Setting up the production input location

This new functionality is available with KB 2995227 and will be included in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 CU8. To find the HF you can use LCS Issue Search.

What’s new?

To support an efficient process for raw material picking in production, it is now possible to split warehouse work for raw material picking per route operation. As an example, this is useful in a so called bulk / pack production scenario. In this scenario there could be one operation for making the bulk material and one operation for bottling and packing. These two operations are both consuming materials, but will be carried out in different physical locations, maybe even different buildings. Splitting the work per operation will, in this case, secure a process where the warehouse worker is directed, by warehouse work, to deliver the picked materials to the exact locations, where the materials are consumed. This blog will explain how this is enabled by using the official demo data released for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CU8 Virtual Machine (VM).

The illustration below shows the Pellets production from the USPI Company:

The item numbers for the ingredients (or raw materials) as MW4004 – Polypropylene and MW4005 – Rubber are pre-fixed with MW and the four end items are pre-fixed with PW. PW4000 – Pellets is the formula item, and PW4001 – Chips and PW4002 – Blocks are co-products. PW4003 – Slag is a by-product

As it can be seen from the illustration, ingredients from the pellets production are consumed at two different operations. Let us see how work is now split per operation when releasing a batch order for the Pellets formula. First we create a batch order for Pellets and perform the following steps Estimate, Schedule and Release. In the Release step warehouse work is created:

In the work details form it can be seen that two warehouse works has been created in the release step. The first work is for allocating materials to the extruder operation, which is the first operation in the route. The materials are allocated to the production input location: EXT:

The next illustration shows the work details for the second work for the order. This work is for allocating materials to the Mixer operation. The materials are allocated to a production input location: MIX

Let us take a closer look how to enable this feature. First we need to set up the production input locations that will be applicable for the route operations. The Pellets formula has a production route with four operations

The first operation PPExtCut is consuming MW4004 – Polypropylene and MW4005 – Rubber. An applicable production input location for this operation is found through the Resource requirements for the operation. In the Resource requirements, criteria for finding an applicable resource or resource group during scheduling, is set up

The input location can be specified at the resource group but also on the relation between the resource group and the resource, as it can be seen in below illustration

In case no input locations can be found from the resource groups or resource group relations, then a default production input location is used as a fallback location. This default input location is setup on the warehouse

After setting up the input locations we need to specify which operations that are consuming which materials. This mapping is set up on the material lines using the field Oper. No. This is shown in the below illustration

If no operation is specified on the material line, then the production input location will be found from the resource group or resource group relation, applicable for the first operation in the production route. If no applicable input locations can be found, then the default output location for the warehouse is used. In the diagrams below the defaulting hierarchy is shown. The first diagram shows the rules that applies for finding the production input location for a material line that is mapped to the first route operation or does not have a location defined:

The second diagram shows the rules that applies for finding the production input location for a material line that is not mapped to the first operation but to one of the following operations in the production route:

In order to enable the split of warehouse work a minor change has been introduced to the work template for raw material picking. When a new template is created a Work break is automatically inserted. This work break is configured by the system to group work per route operation. It is possible to remove the work break, and in that case only one work will be generated when releasing to the warehouse from production. In that case the input location found from the first operation in the route will be used as production input location, and if none found on the route the default output location set up for the warehouse

If the hotfix is deployed to an existing installation, then the work template for raw material picking needs to be recreated in order to establish the work break. An alternative is to insert the work break manually in the existing work template.

Again looking at the work details for the released batch order for pellets, we should now understand how the input locations for the two sets of work are found

Summary

In CU8 work for raw material picking can now be split per route operation. On the resource groups and the relation between the resource group and the resource it is possible to setup a production input location to be used in warehouse work. Installing this hotfix on an existing installation will require you to recreate or update the work template for raw material picking. This new capability secures a more efficient picking process for production and batch orders, as the warehouse work will now direct the warehouse worker to the exact locations where the material is consumed.

Improved process for generating put away work for production and batch orders in CU8

This new functionality is available with KB article 2988071 and will be included in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 CU8. To find the KB article you can use LCS Issue Search.

What’s new?

