Purchasing long lead-time items

To purchase long lead-time items, follow these steps:

The starting point is a sales order containing a sales line. The product included on this sales line is a product your own company produces. Its calculation can have multiple levels: it may have semi-finished articles consisting of other semi-finished articles, etcetera. Long lead-time items required in this structure must often be ordered even before the production structure is known. In order to register these items, you could first create an additional sales line with a dummy part you have created specifically for purchasing long lead-time items. Set the origin of this line to 'Production'. A production file will automatically be created for the dummy part.

In the production file, select the Long lead-time items check box on the Continued tab. The file will now be regarded as a special file, and an alert will be displayed when you receive the part ordered. This is important, because you cannot receive the long lead-time item in the newly created file, otherwise the costs would not be distributed properly.

Then, on the Production calculation for parts form, create a line on which you enter the long lead-time item. You can add multiple lines in order to purchase all long lead-time items for a particular order at the same time. Once you have marked the file as a file for long lead-time items, all underlying part lines will also automatically be marked as such (Continued tab).

Once you have authorized the part line, you can purchase the part.

In time, the long lead-time item will be received. It is important that you do not register the receipt on the dummy calculation line, as this would result in an incorrect distribution of the costs. Before you register the receipt of the part, you need to move the long lead-time item to the target production file for which the long lead-time item will be used. Whether or not the target production file already contains a part calculation line determines the process you need to use:

• If the target production file does not contain a part calculation line for the long lead-time item, move the part calculation line, including the link with the purchase line, to this production file. The line will be deleted from the original production file and it will be added to the target production file.
• If the target production file already contains a calculation line of which the part matches the long lead-time item, change the destination of the purchase line. The purchase line will then no longer be linked to the part calculation line of the original production file, but to the part calculation line of the target production file. The original part calculation line can be deleted, if required.

  This situation may occur if you are using engineering and you have to order a long lead-time item before the finished product is completed in engineering. Once the engineering data have been synchronized to production, the part corresponding to the long lead-time item is created in the production structure.

Note: If you register the receipt of a long lead-time item against a production file for long lead-time items, the long lead-time item can no longer be moved to the actual production file.

Note: If, in a production file, you create a part calculation line for a long lead-time item you have already purchased, the long lead-time item will still be displayed on the purchase requirement. As the long lead-time item was purchased under a different file, a requirement will be detected for the new production file. You are therefore recommended to keep a record of the long lead-time items already purchased, to prevent duplicate orders. The recommended procedure is to move the line containing the long lead-time item from the dummy file to the correct file when the actual calculation is created. This will prevent duplicate orders, and will prevent you from accidentally registering the part receipt on the dummy line.