Creating and utilizing bill of work information to provide a dynamic routing plan for manufacturing a product

An electronic apparatus to provide a dynamic routing plan for manufacturing a product, comprising:

• a communications interface;
• memory;
• and
• control circuitry coupled to the communications interface and the memory, the memory storing instructions which, when carried out by the control circuitry, cause the control circuitry to:
• receive a sales order indicator into a field of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) rendered by the electronic apparatus, the sales order indicator identifying an electronic sales order for the product;
• and
• in response to receipt by the GUI of a user command to generate the dynamic routing,
• expand the electronic sales order identified by the sales order indicator, which is received through the communications interface, into individual bill of materials (BOM) elements and bill of work (BOW) elements, the BOM elements identifying components of the product, and the BOW elements specifying BOW activities to be performed on the components identified by the BOM elements,
• identify work attributes for the BOW activities specified by the BOW elements,
• access a manufacturing stage database that defines a processing order of manufacturing stages available within a facility;
• and
• construct the dynamic routing plan based on the BOW elements, the work attributes identified for the BOW activities specified by the BOW elements, and the processing order defined by the manufacturing stage database, the dynamic routing plan (i) defining a sequence, based on the processing order defined by the manufacturing stage database, for performing the BOW activities and (ii) providing the work attributes for the BOW activities to manufacture the product,
• wherein the control circuitry is further constructed and arranged to:
• render the sequence for performing the BOW activities defined by the dynamic routing plan in the GUI;
• prompt, by the GUI, a user to identify which BOW activities have been completed;
• and
• highlight uncompleted BOW activities which are next in the sequence,
• wherein the control circuitry is further constructed and arranged to:
• display, by the GUI, a first set of BOW activities to be completed in a first reporting cell in an activated fashion wherein text is displayed with first formatting;
• display, by the GUI, a second set of BOW activities to be completed in a second reporting cell in a deactivated fashion wherein text is displayed with second formatting different from the first formatting;
• and
• in response to the GUI receiving an indication that the first set of BOW activities has been completed in the first reporting cell, change a display of the second set of BOW activities from the deactivated fashion to the activated fashion,
• wherein the memory stores a BOW element definitions database having BOW element entries which define (i) the BOW elements and (ii) the work attributes for the BOW activities specified by the BOW elements;
• and
• wherein the control circuitry, when identifying the work attributes for the BOW activities, is constructed and arranged to obtain the work attributes from the BOW element entries of the BOW element definitions database,
• wherein the manufacturing stage database stores manufacturing stage entries which define manufacturing stages which are available at the facility which manufactures the product (ii) and an order for the manufacturing stages which are available at the facility, one entry in the manufacturing stage database identifying a first manufacturing stage within the facility and other entries in the manufacturing stage database indicating both a current manufacturing stage and a previous manufacturing stage within the facility;
• and
• wherein the control circuitry constructed and arranged to construct the dynamic routing plan is further constructed and arranged to derive the sequence for performing the BOW activities from the manufacturing stage entries stored in the manufacturing state database.

A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium which stores a set of instructions to provide a dynamic routing plan for manufacturing a product, the set of instructions, when carried out by computerized circuitry, causing the computerized circuitry to perform a method of:

• receiving a sales order indicator into a field of a GUI (Graphical User Interface) rendered by an electronic apparatus, the sales order indicator identifying an electronic sales order for the product;
• and
• in response to the GUI receiving a user command to generate the dynamic routing,
• expanding the electronic sales order identified by the sales order indicator into an expanded sales order that includes individual bill of materials (BOM) elements and bill of work (BOW) elements, the BOM elements identifying components of the product, and the BOW elements specifying BOW activities to be performed on the components identified by the BOM elements;
• identifying work attributes for the BOW activities specified by the BOW elements;
• accessing a manufacturing stage database that defines a processing order of manufacturing stages available within a facility;
• and
• constructing the dynamic routing plan based on the BOW elements and the work attributes identified for the BOW activities specified by the BOW elements, the dynamic routing plan (i) defining a sequence, based on the processing order defined by the manufacturing stage database, for performing the BOW activities and (ii) providing the work attributes for the BOW activities to manufacture the product,
• wherein the method further includes:
• rendering the sequence for performing the BOW activities defined by the dynamic routing plan in the GUI;
• prompting, by the GUI, a user to identify which BOW activities have been completed;
• and
• highlighting, by the GUI, uncompleted BOW activities which are next in the sequence,
• wherein the method further comprises:
• displaying, by the GUI, a first set of BOW activities to be completed in a first reporting cell in an activated fashion wherein text is displayed with first formatting;
• displaying, by the GUI, a second set of BOW activities to be completed in a second reporting cell in a deactivated fashion wherein text is displayed with second formatting different from the first formatting;
• and
• in response to the GUI receiving an indication that the first set of BOW activities has been completed in the first reporting cell, changing a display of the second set of BOW activities from the deactivated fashion to the activated fashion,
• wherein a BOW element definitions database stores BOW element entries which define (i) the BOW elements and (ii) the work attributes for the BOW activities specified bar the BOW elements;
• wherein identifying the work attributes for the BOW activities includes obtaining the work attributes from the BOW element entries stored in the BOW element definitions database;
• wherein the manufacturing stage database stores manufacturing stage entries which define (i) manufacturing stages which are available at the facility which manufactures the product and (ii) an order for the manufacturing stages which are available at the facility, one entry in the manufacturing stage database identifying a first manufacturing stage within the facility and other entries in the manufacturing stage database indicating both a current manufacturing stage and a previous manufacturing stage within the facility;
• and
• wherein constructing the dynamic routing plan includes deriving the sequence for performing the BOW activities from the manufacturing stage entries stored in the manufacturing stage database.