AX2012 process manufacturing integrates to manufacturing execution

In previous versions it was not possible to collect data on shop floor for process manufactured products. Many customers use both process and discrete manufacturing capabilities in Dynamics AX in their environments regardless of whether they are generally dealing with process manufactured products or with assembled products. Therefore in AX2012 it was made possible to do data collection on products that were manufactured using formulae and batch orders. This post describes the context in which some decisions were made and also lists a number of enhancements to process manufacturing in AX2012 that make this possible.

Synchronous updates
Manufacturing execution in AX2012 is changed so that progress updates made on job registration are instantly updated in the production module. It is now possible to track the production progress within production module by viewing jobs and quantity form from production orders as soon as the progress entry is made. This is also extended to batch orders.

Job registration form
On the job registration form it is now possible to see operations or jobs depending on whether operation or job scheduling was run on batch orders. The setup required for this is described in the documentation here.
Since batch orders can produce multiple outputs, it is now possible to see these multiple outputs by shop floor worker on their terminal. This is made possible by allowing access to co-by products form from job registration form. It is possible to configure job registration form so the co-by products button appears here. Setup of action pane that is needed to set this up is described here.
It is now made possible to set up the action pane on job registration form so that linked quality orders to the batch order in progress can be seen from within the job registration form. This capability enables either shop floor worker or supervisor to easily access and see the status of quality orders for the batch order on which they are still recording progress.
It is now made possible to set up the action pane on job registration form so that linked non-conformances to the batch order in progress can be seen from within the job registration form. This capability enables either shop floor worker or supervisor see the associated non-conformances

Production status list page
This page is intended as an overview for shop floor supervisor. In previous versions it was not possible to see batch order jobs on this page.

In process manufacturing AX2012 it is possible to do the following.

View the batch order jobs,
View the formula connected to the batch order for which jobs are being displayed
View the non-conformances connected to the jobs being displayed
View the consolidated orders form, this form will show consolidated orders, bulk or pack orders that are related to the batch order that is currently in focus on production jobs list page
"Cancel finished report" button will cancel the quantity reported as finished against the batch order, just like in the case of production order

Report as finish
In AX2012 it is possible to report as finish multiple outputs through manufacturing execution. This is achieved by simply making it mandatory for the user to open up report as finish form while reporting quantity as finish. The report as finish form that opens up is standard form that is used for reporting against a batch order. So, all the capability of adding co-by products and reporting against already available multiple co-by products is possible just like through the production module.

Edit job lists form
This is a new form in AX2012 where it is possible to re-prioritize individual jobs. This allows greater flexibility on shop floor. None of the changes are synchronized with master planning and scheduling. Based on our research users wanted some capability to do this without the changes going through master planning and scheduling. Shop floor supervisors often change the resources or get asked to prioritize certain jobs and there wasn’t a way to capture such changes without running master planning. Running MRP is huge overhead, not in control of a single supervisor since it impacts larger site/organization and usually decisions of such an immediate timeframe should not be run through master planning. Therefore, this capability was added in AX2012 in Manufacturing execution module. This job prioritization can be done for individual jobs or multiple jobs. Jobs can be moved from one position to another in the queue. Resources allocated for a job can be also manually changed here if the allocated resource is not available for a short period for whatever reason. This capability is now also available for jobs originating from batch orders.

Inventory Picking
While picking for a batch order from manufacturing execution module, AX2012 ensures that picking is done in FEFO order is this is setup for the item being picked

Catch weight and production module
A number of new fields have been added to many forms. All forms that are used to process products and those that are used to show progress of products through shop floor have new fields to handle products that have dual unit of measure defined.

Forms that have been modified

Production journals
Route jobs form
Route form
Materials form

Grid setup for catch weight products
CW started quantity, CW start quantity and CW requested quantity are three new fields that can now be setup on the grid in the job registration form.

Catch weight and manufacturing execution module
Catch weight fields are now available on several forms so that products with dual unit of measure defined can be processed using the manufacturing execution module.

Forms that have been modified are:

Edit jobs list form
Change feedback form
Raw registrations form
Posted registrations form
Quantity reports form
Approve form

Hopefully this post introduces you to the changes made to allow shop floor workers to record progress against products that are being manufactured using batch orders and formulae.

