Rootstock Cloud ERP

Rootstock Cloud ERP is a manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain software on the Salesforce Cloud Platform. The software integrates CRM and accounting with sales order management, inventory control, purchase order tracking, and standard cost accounting.

Engineer to Order (ETO) manufacturers can build complex custom products based on unique customer requirements and engineering revisions.

• Real-time production control, inventory tracking, and project management with Chatter enabled Apps
• Track orders or collaborate with vendors on a mobile phone or tablet
• Integrate distribution warehouse and third party logistics material flows

Video Overview

Rootstock Cloud ERP Features

• Sales Orders: connect to e-commerce and product configurator apps
• Material Requirements Planning - MRP
• Scheduling and Capacity Planning
• Bill of Materials - BOM and Engineering Change Control - ECOs
• Purchasing for direct/indirect materials, services, and supplies
• Connect to EDI systems
• Multiple divisions, plants, and warehouses
• Manufacturing Cost Accounting - Standard or Average Cost
• Shop Floor Control: work orders and outside operations
• Inventory Control: vendors, 3PLs
• Project Control: - MRP, costs and inventory by project
• Lot or Serial Control - item traceability by source or process
• Integrate PLM

Rootstock enterprise apps share data and integrate seamlessly with other native apps like salesforce CRM and FinancialForce Accounting for a complete enterprise cloud-computing solution.

Whether you’re struggling to maintain a legacy on-premise ERP system or are outgrowing your current capabilities, contact Rootstock today to learn how to move your manufacturing and supply chain to the Cloud!

Inventory Control

Rootstock Manufacturing Inventory Control supports a number of business processes relating to the maintenance of item inventories, inventory valuation and planning and setting of item policies such as lead time and MRP planning. Purchase Requisition Maintenance for Direct Material Items is also supported in this module as is a Supply Demand Review (an output of MRP) which illustrates the supply and demand picture with projected on hand balances helpful to a material planner for managing the inventory.

While production items are initially entered in the Production Engineering module, for those that are entered in an active status, the Rootstock Item Master maintenance function will automatically establish Inventory part policies and attributes such as lead times and MRP planning polices and Safety Stock policies as determined by the Inventory Commodity code assigned during this item master maintenance.

It is important to understand the structure of the inventory information to appreciate all of the tracking of costs and quantities that are maintained. All inventories (quantities) are maintained by Item and Location within a Division and Site. The Location is both a Location ID and a Location Number (typically a ýrow ý bin ý aisleý). The Location ID is typically a physical location with a plant (such as Stores or Floor Stock). These Location IDýs have their own master file and are identified as ýon hand nettableý and ýon hand non nettableý - and MRP will only review inventory that is located in On hand Nettable locations.

There are additional attributes ýassignedý to inventories and they are as follows:

1. Lot Controlled: If an item is lot controlled then the Lot Number is set and noted in the ýLocation Sectioný field of the Inventory Location record
2. Serial Controlled: If an item is to be ýserial trackedý which means that any inventory transaction must identify the specific serial number, then this Serial Number is set in the ýLocation Sectioný field of the Inventory Location record. If the Item is also Lot Controlled, then this can be so noted in a ýcommentsý field within the Inventory Location record.
3. Backflush Location: If an item is a ýbackflushý candidate then in the ýLocation Sectioný field of the Inventory Location the word ýBackflushý is set to denote such a location type. Lot and Serial Controlled items can not be ýback flushedý.

In a project control environment it is necessary to also maintain the inventories by project. Therefore an additional piece of information on the Item Location Record is the project.

While the user will maintain the inventories at a Division, Site, Item, Project (if Project Control environment), Location Id, Location Number, Serial (if a Serial Controlled item), Lot (if a Lot Controlled item), Location Section (for Backflush locations), - the system also has additional records containing the quantities (and dollars) by Division-Site-Item and by Division-Site-Item-Project (if Project Control environment).

There are a number of transactions that available to the user to maintain inventories.

Some of the inventory transactions available include:

1. Inventory Additions

2. Inventory Adjustments

3. Inventory Scrapý

4. Unplanned Issues

5. Unplanned Receipts

6. Location to Location Movements

7. A ýproject to projectý transfer (in a project control environment)

8. A dollar adjustment (in a weighted average cost environment)

In a weighted average cost system, the user will need to note the unit costs on an inventory addition while in a standard cost system the costs are not on specified on the transaction by the user.

