Troubleshoot combining issues

If you have problems with combining, start with these troubleshooting tips.

Basically, if material does not to combine, the reason is that there is no matching material available in the sources allowed in the optimizations. For example, if we do not include warehouse at all, then only the inventory is available. If we do not include the inventory, then only the suppliers are available.

The available material must be the same shape, dimension, and grade. The grade depends on any substitutions that have been set in Maintenance > Shapes/Grades/Sizes. The length, and for plates the width, of the available material must accommodate the item length, trim cut, kerf, and clamp allowance. You can select to have the clamp allowance to be included in the items if there is an item that is longer than the clamp allowance.

The grade of the item does not match

Possible cause: During the import of items into Production Control, you may have allowed grades that are not in your system.

Possible solution: Create standard acceptable grades that users and your detailers are aware of.

Possible cause: The grade is right but it has not been set up in the pricing maintenance.

Possible solution: Evaluate the grade and check if it needs to be changed to match your standard or added to a supplier in pricing maintenance. See Set up pricing.

The item is longer than any available material

Possible cause: Detailing the job called for a piece longer than the available material. The length of the item is greater than what you have in Pricing Maintenance or Inventory.

Possible solution
If there is an option to splice existing material, you can create a splice package whose total length becomes available material.
If the items are in inventory you may select them or add unpurchased items and choose to put them on a requisition or purchase order. See Create a splice package.

Items do not combine to inventory

You may see inventory material that is there but items will not combine to it.

Possible cause: The item in inventory already has material combined onto it.

These may be reserved for the job and have records linked to them from previous runs either from the combining job or the PDC job that are no longer the right length even though the actual inventory length would accommodate the current length required.

Possible solution:
Uncombine the unlinked material.
You are prompted to send the item back to a requisition.
If the record that is being removed is no longer correct, select no. This deletes the incorrect record. See Combine inventory items manually.

Possible cause: The inventory material itself has a reference number assigned.

Possible solution: To use this material, check the Use Inventory with Reference Number Value checkbox in the Combining Run Inventory Filters dialog box.

Possible cause: The inventory is reserved for a job not included in the inventory filter.

Possible solution:
Make sure that the available material is either unreserved or reserved for the current job.
If the material is reserved for another job, you must include that job reservation in the combining run inventory filter or unreserve the material.
If there are combining details for another job, then unreserving it is not an option.

"Save Displayed Results & Close" is not available

Possible cause: The Save Displayed Results & Close button is not available.

Possible solution: To save the results of a combining run, select Use PDC/PO Links in the Combining Run Filters window. See Combine materials in the Production Control module.

The combining dialog box opens to a blank window

Possible cause: All the items selected have previously been linked to a purchasing record. This may be in inventory or on a requisition.

Possible solution:
Find the items in inventory or in the requisitions.
The easiest way to do this is to use the Links button when the production item is selected in the display grid. See View material links.

Inventory “Manual Combine Mode” does not display material in requisitions when “Add Item” is selected in the "Add Item" dialog box

Possible cause: The available material is not the same shape, dimension, grade, or grade substitute. The material simply does not match.

Possible solution: Change the material to match, select the appropriate inventory material, or add a grade substitution.

Possible cause: The quantity of the items in the requisition does not have a multiple of the selected inventory quantity. In this case, you get a prompt informing you that the quantity must be a multiple of the inventory quantity.

Possible solution: Select the Combine quantity to match or select 1 to see all available requisition items.

Note: Requisition is the same for Manual Combine Mode as for inventory except that the option to change the combine quantity must be done on the combined requisition line item.