Improved formula management in process manufacturing AX2012

Formula management is a key requirement for process manufacturers. In most cases, process manufacturers process raw materials that are found from natural sources which inherently means they have to deal with a lot more variability than discrete manufacturers. This variability could result from lack of control over physical properties of the materials. Which in turn means process conditions need to continually adjust in order to produce a finished product within certain range with some consistency. Natural ingredients, variable physical properties, altering process conditions and highly controlled & regulated environments mandate that process manufacturers manage their formulae with good discipline. Formula management in Dynamics AX is built on Bills of material which is the natural place it should be, however in previous versions the formula was less secure and there were several inconsistencies in the behaviour.

Usually in food & drink, chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturing, organization that creates and maintains formula or the secret sauce that makes a company successful can wield a large influence and by extension have a significant effect on the buying decision. Keeping this in mind, we decided to enhance the security on formula management while balancing it with ease of use to setup & maintain these formula. We improved some and added new capabilities that will hopefully help you influence the buying decision.

This post describes key enhancements made to formula management in process manufacturing AX2012. Help document that describes full details is available here.

Security of approved formula

In previous versions, formula lines could be created without a header and co-by products could be attached and deleted at will. While this is great from ease of use point of view, feedback that we received clearly showed that customers expect more stringent measures since most people used formula in a regulated environment. Therefore following enhancements were made in process manufacturing AX2012.

Formula header is required before a version or lines can be entered
Formula version is required before co-by definitions could be setup
Formula version is required before lines could be setup so that per series can be defaulted from formula size on formula version
Furthermore the BOM modification policies were made extensible to formula, this means the following
1. When block editing is turned on, no fields on an approved formula or version or on co-by setup can be changed
2. When block removal of approval is turned on, formula or version cannot be unapproved
3. When block editing is off, fields can be changed on formula, version and on co-by setup any time

This allows stricter discipline in formula maintenance and makes it easier for design or product department or any other authority to secure the formula definitions from intentional or unintentional changes unless authorized.

Scalable formula

Consider the scenario where manufacturing site has a standard approved formula to produce a certain dye blend in certain size vat. Normally, the formula will be used every time the blend is scheduled to be produced. But not always, all the required ingredients may be available in right quantities. You can enter the quantity of short ingredients and the other ingredients will scale accordingly and will change the formula size. This will allow you to determine what quantity of dye blend can be produced. Similarly if the normal vat is busy with another process and you have an alternative vat, putting the size of the vat in the formula size will allow you to see the quantity of scalable ingredients required for this vat. This is a powerful capability that gives you flexibility to configure the production based on available ingredients and equipment without affecting existing production in progress.

Formula for different vat sizes

Taking the previous example a bit further, in most cases plants, processing lines do not have just one vat/vessel/equipment for processing something. They have multiple size equipment – for samples, for small orders, for medium to large orders for standard products. In previous versions it was only possible to have scalable ingredients tied to one formula size. If you created another version with another formula size, ingredients on the formula line will not scale. In process manufacturing AX2012 it is possible to setup multiple versions with different formula size. A new field "use for calculation" determines which formula size from which version is being used to scale the ingredients. So, in previous example, now it is possible to setup all versions for all vat sizes that you have. Depending on which vat is available at the time, you can switch the "use for calculation" flag and scalable ingredients will scale based on that vat size.

Step consumption

Please see this post for more details.

Electronic signatures

This capability has existed since AX2009, now it works together with BOM modification policy and the new security framework. As previously, you can setup if you require users to authenticate any changes to formula or versions. If you would like to capture authentication on change of any other fields on the formula or for that matter anywhere else in the application it can be setup. For more details on how to do this, please see the documentation.

Miscellaneous updates

Now it is possible to copy co-by lines when a formula is copied. Behaviour of Percent controlled items have been modified to ensure that use for calculation flag does not change the quantity of percent controlled items when a different vat is used for calculating consumption of scalable ingredients.

Cost calculation

Based on customer feedback, we have modified the previously implemented cost calculation for co-by products and now the new method is called Total cost methodology and among other aspects, it uses price of co-products to determine the ratio of total cost that should be allocated. For more details please see this link.

New capability on-hand batch list page in process manufacturing AX2012

I am writing this post to expose one of the new capabilities that for various reasons has not received the attention it deserves. This is the new on-hand inventory list page for batches. This is a really cool one stop shop for Karl, materials manager or for Sammy, John and other personas who need to know the details of inventory. Using this list page will do wonders for the productivity of these scenarios.

We have put together most of the capabilities tied to inventory batches on this one list page. In previous versions, this capability did not exist and users had to go through different places in the menus to perform different actions. This consumed extra time and clicks, was difficult to learn and operate.

