Craftplan

Production Batching

Production batching groups order items into efficient production runs with full material tracking and cost accounting.

Batch Workflow

A production batch progresses through these stages:

  1. Open — Batch created, ready for order items to be allocated
  2. Allocate — Order items assigned to the batch based on product and delivery date
  3. Start — Production begins, materials are reserved
  4. Consume — Raw materials deducted from inventory lots based on BOM quantities
  5. Complete — Production finished, cost snapshot captured

Allocating Order Items

Order items are allocated to batches based on:

  • Product type (items for the same product are grouped)
  • Delivery date alignment
  • Production capacity

The planner’s schedule view makes it easy to see which items are allocated to which batches.

Material Consumption

When a batch moves to the consume stage:

  • The system reads the active BOM for each product in the batch
  • Required material quantities are calculated from BOM components
  • Stock is deducted from available inventory lots
  • Consumption movements are recorded in the inventory audit trail

The consumption recap shows a breakdown of materials used, grouped by unit, matching the enforcement in the consumption logic.

Cost Snapshots

On batch completion, the system captures a cost snapshot for each order item:

  • Batch code — Auto-generated identifier for the production run
  • Material cost — Sum of consumed materials at their buy prices
  • Labor cost — Calculated from BOM labor steps, hourly rates, and units per run
  • Overhead cost — Percentage applied from settings configuration
  • Unit cost — Total cost divided by produced quantity

These snapshots are persisted on the order items and power the Completion Snapshot card in the planner modal, as well as future COGS reporting.

BOM Snapshots

The batch locks in the BOM version that was active at the time of completion. This means:

  • Historical batches always reflect the costs that were current when production ran
  • Updating a BOM does not retroactively change completed batch costs
  • You can compare costs across batches to track efficiency changes over time