What is Backflush?

What is meant by backflush? When exactly backflush happens?
How can we detect that backflush is happening?

In Bills of Material module when you create a bill for any assembly or sub assembly or a finished good, you define component supply type for each component in a bill. These supply types are push, operation pull, assembly pull, Bulk, vendor/supplier, phantom etc. This Bills of material is used in Work in Process module for manufacturing a job. When you manufacture an assembly, it requires components at the shop floor as per the list given in a bill. If your supply type of a component is Push you have to manually issue components to shop floor for manufacturing process but if the supply type of a component is either assembly pull or operation pull, you need not to issue components manually to the shop floor but when a particular operation or an assembly is completed during manufacturing ie during move transactions or completion transactions, Oracle application system automatically backflushes components from the supply subinventory and locator Here ,backflushing means deduction( reducing) of required quantity from Inventory on hand quantity. In case of push supply type you have to deliver materials to shopfloor and deduct quantity yourself .Incase of backflushing you have to delivery materials to shopfloor and need not deduct quantity yourself but system( Oracle Applications) automatically deducts quantity from subinventory-locator on hand quantity when any assembly or an operation is completed in WIP module manufacturing process.

Once any assembly is completed in WIP, please go to inventory module and check the subinventory and locator quantity for the item for which assembly is completed. You will observe that on hand quantity has reduced .If total was 100 numbers and 10 numbers are pulled, by WIP assembly or operation pull, balance will be 90 numbers.