Below you will find a quick summary of what inventory batch related information is available and what actions can be performed from this list page.

In the grid

All inventory batches will display in this grid. You can use standard filter capabilities to narrow down the list to specific products, sites, warehouses as you desire.

On the ribbon

On Batch tracking button group, you can

Trace the batch
Change the batch attributes
Change the vendor batch details
Look up and change the shelf life information

On Inspect button group, you can

Check the connected quality orders
Check the connected non conformances
See where and how the batch is blocked or create a blocking transaction
Change the disposition status to block/unblock the batch

On View button group, you can

Check the multi dimension on-hand if containers have been setup
Check the consolidated on-hand if containerization has been setup
Check the intercompany on-hand if the batch participates in intercompany transaction
Check all inventory transactions related to a particular batch

In the fact boxes

There are five fact boxes

In the first box, you can quickly see totals of on-hand inventory data that is not shown by default in the grid
In the second box, you can quickly see totals of on-hand inventory data for a catch weight product
In the third box, you can quickly see totals of physical inventory data that is not shown by default in the grid
In the fourth box, you can quickly see totals of cost of the batch
In the third box, you can quickly see totals of physical inventory data of the catch weight product

Availability of this data in fact boxes saves the user from opening up multiple forms to preview this information. The calculation results shown in the fact box are dynamic – so these are summarized or detailed depending on the inventory dimensions chosen on the list page.

In the preview pane

Here again main goal for us has been to save the user from opening multiple forms. So as user browses through inventory batch records, disposition history, shelf life information and vendor batch detail information is made easily available for preview in this pane.

If you have suggestions to further improve this capability, please email me.

New capability of step consumption in process manufacturing AX2012

Let me provide some context behind the decision to introduce step consumption capability in Process Manufacturing Dynamics AX2012.
Discrete manufacturing almost always involves linear consumption of ingredients – four tires are required to put together a car. Whereas in process manufactured products consumption can be linear and it can also be non-linear. As the home brewers know 5 Kg of malt gives 12 litres of beer and 10 Kg of malt gives 24 litres of beer but the bitterness is more in smaller lot, so if you want to keep same bitterness in bigger lots you need to add some extra malt, how much extra is non-linear – based on experience. Another industrial example will be use of carbon as a catalyst in plasticizer manufacturing. You can use 1 Kg of carbon to make up to 5 kiloliters of phthalates. Then you need 2 Kg of carbon up to 8 Kilo litres of phthalate (of course, it’s a different matter that phthalates are banned in many regions for some products, so you shouldn’t really be making them).

Many such reactions have non-linear consumption across different industries but sometimes it’s not essential to capture them in an ERP and at other times it is possible but cost intensive to capture and maintain the formulae. This is where step consumption comes useful. Setting up Bills of material is fairly straightforward when compared to setting up formulae. It isn’t because formulae setup in AX is not user friendly, it’s just because the number of parameters required to setup a formulae are many more. In order to setup formulae with non-linear consumption in previous versions, the only possibility will be to setup many different formulae where every detail is same except the quantity of the ingredient that is consumed non-linearly. Since this would be extremely cumbersome in itself and furthermore because process manufacturers needed multiple set of versions – master formula, production formula, distributed formula, batch card formula and so on, we decided to introduce the concept of step consumption into AX2012.

So for the non-linear consumption of malt, you will create two lines in the formula for malt product. On one line you will setup linear consumption, 5 kg for 12 litre, 10 kg for 24 litres and so on. On the second line you can change the formula to “STEP” on the setup tab. This will make the step consumption grid available. Here you can specify that an extra 0.1 kg of malt is needed when finished beer quantity is between 12 and 24 litres and an extra 0.15 kg of malt is needed when finished beer quantity is more than 24 litres and so on. So, this gives you flexibility to setup non-linear consumption in the same formula.

During production estimation system will look at the finished quantity of beer you want to manufacture and will automatically calculate the correct quantity of malt needed. In case of carbon example above, it can be achieved by using just one line on the formula lines for carbon where you can setup step consumption of carbon of 1 kg up to 5 KL and then of 2 kg between 5 – 8 KL and so on.

Hopefully this will be useful for your scenarios. In case you have suggestions for improvement please email me.

Process manufacturing Dynamics AX2012 capabilities

A lot of poeple have asked me what can process manfuacturing do in Dynamics AX2012? This post will hopefully serve the purpose.

