Can I Change the Parent Job Quantity After the Job Is Created?


There isn't a way to change the job output quantity of a job after job creation.


Why can't I change the job quantity?


There are a lot of reasons surrounding why you can not change a job output quantity after creation. Some of these reasons depend on the structure of the job and whether all job lines, and to a lesser degree routings, scale directly with the job quantity. While we could compare to the BOM, the job itself can have very different job lines and routings than the BOM, because you can edit the job after creation, so we would still have an issue determining if the input quantities should scale.


However, the larger reason is the design of DBA which is just-in-time. This means you should be creating jobs with just enough time left to acquire material and finish the job prior to the output supply being needed somewhere else. Changing the job quantity after creation goes against this design, because, unless you do it immediately, you will be running late on acquiring supply for that particular job. Lack of material then delays the job and creates larger scheduling issues.


What can I do instead if I need to increase/decrease the parent job quantity?


  • If the quantity was increased, and this is known prior to releasing the Job, then our recommendation would be to just run MRP again and let it suggest a Job to cover the remainder.
  • If more quantity will be processed than the Job initially called for, and the Job has already had transactions against it, then we would recommend creating a new job for the extra quantities.  Creating a new job will allow much better visibility of the need for more than the original output, and MRP will be able to account for the extra needed material and extra supply and take this into account when creating jobs and POs. 
  • That being said, as an alternative to creating a new job for the extra quantity, you also have the option to over-issue/do extra completions and then over receipt the original job.  
  • If you're processing the job short, you will want to account for this by issuing material and doing completions for only the outputs you intend to receipt from the job.  After you have done all labor, issues and receipts, you can close the job short from the Header tab of the job by changing it's status to "Closed".


Things to consider:


During MRP generation, you can change the suggested quantity of a job to either increase or decrease the parent job quantity.  This is the best method to "bump" a job quantity if you desire to do so, for example.  After altering the job quantity in the MRP generation screen, convert the job and it will reflect the changed quantity.


Lastly, if you've created the Job for the incorrect output quantity but have not processed any transactions against it then please be aware that you can always delete the Job (since it doesn't have transactions) and re-enter it for the proper amount. This is the best way to approach this if you know early in the Job that you'll be producing an alternate amount.