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Question

Repair customer owned serial object

  • 24 November 2023
  • 13 replies
  • 225 views

Hello IFS Community.

 

we are looking for (an easier) way to show repairs with following attributes is IFS:
- Repair  done on customer site, not in company facility
- Part is serial object and has again items with serial no. in it’s BOM that will  be replaced
- Part is embedded in functional / serial object structure in Equipment Object Navigator
- Part is customer owned

 

What we did so far: 

- Create Case for relevant customer 
- Create task to start return / repair measure
- Create hand over reference: Work Order (Important to do on Site where part was manufactured, not where is was sold)
- Enter necessary part in Tab: Returns, respecting serial number.
- RMB: Return to inventory, as company owned (customer owned, which should be correct, seems not to allow to use for repair shop orders)
- Do repair shop order using Tab: Multilevel Repair Structure
- Enter repaired part in WO: Tab: Materials and issue manually to customer again, close WO afterwards
(This is not complete of course but hopefully let you understand the relevant steps)

 

This is a quite long procedure, involving various people of sales and production on various sites.

We appreciate a lot if you could explain how to improve this process. 

BR

13 replies

R
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@AN10N Hi, May I know how you returnt the repaired parts back to customer?

Ron
A
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Hi Ronhu, we used WO/Materials Tab, entered the relevant part and issued it manually via RMB on this line. 

Buddhika Kurera
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@AN10N You have mentioned Repair  done on customer site, not in company facility and also mentioned Important to do on Site where part was manufactured, not where is was sold.

Can you clarify that please?

Are the technicians visiting the customer site and repair the object meaning that the object never reaches company locations (warehouses) in this repair process?

 

--Buddhika Kurera (buku) -- linkedin.com/in/bckurera/
A
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Hi @Buddhika Kurera 

 

“Repair  done on customer site, not in company facility  → Are the technicians visiting the customer site and repair the object meaning that the object never reaches company locations (warehouses) in this repair process?”   

Exactly. 

 

Important to do on Site where part was manufactured, not where is was sold.

Background: We’re selling Item X via company A, produced in company B. When we first try to return X to A to perform the repair*, it was not possible (due to our experience), because it needs to be repaired where it was produced i.e. company B. 

*Repair: Serial Item X has various sub serial items X.1 - X.n  of which one needs to be changed from X.n.1 to X.n.2. This repair can fairly happen on customer site done by our technican.

 

Hope that logic is clear. 

BR

R
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Userlevel 5
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I haven't checked if the same process can be followed in apps 9, but in IFS Cloud it would be possible to do the process on a work order. The process would be:

  1. Create a work order for the customer on the object X (you can still create a case before this if required)
  2. On the work order, add a return for part and serial number that will be replaced (X.n.1) and a material demand for the new part which will be installed (X.n)
  3. Go to execute work task (or execute work order in apps 9). On repair materials, return X.n.1. This will update the object structure to remove this from the structure
  4. Issue the new part X.n with the correct serial number. 
  5. Click on ‘Place Serial in Equipment Structure’ and select the new serial that is installed (X.n.2). This will place it in the object structure in the selected location.

Hope this makes sense. Like I said the process might be a bit different in apps 9.

A
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Hi Roel, sounds good so far. We use apps 9.

  • for 3. where do i found “execute work order”. Is it “Report In” ?
  • for 3. Where do I found “repair materials”? Is it a tab? 

Thanks

R
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Userlevel 5
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Hi Roel, sounds good so far. We’re using apps 9.

  • for 3. where do i found “execute work order”. Is it “Report In” ?
  • for 3. Where do I found “repair materials”? Is it a tab? 

Thanks

Just had a look in an apps 9 environment. It is indeed the ‘Report In’ screen that this would be done in. You can then use the ‘Materials’ and ‘Returns’ tabs for the respective data. 

R
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Userlevel 7
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@AN10N Thank you for the clarification.

We have the same scenario as your company does, but we need to repair in our manufacturing site, i.e. your company B. Customer Owned stock is going to ship from customer, via company A, then reach company B for repair. That makes a more complex material flow than yours. We don’t have IFS CRO installed, and distribution orders (PO&CO) all are not supporting our Customer Owned stock material flow. 