In R3 there were some issues in the support for generating put away Work when you used the reporting as finished process for batch orders (for formula items as well as for co-products and by-products). When for example reporting a formula item or a co-product or by-product as finished in production, the location directive could not find an applicable put-away location. Instead, the user was prompted to manually enter a put away location.

We made some changes to the location directives for production and batch orders to fix these issues. In R3 we had location directives with the types “Production order put away” and “Batch order put away” as shown in the picture below:

In CU8 the two types has been replaced with new ones. The first one “Finished goods put way” represents the produced item for production orders and the formula item for batch orders. The second one “Co-product and by-product put away” represents the co-products and the by-products that can be produced as output from batch orders. The two new types are shown in the picture below:

Let’s walk through a scenario that describes how to set this up.

Scenario: The company uses formulas with co-product and by-product outputs. The by-products are always stored in a location called SCRAP, and the co-products are stored in an area called FLOOR.

First we need to create work classes for finished goods put away, and co-products and by-products put away. Open the Work classes form by clicking Warehouse management > Setup > Work > Work Classes. For the work class for finished goods put-away, select the work order type Finished goods put away:

For the work class for co-products and by-products put-away, select the work order type Co-products and by-products put away:

Next we need to set up the work templates that defines how pick and put work for finished goods, co-products and by-products is created. Open the Work templates form by clicking Warehouse management > Setup > Work > Work templates. Select Finished goods put away in the field: Work order type. Set up a pick and a put line in the lower part of the form and remember to select a work class for finish goods put away for each line:

Now select the Work template for Co-product and by-product put away. Set up the pick and put lines in the lower part of the form with an appropriate Work class for each line:

The last step is to set up the location directives for finished goods and co-products and by-products. Open the Location directives form by clicking Warehouse management > Setup > Location directives. Select Finished goods put away in the Work order type field:

Now select Co-products and by-products put away in the Work order type field. Create one line for co-products and one line for by-products. Go to the line for by-products and select the Edit Query button. In the Query form select the Production co-by products table and the field Production type. Select by-product as a criterion. With this setting we made the location directive specific for by-products output:

The by-products should be stored in a location called SCRAP. This location has an associated Location profile ID also called SCRAP:

Now select the Edit Query button in the Location Directive Actions section. Add a line for the field Location profile ID and use SCRAP as a criterion for that line in the Query:

With this setting the location directive will direct all by-products to the SCRAP location in warehouse 15

As the last thing we will set up the location directive for co-products. Go to the location directive we defined for co-products and select the Edit Query button in the Location Directives Actions section. As the co-products, in this example, should all be stored in an area calloed FLOOR, add a line for the field Location profile ID and add the criterion FLOOR:

Summary

The work order types that are used for production output have changed in AX 2012 R3 CU8 which fixed some issues in the R3 version. If you are upgrading from R3 to CU8, you will need to re-configure your work classes, work templates, and location directives as outlined in the example in this blog.

Support for Recycled By-products in AX 2012 R3 CU8

This new functionality is available with KB 2989470 / HF 2989470 and will be included in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 CU8. To find the HF you can use LCS Issue Search.

What’s new?
To support recycled or recurrent products in process industry, it is now possible to use the same product as both input and output on a formula. As an example, this is useful in plastic molding where consumed plastic regrind can be recovered from the manufacturing process. Other examples are processes where you put metal scrap from the stamping/forming process in a foundry.
The recurring co-product solution in Microsoft Dynamics AX2009 had some limitations on the costing side and was not ported to AX2012. This new solution use by-products with a stronger support for costing.

Feature solution
This new feature enables the consumption and reuse of the same by-products in the production of formulas and batch orders, by allowing BOM circularity for output that has the production type, By-product.
For costing purposes a new Burden type, Recycled, was added to handle the cost of the recycled by-products. Use of the Recycled Burden type deducts the joint production cost that is allocated to the formula and co-products, by using the standard cost value of the recovered by-product.
By-product output from planned and firmed batch orders is ignored during planning. This is done to ensure that demand for the recycled product isn’t pegged against by-product output from the same order, or other orders from the same process or BOM chain. This means that the recycled by-product cannot be pegged until it is on-hand (posted from the batch order).
Finally as a small additional improvement on the Explosion form, it is now indicated when a formula output is a by-product. This is done by adding ‘(By-product)’ to the line.

