Reccomended Batch Item scheme for paint manufacturer?

ERPNext User Forum
1

I need some advice on how to properly setup manufacturing BOMs and items. I’m familiar with ERPNext setup for BOMs and such for simple manufacturing, but not for batch manufacturing with varying yields of different sized finished goods.

Scenario
I am doing some preliminary testing for a paint and coatings manufacturer. The company manufactures paint in batches of 100 - 500 gallons at a time. The batches are “canned off” into 55 gallon drums, 5 Gallon buckets, 1 Gallon pails, 1 Quart cans and 1 pint cans. These batches can be any combination of these sizes depending on demand. So when a batch work order is made, the number of drums, buckets and gallons to “can off” is recommended, but the yield varies, so any given batch can yield a slightly different amount of gallons or quarts.

Our numbering scheme uses the final digit in our finished goods to indicate the size of the container, ie:

  • 5 =drum
  • 4 = 5-Gal bucket
  • 3 = 1 Gal pail
  • 2 = 1 Qt can

So to manufacture our batches, we use a four digit product number, ie: 1234 and then “can off” the yield of that batch to different finished goods containers that we stock in our stores.

Example

WORK ORDER = 555222
Product 1234 = Batch of 500 Gallons

Yields Finished “cans” of:

  • 1234-5 = 2 55-Gallon drums
  • 1234-4 = 20 5-Gallon buckets
  • 1234-3 = 250 1-Gallon Pails
  • 1234-2 = 120 1-Quart cans

The final yield can vary, usually in the number of gallons or quarts.

So my question is:

How best to configure the the Item Master for these batches, and paint can sizes?

  • Do I use an item for the batch product and separate items for the various container sizes? How do I manage the work-order for the batch to convert a batch to a variable number of container sizes?

  • Use an item template for the batch and variants for the container sizes? I’m not sure how variants are properly setup for such a thing. Variants must be the same UOM as the master template, is there a way to have a variant be a different UOM as the template item?

*Some other scheme?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[EDIT] Looks like you can’t manufacture an Item that is a template for variants. So how would I handle requests for manufacture? The variant option almost looks promising, but the Item template can’t be a different UOM or be manufactured.
There has got to be a way to make this work. Are there any other chemical or coatings manufacturers that use ERPNext? How do they handle this situation?

2

I’m no expert in this area. You might consider manufacturing the the 500 gallons with your batch info. When the 500 gallons are completed, use re-pack action to distribute to the smaller containers. I’m not sure if you can report your “shrinkage” in the repack though.

3

We produce beer that is packaged in different container types (cans, kegs, bottles).

To manage this in ERPNext:
• We define an Item and BOM for both the bulk beer and each packaged product.
• We first create a Work Order to consume raw ingredients and produce bulk beer.
• Then, we create separate Work Orders for each packaged product. These Work Orders consume the bulk beer and required packaging materials to produce the final packaged products.

4

Thank you for the reply, I’ll sandbox this and try it out.

Thanks!