Priority offers various degrees of control over production, from which you can choose in keeping with the needs of your work place:

• Production without system planning: You manually open work orders and create an issues plan. Issues to kits will be created on the basis of work order quantities and the bill of materials.

• MRP (materials requirement planning): Work orders and the issues plan are opened automatically without regard for production capacity.

• Finite and infinite capacity scheduling (the latter is designated per work cell), taking into consideration production constraints, material and tool availability and the like. This process is complex and requires various definitions: the volume and availability of resources needed for each operation (both time and output), setup operations, production capacity and the like. The result will be: a detailed work plan (with minute-by-minute scheduling), an issues plan for each step of production, and automatic opening of work orders.

Another possibility is to utilize finite and infinite capacity planning solely for simulative purposes, and use MRP to create work orders and as the basis for purchase planning.

The above methods afford you firm control over work in progress (including manually opened work orders and rework), enabling you to keep track of the various steps of production. They further allow you to take WIP into consideration when planning production and material needs.