Set up recycled by-products
In order to allow BOM circularity, the recycled item must use standard cost and use the production type By-product or in special cases Co-product. On the formula the recycled product input is a normal formula line, and the output on the same or other formulas is a co-product output of the Production type, By-product, and the Burden type, Recycled.

Product

The recycled functionality only supports standard cost, so ensure that you select an Item model group that uses the Inventory model, Standard cost, on the General FastTab:
Ensure that the Production type is By-product on the Engineer FastTab for the product:

Note: Products with production type Co-product can also be used, but then you will have to change the Production type to By-product on the formula or batch order, to use the recycled by-product functionality.

Input – formula consuming the recycled product
The recycled product is added as a normal formula line on the formula:
Output – formula producing the recycled product
On the formula (can be the input, or another formula) that produces the recycled item, the recycled item must be added as a co-product output of the production type, By-product, with the Burden type, Recycled:

We are aware that the name Burden is not full correct with the Recycled option added. However, the nature of a hotfix release didn’t leave room for renaming.

Let’s try an example to see the feature in action:

We have the following three products:
M1 – Main ingredient, Standard cost – $10/Kg, Purchase, 100 kg On-hand
B1 – By Product, Standard cost – $5/Kg, Purchase, 15 kg On-hand
F1 – Formula item, Standard cost, Production, 0 kg On-hand

To produce F1 we use the following formula:
F1-FORM, Formula Size: 10 Kg

With the following lines
M1, 20 kg
B1, 10 Kg

Co/By-Product lines
B1, Production type = By-product, Burden = Recycled, 8 Kg

In AX it looks like this:

With the B1 added as By-product under the Co-products output:

First sales order
To generate a demand for F1 let’s create a sales order for 10 kg:

Running the explosion on the sales order will generate a batch order to produce the 10 kg because we don’t have any F1 on-hand:

Notice that the first line for B1 indicates that we get an additional co-product output of the type, By-product.

As both M1 and B1 are on hand, we can firm the planned batch order and start the production. (Planned orders -> Firm)

Processing the batch order
Let’s report the batch order as finished with the expected input and output:

What happened to the cost?
I have set a material overhead of 10%, so looking at the cost perspective we get the following.

Batch cost:
     M1 20 kg = 20 * $10 = $200
     B1 10 kg = 10 * $5 = $50
     Overhead 10% = 10% * ($200+$50) = $25
     Total = 200+50+25 = $275

B1 cost share (8kg): 8 * $5 = $40 (note this is fixed to the Std. Cost – no overhead)
F1 cost share (10kg): $275 – $40 = $235 (Incl. all $25 in overhead)

For the formula product – F1:

And for the by-product – B1:

Second sales order
Let’s create another sales order for 20 kg F1, to see how planning handles a shortage of the recycled by-product.

Running the explosion on the sales order will generate a planned batch order to produce the 20 kg. Notice the planned order for B1.

We still have plenty of M1:

We have 80 kg and we need 40 kg for the additional order.

However, we are running short of B1:

Initially, we had 15 kg. The first batch order consumed 10 kg and output was 8 kg, so now we have 13 kg.
For the new order we need 20 kg, so a planned order for 7 kg is created to cover the missing ingredient.

Summary:
With HF 2989470 that is included in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 CU8, it is now possible to recycle and reuse by-product output from batch orders.

The recycled product must use standard cost and have the production type, By-product or Co-product
On the formula, co-product output must be of the type, By-product, and have the Burden type, Recycled
Planning will now consider only on-hand inventory for by-products. So potential supply from batch orders is not used for pegging until the batch order output is posted.

Working with Overlap in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Conducting Dynamics AX Manufacturing training for a class in Malaysia, it became clear that the current documentation on Overlap in Dynamics AX was not telling the full story.
Therefore, I decided to write this blog.

So, what is Transfer batch and Overlap quantity?

In Dynamics AX ‘Transfer batch’ is the field used to control an overlapped schedule. Apics define ‘Overlapped schedule’ as “A manufacturing schedule that overlaps successive operations. Overlapping occurs when the completed portion of an order at one work center is processed at one or more succeeding work centers before the pieces left behind are finished at the preceding work centers.”

