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Merlin Manufaturing Resources
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Manufacturing Resource Record Card Management.
All your Manufacturing Resources in one place: Assemblies, Subassemblies, Materials and Parts, & Manufacturing Processes, Overheads, etc.

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Merlin MRP Factory 9  Manufacturing Resources

1: This is the first Screen you see when you open Resource Record Cards.  This is a list of all your current Manufacturing Resources.

Important things to note here are the warnings against certain items, depicted by a red background to the data field. In the Part No. column this signifies inactive items, i.e. those that have not moved for 90 to 179 days (amber), or those that have not moved for 180 plus (red), In the Free Stock column, amber = At Minimum Stock Level, and red = Below Minimum Stock Level.

For any Manufacturing Job you you are about to undertake, you must have one Resource Record Card for each Material Item, Piece Part, the Top Level Assembly, any Subassemblies made in-house, and ideally though optionally, Manufacturing Processes or Manual Work Items.  Use the Navigator bar at the bottom of the screen. To add a New Contact Record Card, click the NEW RECORD button. To Edit an existing Resource Record Card, find it on the list and click it.

This takes you to Step 2.

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2:  Resource Record Card  Data Entry

When you click the NEW RECORD button or the EDIT RECORD button, you will be automatically taken to this screen.  Either way, note how the function of some buttons changes when you enter Edit mode.

Enter the information as required, Tabbing or clicking Enter between fields. You will also need to enter data on the Suppliers and Status tabs before you can save the record.  The vital fields are Part No. and Item Name and/or Description. Some of the fields are System Generated and you won't be able to Edit them. Others, such as Minimum Stock and Maximum Stock are optional, and if you do not want Merlin MRP Factory 9  to control these, just leave them blank.  Minimum Purchase is set if you wish to ensure that the system takes advantage of n advantageous Price Break (covered in Step 3.)

Of special note are the Stock Categories & Hazards, Categories Management and Warehouse Management panels, which each have their own control panels.

If you are starting from scratch (rather than using existing electronic data, which we can import into Merlin MRP Factory 9  for you, it is good practice to give your stock items a meaningful Part No. For example, if you are using capacitors you might want to start with "CAP001", augment the number by 1 every time you add a new capacitor, and so forth and so on. This will keep them all together on the screen and in Stock Reports, and make Categories Control much easier as Merlin will do much of the work for you.

Each new Resource item will be automatically assigned a Category Code which will be the first three characters of the Part No., but you can select an alternative, and manage your Category Codes in Categories Management.

Warehouse Management is where you can manage where each physical Resource item is stored, identified by Warehouse and Bay Number, and you can assign Multiple Locations to any physical item, and move items between these locations so that you know exactly what you have, and where it is. If you are in EDIT mode, you must complete and SAVE your record card first.

Before you do this, complete your data entries in Step 3 and Step 4.  You can abort your data sentry session at any time by clicking REVERT.

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3:  Click the Suppliers tab and you will see the screen below.

Here is where you enter up to eight suppliers for this item.  You must enter at least one Supplier for this item, and if it is an Assembly, a Subassembly, or a Production Process (non-physical item) the Supplier must be HOUSE.

It is good practice to enter your favoured or normal supplier as Supplier 1 (S1). Tab through the fields and enter data as appropriate, including Break Points at which the buying price will change, and the Pack Cost at that Price Break.

Please note that in Merlin MRP Factory 9,  the Pack represents the Minimum Quantity in which you can purchase this item, from this Supplier. In many cases this will be the individual item, so the Pack Quantity will be 1. However, you might be buying some widgets that can be bought only in packs of ten, of some mini widgets that come in packs of 1000, in which case the Pack Quantity would be 10 or 1000.

In such instances, bear in mind that the Part No. is for the Pack, not the individual item! If the Pack Quantity is greater than 1, the Pack Description field will update automatically when you leave the Pack Quantity field, and you can Edit this if you wish.

The Quantity in Outer Pack is slightly different. It may be that your Pack has to be bought in multiples, boxed or shrink-wrapped, in which case enter the appropriate quantity here. Otherise leave it at 1.  Merlin MRP Factory 9  will then take this into account when purchasing this item through the MRP System, or basic Stock Control, which will be dealt with in the Purchasing section.

Finally, note the COMPARE COST between Suppliers button at the bottom of the screen. This will give you a cost-per-item comparison, regardless of the Pack Quantity stipulated by various Suppliers.

Before saving, move on to Step 4.

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4:  Click the Status tab and you will see this screen.

This tab shows the Status of the Resource Item.  This screen contains mostly System Generated Information, but there are three important settings at the top. If you have more than one Supplier for this Item, select your Default Supplier (i.e. your preferred Supplier) from the drop-down. The information below will autocomplete. If for some reason you have to purchase elsewhere on any exceptional occasion, choose a NEXT ORDER Supplier from the drop-down to the right.  This will be available only if you have entered more than one potential supplier in the previous step.

The next Purchase Order for this item generated by Merlin MRP Factory 9  will be through this Supplier, and once the Purchase Order has been generated, this will automatically be reset to the Default Supplier.

If you need to STOP Purchases of this item for whatever reason, tick the checkbox in the top right corner of the screen.

At the bottom of the screen, you can manage the Selling Prices of your Assemblies, which will then be used by the Invoicing option in Despatch Office.

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