As noted earlier there is a Supply Demand Review (also termed Requirements Analysis) that is available for each item. This Requirements Analysis presents the supplies (work orders, purchase requisitions, purchase orders) and demands (customer orders and forecasts, work order demands, subcontract requisition and subcontract purchase order demands) in due date sequence with an associated projected on hand balance. The planner can review this supply and demand picture on line and it is helpful in managing reschedules and review of shortage conditions.

Purchase requisitions are also maintained through Inventory Control. The material planner can add requisitions within this module and then once the requisitions are approved they can be converted to Purchase Orders within this module. MRP generates planned requisitions. Planned requisitions must be changed to firm status prior to their being approved.

Another benefit provided by the Inventory control module is the Audit Trail Inquiry. An audit trail is generated for every material movement and labor transaction. The Audit Trail Inquiry can be used to track the historical view of an itemýs increments and decrements to inventory or the cost associated with determining the inventory balance.

ROOTSTOCK Manufacturing Inventory Control supports oneýs inventory requirements, allows the inventory planner to meet the material plan.

Lot & Serial Control

Rootstock Lot & Serial Control provides for an item’s lot or serial number to be registered through Purchasing Receipts, Inventory, Shop Floor Control and Sales Order Fulfillment functions.

The Purchasing Receipt function will note the Item Number classification and if ‘lot controlled’, then the lot number must be assigned to the entire Purchase Receipt for the items being received prior to their ‘acceptance’ into stock. There is an option that allows the user to assign the ‘receiver number’ as the lot number which provides for an easy but practical application for the lot identification.

If the Vendor assigned a lot number, then this can be assigned by the user instead. If the Item Number is ‘Serial Controlled’, then prior to the receipt into stock, the serial numbers can be assigned in a ‘free form’ text field. The software will parse that text box to insure that serial number records are created on the Purchase Receiver and on Item Location Records as well as an "item serial record’ insuring that only one serial can be assigned an item.

The lot or serial number, as required, is registered on all inventory additions, adjustments and scrap transactions. While Lot and Serial controlled items are not appropriate for ‘backflush’ considerations, all other work order and subcontract order issues record the lot or serial as required on the issue transaction.

On work order supplies the user must record the lot number for ‘lot controlled items’ and this recording must be done before the assembly is received into stock or scrapped. Likewise serial numbers must be assigned before the work order assembly is received or scrapped.

Pick lists are printed with serial number detail and lot information as appropriate. When sales order is fulfilled the serial number of the final assembly is noted on shipment.

Manufacturing Cost Control

Rootstock Manufacturing Cost Control provides extensive cost accounting capabilities required by company’s that have a need to closely monitor and control manufacturing costs. The user may elect to use either standard costing or weighted average costing method for valuing inventory and computing cost of goods sold.

Eight (8) cost elements can be maintained using either a standard cost method or an average actual cost method. The method is set at the ‘division level’ which means that in a multi division installation, a company could have ‘standard costs’ in one division and ‘average actual costs’ in another division. Another item of note is that in a standard cost system these costs are maintained at an item level and in an weighted average cost system these costs are ‘averaged’ at an item-project level.

Cost Elements

Up to eight cost elements can be tracked in inventory, work in process and finished goods. These cost elements are as follows:

1. Material Cost – This is the purchased cost. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard material unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ‘averaged’ with the inventory’s current material cost.
2. Material Overhead Cost – This is the material burden which is calculated using a "Material Overhead Rate’ designated at the division level and applied to the material cost (or subcontract material cost) at the time of purchase order receipt. This rate is used in either a standard or actual cost environment.
3. Direct Labor Cost – In an actual cost environment, this is the labor cost associated with the hours charged multiplied by a labor grade rate associated with the employee that is booking the labor at a work order operation. In a standard cost environment, this is derived in a ‘standard cost’ calculation accumulating all of the item’s routing operations’ hour standards multiplied by a standard rate for the labor grade expected to perform the operation.
4. Direct Labor Overhead Cost – There is a Direct Labor Overhead Rate associated with each Department and the Department is noted on each operation of the routing. In an actual cost environment, Direct Labor Costs extended by the Direct Labor Overhead Rate provides this Direct Labor Overhead cost. In a standard cost environment, when calculating the cost standard using the standard routing, this same rate is applied to the standard direct labor cost at each operation.
5. Fringe Labor Overhead Cost – Similar to a Direct Labor Overhead Rate associated with each Department there is also a Fringe Labor Overhead Rate. Given the rising cost of Fringe (Medical and taxes for example) it is often desirable to separate this cost out from Direct Labor Overhead. This is calculated in the same manner as the Direct Labor Overhead.
6. Machine Overhead Cost – There is a Machine Overhead Rate associated with each machine and the machine can be specified on each operation of the routing where appropriate. In an actual cost environment, actual machine hours are extended by the Machine Overhead Rate providing this Machine Overhead Cost. In a standard cost environment, when calculating the cost standard using the standard routing, this same rate is applied to the standard machine hours at each operation.
7. Subcontract Material Cost – This is the value added cost of the vendor for their manufacturing/assembly work associated with a subcontract purchase order. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard subcontract material unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ‘averaged’ with the inventory’s current subcontract material cost.
8. Subcontract Labor Cost – This is the value added cost of the vendor for their manufacturing/assembly work associated with an ‘outside operation’ of a work order. In a standard cost environment, this is set as the standard subcontract labor unit cost on the cost master file. In an average cost situation, this is a rolling weighted average whereby the purchase receipt’s purchase price will be ‘averaged’ with the work orders’ subcontract labor cost.

