Confirmation records what actually happened in production. Entering quantities and times accumulates cost and moves stock.
What is recorded
| Field | Content | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Yield | Good quantity produced | Finished stock, order progress |
| Scrap | Quantity discarded | Scrap rate analysis |
| Rework | Quantity needing rework | Additional effort |
| Activity times | Actual setup, machine and labour time | Cost charged through activity allocation |
| Work centre | Where the work was actually done | Capacity consumed |
| Confirmation date | When the work was done | The period cost lands in |
Entering time charges cost from the cost centre behind the work centre to the order at the activity rate. That is CO activity allocation, and it is where PP and CO meet.
How finely to confirm
| Granularity | What it means | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Operation confirmation | Confirm each operation | Detailed progress; more data entry |
| Order confirmation | Confirm the whole order at once | Least effort; no per-operation detail |
| Milestone confirmation | Confirm key operations; earlier ones auto-confirm | A workable balance |
Milestone confirmation, set through the routing control key, is widely used in practice.
Backflushing
Backflushing issues components automatically at confirmation, working back from the BOM rather than requiring separate goods issues.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Advantage | No separate issue transactions; nothing is forgotten |
| Disadvantage | Real consumption differing from the BOM goes unnoticed |
| Suited to | Low-value components with stable usage — fasteners, adhesives |
| Not suited to | Expensive components, or where usage varies |
How actual cost accumulates
- Material cost, from component issues at inventory value
- Conversion cost, from confirmed time at activity rates
- Overhead, applied at period end as a rate on direct cost
Receiving finished goods credits the order at standard cost, and the difference between the actual debits and the standard credit is the production variance.
Cancelling a confirmation
CO13 cancels a confirmation, reversing the goods issues and activity allocations it triggered.
Entering confirmations
| Code | Content |
|---|---|
| CO11N | Single operation confirmation |
| CO15 | Order (header) confirmation |
| CO12 | Collective entry |
| CO13 | Cancel a confirmation |
| CO14 | Display confirmations |
To reduce shop-floor effort, confirmations are commonly entered by barcode or handheld device, or fed automatically from a manufacturing execution system.