How to run a production order

A production order is one run of a product you make yourself, from the components that go into it to the finished units on your shelf. Production orders live at Buying › Production orders, beside your purchase orders. See What are suppliers and purchase orders? for the rest of Buying.

At Fairgreen Golf Co., the studio sews its own Classic headcovers. Priya Raman starts a run for 200 in Navy, the run copies its canvas, zips and labels from the recipe, and when the run is done she adds 196 good headcovers to Shopify in one step.

Before you start

You need:

• The Store and Production orders modules switched on in Settings › Modules. The Vertically integrated operating model switches it on. See How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off.
• View production orders to see the list, and both Create production orders and Edit production orders to start one. All three start at member on Settings › Permissions.
• Your own stock locations confirmed on Buying › Data feeds, because finished goods can only go to a location you own. See How to send your open-to-buy file to a buying planner.

A recipe is optional. With the Bills of materials module on, a run copies its components from the product's recipe, covered in How to keep a bill of materials.

How do you start a run?

Press New production order at the top of Buying › Production orders. One order makes one product.

1. Under Makes, search for the product or its SKU and pick it. A product with a recipe shows Has a recipe and lists its Components from the recipe; one without reads "No recipe yet. You can add components by hand."
2. Type How many to make, as a whole number.
3. Under Finished goods go to, pick the location the finished units go into.
4. Set a Start and Due date and an Owner if you want them.
5. Press Create production order.

The order gets its own number, such as PRD-0001, and opens at its first stage. Nothing changes in Shopify until you finish it.

What does the list show?

One row per run, with Order, Makes, Stage, When, Owner and Due, and a column showing how many have been made against how many were planned. Runs are grouped under Needs you, In progress, Planned, Finished and Cancelled, and the last two start folded.

Needs you holds the open runs that are due today or earlier, or whose current stage is past its expected date. The line above the list counts them as late, beside Making now, the units in runs that are in progress.

Search by product or order number, or use the filter for Stage and Owner.

What stages does a run move through?

Planned, Materials in, In production, Quality check, Done and Cancelled, unless your workspace renamed them. An admin changes them in Settings › Stages › Production orders.

Change a run's stage from Stage on the order's properties. Done cannot be picked there; it reads "Finish the run to mark it done", because a run is done when you finish it.

The Stages section on the order lists every stage with an Expected date you can set and the Actual date it was reached. A stage past its expected date reads Late.

How do you change the components?

The Components table lists each component with its amount Per unit and how much the run will need in total under Planned. A run started from a recipe says "Copied from the recipe when the run started."

• Add component adds a line. Give it a Component name, an amount and a unit, such as 0.4 m.
• Each line's edit and remove buttons change it or take it out.
• Reload from recipe replaces the run's components with the recipe's current list. Changes made on this run are lost, and the confirmation says so.

The components are this run's own copy. Editing them never changes the recipe, and changing the recipe never changes a run already started.

How do you finish a run?

Press Finish run above the components. The window is titled Finish and the order number.

1. Type the Good units made. The window compares it with the plan, such as "4 short of the 200 planned · 98% yield".
2. Under Components used, type how much of each component was used. The Planned column shows what the recipe expected.
3. Read the Shopify line, such as "Shopify: add 196 to Classic headcover, Navy at Studio".
4. Press Finish and add 196 to Shopify.

The run moves to Done and the finished units are added to your Shopify stock at the location you picked, as one change in Shopify's stock history labelled with the order number. Shopify's stock goes up straight away, so check the number before you press.

Do components go to Shopify?

No. Components used is recorded in Tideswell so you can see what each run really used, and the window says "These numbers do not go to Shopify." Only the finished units are added.

Can you finish part of a run?

Yes. Tick This is only part of the run. Keep the order open for the rest. The button then reads, for example, Add 100 to Shopify, keep run open, and the window says how many are still to make.

The run stays open for the next batch, and you record what was used when the run is finished.

How do you undo a finish?

Press Undo finish on the green Added 196 to Shopify note on the order, or Undo beside that finish in Finish history. The confirmation reads "Take 196 back out of Shopify and reopen this run?", and Yes, take them out takes the units back out of Shopify.

A finished run refuses other changes until its finish is undone.

What if Shopify did not confirm a finish?

Finish history shows it in red with the reason, and Retry sends it again.

After a day Shopify forgets the attempt. Check that product's stock in Shopify, then press They were added or They were not added. Choose They were not added only if the stock did not go up, because it frees the run to be finished again.

How do you type quantities?

As US numbers: a full stop for decimals and commas between thousands, so 1,200 is twelve hundred and 0.4 is four tenths. A decimal comma such as 1,5 is refused rather than read as 15.

Units made and how many to make are whole numbers. Component amounts can be fractions, such as 0.4 m of canvas.