Cost Rollups and Standards Revaluation in a Standard Cost Environment

Standard costs for purchased and subcontract items are maintained by the user on the item standard cost master file. The standard costs for Labor and overhead are calculated by Rootstock using the bill of materials and routing for each item using the cost rollup process.

Variance Calculations in a Standard Cost Environment

In a standard cost environment, the costs on the item (or item-project) master files are maintained at standard. Standard cost variance calculations are done as follows on the following transactions:

• Purchase Receipt – The difference between the purchase order price and the standard material cost (or subcontract material cost) will be calculated (and extended by the quantity) and will debit/credit a PPV (purchase price variance) account.
• Work Order Close – The sum of actual component material charges (as determined at work order issuance) and the sum of all labor and associated overhead, machine overhead, and subcontract labor at actual are maintained on the work order. At work order close the difference between the work order receipts and scrap – at standard are compared to these actual costs and there will be a debit/credit to a Work Order Variance WIP account as appropriate.
• Standards Redefinition - Whenever an item standard is redefined all stock inventory and all WIP (work order) inventory is revalued at the new standard and a ‘standards variance recalculation’ account is appropriately debited/credited.

Rootstock’s Manufacturing Accounts

Rootstock Manufacturing Cost Control maintains its own chart of manufacturing accounts which are then individually mapped to the General Ledger account. This permits the user to capture costs at one level of detail in manufacturing (e.g. multiple variance accounts), and then post these accounts to the same general ledger account. The format of the costs to be posted to General Ledger is in the cumulative cost format and the eight cost components (whether in a standard or actual cost environment) are ‘unitized’ as one cost for General Ledger purposes.

Material Resource Planning (MRP) Module

Rootstock Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is the software engine that will use the sales order and forecast demands in conjunction with the effective production bill of material and by reviewing item inventory balances will generate planned supplies in a time phase manner to offset the outstanding demands for end items and sub assemblies.

Specifically, MRP generates what are termed planned work orders for manufactured items and planned purchase requisitions for purchase or subcontract items. For firmed (or greater supplies) it generates reschedule or excess messages when, and if, appropriate.

Rootstock Material Requirements Planning uses information from the NetSuite Sales Order Management to drive the top level demands. Forecast demands, for not only end items but any item can entered as well. A forecast demand for an item denotes the start period date and the end period date and the quantity forecasted for that period. MRP will perform the traditional ýnettingý and plan to the greater of the Sales Order Demand and Forecast demand (by period).

The MRP Engine uses the typical algorithms in the industry and will proceed level by level through the Bill of Material starting with the top level (i.e. end item) of the BOM and review the demands and safety stock requirements netting out the inventory and firmed (or greater) supplies and first suggest reschedules for firmed (or greater) supplies and then create planned supplies as appropriate.

The MRP Engine will always use the ýeffectiveý Bill of Material in its plan. It accomplishes this by reviewing the scheduled pick dates of the planned work order supplies or planned subcontract requisition supplies and using that date to extract the components that are ýeffectiveý and ýimplementedý as of that date in the generation of the work order and subcontract requisition demands.

MRP can be planned by division and by site as well as by project (in those divisions where project control is applicable). It uses planning policies such as ýlot for lotý or days cover. Since many lead times can be stipulated at the item (or commodity code) level, the MRP engine also determines for the work order supply the scheduled firm date, scheduled release date, scheduled pick date as well as the scheduled start date on the shop floor and the scheduled due date. For a requisition it will determine the scheduled firm date, purchase order place date, date it is due on the receiving dock as well as the due date it is to be stocked.

For those parts identified as items to be planned using ýre orderý point, the MRP engine can also perform Re order point computations.

