The daily problems this covers
Small factories often do not know what a batch truly cost. Materials run out mid-order. Sales promise goods the factory cannot make in time. Rejected goods are noted on paper and forgotten. Navigate ties these to one record: the production order.
Setting up
The Manufacturing starter pack adds Production planner and Quality inspector roles, categories such as raw materials, packaging and finished goods, and a block on negative stock. Its go-live steps ask you to create your bills of materials and add your work centres.
- Bills of materials: what one batch makes, the materials per batch and the labour cost per batch.
- Work centres: each machine, line or team, with its hours a day and working days.
- Operations: the work centres a batch passes through, with set-up hours and hours per batch.
Planning what to make and buy
The Planning page works from open sales orders and reorder levels. Make lists what to produce, in whole batches, by the date it is needed and why. Buy lists the materials needed after stock, production in progress and purchase orders on the way. You tick lines to create production orders or raise a requisition.
- A material that has its own bill of materials is planned to be made, and its materials to be bought.
- Each work centre's load for the next 14 days is shown against its hours, with overloaded days in red.
Making the goods
You can require a passed final inspection before an order can be completed. Cancelling an order returns the issued materials. For example, a food processor might plan 10 batches from open orders, find it is short of packaging, raise a requisition and then cost each batch when it completes.
- Create a production order from the bill of materials, with the quantity to make.
- Issue materials. They move into work in progress.
- Add labour cost to the order.
- Record inspections in process or at the end: passed, passed with conditions or failed, with quantities checked and rejected.
- Complete the order. Finished goods come into stock at their production cost.
Batches and disassembly
Products can be batch controlled or expiry controlled. Without a chosen batch, stock going out takes the batch that expires first. Disassembly reverses production. It can be full or partial, follows the bill of materials and posts the journal in one step. For example, an assembler could take back 2 finished units and return their components to stock at cost. An approval template can hold a disassembly until it is approved.
Costs and reports
Production reports show cost by product, by month and by bill of materials, plus each order's cost, unit cost and labour share. Production planning and work-centre load are also reports. Imported materials can go through the Imports module, so landed costs reach the material cost before it is used.
Where Navigate may not fit
- It does not connect to machines or sensors. People enter production and quality records.
- Work centre load is shown so you can act on it. Navigate does not reschedule orders for you.
- Serialised items cannot be on bills of materials.
- Production has no by-product or co-product costing, so a process that depends on it may not fit.
- Production is in the higher packages, so check that yours includes it.
Frequently asked questions
Can Navigate cost a production order?
Yes. Materials issued and labour added make up the order cost, and finished goods enter stock at that production cost.
Does it do material requirements planning?
Yes. Planning works out what to make and buy from sales orders and reorder levels, through your bills of materials, after stock and open orders.
Can it track batches and expiry dates?
Yes. Products can be batch or expiry controlled, and stock going out takes the first-expiring batch unless you choose one.
Can serial-numbered items be made through a bill of materials?
No. Serialised items are not on bills of materials. Batches work with production, and serial numbers do not.