I have a question regarding work orders and moving them to other work locations.
We have a labor plan that has multiple work locations, and some of these work locations require sign-offs in the operations. The work location remains locked until the user signs off, and then they are able to move the work order.
In this example, we had a user sign off on the operation but they moved the order to the wrong work location. Instead of following the sequence, they skipped a work location. By result, this allowed the work order to move along the process and missed a crucial step that required sign-offs. Please see included picture as an example.
Is it possible for the work order to be configured so that the work order may only be moved to the work location that is next in sequence? Instead of allowing the user to choose any work location from the drop-down menu, is there a way to force them to only select the work location that is next in sequence?
This one took some figuring out. The place to go for that setting is Admin>Config Settings and then search for valid_location_changes_only. In the Value column, enter the number 1 and hit the “Set” button. This should keep a user from skipping over a step in the labor plan. If they try to skip a step, an error message like this will pop up:
I appreciate you taking the time to help me solve this!
Unfortunately, I applied the configuration setting but it does not appear to have corrected the issue. Can you please view the below screenshots to confirm that I did this correctly or if there is another config setting that needs to be adjusted?
Screenshot verifying the recommended change was made -
Tested the modification by selecting the work location “Quality Inspection”, which skips over 2 other work instructions, system allowed it to be done -
Again, thank you for such clear, detailed communication! Very well presented. I’m sorry that this is still not working. Let me get this over to our engineering team to make sure it’s not some kind of bug.
Thanks for your patience as we work on this,
Cetec ERP Support
Alright, I checked with engineering. It sounds like, while there is the option of requiring a signature to complete a step in the labor plan, unfortunately there’s not a way right now to require that a user advance the order to the next step instead of skipping over steps.
That does sound like a very useful feature and I’m going to submit it as an idea to engineering. I wish I were able to say it was available.
You probably already know, but to require a signature on the a step in the labor plan, go to Production > Orders > Workorder screen > Maint/Etc+ > Labor Plan Management. Then, within the appropriate labor plan step, add an operation and then click the “Sign req’d” checkbox.
Heads up: We’re going to create a “fake” test work order on your live site in order to work on this and see if we can reproduce the issue. If you see a strange new work order, that’s us!
Haha, great, thanks. We didn’t want to alarm anyone! Upon testing, that “valid_location_changes_only” config setting worked for one work order but not another.
We’ll see what our engineering team says and let you know when we have more information for you!
We appreciate your patience and friendly help,
Cetec ERP Support
It sounds like the previous answer stands, unfortunately, that there is not currently a way to prevent someone skipping steps.
The option we were trying–going into Config Settings in the Admin module and setting “valid_location_changes_only” to 1–actually has a different purpose. It is intended to make sure that labor plans for specific orders don’t deviate from the permanent part revision labor plan.
I’m sorry I don’t have better news to deliver. Let me know if there’s something else we can do to help.