Multi Division - Multi Site

Rootstock Multi Division - Multi Site expands functions and locations, reduces duplication for those manufacturing companies that have multiple plants in various locations throughout the world, ROOTSTOCK provides inter-division and inter-site capabilities throughout all applications. Netsuite uses the terminology and concepts of Subsidiaries and Locations. Rootstock correlates the concept of Netsuite subsidiary to a Rootstock Company and in most cases correlates the concept of Netsuite Location to a Rootstock Division.

Within Rootstock, multiple divisions may exist within a single company while multiple sites exist within a single division. Each site maintains its own inventory and a site in Rootstock is typically identified to a warehouse for a plant. Forecasting and MRP functions can also exist separately for each site (or across sites) to satisfy inter-site requirements. Each Division has a ýmain siteý and it is that main site that does the manufacturing and purchasing while ýother than the main siteý are in essence warehouses

Inter-Site Requirements Planning allows a supply site to plan, acquire and transfer material to meet the needs of a requiring site. Materials that are manufactured, purchased or subcontracted at the main site can be transferred to the requiring site. A central sales site enters orders for products coming from other sites, such as warehouses and manufacturing plants.

Production Engineering can be centralized within a company and therefore support all of the divisions within a company ý or if the Engineering function is decentralized at the plant level, then each division will have its own Production Engineering Bill of Material and Change Order Process. In a company that supports centralized Production Engineering then each manufacturing division that maintains information such as item masters and bills of materials may access those without needing to duplicate and maintain them at each division. Work orders and other inventory functions can be validated against centralized master records at the inventory divisions. Each division can maintain their own ýsub ledgerý of cost accounts that can be rolled up into the main ledger for a companyýs financial statements. The costs can therefore be identified and controlled at a division level from a general accounting perspective.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Integration

Rootstock PLM Integration automates the process of transferring current product configuration data from a company’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to Rootstock, avoiding manual entry errors and ensuring that manufacturing configuration data is always up to date and fully synchronized. This shared data, including Items, Item Revisions, Bill of Materials (BOMs), and Engineering Changes, is received and used by Rootstock to perform up to date manufacturing planning and shop floor operations.

Rootstock and the PLM solutions work together to provide a flexible solution for manufacturers that are faced with constantly changing products with ever shortening product life cycles. Together, they deliver up to date product configuration information resulting in improved visibility and more efficient manufacturing operations. These joint Software as a Solution (SaaS) offerings provides mid-market manufacturers with shorter implementations, lower costs, and quick return on investment. Requiring dramatically less resources, the PLM solutions and Rootstock allow you to recoup your investment quickly while delivering a robust manufacturing solution that enables you to be more responsive to changing customer needs.

Shared Product Information

The Rootstock PLM integration synchronizes the latest product configuration data ensuring efficient and accurate production planning and operations.

This shared data includes:

• Item – For each Item, critical information is maintained including item name, number, description, commodity code, part status and part type. Rootstock supports manufactured, purchased and subcontracted sourced items.
• Bill of Materials – Each Bill of Materials includes standard yet critical information on all the components and materials that are needed to produce an item. Changes to the Bill of Materials may include changes to components,materials, quantities, and effectivity dates. This required information such as the quantity per assembly and Add & Delete effectivity data, is maintained for each component of the BOM.
• Item Revisions – Revisions to an Item such as changes to components, quantities and Bill of Materials structures can be maintained and referenced to the appropriate BOM.
• Engineering Changes – Engineering Changes are maintained within Arena and are shared with Rootstock when approved and released to production. Component and operation changes can be tracked, approved, and logged via the Engineering Change Order history database within Rootstock.

How the Integration Works

The Rootstock PLM integration is triggered when product related information such as Items, Item Revisions and Bills of Materials are changed via an approved Engineering Change Order (ECO) within Arena. The Rootstock adapter receives the changes, processes them, and takes the product data to create the Rootstock engineering item master, inventory item master, and other detailed product records.

The PLM system revision information is used to create Rootstock engineering item revision records. The engineering change information is also used to create the Rootstock ECO master and detail records. The Rootstock adapter then logs any exceptions. The system administrator is notified of any changes or exceptions, such as revisions of more than 6 characters, unrecognized division or commodity codes, or invalid change numbers.

Production Engineering

Rootstock Production Engineering includes the following capabilities: Item Master Maintenance, Bill of Material Maintenance, Item and Bill of Material Revision Control, and Engineering Change Control.

