When parts are manufactured by a full turnkey subcontractor, the part's sub-assemblies are recorded for informative purposes only.
Nonetheless, you can link serialized sub-assemblies to the serialized part manufactured by the turnkey subcontractor, in the following manner:

• When you receive the part into inventory, in addition to a subcontractor GRV, open an initial service call for the received part and issue the part's sub-assemblies to the call from a virtual warehouse for which inventory is not maintained.

Establish a distinct part for each manufacturer part number and define them as "alternate parts", so that they can be kept separate in inventory, yet be treated as a single part with identical attributes by purchase planning and material requirements planning processes.

To manage subcontractor inventory, you open a warehouse and associate it with the subcontractor. Inventory transactions are made to and from this warehouse. These transactions can also reference the work order to which the parts belong, enabling you to track the subcontractor's progress on the work order. When incoming transactions from the subcontractor are recorded, the work order progresses automatically, raw materials are deducted from subcontractor inventory, and parent parts are added to factory inventory.

Priority allows you to manage a sales opportunity as a "sales project." A sales opportunity consolidates the various tasks that need to be completed by the different units in your organization.
The sales BPM utility directs the progress of the opportunity through its various stages, and ensures that relevant personnel are notified of the opportunity status, as well as any delays that may occur, in an organized and methodical fashion.
The likelihood of closing the deal is updated according to the odds of closing defined for each stage of the process, and company managers receive up-to-date information on the pipeline, in terms of the financial scope of the deal versus the odds of closing, per sales rep, customer, and/or product.

In the sale of items that are configured from multiple components, e.g., computers or machinery, Priority enables you to stipulate which components are included in the final product when preparing a price quote or sales order. You can base the quote/order on the basic product, and disassemble it and add or replace parts as required. Priority calculates the sum total of the parts and generates a price and cost for the parent. You can open a warehouse assembly document directly from the order, which will be transferred to the technical team for follow-up, up until delivery to the customer.

When engineering data is maintained in CAD and PDM systems, data exchange with the systems used by your organization for operative processes is crucial.
Various projects in Priority interface with CAD and PDM systems, such as Smart Solutions, OrCAD, and Agile.
Use of these interfaces enables a continuous flow of engineering data, such as part numbers, part parameters, manufacturers, BOMs (including electronic component designations), and part revisions, to Priority.

Priority contains a program that enables you to preserve the original price quote number, and to save multiple versions under that number, including the option to view previous versions.

Serial Number Tree Graphs: Necessary for tracking serial numbers in the configuration of medical appliances, machinery, or other equipment.
During production, or part replacement through a service call, Priority enables you to designate a serial number as a child of the parent part's serial number. For example, you can attribute the serial number of an engine to the serial number of a parent part, such as a car or machine. There are reports that display the resultant tree graph of serial numbers.

When the sales system is run in parallel with the production control system, you can view the progress of designated work orders at the individual order level, as well as their expected end date by lot (when production planning is run). In addition, you can view existing inventory levels and the availability of each part in the order.

You can record payments that a customer owes for a project in a special form. Payments can be linked to WBS activities flagged as milestones. When reporting 100% completion of an activity linked to a payment, the payment is released for collection. When invoices for the project are automatically prepared, the program will prepare invoices for the released payments.

Priority enables you to designate a personalized bill of materials (BOM) for each subcontractor. You can ignore any raw materials that do not need to be issued (because they will be purchased independently by the subcontractor). This personalized BOM is consulted when creating kit lists, and when performing material requirements (MRP) planning and production planning.

Requests for quotes (RFQs) can be generated automatically from purchase requisitions, for select groups of vendors: the preferred vendor for each item, or all vendors that meet a certain standard of quality. The receipt of quotes based on the same RFQ enables you to compare them, select the best one, and convert it to an order.

Alternate parts are parts that can replace other parts. An alternate part can help resolve shortages that arise during planning of material demands. Priority enables the careful supervision of alternate part usage; users can determine that part A (e.g., an electronic component) can serve as an alternate to part B only when its parent part (e.g., a circuit board) is part C.

Priority enables you to track engineering change orders (ECOs) issued during part production. For each ECO, you can record a date, description, parts modified, etc.
You can also attach an ECO to a part revision and/or BOM. The system will track the revisions, and related work orders, that are affected by an ECO.

