The product tree answers the question of "what from," while the route answers the question of "how and where." Together, they form the complete definition of production.
1. Business centers
Resource definition: Defined as machinery, labor, molds, apparatus, or a combination thereof.
Capacity data: Daily availability, number of units that can operate in parallel, utilization rate, and efficiency factor.
Formulas: How to calculate time: fixed preparation time, processing time per unit, time per batch, or a combined calculation.
Cost linkage: Which cost center the business center is connected to and at what type and rate of activity it will generate costs.
Alternative options: Other business centers where the same operation can be performed, and the differences in speed and cost between them.
Competency requirements: The competencies that personnel must possess to work in the business center.
Equipment linkage: Linking equipment records in maintenance management; the impact of failures and maintenance downtime on capacity.
2. Routes
Operation sequence: The order of steps, parallel paths, and dependencies.
Time components: Separate definition of setup, processing, waiting, queuing, and transport times. A large portion of the flow time is typically non-processing time.
Component assignment: Determining which material will be consumed in which operation; a prerequisite for the material to arrive at the edge of the line at the correct time.
Operation-based quality control: Determining which control is performed at which step and submitting the results for approval.
Conflict and splitting rules: Allowing one operation to begin before the next is completed, or allowing work to be split among multiple resources.
Outsourced operation: One step of the route is performed in a subcontracted workshop; time, cost, and shipping steps are included in the plan.
Instructions and documentation: Showing the operator the operation-specific work instructions, technical drawings, quality criteria, and safety notes.
Reference routes: Reducing maintenance burden by defining common routes for similar product groups.
3. Production lines
Line definition: Modeling interconnected work centers as a single production source.
Line speed and takt time: The line's hourly output capacity and target cycle time.
Line balancing: Balancing the workload between stations; identifying bottleneck stations.
Product transition matrix: How much setup time is required for transitioning from one product to another; input for production sequence optimization.
Mixed-product manufacturing: Producing different products on the same line in a specific sequence.
Line-based notification: Notification is made in bulk at the end of the production line, rather than on an operation-by-operation basis; this is the fundamental approach to repetitive production.
Realism of standard times: When route times are not updated after setup, they become detached from reality over time. A sound approach is to establish a regular report comparing actual notification times to the standard and to review the standard of operations that show chronic deviations. This maintains the accuracy of both scheduling and cost accounting.