A common mistake when using work center to work center routing is forgetting to “switch off” one work center’s ability to route.  I will explain …

Each Work Center can pull work in and push out work.  So if you have a work center routing to a work center without a storage bin/queue between them and neither have their routing switched off, it will result in the first work center pushing and the second work center pulling. This is what we call a routing conflict.

What can go wrong?

What can happen is that your work item is meant to go down a certain route (as designed) but one work center it routes out to has not got its “Routing In” switched off. This can then result in that work center “ripping” the work item out of the previous work center and taking it down a different route – which is not good.

What do you need to do to avoid a routing conflict?

When you have work center to work center routing either the first work center needs to have its ROUTING OUT set to “Passive” OR the second Work Center needs its ROUTING IN set to “Passive”. Do not set both to “Passive” or the Work Items will never leave the first work center.

Finally, which work center to work center routing combination is the best to choose?  That depends on your actual process!