Process manufacturers deal with resource rich industries on buy side and with aggregators & retailers on sell side, both having larger bargaining power. The constant squeeze between two powerful groups’ reduces already thin margins and this is likely to exacerbate for US & Western European manufacturers in the coming years as manufacturers in the emerging markets stake their claim for even larger share of the pie.

Process manufacturers therefore continuously need to reduce costs, improve quality & maintain security standards to be able to keep their margins in the markets that are important to them.

Process Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 (formerly known as process industries or PI) gives process manufacturers a low cost solution that can model lean, discrete & process manufacturing in one box, is versatile & flexible to model new organizations, products or processes, supports most common multi-X scenarios and can be extended to support specific vertical requirements without the need of additional IT investments.

Process Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 enables manufacturers and distributors of natural, industrial or consumer packaged products to control costs, increase profitability, maintain stringent quality standards and manage compliance using a familiar user interface on an advanced technology platform with cost of ownership that is significantly lower than the competition.

Process manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX2012 is available in two different SKUs. Process Manufacturing logistics is targeted at customers who would like to automate their distribution processes for products that are usually manufactured in a batch or semi-continuous processing environment. Process Manufacturing production is targeted at customers who would like to automate their batch or semi-continuous manufacturing processes. Process manufacturing logistics SKU is a pre-requisite for process manufacturing production SKU.

Both SKUs contain enough functionality that can also address some needs of customers with discrete manufacturing environment. Key functionalities enabled by process manufacturing are:

Maintain complex formulae
Manage short life products
Manage commodity pricing
Manage product compliance
Setup & apply complex rebates
Advanced lot tracking & control
Enhance cost management of multiple outputs
Procure, store & sell products in dual units of measure
Manage production for assembly or disassembly for single or dual units of measure

SKU 1- Process manufacturing production

Process manufacturing production for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 enables manufacturers of processed goods to quickly define complex formulae, to accurately control production costs, to easily model discrete & process production scenarios and to switch between make or buy decisions with agility.

FORMULA MANAGEMENT

Easily model disassembly sequences or products with multiple outputs in different batch sizes or multiples
Effectively model batch processed products that are consumed into a discrete or lean assembly or model discrete or lean sub-assemblies consumed into multiple output products
Flexibly consume or produce products in dual units of measure with constant or varying consumption
Dynamically calculate ingredient consumption even for items consumed non-linearly in single or dual units of measure
Maintain with ease many formulae for producing same product by using different material combinations or for producing different products using same combinations
Setup, measure & improve production yields by having the flexibility to define yield for several different combinations and comparing it to the production results
Quickly scale some or all ingredients in the formulae based on available inputs to estimate outputs
Reduce inventory & purchasing costs by defining several alternate ingredients and consumption priority for each on the formula
Easily toggle security restrictions on formulae access by activating any of the four built-in security levels
Control packaging material costs by setting up configurable products as different packaged products and linking them to processed products

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

Reduce waste by using production policies to ensure right formula for production is automatically selected based on a given tank size and other factors
Link multiple packed productions to multiple bulk productions. Consolidate them to improve operational efficiency, minimize bulk storage and optimize packed product production
Quickly add, remove or alter number, type or amount of multiple outputs
Improve profitability for each of the multiple outputs in a production by accurate allocation of costs over them before, during or after production & revalue goods by comparing actual with estimated costs
Always produce to customer specifications by ensuring discretionary picking of ingredients based on certain attributes
Rapidly react to a change in production conditions based on results of automatically created quality orders
Consume ingredients and produce multiple outputs in dual units of measure and record nominal or actual values in such units all through the process
Achieve real time visibility on plant floor and at higher levels by re-sequencing jobs based on actual capacity on the floor and by recording production output on such jobs in dual units of measure and for multiple outputs

SKU2 – Process manufacturing logistics

Process manufacturing logistics for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 enables distributors of processed goods to forecast and plan supply & demand and to manage procurement & sales in dual units of measure natural or consumer packaged products with short or long shelf life while meeting strict quality standards, complying with regulatory requirements & providing visibility into profitability for the distributor.