@Roel van Zwieten The process also in APP10, but it only limited to service site materials. APP10 work order is not supporting intersite repair materials, in other words, if I enter materials that still reside at company A, whereas the repair site is in company B, IFS work order is not responsible for moving broken materials from site A to Site B for return, if you don’t plan this material flow via CRO. unfortunately, we don’t have CRO installed. correct me if I was wrong. 

Ron
A
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Hi Roel, sounds good so far. We’re using apps 9.

  • for 3. where do i found “execute work order”. Is it “Report In” ?
  • for 3. Where do I found “repair materials”? Is it a tab? 

Thanks

Just had a look in an apps 9 environment. It is indeed the ‘Report In’ screen that this would be done in. You can then use the ‘Materials’ and ‘Returns’ tabs for the respective data. 

Hi @Roel van Zwieten , so a few months passed and I we tried the process several times. 

 

What does work: your procedure described on Feb.2nd for Items  that have been sold and issued separately via a customer order or workorder. We’re able to return an Item X.2 ( in previously used logic/variable) via WO from customer A and issue again + placing them in equipment structure for Item X of new customer B.

 

What doesn’t work: Same procedure for items that have been issued via shop order as part of a BOM for Item X. So once sub-item X.2 was used in a shop order to produce Item X for customer A it IS possible to do all these WO-steps including issuing manually, BUT IT IS NOT possible to place serial in equipment structure for customer B. Quoting error message: “Part X.2 - (Serial X.2) is issued to a Shop Order, cannot moved from the Work Order.”

 

Do you know and can explain a way how to move an place those items in equipment structure WITHOUT having to return Item X to manufacturing site, repair-shop-order and exclude Item X.2 out of it, to be able to switch it from Customer A to Customer B with known WO-steps. 

Thank you very much. Your help is highly appreciated as we have to perform this measure a lot. BR

R
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Hi @AN10N. 

Do I understand the scenario correctly that item X.2 has been issued on a shop order, and you would like to place this same item on an equipment structure for a different customer?

How would this realistically work? I'm assuming the item created in the shop order on which item X.2 has been issued has been delivered to a customer. Is there a separate process where a technician goes to this customer and returns item X.2, or is this item returned in some other way?

It would be great if you could explain the end-to-end process so I can better understand and see how this could be done in IFS.

A
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 Hi @Roel van Zwieten, 

so we produce item X with a serial object that includes at least one serial tracked item X.2 with via DOP and with a shop order. These Items are linked to a functional object in equipment object navigator and connected to the customer structure.

Then there are two cases in which X.2 is exchanged.

  1. Defect:  We deliver X.n with a customer order and place is afterwards in the according serial object of Item X via work order. We can set X.2 on not operational and scrap it physically.
  2. Exchange: We remove X.2 and return it physically. That is done by a technician who de-install the X.2 and returns it to office/workshop. Reasons are either a possible defect item OR a different item that doesn’t meet local requirements anymore because Item X (where is was installed in) was relocated. For the technician visit there’s always a work order. But for the “change of ownership” we use an extra work order currently. 

In the end it is necessary that both, “parent” serial X and “child” Serial X.2 are linked to correct customer and correct functional object for a following non-ifs process, dragging this data from ifs. Child serial can be either issued new via customer order and connected via work order or relocated used via work order only, which produces error message as this child serial was previously produced into parent serial via DOP/shop order. Parent item is a control cabinet, child is a PC, both having their own serial. maybe this makes it easier to imagine. 

A
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Hi @Roel van Zwieten, what do you think? Thank you.

R
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Userlevel 5
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Hi @AN10N, I haven't had the opportunity yet to try this out myself.

I am not too familiar with how this would work with the combination of shop orders and work orders. My thought would be that the child serial X.2 should be returned on the Work Order in both cases, and then either scrapped or moved to a different inventory location. 

If the issue is that the new child serial (that replaced X.2) can't be issues due to the error message you mentioned, it might be more of a logistics issue.

At which point in the process would you like the serial object to be issued from the inventory? Is that from the customer order or on the work order when it is installed?

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