| Backgrounds on setup classes and setup states in ERP LN |  |
| An important means to save time during production is to cut down on setup times. The benefits of saving setup times during production can be enormous. Moreover, saving setup times as much as possible reflects the situation on the shop floor in reality. Setup classes and setup states are used in ERP LN to achieve a cutdown on setup times. In short, setup classes and setup states enable you to group different items from different production orders based on characteristics that they have in common. The sequence in which production orders are handled is influenced so that an operation on the group of items can be carried out without changing the machine's setup. If you have defined generic items with features and options, you can generate a setup class for each feature and a setup state for each option. For more information, refer to To define setup classes and setup states for product features. You can use setup states to plan with order blocks. Order blocks are sets of production orders with common setup states. Example If you want to spray-paint an item green during a specific operation, you must set up the required machine, which takes some time. If you subsequently use the same machine to spray-paint an item red, the machine must be set up again for the red paint. To reduce setup times, you can best schedule successively all production orders in which items are spray-painted red. The orders that involve green items can also be scheduled successively. Moreover, to set up a machine from using green paint to using red paint could cost more time than a machine’s changeover from red to green. In this example it means that you can better first process the red orders, after which you can process the green orders. Related topics To define setup classes and setup states Order-block planning |