DUAL UNITS OF MEASURE MANAGEMENT (CATCH WEIGHT)

Easily create & release products with dual units of measure to multiple legal entities
Seamlessly manage products with dual units of measure through forecasting, planning and production and be able to define & view such products on forecasts, planned orders, demand & supply views, and on production and consolidated orders
Manage flexibly single and dual unit of measure products on purchase requisitions, purchase agreements and release order lines together with stocked and non-stocked products
Manage flexibly single and dual unit of measure products on sales quotations, sales agreements, release order lines and delivery schedules together with stocked and non-stocked products
Improve product yield and operational efficiency by recording actual values in both units of measure at every stage of the process

LOT MANAGEMENT

Enhance backward traceability and reduce time required for recall by integrating information about vendor batches for purchased lots into manufactured lots of semi-finished or finished products
Improve profitability by differentiating product based on specific product characteristics per lot & only shipping lots that meet certain company or customer criteria
Reduce costs of rework by arresting the progress at any stage for any process, of a poor quality lot through various supply chain processes
Enhance lot control with the ability to record and recall as needed, characteristics of an inventory lot as procured, produced or as sold
Measure quality of each lot with or without dual units of measure for single or multiple production outputs at any stage of processing and attach such results to the inventory lot
Increase customer satisfaction and reduce cost of rework by meeting all demand of a particular customer from the same lot if so desired
Enhance operational efficiency and order promising by having the ability to instantly search all inventory and find lots with specific characteristics
Improve inventory visibility by having access to all the inventory lots and associated functions in one unified view

SHELF LIFE MANAGEMENT

Manage plan, procure and sales processes for fresh, frozen or long shelf life products based on expiry period or best before period
Improve warehousing efficiency by earmarking locations based on product shelf life and issuing goods only as per process or customer requirements
Reduce waste by using the ability to retest shelf life products reaching the end of their shelf life
Improve order promising & reduce stockouts by incorporating shelf life information into planning processes and planning views
Differentiate service and increase profitability by incorporating residual shelf life demanded by customer at ship-to location

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT

Manage full or partial visibility dual units of measure based products through all inbound and outbound warehouse processes
Increase warehouse efficiency by using the ability to mix products in same shipment that are constrained by varying levels of additional requirements like ship from single lot, based on specific characteristics, shelf life and dual units of measure

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

Receive, store and send product safety data sheets for hazardous products as needed
Keep product safety data sheets current with the company and customers
Comply with local regulatory agencies by restricting or regulating the sale of certain products in certain regions
Record necessary compliance related product data for various regulatory agencies
Record usage data for all products and use available third party integrated service to calculate usage of regulated substances for yearly reporting
Manage quality and compliance by ensuring that certain products can only be supplied by approved vendors

REBATES MANAGEMENT

Improve profitability by managing different rebate & trade merchandising programs for different customer segments
Monitor and manage rebates processed either at invoicing or accumulated by user defined periods. Rebates can be setup by different currencies, units of measure or by differing qualifying levels and can be paid to customers by several different methods

COMMODITY PRICING MANAGEMENT

Effectively react to changing commodity costs so the prices of sellable goods always stay current with the market
Manage sellable product prices such that trade agreements are always up to date and new contracts reflect the price change

You can find more detail about how to use process manufacturing capabilities in the product on technet

Setup products with process manufacturing

Introduction

Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 provides an easy & flexible way of creating & releasing new products. Products can be created in a central company and then released to other companies that transact them. For simpler scenarios, it is possible to create products in particular legal entity; Dynamics AX 2012 creates them in the central company in the back-end and releases them to the concerned company.

However if process manufacturing is used, different properties can be setup on these products depending on customer requirements for instance some products maybe short life products while others maybe dual unit of measure products and so on.

This blog provides an overview of properties that can be set on products to enable different functionality in process manufacturing solution. Hopefully, it will help application consultants and pre-sales consultants who need to understand the system for either preparing for a demo or for implementing at a customer site.

Overview of properties that can be defined on the product

When process manufacturing is used, several additional product properties can be specified depending on the requirements. These properties can be grouped into following buckets:

Production
Inventory unit, storage & tracking dimension
Vendors
Inventory batch attributes
Containerized packaging
Product compliance

Production related setup

Production type

After creating a new product user must setup production type for the product. This field determines behavior of the product in the system subsequently. There are several validations that depend on this setup. Therefore this is an important decision and usually not expected to change once product setup has been completed.

