Still building a cancelled order
What the user reports
Monday 21 December, afternoon. This morning Hallam cancelled its three ES-200, and the production supervisor cancelled the order in the core. Now Brennock orders three ES-200 for a lift station, and the supervisor has created a production order for them: the parts bought for Hallam's pumps should do. On the assembly line, the assemblers are still working on an order for three.
The error: Release refused: missing parts for Brennock's order (impellers, motors and seal kits, none available), although parts for three pumps were received last week.
What you'll do
- See the problem as the production supervisor: On Production orders, Release the new order for three ES-200 (the one that isn't cancelled).
- Find the cause: Hallam's order was cancelled in the core this morning, so its parts should be free. Why does release find none for Brennock?
- Fix it as the production supervisor.
- Prove it: run the step that failed again.
The drill runs in the lab on its own prepared copy of the fictional Calder Pumpworks, saved in this browser apart from your company. All codes and values are fictional course labels.
Answer and explanation (open after the drill)
The fix: The floor refused the cancellation because assembly was in work; until it acknowledges, Hallam's order keeps its parts.
The cancellation is a message to the floor, and the floor refused it: assembly was started, and the floor acknowledges a cancellation only once the work is stopped. The message sits as Failed on Floor system interface, so in the books Hallam's order is still waiting: the three motors are issued to it and its impellers and seal kits still count as committed. The assemblers keep building pumps nobody ordered. Nothing is scrapped, and MRP doesn't free parts that an open order holds.
Why it broke
A cancellation between two systems is a request, not a command. The core marked Hallam's order cancelled and sent the message; the floor, which holds the parts and the half-built pumps, refused it while assembly was in work, as its rule says. The failed message was the only signal, and nobody read it. So the order stayed open in both places: on the floor as work, in the books as parts issued and committed.
How teams prevent it
Cancelling an order on the floor system is one job, not two: whoever cancels in the core checks the dispatch list and stops the work in the same step, and the cancellation shows as open until the floor acknowledges it. Failed cancellations raise an alert to the production supervisor, not only to the integration specialist, and the daily comparison on Floor system interface lists orders cancelled in one system and open in the other.
Across teams
Customer service took Hallam's cancellation; the production supervisor cancelled in the core but not on the line; the assemblers built what their list showed; the integration specialist owns the queue; and Brennock waits for pumps whose parts are bolted into Hallam's. One failed message cost an afternoon of assembly and a customer date.
Where AI fits
Finding the orders a cancelled demand leaves behind and drafting each cancellation with what it would undo is a good job for an agent (act, with approval). Spotting a failed cancellation and telling the right person is plain automation. Stopping work on the line stays with a person on the floor: a model can't strip a pump, and shouldn't decide to.
Learn more: How SAP systems talk: integration styles and when to use each