Routing

Hi experts,

I understand why we give a branch and return operation for a parallel sequence. Operation(s) happen in parallel along with operation(s) in the standard sequence. We need to specify where it branches out from the standard sequence to work in parallel with the standard sequence and we also specify the end of parallel sequence by mentioning where we return to the standard sequence.

What is the need for giving branch and return operation for alternate sequencing? I assume it is a completely independent sequence unlike a parallel sequence. In this case, we have an independent set of operations which is an alternative to standard sequence. Why should this sequence branch out and return to standard sequence?

I have one more issue to deal with.

For material FERT, I have operations - 10, 20, 30 and 40 in the standard sequence. I created an alternate sequence with operations 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. I remember getting an error message regarding alternate sequence having more operations than that of standard sequence but I was able to save the routing. When I was creating routing for another material, I tried to copy from FERT. I was not able to copy and I got an error message specifying the alternative sequence and those two operations (50 and 60) - 'Operation number incorrect'.

Is it a case that number of operations in alternative sequence should not exceed that of standard sequence?

Thank you very much for your time.