Item Master Maintenance

Within Item Master Maintenance the Direct Material Item Characteristics are maintained. Key information such as Item Description, the Commodity Code, Responsible Engineer, Lot or Serial Tracking within Inventory, Part Status and Part Type is recorded. Additionally Inventory attributes such as lead times and MRP policies and Purchasing policies such as vendor lead time and Responsible Buyer are noted as well. Of importance is the identification as to how the item is ýsourcedý. The Rootstock systems supports manufactured, purchased and subcontract sourcing. The assignment of the Commodity Code is of key consideration because the item can inherit many of the Commodity Code attributes thus reducing users having to enter every field on the Item Master.

Netsuite has many item classifications. The Netsuite Item Classifications ýInventoryý , ýLotý and ýSerialý are maintained within The Rootstock Item Master Maintenance. The Netsuite Item Classification of ýAssemblyý is not used and this capability is provided by the Rootstock Bill of Material.

Bill of Material Maintenance

The Manufacturing or Subcontract Assemblies are identified within Bill of Material Maintenance. Each Component contains a separate record and standard information associating the component to the assembly can be kept on the Rootstock Bill of Material. Required information such as the quantity per assembly and add and delete effectivity data is maintenance on each component link. Required Add and Delete effectivity information includes status and date with optional information including revision and engineering change order. Additional information includes a scrap factor, ýissue toý work centers on the Shop Floor and lead time offset for planning purposes.

Bills of Material are also used in a Standard Cost Rollup to compute the material cost and the subcontract material cost of the purchased (or subcontract purchased) item.

Item Revision Maintenance

All items are added with a revision (zero). If Revision Control is desired, then the user can maintain status (planned, released, implemented) as well as effectivity date which can facilitate the setting of effectivity status and date information on multiple bill of material component links. Additional revisions to the part (drawing changes, bill of material structures and even routing changes) can be maintained by the user and referenced to the appropriate bill of material and/or routing operations.

Another capability of maintaining an item revision is that a work orderýs demands can be generated by specifying the appropriate revision on the work order enabling the system to copy the correct bill of material in generating the work orderýs demand records.

Engineering Change Control

Engineering Change Control is the process that ýmanagesý the related itemsý revisions that are associated with an Engineering Change Order. Revision Control denotes the change and Engineering Change Control denotes the process that manages the revisions to the bill of material and the routings. Since the management of item revisions can be accomplished by the Engineering Change Control process, Engineering Change Control therefore enforces discipline and management control over modifications to bill of materials and shop floor routings based on revision control.

Component and operation changes can be tracked through an authorization and approval process and are logged into an ECO history database. MRP and Work Order Bill of Material Explode will retrieve component records based on correlating the work orderýs scheduled pick date to the add and delete effectivity dates associated with a revision. Work Order Routing Operation Extract will extract those Routingýs operations using similar add and delete effectivity comparisons.

All Rootstock programs that use bill of materials and routing master records to ýexplodeý or ýextractý components and operations contain ECO capabilities. Material Requirements Planning explode bill of materials to create the component demands for each work order and subcontract PO requisition. These configurations are based on the scheduled pick date of the orders compared with the ECO effective dates on the bills.

Project Control

Rootstock Project Control provides an additional capability to the inventory control tracking, as well as planning and costing of items. In a project control environment not only does the manufacturer want to control and plan material purchases and manufacturing for the division but also wants to additionally identify inventories and costs by project.

In a discrete manufacturing operation where all planning, costing and tracking is ‘item number’ based, there is typically an additional requirement in a manufacture to order, assemble to order, engineer to order or even contract manufacturer – and that is to plan, cost and track by ‘item within a project’.

To meet these needs, Rootstock Project Control provides these additional capabilities of planning, tracking and costing within the Rootstock manufacturing modules of:

• Inventory Control
• Shop Floor Control
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
• Manufacturing Cost Control

The Project Control module also enables identification of a project to Purchase Order and Sales Order lines.

Rootstock Project Control therefore associates inventory items, sales orders, work orders, purchase requisitions, and purchase orders with a project. Material Requirements Planning (MRP) can plan either by a single project – or by all of the projects within a division. Usually in every project environment there are common parts across projects. These common parts can be identified as such on the inventory item master (or on the commodity code) as common parts (or other terms used in the industry include company inventory or ‘global parts’ or ‘home project parts’).

With Rootstock Project Control, not only allows users to determine how materials are allocated to specific projects but the cost method can be either standard or average costs. If the cost method is average cost then the cost is identified at the item-project level. If the cost method used is standard cost, then all projects within a division will share the same standard cost.

