Setting Up and Using Outside Process Management (OPM)

Initial Setup of Parameters

See Setting Initial Parameters for Outside Process Management (OPM).

Job Operation Setup

To set up a job to go through outside process management, create an operation for an outside work center. Under that operation, create a Job Materials record for an item that will make sense to your vendor. This item is used on the purchase order and the Vendor Shipping form. Set the cross-reference type to purchase order; otherwise, OPM does not recognize the records. You can complete cross-referencing at this point, to set up the purchase order header and line record for the outside process.

General Process

When an item is received into the operation that you defined above, the cross-reference is checked:

• If the PO Item Xref Method on the Shop Floor Control Parameters form is set to One Line and the cross-reference is not specified, OPM creates the purchase order and line for the full quantity required by the operation.
• If PO Item Xref Method is set to Multiple Lines, OPM creates a new line for the quantity that was just received into the operation.

No matter which option is used, a vendor shipping record is created, or an outstanding shipment is updated with the new quantity that is waiting to be shipped to the vendor. If the purchase order vendor is changed, the related shipping records also change.

You can create vendor packing slips for all the parts to be shipped to various vendors. Use the Vendor Shipping form to ship the parts to the vendor to be processed. Run the Item At Vendor Report to see what was shipped to a vendor but is not yet returned. When the items are returned from the vendor, use the PO receiving features to receive the items and issue them to the job.