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DEAR supports multi-level assemblies. Enabling auto-assembly at different levels will affect how the picking logic is enacted and can in some case cause issues. This article will show you how enabling auto-assembly at different levels will affect your workflow so you can pick the best option for your circumstances. 


Prerequisites

  • Finished Goods Assembly
  • Processing a Sale
  • Users require the user permission Inventory → Products and Families and Inventory → Product - Bill of Materials in order to add and edit the BOM for a product and enable/disable auto-assembly. 
  • Users require the user permission Production → Finished Goods List & Tasks to create and edit finished goods and assembly actions.


Table of Contents


Example assembly

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We will use this multi-level assembly as an example. 


Level 3: Back to School Kit
Uniform x 1 (Level 1)
Sport Kit x 1 (Level 2)

Level 2: Sport Kit
Protective Gear x 1 (Level 1)
Sport Shorts x 2
Trainers x 1
Singlet x 2

Level 1: Protective Gear
Mouthguard x 1
Shinpads x 1
Helmets x 1


Level 1: Uniform
Polo Shirt x 5
Sweater x 1
Trousers x 2
Blazer x 1


Two-level assemblies

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Let us take a look at the Level 2: Sport Kit assembly. It contains one sub-assembly (Protective Gear) and three other components. 


Example 1:

  • Level 2: Auto-assembly
  • Level 1: Auto-assembly


If auto-assembly is enabled on both Sport Kit and Protective Gear, authorising a sale order for Sport Kit will trigger auto-assembly. Pre-assembled units of Protective Gear will be ignored and not considered available for picking; only the component SKUs for both Sport Kit and Protective Gear will count towards availability. 


The BOM will be expanded to show all components, as shown below. Creating a manual assembly task for Sport Kit will also expand the BOM in this way, but you can edit the assembly order or pick list to add pre-assembled subassemblies. 


Example 2: 

  • Level 2: Auto-assembly
  • Level 1: Manual assembly


If auto-assembly is enabled only on Sport Kit, authorising a sale order for Sport Kit will trigger auto-assembly. The system will pick only pre-assembled units of Protective Gear and ignore the components of Protective Gear in your inventory. If there are no pre-assembled units of Protective Gear in stock, the auto-assembly will not complete. 


The BOM will show Protective Gear in the list of components, as shown below. Creating a manual assembly task for Sport Kit will also load the BOM in this way, but you can edit the assembly order or pick list to add individual components. 


Three-level assemblies

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Now let's take a look at a three-level assembly, Back to School kit. It contains Level 2 assembly: Sport Kit, and another Level 1 assembly: Uniform


Example 3: 

  • Level 3: Auto-assembly
  • Level 2: Auto-assembly
  • Level 1: Auto-assembly


If auto-assembly is enabled at all three levels, authorising a sale order for Back to School Kit will trigger auto-assembly. Pre-assembled units of Protective Gear and Sport Kit will be ignored and not considered available for picking; only the component SKUs for Uniform, Sport Kit and Protective Gear will count towards availability. 


The BOM will be expanded to show all components, as shown below. Creating a manual assembly task for Back to School Kit will also expand the BOM in this way, but you can edit the assembly order or pick list to add pre-assembled subassemblies. 


Example 4: 

  • Level 3: Auto-assembly
  • Level 2: Auto-assembly
  • Level 1: Manual assembly


If auto-assembly is enabled at levels 3 and 2 (Back to School Kit and Sport Kit), authorising a sale order for Back to School Kit will trigger auto-assembly. As auto-assembly is enabled for Sport Kit, it will be picked as components rather than as a Sport Kit sub-assembly. Protective Gear and Uniform are set to manually assemble; the sub-assemblies will be picked rather than the components. 


Creating a manual assembly task for Back to School Kit will also load the BOM in this way, but you can edit the assembly order or pick list to add individual components or sub-assemblies.


Example 5: 

  • Level 3: Auto-assembly
  • Level 2: Manual assembly
  • Level 1: Manual assembly


If auto-assembly is enabled only on Back to School Kit, authorising a sale order for Back to School Kit will trigger auto-assembly. The system will pick only pre-assembled units of Uniform and Sport Kit and ignore any unassembled components in your inventory. If there are no pre-assembled subassemblies in stock, the auto-assembly will not complete. 


The BOM will show subassemblies in the list of components, as shown below. Creating a manual assembly task for Back to School Kit will also load the BOM in this way, but you can edit the assembly order or pick list to add individual components. 


Example 6: 

  • Level 3: Auto-assembly
  • Level 2: Manual assembly
  • Level 1: Auto-assembly


This will function exactly like Example 5 above. Only pre-assembled Level 2 units will be picked, ignoring components, even if auto-assembly is enabled in lower assemblies. 


Recommendations

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Now we have looked at how DEAR logic deals with manual and automatic assembly for multiple levels, you can select what works best for your workflows. 

  • When auto-assembly is enabled, components are picked, pre-assembled subassemblies are ignored.
  • When manual assembly is enabled, preassembled subassemblies are picked, components are ignored. 


For example, if your inventory is stored as single components, enabling auto-assembly at every level will be convenient for you. If you sell subassemblies as a separate component and have them on hand, you may prefer to set manual assembly for lower levels of the assembly. DEAR support have found that enabling auto-assembly on the top-most level and manual assembly in lower levels results in the least amount of problems for users.

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