Work Orders

Advanced Manufacturing

Work Orders

A Work Order tells the factory to produce a specific quantity of a finished product — optionally from an approved Bill of Materials, on a chosen work center, by a planned start/end date, at a set priority — and tracks that job step-by-step across the shop floor.

What a Work Order does

Think of a Work Order (WO) as one run of production. It carries the what (product and quantity), the from what (an approved Bill of Materials), the where (a primary Work Center), and the when (planned start/end dates and a priority). Underneath it holds a routing of Operations — the individual production steps such as cutting, assembly, and packaging — that supervisors and operators start and complete one at a time, recording actual run time and completed / scrapped quantities.

The order moves through a lifecycle (Draft → Released → In Progress → Completed, or Cancelled) using dedicated Release, Start, and Complete buttons. Its detail page shows overall progress plus any labor time booked against it.

The four screens

The feature is made of four connected pages. Use the gear menu on each list row to move between them.

List columns

The Work Orders list shows these columns; the first nine (0–8) are what Excel export captures.

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Work Order fields

These fields appear on the New / Edit Work Order modal form. Every dropdown is a Select2 — begin typing to filter the options.

System & hidden fields

These are set by ERPat or accepted on save but not shown as inputs in the modal form.

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Order lifecycle

A Work Order advances through five states. The normal path uses the state-gated buttons on the detail page; Cancelled is a terminal side-exit.

Priority legend

Priority controls how you sort and triage the queue. It does not change any automatic behaviour.

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Operations & routing

Every Work Order carries a routing — an ordered list of Operations (production steps). You build and run the routing on the Operations Management page (.../operations/{order_id}), reached from the gear menu's Operations item or the detail page. The order's detail-page progress bar is computed from completed operations / total operations, so the routing is what drives visible progress.

Operations table columns

Both the detail-page (read-only) operations table and the operations-management table show these columns. An empty routing displays No operations.

Operation lifecycle

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The detail page

Open an order with View to see its read-only detail. The header title reads ORDER# - Product, followed by context-sensitive lifecycle buttons and two info rows.

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Actions & permissions

Every action below is gated by the single manufacturing_work_order permission and requires the manufacturing module to be enabled.

Permission keys

The controller gates every action on the base key manufacturing_work_order (category Manufacturing: Work Orders, action Manage Work Orders). The _create, _update, and _delete keys are declared for granular role configuration. The manufacturing module must be enabled or the user is redirected. See the full matrix in Permissions & Roles.

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Validation & messages

The Save form enforces these rules; a missing required field shows This field is required. beneath it.

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SOP — Create and run a work order

1. Planner — create the order

   Go to Manufacturing → Work Orders and click New Work Order (the Order # is pre-filled, e.g. WO-000002). Enter the Product name; optionally pick an approved BOM; enter Quantity and choose the UOM (both required). Optionally set Work Center, Priority, and Planned Start / End. Leave Status as Draft, add Notes if needed, then Save. The order appears with a grey Draft badge at 0% progress.

2. Supervisor — build the routing

   From the list gear menu, open Operations. In the inline Add row set the operation number (default 10), type an Operation Name (e.g. Cutting), pick the Work Center, and enter planned Setup and Runtime minutes. Click Add Operation — the step is added as Pending. Repeat with 20, 30, … for each subsequent step.

3. Supervisor — release the order

   Open the order detail (View). While Draft, click Release and confirm the dialog.

   ⚠️

   Browser confirm: Confirm this order? — accepting moves the status to Released.

4. Supervisor — start production

   With the order Released, click Start. There is no confirmation; the status becomes In Progress and the actual start time is stamped immediately.

5. Operator — run each operation

   On the Operations page, for each Pending step click Start, do the work, then click Complete — supplying the completed and scrapped quantities. Each completed step turns green and the order's overall progress bar advances. Book any time worked in Labor Tracking; run any required checks in Quality Control.

6. Supervisor — close out the order

   When all operations are Completed, open the order detail and click Complete.

   ⚠️

   Browser confirm: Mark this order as completed? — accepting sets the status to Completed, stamps the actual end time, and removes the lifecycle buttons.

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Before you create work orders

Line up these prerequisites so the dropdowns aren't empty and the module is reachable.

1. Enable the module

   The manufacturing module must be on (Settings → Manage Modules) or access redirects.

2. Grant the permission

   The user's role must grant manufacturing_work_order.

3. Have active UOMs

   Active Units of Measure (Piece, Kilogram, Liter, …) must exist so a UOM can be selected.

4. Approve a BOM (optional)

   To link a BOM, at least one BOM must be approved — only approved BOMs appear in the dropdown.

5. Have active Work Centers

   To assign work centers to the order or its operations, active Work Centers must exist.

6. Set the number prefix (optional)

   Optionally set work_order_number_prefix (default WO) in Manufacturing Settings.

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Gotchas to remember

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Related pages