in the Wheel Designer. Longer Customer Order Lead Time allows for Safety Stock reduction, as it provides additional time for the planner and the plant to react.

  • Planning Lead Time: A minimum number of days from the moment demand change is recognized until a production order can be created or changed. Used in Safety Stock calculation and Inventory Simulation. Planning Lead Time typically covers frozen zone, where production schedule changes are not allowed, but can be longer based on the plant operating strategy, capacity situation, or materials availability. Longer Planning Lead Time will require higher Safety Stock.

  • Frozen Inventory Time: Amount of time after completion of production an amount of the Material is available to customers. Covers Goods Receipt Processing Time and Quality Hold Time. Used in Safety Stock calculation and Inventory Simulation. Longer Goods Receipt Processing Time will require higher Safety Stock.

  • Plant Shelf Life: A number of days between manufacturing date and product expiry date. Used in the Wheel Design process as well as in Inventory Simulation to evaluate the probability of a product becoming obsolete. Shorter shelf life will require more frequent production.

  • Target Fill Rate: The target percentage of volume delivered to customers vs. volume ordered. It should be expressed as an integer (i.e. if the target is 98% or 0.98, enter 98).

  • Manufacturing Variation: Coefficient of Variation of the ratio of produced quantity to planned quantity for all individual orders. Used in Safety Stock calculation and Inventory Simulation in the Wheel Designer. Higher Manufacturing Variation requires more Safety Stock. This number must be expressed an integer (i.e. if Manufacturing Variation is 20% or 0.2, enter 20).