What is a production order?

A production order is an internal order for the production of a specific product in a specific quantity.

When a customer triggers an order, a sales order is created, which forms the basis for the production order. This order in turn serves to coordinate the manufacturing process. It contains all the necessary information and instructions to carry out production efficiently and in accordance with quality requirements.

Related terms can be found in the work order or work order. Digital work instructions also fulfill the essential functions of a production order.

What does a production order contain?

A production order must always contain a basic set of information that defines the areas of production/assembly, scheduling (i.e. time planning), resource planning and cost calculation.

Accordingly, you will find the following in a production order

• the order number
• the product name
• the quantity to be produced
• bills of material and resources (raw materials, components, machines, tools)
• a specific schedule starting with the start of production and ending with the completion date
• quality requirements
• work instructions
• the cost center allocation

What are the benefits of a production order?

Fundamentally, production orders allow you to achieve targeted coordination of production processes so that products can be manufactured on time and in the desired quality and quantity.

You could also say that the objectives relate to the past, present and future.

What doas the production order say about the past?

You can track and analyze production that has already been completed. What quantities have been produced? What quality defects occurred? What deadlines were involved and were all deadlines met?

What does it say about the present?

Production orders allow you to monitor the current production process. This allows you to recognize during operation: Is everything running smoothly or do you need to make adjustments?

What does the production order say about the future?

Insights into the past and present make it easier to plan for the future. Learning from past production orders makes it possible to plan upcoming orders more precisely.

Production orders always end up with the worker at some point. So why not provide them with a tool that maps these orders in an employee-friendly way? Weasl does this and much more.

Take a look at our free showcase environment to see exactly what this looks like.