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Mark a procedure step as an outside process, and ION links it to a purchase order so you can send the part and the operation out and track the work alongside the run.

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Send an outside process out on a PO

  1. In the procedure, turn on Outside Processing for the step.
  2. Start a run that uses the procedure. The run step’s right rail shows an Outside Processing section.
  3. In the Outside Processing section, open the Select a Purchase Order dropdown and pick an existing purchase order, or click Create PO to make a new one. Either way ION links the purchase order to the run step.
  4. Track the PO’s live status from the run. The PO line’s description records the run step it came from.
To swap the purchase order, clear the linked one first, then link another. Clearing the link leaves the purchase order and its line in place.
Run steps flagged as an outside process are not batched: a sign-off or redline on one does not propagate to sibling runs.
When the run is part of a batch, linking, clearing, or creating a purchase order prompts Apply to Batch?. Choose Just this run to change only the current run, or All runs to apply the same purchase order to the matching step across every run in the batch.

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Add an outside process step to a running run

To add an outside process to a run already in progress, add the step with a redline:
  1. On the step you want to add the outside process after, open the More actions menu and choose Add Step After.
  2. Enter a Step Title and turn on Is Outside Processing. You can also switch to Copy from Library to select an existing step.
  3. Click Put in redline and create to redline the parent step and add the new step. If the parent is already in redline, the button reads Create.
Inventory out at the supplier sits in WIP, which is normally not kittable. Depending on your settings, WIP inventory linked to an outside-processing purchase order line is an exception. See Allow kitting of WIP inventory for outside processing.