Materials

Configure materials, groups, inventory thresholds, and properties for scheduling.

Materials are the physical components consumed and produced during manufacturing. This includes raw materials, work-in-progress, finished products, and consumables.

The Bill of Materials in each operation segment defines which materials are consumed and produced. Material configuration links closely with Operations and Inventory.

Navigation

Scheduler > Data Templates > select a template > Materials

Material Groups

Material groups categorise materials for easier management.

1. Click Manage Material Groups.

2. Add, update, or delete groups as needed.

Creating a Material

1. Click the + button next to Manage Material Groups.

2. Enter the material details.

Adding Thresholds

Materials link to inventory tracking. Set minimum and maximum inventory levels to flag low or excess stock positions:

1. Select the material and click the Settings icon.

2. Enter the Min and Max threshold values.

These thresholds are displayed on the Inventory draw-down graph and drive the status-based filtering colours.

Material Properties

Material properties are attributes that the organisation wants to track through the scheduling workflow. Properties serve two purposes:

1. Visualisation and reporting — display attributes like colour, size, or grouping on the scheduling Gantt chart

2. Optimisation input — drive changeover calculations (e.g. switching from red to white plastic requires extra cleaning time)

Adding a Property

1. Click the + button in the Properties section.

2. Enter the Property Name and Property Value.

Example: Property Name = "Colour", Property Value = "Red"

You can add as many properties as required. Once created, they are available as optimisation properties in Changeovers and Optimisation configuration.