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Prior Manufacturing articles tackled the creation of Assembly Items and how to associate the Advanced Bill of Materials feature to this item type. Before Assembly Items can be considered finished goods, they must undergo the production process, which is facilitated by Work Orders.

In this article, we will cover the fundamentals of Work Orders to help you make the most of this feature within the system.

What is a Work Order?

A work order is a document or directive that outlines the tasks, instructions, materials, and resources required to complete a specific job or project within a manufacturing environment. It serves as a guide for workers and helps to ensure that production processes are carried out efficiently and accurately for a business.

Let's imagine making a big Lego house. A manufacturing work order is like a plan that tells people in a Lego factory what pieces to use, how many, and how to put them together to make cool Lego sets. It's like a recipe for building stuff, but instead of cookies, it's for making things like toys or cars. So, just like following instructions to build a Lego house, workers follow the work order to make products in a factory.

Getting Started

To enable the feature, navigate to Setup > Company > Enable Features. On the Items and Inventory Subtab > Inventory section, check Work Orders box. You may check SuiteAnswers ID 98595: Enabling the Work Orders Feature.

Types of Work Order

Production Work Order – standalone; independent of Sales Orders and not assigned to any specific customer. Since this Work Order is not tied to a specific sale, built Assembly Items increases inventory stock.

Special Order Work Order – Work Order transaction is associated to an originating Sales Order, hence, this is used to monitor Assembly Items intended for a specific sale. Special work orders may originate from a Sales Order on another existing Work Order. Assembly Items can be set as Special Work Order item by marking the Special Work Order field on the Item Record. Or users can mark the Create WO column on a Sales Order containing an Assembly Item.

Creating Work Orders

There are two ways to create a Work Order transaction:

Individual Work Order – navigate to Transactions > Manufacturing > Enter Work Orders. See SuiteAnswers ID 28186: Entering an Individual Work Order.

Mass Create Work Orders – go to Transactions > Manufacturing > Mass Create Work Orders. See SuiteAnswers ID 28200: Mass Creating Work Orders.

Work Orders play a vital role in ensuring that Assembly Items are successfully manufactured and transformed into finished goods. Hope this article will help you to grasp on how to utilize the Work Order feature to be well-prepared in managing your manufacturing operations.

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