Sales
Normally, in your company, production orders are directly related to a sales order or a project. In FlowOpt, this relationship also applies to most jobs that are executed (exception are stock orders). Production jobs will be generated within FlowOpt via sales orders. What is needed for this and how this is done will be explained in this lesson on the basis of examples and exercises.
This module is dependent on the availability of an ERP system, in which the entire sales process is set up, may be partly applicable to you, as the customer orders and the necessary data can be synchronized with the ERP system.
We recognize different situations:
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No ERP system is active and sales orders/projects are recorded and followed up in FlowOpt.
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An ERP system is active and you decide to integrate it with FlowOpt, in which case the Sales Orders in the ERP system will be synchronized with the Sales Orders in FlowOpt.
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An ERP system is active, but you choose not (yet) to integrate the ERP system with FlowOpt
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Important: a customer order in FlowOpt only serves to control the production process and to follow up the execution. FlowOpt does not provide functionalities such as shipping and billing.
Introduction

The order process consists of a number of phases. These are performed using the Sales module. In the first phase, customer orders are recorded or retrieved (if they come from the ERP system). In the second phase, the order lines can be simulated to determine the delivery date or the feasibility of a desired delivery date. Then the orders can be reserved (reservation of the capacity for a limited period) and in the third phase can be planned or converted from reservation to final. In this phase, the sales order can also be generated by FlowOpt, in case no order has been taken from the ERP system.
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In case of change (delivery date/quantity/splitting order lines/extension of the order/project....) the orders can be re-simulated and rescheduled.
The possibilities of simulation and planning by the sales person are further explained via the presentation below .
What is needed to run the functions
In order to record, simulate, reserve and plan orders, basic (master) data is, of course, required. The following data should be available:
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Customer data, (see creating/maintaining customers)
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Products (ERP products (end products and critical materials) and planning products or QRM products) (See creating/maintaining Products)
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Production processes (See creating/maintaining Production processes)
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Customer data and ERP products can of course also be synchronized from the ERP system.
Choose the function you want to go through
The customer
Before you can create a customer order in FlowOpt, which is the basis of all steps, you will first have to record the customer in the system. If the customer is synchronized from the ERP system, this functionality can be used to consult the customer data. This can be done via the Sales / Customers module.
Enter/change customer orders
If a sales order or project order still needs to be created, it can be entered/modified directly in FlowOpt. If this is taken over from ERP, you can consult the order via this function.
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A customer order consists of a header, in which the customer data is recorded, and of order lines, in which the requested products are recorded/maintained. The slides below show how to record/change the order.
How can you simulate with or without a customer order
If you, as a seller, want to have a (requested) delivery date checked or determined for a product, you can immediately start a simulation. If you have already recorded a sales order/project, you can directly simulate the delivery date or check a requested delivery date from one or more sales order lines. Simulation can be performed at limited capacity. The system will now take into account the available capacity. If you don''t, the system will take the shortest lead time. When scheduling, this can create an over allocation. The slides below show how to run the simulation.
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Schedule or make capacity reservations as a sales person
As a sales person you can immediately schedule an order/project or temporarily reserve the capacity. This can be done from an existing order or you can also have FlowOpt generate an order or order line. Planning is possible against limited capacity, where the system takes into account the available capacity. If you don't, the system will take the shortest lead time. This can create an over allocation when scheduling.
The slides below show how you can execute the planning.