Overlapped schedule is also known as lap phasing, operation overlapping, telescoping or send ahead.

‘Overlap quantity’ is a calculated field on the production order – ensuring that we avoid gaps in the schedule, when the successor operation to the operation with a Transfer batch value, has a shorter process time.
The ‘Overlap quantity’ determines the first transfer batch size for the operation; the following transfers to the next operation will use the ‘Transfer batch’ value.

Overlap quantity example

Say you have a production order for 10 pcs and it has two operations 10 and 20, each operation taking 2 minutes per pcs:

Without overlap:

Normally operation 20 will start when the entire quantity (10 pcs) has been processed on operation 10

With overlap:

When you have specified something in ‘Transfer batch’ field, let us say 2 pcs, it means the next operation (in our case 20) can already start when only 2 pcs has been processed on the operation 10. The value from ‘Transfer batch’ is by default copied to the ‘Overlap quantity’, on the production order.

Why does the Overlap quantity sometimes change when I estimate a production order?

The ‘Overlap quantity’ parameter on the production order route is calculated by the system. This is done during the estimation (or scheduling) of the production order, to prevent gaps in situations where a later operation have a shorter process time than the current operation. The fact that the successor would be waiting for the delivery from the predecessor would be causing a gap.
So, the calculation of an optimal ‘Overlap quantity’ is done based on the ‘Transfer batch’ and the operation process durations on the route.

Overlap example with gaps (two operations):

Say you have a production order for 10 pcs and it has two operations 10 and 20, this time the first operation takes more time than the second does:
Opr 10: 20 min per pcs
Opr 20: 10 min per pcs
Again, we have a Production order for 10 pcs and Transfer batch quantity set to 2 pcs

Without any change during Estimation the jobs on the route would have a gapped schedule and look like this:

However, as the first operation in total will take 200 min to complete and the second will take 100 min you will get the following information when estimating:

With the change from 2 to 6 we ensure that there are no gaps between the jobs in the second operation.

Overlap example with gaps (three operations):

Now let us spice it up a bit and add another operation – Opr. 30 with a run time of 5 min per pcs. We will also set a ‘Transfer batch’ = 4 on operation 20

In this case, you get the following information during estimation:

Now the schedule will look like this:

Therefore, by updating the ‘Overlap quantity’ on the production order during the Estimation Dynamics AX ensures that production on the following operation can happen without any gaps – avoiding a gapped schedule.

Christian Rytt, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen

Use of ingredient types for batch balancing in production

In an earlier blog post, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axmfg/archive/2012/12/05/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r2-potency-management.aspx#10421522, we introduced the new capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 that support potency management business processes for process industries. This blog provides more information about the four ingredient types that were introduced, None, Active, Compensating, and Filler, and the impact that they have on how quantities are calculated for batch orders.

There are many examples of the use of potency; in chemical industry the percentage of caustic can be characterized as an active ingredient in Pottassium Hydroxide, alcohol can be an active ingredient is liqueurs or fat can be an active ingredient in foods. The amout of active ingredient will often vary around a target value for these products, and the purchase price and the amount to consume in further production will often be affected by this variation. The batch balancing process, which is described in more details here, is focusing on how to take this variation into account

The key to setup formulas, where items with active ingredients must be taken into account, is by the use of the Ingredient types on the formula lines. For the example we will be looking at product A, B, C and D which each represent a seperate Ingredient type.

Ingredient type: Active

You can specify the potency of a product by defining the percentage of its active ingredient. When a product with an active ingredient is included in a formula, the ingredient type on the formula line gets the value Active and cannot be changed. Products must have a potency specified for them before they can be used as an active ingredients in formulas.

The potency of a product is defined by the use of a base attribute of the product. The base attribute is specified from the Manage inventory tab on the Action Pane in the Released products form. Before the base attribute can be associated with a product, the product must have the following setup:

The batch dimension must be active for the product. This is done by assigning to the product a tracking dimension group with an active batch dimension.
The attribute that will act as the base attribute for the product must be defined as a product specific batch attribute for the product. (Manage inventory > Batch attributes > Product specific). The associated attribute must have minimum, maximum, and target values.

