This step waits for a person. It builds a product from its bill of materials - and it can be told to ask before it orders anything.
It appears in the Add Step list as Assembly Task (new).
| Automatic? | No - somebody builds it |
| Who does it | The assembler |
| Needs first | What to build and how many, and whether to order materials automatically |
| Produces | The finished units, plus the material requests and sub-assemblies it sets up |
| Where you work it | My Assembly Tasks, or the work order page |
What it does
You tell it the finished product and how many. Its bill of materials decides everything else: what gets consumed, what has to be fetched from Stores, and which sub-assemblies have to be built first.
The one real choice is plan approval. Left automatic, it plans the whole tree and orders the materials in one unattended pass. Set to ask, it works the plan out and then holds for somebody to look at it before a single Move Order goes out - which is what you want on an expensive or unusual build.
Where it needs material it raises Move Orders to the assembly bench. Where it needs a sub-assembly it spawns another Assembly Task, told what to build.
Completing it
- It completes when the build is recorded. The finished units are published, one entry per physical unit, with a serial where the product is serialised.
- A build that cannot get its materials waits rather than failing.
Worth knowing. Assemblies are not a work order type. An assembly is a Production work order that carries this step, and the assembly screens key on the step rather than on the type.
When not to use it
- Taking something apart - disassembly is a separate flow, not this step.
- Just fetching parts with no build at the end - that is a Move Order.
- Sending work to a subcontractor - that is an External Service Order, outside the work order engine.