In a project control environment, cost accounts for inventory and cost of sales can be designated by project. This allows the business to look at financial reports with a project accountant’s view. For those firms that have few customers and large portions of their business is allocated to these few then this capability is helpful. In the case of a job shop which may have hundreds of customers (and many one time only customers) yet function as a ‘to order’ business, the cost accounts can be identified at the commodity code or item level and this delineation of project accounts is not necessary at the General Ledger.

With Rootstock, each manufacturing work order and purchase order line item is associated with an individual project. This allows a user to access online Project Status information at any point during the life cycle of a project. Entering a project, the user receives immediate online information in the Project Work Bench regarding purchase requisitions, purchase orders, work orders, sales order, cost transactions, and inventory

Purchase Order Management

Rootstock Purchase Order Management provides for the entry and tracking of purchase orders for direct and indirect materials and services. This is supported throughout the entire purchasing process, from generation of the requisition through receiving of materials or approval of service provided including accounts payable integration. Rootstock also maintains all vendor information and reporting required by buying organizations to make better-informed purchasing decisions.

Purchase Requisitions for Direct Materials

Requisitions for direct materials can be manually entered or automatically generated by the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) application as it identifies demands that are not being met by scheduled supply orders. Requisitions created by MRP are based on the part’s purchasing parameters (i.e. lead times, planning policies, safety stock level, etc.) and entered in ‘planned’ status. A material planner or purchasing agent must firm these requisitions before becoming available for conversion to purchase orders once approved.

Purchase Requisitions for Indirect Materials and Services

Purchase requisitions for indirect materials and services are also supported by Rootstock Purchase Order Management. An employee manually enters requisitions for indirect materials or services. Once approved, these can be converted to either a purchase order or can be designated as an employee reimbursable expense.

Purchase Order Control

Rootstock Purchase Order Management provides critical centralized control over direct material, indirect material, and service tracking as well as vendor performance. Inventory and non-inventory purchased items and services can be consolidated on a single purchase order. Purchase requisitions can be converted to new purchase orders or placed as line items on existing orders. Additional items can be added to open orders, providing purchasing flexibility and efficiency. Buyers can make decisions on purchase order quantities and due dates supported by price and delivery history for approved vendors. Comprehensive purchase revision control management capabilities are also included as well as Purchase Order approvals.

Vendor Maintenance

With Rootstock, buyers can easily associate vendors with purchased parts. This allows for the retrieval of all open requisitions for an item and simultaneously reviews the approved vendors. Buyers can then make their decisions on purchase order quantities and due dates, having considered the lead times and delivery history of the vendors.

Receiving Control

Material receiving capabilities include complete order access/review, receiving history for each item, including quantity ordered, outstanding and due. The application provides an automatic warning if a transaction will cause an over receipt or if the material arrives early. Parts can also be received to an inspection or other inventory locations. Receipts are then automatically posted to an accrued Accounts Payable account.

*Reporting

Rootstock delivers full purchasing reporting and analysis capabilities including purchase requisition, open purchase order, shortage, expedite and vendor performance reports. This provides the information needed by the buying organization to communicate effectively with vendors and make better business decisions on vendor selection, pricing, delivery dates, and quantities.

Sales Order Management

Sales Order Management

Rootstock Sales Order Management allows for the entry and processing of customer sales orders for products and services from order entry to customer invoice. All required sales order information including customer and product data is maintained within the Rootstock application.

As a native application built on the Force.com platform, Sales Order Management offers automatic integration/synchronization with Salesforce customer and product databases and allows for the automatic transfer of Accounts Receivable data into FinancialForce.com Accounting and other accounting systems as needed. With Rootstock, manufacturers can streamline Sales Order Management resulting in reduced operating cost of sales, improved productivity, and improved customer service.

Order Entry

Sales orders can be created within the Rootstock application in a variety of ways. Using APIs, orders can be seamlessly transferred from existing web stores, EDI transaction sets or any other order entry system. Quotes created in Salesforce can be easily converted to Rootstock Sales Orders. Of course, sales orders can be entered directly by a Rootstock user. Product configuration is also supported with all configured components being provided to the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system.

Customer Data

Rootstock leverages a shared customer account data model with Salesforce, FinancialForce.com, and other Force.com applications. This enables multiple addresses, (billing and shipping), multiple currencies, user defined codes (terms, carriers, etc.), and commission tracking/processing across all systems. Customer agreements can be created in Rootstock Sales Order Management that support date effective, customer specific pricing and discounting.

