WindoorERP Documentation 19.0

Guided journey

Keep the material flowing

The stock work that happens every week: what gets reordered automatically, what waits for a signed order, and why the system has not raised the purchase you were expecting.

10 steps about 76 min Intermediate Store keeper or materials controller
Start the journey

Journey complete

You have worked through every step. Keep the momentum — the next journey builds on what you just did.

All journeys

A window factory carries two very different kinds of material. Sealant, screws and gaskets sit on a shelf and must never run out. Profile in a particular powder coating and glass in a particular tint are bought because a specific job was sold, and holding them speculatively is how a yard fills with stock nobody will ever use.

Almost everything in this path follows from telling the two apart. Do that first, then let the rules do the ordering and spend your week working the replenishment report rather than reacting to whoever shouted loudest.

By the end you will be able to

  • Choose, per material, whether it is held on the shelf or bought only when a job is sold
  • Set reordering rules that fire early enough to be useful and late enough not to fill the yard
  • Work the replenishment report as a weekly routine instead of reacting to a shortage
  • Explain why an expected purchase order has not been raised, and fix the cause
  • Read the forecast, so you see a shortage in three weeks rather than on the day
  • Move material between sites when one warehouse can cover another
  • Allocate arriving stock to the orders waiting for it
  • Keep the count honest with cycle counts, and account for damage properly instead of quietly

Before you start

  • A configured warehouse with its operation types — "2- Setup Your Warehouse"
  • Your catalogue loaded, with the products marked as bought or made — "4- Setup Your Product Catalogue and Designs"
  • Supplier lead times recorded, because every rule on this path depends on them — "5- Setup Purchase and Suppliers"
  • Real stock on hand from an opening count, otherwise every rule below will fire against fiction

The path

01

Decide how each material is replaced

  1. 01 Split the shelf from the job The decision the rest of the path rests on. Consumables are held and replenished; a powder-coated profile for one tower is bought because that tower was sold. Get this wrong and you either stop the factory or fill the yard. 4 min Choose how stock gets replaced
  2. 02 Set the reordering rules The longest article on this path and the one worth reading twice. A minimum, a maximum and a lead time decide when the system buys for you — set them from real consumption, not from a feeling about a busy month. 17 min Set a reordering rule
  3. 03 Buy only when the job is sold The other half: material ordered against a confirmed sale, never held. For bespoke finishes and tinted glass this is the only sane policy, and it is what keeps a fenestration yard from becoming a museum. 8 min Order stock only when a job is sold
02

Work the report, not the panic

  1. 04 Make the replenishment report your week One screen, once a week, showing everything the rules want to buy. Working this list is a twenty-minute routine; not working it is a phone call from the shop floor on a Thursday afternoon. 7 min Work the replenishment report
  2. 05 Find out why nothing was ordered The most useful troubleshooting article in the manual. A rule that looks right but never fires usually has one of a short list of causes — and knowing them turns a mystery into a two-minute check. 5 min Understand why an order was not raised yet
  3. 06 Read the forecast, not just today On-hand tells you where you are; the forecast tells you where you are going once confirmed orders consume what is on the shelf. A shortage seen three weeks out is a purchase order; seen on the day it is an expedite fee. 7 min Read the forecasted report
03

Move it between sites

  1. 07 Resupply one warehouse from another If you run more than one site, the cheapest purchase is often the one you already own in the other yard. Set the resupply route and the system will look there before it looks at a supplier. 6 min Resupply one warehouse from another
  2. 08 Allocate what arrives to who is waiting A lorry of profile arrives and three jobs are waiting on it. Allocation decides which one gets it — deliberately, by priority, rather than by whichever supervisor reaches the rack first. 9 min Allocate incoming stock to orders
04

Keep the count honest

  1. 09 Count by location, all year round One annual count that stops the factory is worse than a rolling count nobody notices. Schedule cycle counts by location so the figures stay true without a shutdown. 6 min Schedule cycle counts by location
  2. 10 Account for damage properly Aluminium gets scratched, glass gets broken, and both happen every week. Scrapping records it against a reason and a cost, which is the only way a waste figure ever becomes something you can reduce. 7 min Scrap damaged stock

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