Production type can have following values:

Co-product
By-product
BOM
Formula
Planning Item
None

User must choose between the following options:

Co-product: when the product is produced as part of producing another product. Usually when production type is set to co-product, the product is also setup as a co-product on one or more formula versions of other products.
By-product: when the product is produced as part of producing another product. Usually when production type is set to by-product, the product is also setup as a by-product on one or more formula versions of other products.
BOM: when the product is produced using a bill of material as opposed to being produced using a formula. The property can be changed later as long as there are no associated transactions.
Formula: when the product is produced using a formula as opposed to being produced using a bill of material. The property can be changed later as long as there are no associated transactions.
Planning item: when the product is produced using a formula in a disassembly scenario. The property can be changed later as long as there are no associated transactions
None, if product does not belong to any of the other types

There are several validations that help the user with this setup:

A co-product or a by-product cannot be changed to ‘BOM’ or ‘formula’ if the product already exists on formula version of another product
If a BOM or formula is changed to ‘co-product’ or ‘by-product’ then user is prompted to accept that all formulae attached to the product will be removed
Catch weight items cannot have production type ‘BOM’ because BOMs do not support dual unit of measure products.
Catch weight items cannot have production type ‘Planning item’ because planning items do not have inventory
Any production type can be changed to ‘Planning item’ as long as there are no existing inventory transactions for the product, user is prompted to either keep the existing formula versions or remove them. If any approved formula and/or versions exist for the product, they are unapproved.
A production type of ‘BOM’ can be changed to ‘Formula’ and vice versa but user will be prompted to delete existing BOM or formula versions.
Access to buttons on the ‘released products’ list page ribbon depends on the value in this field, so for instance, lines button inside formula button group on Engineer tab is disabled for all products except those with production type of formula.
Default order type in default order settings form is automatically set to production when production type for a product is set to BOM or formula since the assumption is that this product is most likely produced. Default or per site supply policy can be changed at any time and will determine whether planned purchase order, planned production order or a planned transfer order is created irrespective of production type.
Creation of Kanbans is supported for common scenarios like a purchase kanban can be created for a product with production type ‘None’, if so desired.

Max. Report as finished

Using this option, user can calculate the quantity of finished product that can be produced given the amount of ingredients on-hand. The form can be used for products with single or dual units of measure (catch weight products).

Inventory related setup

Catch weight

During product creation, user can chose if the product is a catch weight product. If a product is chosen such, then it is considered to be catch weight product in all legal entities. Usually only one unit conversion will be defined globally and the product will be traded in that unit and inventory unit with defined conversion between them for all legal entities. However, different conversions can be defined if the product is transacted with different nominal weights in different legal entities.

It is not allowed for the product to be catch weight traded in one legal entity and not catch-weight traded in another.

Product masters and service type products can be setup to be catch weight products

Catch weight products can be of two types. Type of the product and business process will determine which of the two catch weight methods is used.

Full visibility catch weight

To setup a full visibility catch weight product, serial tracking dimension have to be turned on with serial number control checked. This usually works when (1) each individual unit is important enough to be tracked like expensive hams or cheese, (2) there is variation in weight possible within a narrow range and (3) weight is entered once at a process stage after which it is not expected to change.

Partial visibility catch weight

To setup a partial visibility catch weight product, it is not necessary to have serial tracking dimension turned on. It is also not mandatory to have batch tracking dimension turned on, however that will be considered as an edge case. Partial visibility catch weight works best for products that are usually not measured and controlled as single units and for which weights vary within a narrow range and can be changed one or more times during the process for example a sack of potatoes or a box of chicken parts.

Item model group

Several critical parameters for a product can be setup here, these are defined here:

Stocked product: it is not allowed to setup a catch weight product with an item model group that has this flag unchecked

Same batch selection: sales agreements & sales order lines for a product with such setup will have same batch selection flag checked by default, it can be toggled as desired

Consolidate requirement: Requirements that fall outside one batch can be consolidated together into a larger batch if this field is setup in item model group

FEFO date controlled: the flag determines if inventory reservation for the product should follow first expiry first out principle or not. If this flag is checked, user can select whether the principle should be applied based on best before date or expiry date. If the principle is applied based on best before date and if the product is setup with batch tracking dimension turned on then it is mandatory to fill in the best before period in days in the released products details page. Similarly, if the principle selected is expiry date and if the product is setup with batch tracking dimension turned on then it is mandatory to fill in the shelf life period in days in the released products details page.

Batch disposition code: every inventory batch created for the product defaults to the batch disposition code supplied here

Purchase registration: if a product is setup with this option, users get option to record vendor batch information like vendor batch number, country of origin etc., while registration of a purchase order line

Approved vendor check method: the value in this field is defaulted to the product as soon as it is created, it can be toggled at any time

Default order settings

Define default order type that will be used by master planning to determine what kind of planned order should be created to meet the demand. Here user can also specify multiple, minimum order quantity, maximum order quantity and standard order quantity for catch weight products.

