A Bus Code will be used to sequence tasks in each bus for resources that have been assigned to a bus configuration during each scheduling calculation.
A primary characteristic that impacts the amount of set-up required when going from one task to another task on a bus resource needs to be determined. Characteristics such as Outer Diameter, Inner Diameter, Part Type or Family, Raw Material Type, or Color may be appropriate. A different characteristic may be of primary concern depending on specific bus resources. Once a determination is made of how many different characteristics would be impactful enough to use bus scheduling, a consistent sequence within the bus code needs to be determined. The sequence itself is not important as the configuration settings for each bus will allow for the use of one, some, or all of the characteristics and will also define in which order those characteristics will be used for sorting. And finally a consistent delimiter also needs to be defined.
Example:
OD,PartType,MaterialType,ID
This Bus Code definition will be built out in nMetric Smarter Scheduling so that Bus Codes associated to SmartJobs will have this field successfully interpreted during the creation process for scheduling.
Once all this is agreed to then Bus codes can be developed for Build Part Numbers which should be stored in ERP. A recommendation would be to store them in the parts master records either in a “user defined field”, or in some cases a secondary description field for each part number that could take advantage of bus scheduling.
When an Order is released for a Build Part Number the Bus Code should either become part of that release, or that specific field in ERP with the Bus Code needs to be defined so nTegrator can access it.