The balanced quantity of an active ingredient is calculated according to the target value specified for the base attribute. Batch orders for products that have active ingredients in their formulas must go through a batch
balancing process. The batch balancing process is carried out from the Batch balancing form, which is available from the Batch orders list page and Batch order details form when the batch order status is Started. The batch balancing process estimates the amount of each ingredient in the formula that is required to produce the product. The estimation is based on the potency of the on-hand batches that are selected for the production.

Example

Ingredient B has a base attribute X and a target value of 30, and it’s included in a formula that requires 30 liters of Ingredient B for every 100 liters of the product. A batch order is created with a batch size of 100 liters. The batch order is started, and during the batch balancing process the user points to a batch of Ingredient B that has a potency level of 35. Because the potency level of 35 is higher than the target value of 30, the balanced quantity of ingredient B is reduced with the ratio of the potency value and the target value of the batch compared to the estimated quantity. The calculation of the balanced quantity looks like this:

(30/35) * 30 Liters = 25,71 Liters.

Ingredient type: None

When using this type there will be no difference between the estimated quantity and the balanced quantity when performing the batch balancing operation.

Example

Ingredient A is assigned to an ingredient type None, and is added to a formula for a finished product. The formula calls for 10 liters of Ingredient A for every 100 liters of the finished product. When a batch order requires 200 liters both the estimated and the balanced quantity of Ingredient A is calculated as 20 liters.

Ingredient type: Compensating

A compensating ingredient can either offset or compliment the effect of the active ingredient in a product. Therefore, the quantity of a compensating ingredient that will be consumed depends on the potency of the product.

Opposing effect – If the amount of the active ingredient is higher than anticipated, less of the compensating ingredient is required. The earlier blog gave an example of ice-cream, where cream compensates for a higher concentration of fat in milk.
Complementary effect – If the amount of the active ingredient is lower than anticipated, you need to add more compensating ingredient. The earlier blog used potato chips as an example, where more oil was added to the boiling process when the degree of moisture in the potatoes is higher than anticipated.

The relation between an active ingredient and a complementary ingredient is set up in the “Compensating principle” form, which is available from the Action Pane in the Formula lines form. You need to select the line that represents a compensating principle, and then point to the active ingredient you want to compensate. In the compensating principle, you also specify a positive or negative compensating factor to determines how much to compensate for and whether the principle should be opposing or complementary. A positive factor is used for complementary, and a negative factor is indicates opposing.

Example

Ingredient B is an active ingredient that has a base attribute X and a target value of 30. It’s included in a formula that requires 30 liters of Ingredient B for every 100 liters of the product. Ingredient C is a compensating ingredient, and is included in the same formula with a quantity of 10. The compensating principle is set up with a factor of 1.10. With a factor of 1.10, the balanced quantity of the compensating ingredient will be reduced by the difference between the active ingredient’s balanced quantity and the estimated required quantity multiplied by 1.10

In a previous example, the balanced quantity of the active ingredient needed was calculated to 25.71, and the estimated required quantity was calculated to 30. In this case, the balanced quantity of the compensating ingredient would be calculated as follows:

Difference between estimated and balanced quantity:

25.71 – 30 = – 4.29

Multiplied with compensating factor:

4.29 * 1.10 = – 4,72

Compensating estimated quantity will be reduced with -4.72 in order to calculate balanced compensating quantity:

10 – (- 4.72) = 14.72

Because 1.10 is a positive factor, this is a compensating principle with a complementary effect. And because the active ingredient is more potent than anticipated, more of the compensating ingredient is required.

Ingredient type: Filler

The filler ingredient is a neutral ingredient used to reach the desired output quantity of the finished product. Adjustment to the filler quantities are calculated based on variations in the active and compensating ingredient compared to the standard quantity.

Example:

We have formulated a product with ingredient A, B, C and D for a formula size of 100 liters. We have calculated the balanced quantity of all the ingredient types except for the line with ingredient type Filler. The balanced quantity of the filler ingredient calculates as the difference between the batch size of 100 liters and the sum of the ingredients:

100 – 20 – 25.71 – 14.72 = 39.57

What's new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 – Batch order sequencing

Many process industries are faced with a need to sequence the production of their products by using multiple levels of complexity. Production is sequenced based on a particular criteria that is assigned the highest priority. Production within that sequence is then further sequenced based on additional criteria that are assigned appropriate priorities. For example, a paint facility is configured so that production is first sorted by color and then by package size. This enables the cleanup time between colors to be reduced. However, there is a change to the packaging line equipment. Then the container configuration has a higher priority than the cleanup time that is required for color changes.