Note: when process manufacturing is used, multiple quantity specified on inventory tab for both catch weight and inventory units is only used for transfer orders. Multiple specified on formula is the one used for production.

Bulk item conversion

It is possible to setup conversion between a bulk and a pack item for any product that has a production type of formula. When such a product is selected on released products list page, bulk item conversion button becomes available.

Multi-dimension on-hand

It is possible to check on-hand in multiple dimensions for any product that has been setup with different packing configurations. When such a product is selected on released products list page, multi-dimension on-hand button becomes available for clicking. Note: it is recommended to use containerization (bulk/pack) functionality instead of containers functionality. Containers functionality will most likely be deprecated in a subsequent release.

Consolidated on-hand

It is possible to check on-hand (1) for bulk item, (2) for pack item in pack units and for (3) pack item in bulk item units for any product that has been setup as a bulk or a pack item. When such a product is selected on released products list page, consolidated on-hand button becomes available for clicking.

Inventory batch attributes

On released products list page, three options are available to (1) setup inventory batch attributes per product (2) setup inventory batch attributes per product and customer and (3) search available inventory batches based on certain batch attributes

Note: Inventory batch attributes functionality that is specific to inventory batches in Process Manufacturing is different from Product attributes functionality which is specific to products.

Product specific: When a product with batch tracking dimension active is selected on released products list page, this button becomes enabled. Using the form that opens up, user can setup a specific inventory batch attribute for the product.

Customer specific: Once a product has at least one inventory batch attribute attached, buttons customer specific and search inventory become available. Using the form that opens up, user can setup a specific inventory batch attribute for a product & customer combination. The minimum, maximum, tolerance action & increment are selected from the product specific setup done earlier. However these values can be changed on this particular record for the customer as long as the new range specified is narrower than the one specified for the product.

Search inventory: clicking this button will open a form that shows the existing inventory batches that match the criteria already setup for search. If user wishes to change the search criteria, this can be done by using the batch attribute search form.

Compliance related setup

Regulated products

Using this option, user can setup countries and regions where a particular product is (1) regulated or (2) regulated and reported. If the product is reported as well, then reporting lists need to exist in the system before this setup can be done.

Restricted products

Using this option, user can setup countries and regions where a particular product is restricted. System assumes that there is a public restriction list on which this product exists, therefore restriction lists need to exist in the system before this setup can be done.

Product Safety Data Sheet

Using this option, user can setup product safety data sheets in various languages and versions. The sheets can be activated as needed. If the records are changed, then a modification reason can be entered and log of changes can be maintained.

Note: there are several parameters in inventory module that control the display and timing of alerts specific to events that may occur related to product safety data sheets.

Reporting details

Using this option, information can be set up about allowed limits from various authorities for usage of this product. Also use this form to setup CAS numbers for the product. The form also has a function to calculate the quantity consumed, produced and on-hand currently for the product.

Purchase related setup

Approved Vendor List

If a product can only be supplied by certain vendors then this information can be set up using buttons available on purchase tab of release products list page. Users can also define the time period in which these vendors are allowed to sell products to company. Note: the time period uses date effectivity framework like in many other parts of the application, which makes it easier to setup this information.

It is also possible to query from released products list page, (1) vendors that are allowed to supply a certain product for any time period and (2) vendors that are allowed to supply the product as on a particular date.

Managing compliance with Process manufacturing in Dynamics AX2012

Companies in process industries usually manufacture products that are subject to varying degrees of regulation by regional, national or global organizations to safeguard workers and/or consumers. For instance DDT is banned in most countries but allowed in some countries or use of asbestos is completely banned but use of benzenes up to 5mg/Kg in toys is allowed in EU.

Process Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics^® AX 2012 provides a rich toolset for food, drug and chemical manufacturers to manage products containing restricted and / or regulated substances. Process manufacturing solution has been extended further by several ISVs to meet specific requirements of chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

First it is important to familiarize with key terms and definitions as used in Dynamics AX2012

Regulated product

A product is considered to be a regulated product if it is regulated by a government authority and if it requires compliance and audit reporting.

Restricted product

A product is considered to be a restricted product if its distribution is limited or constrained by a government authority.

Reported product

Reported product is a product that is regulated and company is required by regional or national authority to provide usage data on the product.

