In this article, you'll learn how to:
Understand what a manufacturing process is and what it's for,
Create a process, add a bill of operations and an mBOM,
Approve an index and evolve your process over time.
What is a manufacturing process for?
A manufacturing process brings together, in one place, everything the shop floor needs to produce an article. It is made of two parts:
the Bill of operations: the sequence of operations to perform (launch, molding, cutting, inspection…), each able to carry its own documents, components, tooling, and parts;
the Manufacturing Bill of Materials (mBOM): the components required for production.
In practice, your industrialization teams get a single, reliable source: no more hunting for information scattered across files, everything is attached to the article and traceable.
💡 Aletiq lets you manage several processes in parallel for the same product (main process, backup process, subcontracting…). You can therefore steer different ways of producing the same article without mixing them up.
Manufacturing processes are accessible under the Manufacturing tab of an article.
Create a new manufacturing process
Go to the Manufacturing tab of an article,
Click + Create a manufacturing process,
Fill in the following fields:
Name: the manufacturing configuration (e.g., main, subcontracting),
Initial index: the reference used to track changes (e.g., A, B, C or 01, 02, 03),
Applicable definition: the product definition used to build the process.
To add another configuration, click the displayed process name, then New process.
🔒 The applicable definition is the key point. Two scenarios:
Without an applicable definition: the process is limited to its bill of operations.
With an applicable definition: you unlock the mBOM and the ability to link items to consume within operations, with traceability to the definition and direct retrieval of components from the eBOM.
Add operations to the bill
Three methods to choose from, depending on your starting point:
manual entry, line by line,
copying from an existing article,
importing a CSV file (for example exported from your ERP).
1. Build a bill line by line
Ideal for starting a short bill from scratch.
Click + Add operations, then + Create operations,
For each operation, fill in its number (operations are ordered ascending), its name and, if needed, its description,
Click + Add to chain as many operations as needed,
Click Confirm.
2. Copy a bill from an existing article
Copying reuses an already-built bill, operations and linked items included. A real time-saver when your products share common manufacturing steps.
Click + Add operations, then Copy operations,
Select the product, name, and index of the bill to copy,
Tick the operations to reuse, and rename them if needed,
Click Confirm.
3. Import a bill from a CSV
Perfect for bulk-loading a bill already described in your ERP. The file must contain three columns: each operation's number (ordered ascending), its label, and its description.
Click + Add operations, then Import operations,
Select the CSV file, then click Next,
Map the columns,
Click Confirm.
Enrich your operations
Each operation can carry the items the operator needs at the workstation: the right work instruction, the right part, the right tooling. Everything is attached in the right place, at the right time.
Click the operation to edit,
Click + Add, then choose the type of object to link: document, item to consume, tooling, or part,
Select the items to associate from the list.
💡 By default, the latest revision of a document is linked. To pin a different revision (document, part, or tooling), click ... then Edit revision.
Define the manufacturing bill of materials (mBOM)
When an applicable definition is linked, each bill index can be paired with its mBOM, which restructures the product bill of materials according to actual production needs.
💡 To go further, see the article Build a Manufacturing Bill of Materials (mBOM).
Approve the bill index
Approving an index freezes the bill and mBOM information: this is the reference version that will go to production, with no risk of accidental change.
Click the index in Draft status,
Click ... then Approve.
✅ If an operation references a document set to "latest approved revision," it is indeed the latest revision that is displayed and approved when the process is validated. This keeps you from going to production with an outdated version.
Create a new bill index
When manufacturing evolves, there's no need to redo everything: create a new index that starts from the existing one.
Click the latest index, then + New index,
Enter the new index: it is created as Draft and inherits all operations from the previous one,
Make your changes.
💡 With the "Used in" feature, you find in one click the processes and definitions where a document or process is used: handy for measuring the impact of a change before launching it.
💬 A question? Contact our team via the Aletiq chat.