BM-L  Enter Approved Manufacturers

Purpose of Program

The system provides the ability to specify approved manufacturers in the purchasing process.  For more information on using approved manufacturers, see How to Use Approved Vendors and Manufacturers.

Use this program to enter approved manufacturers on any bill of material component.  You can designate approved manufacturers globally, meaning that the manufacturers are applicable within any bill of material, by parent item number, meaning that the manufacturers are designated only within a particular assembly, or by customer, meaning that the manufacturers are only approved for a particular customer's products (if you are a job shop).

You can also enter the manufacturer's item number as a cross-reference to your item number, if applicable.  When entering a purchase order, the manufacturer item number will come into the purchase order as a comment line following the entry of your item number.

These approved manufacturers can optionally print within BM-B, Print Bills of Material, and BM-I, Print Summarized Bill of Material.

General Program Operation

Enter the standard item number, which is the item number of the standard component within the bill of material.  If you wish the approved manufacturers to be global, meaning that they would apply no matter the assembly or the customer, leave the Parent Part No and Customer Code fields blank.  If you want to make the approved manufacturers specific to a particular assembly, enter a Parent Item number, then the manufacturers and manufacturer item numbers (see instructions below), then save the record.  You can then create further records for other assemblies or customers for the same standard component, if needed.

If you are a job shop and want to make the approved manufacturers specific only to those products made for a particular customer, enter a Customer Code (or select one by clicking on the Lookup icon (or press F2), then the manufacturers and manufacturer item numbers (see instructions below), then save the record.

Each approved manufacturer record is a combination of the Std Item number, Parent Part No, and Customer Code fields.  You can define a number of these combinations, each with its own group of approved manufacturers.

Entering Manufacturers and Manufacturer Item numbers

After you've defined the Std Item number, Parent Part No, Customer Code combination, you can then enter the approved manufacturers in the entry area in the bottom of the screen.  Enter the manufacturer’s name.  Unlike vendors, manufacturers do not have to be set-up in the vendor file.  If the manufacturer has his own item number for the standard component, enter it (this is a 25 character alphanumeric field).  You will be asked if you wish to save the record.

The entry area is now clear for entry of another manufacturer.  You can continue entering as many manufacturers and manufacturer item numbers as you wish.

If you wish to delete an existing manufacturer, while the cursor is in the Manufacturer's Name field, click on the Display Lines button to get a listing of approved manufacturers in a display window.  Highlight the manufacturer you want and press <Enter> or click on it to bring it into the entry area.  Once the desired manufacturer is in the entry area, click on the Delete button (or press F4) to delete it.

As an alternative to using the display window, you can also retrieve existing approved manufacturers using the standard search keys and buttons (First button or F5 key, Last button or F6 key, Previous button or F7 key, Next button or F8 key).