The batch order sequencing feature enables a production planner to sequence products on a bottleneck resource in the production facility. You can define sequences and sequence groups. The sequences can be characteristics of items that are used to identify how to sequence the items in production. Sequence groups define how certain sequences are prioritized. You can assign sequences to items and assign sequence groups to bottleneck resources. When you apply a sequencing principle to the MRP, the expected results are calculated.

What's new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 – Lot inheritance

Process industries often produce items for which certain characteristics, or attributes, of the ingredients need to be transferred or inherited to the manufactured items. These manufactured items may be finished goods and/or co-products. In many cases, only certain characteristics need to be inherited since these characteristics may become diluted when mixed with other ingredients. In some cases, the characteristic may represent an important attribute that needs to be tracked to the end items due to regulatory or other reasons.

Lot Inheritance enables users to configure items in a manner in which the product characteristics and shelf life information of the finished products can be updated by using the ingredients of the formula that is used to produce that item. For shelf life information, this enables users to define items so that the inventory batch that has the earliest shelf life dates updates the finished products, and the shelf life dates of the finished products are inherited from the inventory batch. For product characteristics, this enables users to define batch attributes for both the finished items and their ingredients, and then select the ingredients that pass their characteristics or attribute values to the finished good items. Users can also select to update co-products by using the same information for shelf life and product characteristics on a formula-by-formula basis.

What's new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 – Potency management

With this blog entry, I would like you to familiarize you with the concepts that we have introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 to support potency management.

Potency management lets users define products as having a concentration of an active ingredient. The concentration of active ingredient can be used to affect the amount of material that is required in production or the amount that should be paid to a vendor based on the
concentration level.

Process industries often have formulas that contain one or more active ingredients. For each active ingredient there may be one or more compensating ingredients. These compensating ingredients for a single active ingredient may have different effects based on the difference in the concentration level of the reserved inventory batch and the standard level of concentration for that particular active ingredient. In some cases, the requirement of compensating ingredient may increase to offset the increase in the concentration level of the active ingredient. In other cases, the requirement of compensating ingredient may decrease to offset the increase in the concentration level of the active ingredient. These are known as complimentary and opposing effects.

A complimentary effect occurs when the concentration level of the reserved batch for the active ingredient increases and therefore, less of the active ingredient is required and less of the compensating ingredient is required. A complimentary effect
also occurs when the concentration level of the reserved batch for the active ingredient decreases, and more of the compensating ingredient is required. In ice cream manufacturing for example, a formula for ice cream may contain milk that has a potency of 2% milk fat as an active ingredient, and milk powder as a compensating ingredient. If milk that has 4% milk fat is used for that production batch instead, then less milk powder, which compensates for the milk fat, is required.

An opposing effect occurs when the concentration level of the reserved batch for the active ingredient increases, and therefore more of the active ingredient is required and more of the compensating ingredient is required. An opposing effect also occurs when the concentration level of the reserved batch for the active ingredient decreases and less of the compensating ingredient is required. In food production for example, a formula for potato chips may contain potatoes that have a certain level of moisture, as the active ingredient. The compensating ingredient is the oil that is used to fry the potato chips. When the moisture content in the potato chips rises, then more oil is required to boil off the excess moisture. If the potatoes are drier, then less oil is needed.

There can be one or more formula ingredients that are configured as filler ingredients. Filler ingredients are used to fill up or ”top off” the batch quantity to achieve a required amount. Due to the nature of active ingredients and the required amount of compensating ingredients that result from the principle factor, the total amount of the active and compensating ingredients may be less than the estimated quantity totals. When this situation occurs, an adjustment is made to the quantities of filler ingredients to achieve the required quantity of the formula item. When more than one filler ingredient exists in the formula, then the adjustment amount is applied to the filler ingredients based on their relationship to each other.

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.