Product Data

Product data is also common between Salesforce, Rootstock, FinancialForce.com, and other Force.com applications. Rootstock enables multiple product types for inventory items including stock, kitted and configured. Service and other non-inventory products processing, as well as reoccurring order processing for items and services are also supported.

Rootstock delivers multiple pricing options including quantity breaks, date effective specials, and customer specific pricing capabilities as well as multiple discount options including by customer, customer class, and product class.

Order Processing

Robust order entry and maintenance capabilities support the sales order throughout the order fulfillment process. Rootstock enables material allocation and issue, product packaging and shipping, and customer invoice with integration to FinancialForce.com or other Accounts Receivable applications. Multi-site order entry creates a centralized order that spans across all divisions, warehouses, and sites and transactions are linked back to the originating order as appropriate.

With Rootstock Sales Order Management, associated financial transactions and controls can be easily managed from order entry to customer invoice. Packaging, handling, and freight charges can be independently tracked and invoiced. Prepayments as well as payment schedules can be processed. Credit checking and other order processing controls can be leveraged throughout the order cycle. Rootstock also supports Return Material Authorization (RMA) processing including material receipt, rework and shipment.

Reporting

Rootstock Sales Order Management delivers a wide variety of reports, forms, and analytics to enable manufacturers to better run their business.

Available forms include sales order acknowledgements, packing slips, invoices, RMAs, and Bills of Lading. Internal reports include bookings, sales history, shipments, gross margin, and order backlog. Online, real-time analytics include sales commissions data, orders in process, customer account inquiries, and product warranty information. This provides the information needed by the sales and manufacturing organizations to communicate effectively with customers and make better business decisions regarding product offering, pricing, quality, customer discounting, and sales team effectiveness.

Scheduling & Capacity Planning

Rootstock Scheduling & Capacity Planning provides the management and monitoring of the work order operations’ scheduled dates that are required to meet the Material Requirements Planning Work Order’s Scheduled Due Date into Stock.

The Rootstock Scheduler develops a schedule for all firmed, release and ‘in process’ work orders based on the due date, standard times extended by the work order quantity, priority (as derived from compressed float), move and queue times and the work center’s standard for the hours in a production day.

The Capacity Requirements Planning will allow one to view a work center’s available capacity on a day by day basis (in terms of labor hours or machine hours) in a colorful graphical format. The ‘drag and drop’ feature supports moving the schedule for a given work order within a work center from one day to another. If moving up the priority (and display) of a work order within a work center is required, this ‘drag and drop’ feature allows the altering of the priority. The schedule is adjusted automatically when the ‘work order’ is moved from one day to another.

Scheduling

The work order scheduling logic is performed for each work order, in a stepped method, establishing certain criteria at the end of each step before ultimately determining each work order operation’s scheduled start date and scheduled complete date. The determination of the operation standard time is influenced by a number of factors.

The first step in the scheduling algorithm is to establish the first work order’s operation’s schedule start date. If the work order has as not yet been started and the Work Order Production Release Dates is later than today’s date, then first operation’s schedule start date is the Work Order Production Release Date. If the Work Order Production Release Date is less than (or equal to) today’s date, then the first work order’s operation schedule start date is set to today’s date. If the work order has been started, then the first work order operation’s scheduled start date, not as yet completed, will be set to today’s date.

The next step is to determine the subsequent work order operations’ scheduled start and scheduled complete dates. This is accomplished by computing the scheduled quantity at the operation and then using that quantity in conjunction with labor and machine standards to determine the expected time to be expended in a work center for this operation. Considering the length of the standard production day will determine if this expended time (assuming infinite capacity) can be completed on the current scheduled date or a later date. The algorithm, when establishing dates for the next operation, will use the scheduled complete date of this operation that was previously scheduled and then add move and queue times to determine the present operation’s scheduled start date. The quantity to be scheduled will be adjusted based upon actual or expected scrap of the prior operation.

Given that this is a forward scheduling method, the next step in the process will determine the priority using a comparison between the standard (or natural) move and queue time and the compressed move and queue time required to meet the Work Order Scheduled Due Date into Stock. If a compression can be done, then the work order operations’ scheduled start and scheduled complete dates will be readjusted to meet the Material Requirements Planning Work Order Scheduled Due Date.

Capacity Planning

The Capacity Planning Work Bench is launched from the Manufacturing Menu. In the capacity planning work bench, the user, using the easy to use ‘drag and drop’ capability, can move the ‘work order operation start date’ forward or backward and the scheduling algorithm described above will be executed.