Product safety data sheet

Product safety data sheet is a brochure that contains handling, emergency and other related information about the product for example, flash point, boiling point etc. of the substance.

Now, follow these steps to setup controls on your products.

Inventory setup

Restriction lists

Restriction lists for countries and regions can be setup in Inventory management module. There are two types of lists – inclusive and exclusive. Inclusive type lists need to be setup for a country before exclusive type list can be setup for its regions.

Figure 1 – maintaining regional lists for restricted products

If number of regions in which product is allowed are more than the number in which it is not allowed, setup an inclusion list for country and an exclusion list for provinces where it is not allowed. If the product and excluded region appear together on a sales order line, system will throw a warning and prevent the sale.

Once the restriction lists are setup, products can be added to such lists. Once products are added to such lists, they are treated by system as restricted products.

Figure 2 – maintaining individual products on a specific restricted products list

Regulated and reported products

Regulated products and reporting lists for countries and regions can be setup in Inventory management module. If the product is only regulated in a country or region then it need not be marked as reported. However if usage data of a product needs to be reported then it needs to exists on a reporting list.

Figure 3 – maintaining regulated products and reporting lists

In the adjoining figure, all products that are regulated in Germany but not reported can be setup against the last record in the table. All other records are for specific reported lists and hence will contain only products that need reporting in specific regions on given reporting lists.

Product safety data sheet

Using this form, default parameters like validity interval and expiry advice interval for product safety data sheets can be setup.

Figure 4 – maintaining defaults for product safety data sheets

Setup on Released products list page

Figure 5 – Options available on released products list page to maintain compliance data

Once standard lists are defined in the inventory management module, individual products can be added to such lists from the released products list page.

Regulated products

A (1) regulated or (2) regulated and reported list needs to exist before it can be selected from this option. The user is only able to see the country/ region in the list if a list is already defined. Using this option is faster if a product exists on multiple lists.

Restricted products

A restricted list needs to exist before it can be selected from this option. The user is only able to select the list ID for a given country/region if a list for that combination is already defined. Using this option is faster if a product exists on multiple lists.

Safety data sheet

Note: there are several parameters in inventory module that control the display and timing of alerts specific to events that may occur related to product safety data sheets.

Reporting details

Figure 6 – maintaining compliance data as required by a specific regulating authority

Using this form the user can setup additional information as required by some US-centric regulatory authorities. This information can be printed to documents or exposed to external interfaces as maybe needed. If a substance name as defined by a regulatory body is referenced from an external system, then all the product related information attached to such a name can be retrieved. Regulatory authorities covered by this form are as below.

v EPCRA: Emergency, Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act

v CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

v TSCA: Toxic Substances Control Act

v TRI: Toxics release Inventory from United States Environmental Protection Agency

v OSHA: Occupational Health and Safety Administration

v EHS: Extremely Hazardous Substances

Figure 7 – viewing usage data

Using this form, the user can check the usage data for a particular product. Such information can then either be exposed to custom reports or provided to external systems electronically. CAS numbers (Chemical Abstract Registry) can be linked to the product on this form.

Using product safety data sheets

Figure 8 – using product safety data sheets

If a product is regulated and if a product safety data sheet already exists then it automatically appears during purchase order or a sales order entry. If a new safety data sheet or a newer version of existing data sheet is received from a vendor then it can be added during purchase order entry. If a new or existing data sheet is to be sent to a customer then that can be added to the log as well. This form keeps a log of all safety data sheets sent or received on each order. Parameters can be setup in inventory management module to control the system behavior regarding safety data sheets at various points in the logistics process.

Figure 9 – setting up product compliance parameters

As shown in adjoining figure, parameters in the inventory management module can be setup to receive warnings and / or e-mail notifications during following processes

v Purchase order entry

v Sales order entry

v Sales packing slip posting

v Sales invoice posting

Figure 10 – warning received during purchase order entry

Figure 10 shows one such warning received when a product set to be regulated in Germany is received in a company with German address and if product safety data sheet for such a product is in expiry advice interval.

Figure 11 – parameters control printing and posting on sales packing slip

Figure 11 shows how sales packing slip or invoice posting can be prevented from sales packing slip. It also shows that product safety data sheets attached to the sales order can be optionally printed along with the packing slip posting if setup on parameters in inventory management module.

Hopefully with the help of above setup you will be able to utilize regulatory compliance capabilities in Process Manufacturing for Dynamics AX2012.