Who is this for ?
Production controllers and planners who work in the Work Order Book and the Line of Balance day to day.
What you will learn:
eight common situations you will run into in Production Control, and the steps to work through each one.
Scenarios at a glance
You want to | Start here |
Release covered work orders that are ready but not launched yet | Work Order Book |
Keep sub-assembly orders on time for final assembly | Work Order Book → Line of Balance |
Check whether you have enough lead time to avoid a shortage | Work Order Book → part 360 view |
Find a stock transfer opportunity from another plant | Line of Balance |
Test a rescheduling plan before committing to it | Work Order Book → Simulation |
Escalate a mid-range shortage on a sub-assembly make part | Line of Balance |
Align with the receiving team on a part with an approaching delivery | Line of Balance |
Push out a sub-assembly work order on new supply chain information | Work Order Book → Simulation |
1. Release covered work orders that are ready but not launched yet
You want to find work orders that already have everything they need, but have not started, and release them.
Open Production Control and go to the Work Order Book.
Filter on the equipment you are responsible for.
Add the filter Status → Planned and Material Coverage → Covered.
Add a filter on Planned Start Date, earlier than today. This finds covered orders that should already have started.
Open the Graph View, top right, to see how many orders this affects at a glance.
Select the bar for the orders concerned to get the full list.
Select the checkbox at the top left to choose the orders to release, then forward them to the person who launches production.
💡 The same filters, with the start date later than today instead, show you covered orders that are still on track, useful when you want to confirm nothing is at risk yet, rather than find what already needs attention.
2. Keep sub-assembly orders on time for final assembly
You want to check that the sub-assemblies a final assembly order depends on are themselves covered and on schedule.
Open the Work Order Book and filter on the equipment.
Set Material Coverage to Blocked.
Open the Line of Balance to see what is blocking these orders.
Filter on Sourcing: Make and Make & Buy to focus on parts your own plant produces, rather than parts you buy.
Open the 360 view of a blocked part to see its events, upstream and downstream.
3. Check whether you have enough lead time to avoid a shortage
You want to know, for a part you buy, whether the supplier can still deliver in time.
Open the Work Order Book and select the equipment you are tracking.
Set Material Coverage to Blocked and Status to Planned.
Filter Planned Start Date strictly later than today.
Open an uncovered work order to see its missing parts and the related events, upstream and downstream.
Select a missing part that needs attention to open its 360 view — events, projected stock, the supplier, and the supplier's lead time.
Go to the Line of Balance and filter on Coverage status: Blocking and Sourcing: Buy.
Add the Delivery lead time column to compare how much lead time each part has.
4. Find a stock transfer opportunity from another plant
You want to cover a shortage using stock that already exists at one of your other plants, instead of a new purchase.
Open the Work Order Book and select the equipment, then go to the Line of Balance to see the missing parts.
In view settings, set the value shown to Projected stock at end of period.
Where a cell shows a need, look for the 💡 lightbulb on the row. It carries the Stock Improvement Opportunities, including stock transfers from your other plants. Select it to open the tooltip and see what was found.
Add a filter for Stock Opportunities, then choose Stock Transfer Opportunities to see transfers specifically.
Select the icon under the part column that shows the part's parent equipment, to see the part's stock projection over the coming weeks.
Review which plant holds the stock and how much, and decide whether a transfer makes sense.
Escalate the part and contact the person who can request the transfer.
💡 The lightbulb bundles six kinds of opportunity, not just transfers: stock transfers, rotables, alternate parts, stock link key opportunities, quality inspection stock and excluded storage stock. Each has its own sub-icon and quantity inside the tooltip.
5. Test a rescheduling plan before committing to it
You want to see what happens if you move a batch of overdue work orders, before you actually move them.
Open the Work Order Book and select the equipment.
Filter Status: Planned and set the date comparison filter to Planned Start Date earlier than a fixed date, to list the orders that are overdue.
Select the ones you want to reschedule, then create a new simulation input: choose a new date in the near future and confirm the quantity.
Confirm and run the simulation.
Read the impact directly in the Work Order Book.
Open the Simulation Basket to compare coverage before and after, for the orders you changed and any events affected alongside them.
Check the Line of Balance to make sure you have not created a new shortage elsewhere.
6. Escalate a mid-range shortage on a sub-assembly make part
You want to catch shortages on parts your own plant produces, 6 to 12 weeks out, while there is still time to replan.
Open Production Control and go to the Line of Balance.
Filter on Sourcing: Make and Make & Buy to focus on sub-assembly parts you produce yourself.
Look for shortages that fall 6 to 12 weeks out.
Check the need date, and escalate the shortage to ask for a replan.
7. Align with the receiving team on a part with an approaching delivery
You want the receiving team to know which incoming deliveries matter most to production right now.
In the Work Order Book or the Line of Balance, filter to the scope you are responsible for.
In the Line of Balance, switch to the Need Quantity view, and set the time unit to daily or weekly.
Apply the Sourcing: Buy filter to see only parts expected from suppliers.
Where a cell is orange, hover over the truck icon to see the upcoming delivery linked to it.
Leave a comment for the person managing supply, so the right deliveries get prioritized.
8. Push out a sub-assembly work order on new supply chain information
You want to move a sub-assembly order later, because supply chain gave you a new estimate, without losing track of what it affects downstream.
In the Work Order Book, filter on sub-assembly equipment, Status: Planned and Material Coverage: not covered.
Check which of these orders have downstream work orders depending on them.
Create a simulation: move the sub-assembly order to the availability date of its last upstream event.
In the Simulation Basket, check the coverage status of the sub-assembly order at its new date.
Share the updated plan and coverage with whoever depends on this order internally.
Assumptions & limitations
Every scenario above assumes your filters, columns and Routines are already set up for your own scope.
Any example numbers, such as a daily launch capacity, are illustrative. Your own plant's capacity depends on your lines and your configuration.