The work order operation’s start date (and scheduled complete date) will determine which work center day slots the work order will occupy. The priority will determine the order of the listing within the work center. Those work orders in green are expected to be started within the ‘available capacity’ and those in red ‘exceed capacity’. It is expected that the user may change the position of the work order within a work center by altering the priority and for those work orders in red, it is expected that the user, via a ‘drag and drop’ capability, will move them to another day.

Shop Floor Control

Shop Floor Control

Rootstock Shop Floor Control manages the life cycle of the work order and the routing that is used as a basis for defining the steps or processes that are required in the assembly and/or manufacture of the item on the shop floor. Scheduling and Capacity Requirements Planning is contained in a separate module.

Rootstock Shop Floor module capabilities include: Routing Maintenance, Work Order Add and BOM Explosion, Work Order Firming, Work Order Release and Operation Extract, Work Order Pick, Work Order Operation Time Booking, Work Order Operation Quantity Recordings, Work Order Receipt and Backflush, Work Order Cost, Rework Work Orders, and Refurbishment Work Orders.

Routing Maintenance

Before defining the Routing, the labor grades, departments, work centers, machine master files and processes must be defined by the manufacturing engineer (and cost accountant when denoting the labor grades and departmental standard labor and overhead rates). Those master files having been defined, a Routing can be established for each item.

The Routing will be comprised of a series of steps (i.e. operations). Each operation will denote the work center, machine (if appropriate), labor grade and process – and the time it takes to do a unit or a batch of work. These times can be a) setup, or b) labor assembly or c) machine time. An operation can also be identified as an ‘outside operation’ where the assembly is sent to a vendor for additional processing. For those organizations that want to control the operation’s effectivity date (e.g. the ability to phase in/out certain operations) by item revision or by change order, this capability is also provided.

The Routing can be defined at an item grouping level so that one isn’t required to develop a specific routing for each item yet can still gain the benefit of shop floor operation tracking for a given work order. Routings are also used in a Standard Cost Rollup to compute the labor, direct labor overhead, fringe overhead, machine overhead and subcontract labor cost components of the standard cost of the manufactured item.

Work Order Add and BOM Explosion

Typically the work order is added by MRP and then firmed by the material planner. However, the capability exists to manually add the Work Order in the Work Order Work Bench at a ‘firmed’ status. The user only needs to denote the Item, the Project (if project control is active), the Due Date and the Quantity (and if this is a special type of work order termed ‘rework order’ or ‘refurb order’).

The Work Order Work Bench enables the user to explode the Bill of Material. This process will use the derived scheduled pick date of the components and retrieve the effective bill of material and create work order demands, one for each component. The work order demand quantity required is calculated by multiplying the bill of material quantity per by the work order supply quantity required. There is additional capability to get bill of material ‘override’ information that will denote which work center components should be issued to, so that the work order demand will be added with work center ‘issued to’ information. (Operation Extract – below will link that work order demand to a work order operation). By using this capability the user can control the timing when material is move to the shop floor (only move it to the floor when needed in the manufacturing process).

Work Order Firm

Planned work orders generated by MRP can be firmed by the material planner. This action will indicate that the planner has taken control of this order and insure that MRP will not delete or modify this work order in the next planning run. MRP may make suggestions to the planner of required changes.

Work Order Release and Work Order Operation Extract

Prior to picking the material from stock, the work order is ‘released’ which is an indication that Production Control now supervises the management of the work order. As part of the work order release process, the work order operation extract will create the work order operations from the effective routing. If there are any work order component demands that designate that components are to be issued to the work center, as part of this extract the work order component demand will be linked to a work order operation.

Work Order Pick

The next step in the process is the Pick Process of components from stores. Production Control will denote that the work order is to be picked and a work order pick list for all components that are not backflushed will be made available to the store room for picking and sending to the shop floor. Stores will also record the quantity issued.

Work Order Time Booking

The direct laborer can record the times spent on an operation. These times are recorded in terms of hours (or fractions of hours). Machine times can also be recorded where appropriate.

Work Order Quantity Recordings

The quantity completed and moved to the next operation can be recorded. Based on the routing operation indicators, one transaction could be used to record both a ‘complete and move’ or one transaction can be used to record the ‘complete’ and a second to record the ‘move’.

Work Order Receipt and Backflush

The quantity that is completed at the last operation and is received into inventory is the Work Order Receipt. For those work order component demands identified as backflush items, the appropriate ‘work order demand issue’ from inventory will automatically be done as part of the work order receipt.

Work Order Cost

The work order contains all of the costs associated with material component issues and labor and machine time recordings. In a standard cost environment, the work order close process will compute the work order variance.