For each part, you can map out production priorities and capacities for various subcontractors.

Example:
For a specific part, you can define three subcontractors with the priorities 1, 2, and 3, and the capacities 300, 200, and 100. Based on the required quantity of the part, the MRP utility will generate individual work orders for each subcontractor, from the highest Priority subcontractor to the lowest.
Thus, if the required quantity is 200 units, the MRP utility will generate a single work order for 200 units to be produced by the first subcontractor (with a capacity of 300). If the required quantity is 700 units, the MRP utility will generate four work orders: one for 300 units to be produced by the first subcontractor, another for 200 units to be produced by the second subcontractor, a third for 100 units to be produced by the third subcontractor, and a fourth, for 100 units, once again to the first subcontractor.

Following adoption of the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) by the European Union, a need arose to maintain separate inventories of components that are RoHS compliant and those that are not, even though it is actually the same part. One solution is to define two part numbers - one for the component that is RoHS compliant and one for the component that is not. Instead of doubling the size of the part catalogue, Priority distinguishes between the two component types by their inventory status, making it simple to identify balances of RoHS compliant parts, as well as those that do not meet that standard.

Priority enables you to bill customers (prepare invoices) for all billable line items in a service call, or for payments due for a service contract, with the push of a button.

Priority enables you to link a warehouse to each technician.
When the technician's "warehouse" (usually his/her truck) takes parts from the company warehouse or issues parts to the customer's warehouse, inventory transactions are created to or from the technician's warehouse.

In Priority's Projects module, open WBS activities for any work that is required for the machine (e.g., assembly, programming, infrastructure preparation, engineering work). For each activity, you can indicate material and labor costs to enable calculation of project profitability, that is, the sale profitability per machine.

Priority enables you to record planned costs of human resources and materials for each activity, which are updated automatically from system documents such as journal entries, orders, shipments, invoices, etc. In addition, every activity displays its cumulative cost (the total planned cost of its sub-activities), which is calculated by a special program.

Before planning a project, record the customer's objectives as you understand them, or as recorded in the RFP document you received with the Scope of Work (SOW) document. The SOW document consists of a numbered hierarchy of requirements and sub-requirements, which can include extensive remarks explaining each requirement. Each requirement can also be linked to its own final product, where the price of the product determines the price of the requirement (e.g., how much a specific development activity in the project will cost).

During project planning, you can link each activity to the requirement it is intended to fulfill, and thus calculate the requirement's projected cost and profit. If you are working with planning versions, you can then create sub-activities automatically from the sub-levels of the linked requirement.

SOW documents can be imported from MS-Word files provided by the customer. You can maintain versions of each SOW document, as well as versions of the remarks recorded for individual requirements.

Priority allows you to determine project milestones by flagging project activities (WBS) as milestones for payment. Once 100% of a given activity is completed, the planned charge is released and an invoice is created billing the customer. This invoice, which is created as a draft, undergoes a separate authorization process.

If your operation is of the "made to order" type, building customer-specific machinery, instrumentation and the like, then, once you have planned and completed a project in Priority for building the part, and once the part has been supplied to the customer, Priority is capable of automatically opening a service and maintenance agreement, using the specifications recorded in the part's building project.

Priority's Projects module is integrated with all forms and documents in the system, enabling you to view a form displaying the current profitability of any project, including projected profit. This form takes into account all actual and projected revenue and expenses recorded for the project.

By using Priority's Customer Service module to manage malfunctions and service calls, your company gains access to a wealth of statistical data regarding the parts it services.

Analyses include:

• Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
• Mean Time To Assist (MTTA)
• Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
• Frequency of resolution usage
• Number of malfunctions per serial number
• Number of malfunctions per part
• Part availability (uptime)
• List of manufacturer malfunctions
• Service calls opened for similar malfunctions

Project Planning and Execution
Priority's Project Management module enables you to calculate planned costs of a project at the activity (WBS) level, including material and labor costs, and subcontractor costs. Total planned costs of all activities are collectively added to the projected cost of the project. As the project progresses and resources are invested, you can receive a continuous report of how well its actual execution conforms to its planning, from the project level down to its individual activities, so that if there is any deviation, it will be recognized as soon as possible.