Resource
What Precision Engineers Need From An MRP System
Small batches, repeat work and tight tolerances put pressure on different parts of a system than high-volume production does.
Small-batch precision engineering places particular demands on revision control, setup costing, inspection and traceability. A precision shop making twenty of something to a drawing that has been revised four times is a different problem, and the places a system creaks are different too.
Revision Control That Is Not Optional
The question “which revision was this batch made to” should be answerable from the job, not from the date it ran and somebody’s recollection of when the drawing changed.
That means the works order recording the revision, bill and routing it was raised against, rather than pointing at whatever is current.
Costing That Survives Small Batches
Setup dominates a short run. If setup and run are one booking, a batch of twenty and a batch of four hundred look similar per hour and completely different per part, and the quote for next time is wrong.
Include Inspection Time In The Plan
First article inspection takes real time on a real machine with a real inspector. Systems that treat it as a document attached to the job rather than as an operation in the routing will under-plan every new part.
Questions Worth Asking A Vendor
- Does a works order snapshot the bill and routing, or reference them?
- Can setup and run be booked separately against one operation?
- Can I see every job that drew from a particular lot of material?
- What happens to a job in progress when the part is revised?
- Is inspection a routing operation or an attachment?
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