formula management – Devlicious.net

Generating put away work when reporting as finished from the Dynamics AX client

This new functionality is available with KB 2999768 and will be included in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 CU8. To find the HF you can use LCS Issue Search.

What’s new?

In the AX2012 R3 release put away work could only be generated when you used the reporting as finished process on a mobile device for a production or batch order. In CU8 put away work can now also be generated when you use the reporting as finished process for a warehouse-enabled item from the AX client.

In this blog I am going to walk through two scenarios showing how put away work is now created when reporting as finished from the Dynamics AX client. In this example I am going to use item L0101 from the USMF demo data company

Simple scenario : Shannon has completed the assembly of ten speakers in her work cell. She reports the speakers as finished in the route card journal and put away work is generated.

A production order for twenty pieces of mini-speakers exists and is in the status Started:

Shannon completes the assembly of the twenty Mini-speakers and reports the quantity as finished in the route card journal:

Shannon provides the journal line with a license plate number:

When Shannon posts the journal, put away work is generated:

Advanced scenario : Shannon is working on a production order assembling ten Mini-speakers. Shannon has completed the assembly of eight speakers and reports them as finished in the job registration terminal form and put away work is generated. Shannon completes the assembly of the remaining two speakers but does not have time to report them in the terminal, because she has to rush home. Lars promises Shannon that he will take care of reporting the remaining quantity as finished.

A production order for ten pieces of mini-speakers exists and is in the status Started:

Shannon has started the assembly of 10 mini-speakers:

Shannon is now going to report eight pieces as finished from the Job registration form in the manufacturing execution system. In the feedback form Shannon provides a license plate number. This number identifies the goods that Shannon is reporting to the output location of her work cell. The license plate number will be used by the warehouse worker to identify the goods that he is going to put away from the output location to the finished goods locations:

Note: The license plate field is enabled in the feedback form under the following conditions

The item is enabled for the new warehouse processes
The shop floor operator is reporting on the last operation in the production route

After Shannon has confirmed the feedback of eight pieces of mini-speakers, put away work is generated:

As it can be seen this work suggests that the eight Mini-speakers are put away from the production output location to the finished goods location.

In order to report the remaining two Mini-speakers, Lars opens the production order form and selects the Report as finished function. Here he enters the remaining two pieces and the license plate. In this case he uses the same license plate as Shannon did when she reported the first eight speakers:

After confirming the report as finished, put away work has been generated for the remaining two speakers that were reported by Lars:

The different options for reporting as finished is outlined in the table below. All these options now supports the generation of put away work:

Option	Description
Report as finished	Dedicated function on the production/batch order form or list page. Has advanced options to for example back flush materials. Typically used by the shop floor supervisor role
Report as finished journal	Journal to post the quantity reported as finished for production or batch orders. Typically used by the shop floor operator role
Job card journal	Journal to report time and quantity for route operations. Option to report a quantity as finished when reporting on the last operation. Typically used by the shop floor operator role
Route card journal	Journal to report time and quantity for production jobs. Option to report a quantity as finished when reporting on a process job for the last route operation. Typically used by the shop floor operator role
Current operations	List page showing ongoing operations on the shop floor. Option to report a quantity as finished when reporting on the last operation. Used by the shop floor operator role
Report feedback in job registration form	Form that is optimized for manufacturing execution on the shop floor in a kiosk or terminal installation. Option to report a quantity as finished when reporting on the last operation or a process job for the last operation. Used by the shop floor operator role
Hand held device	Menu items on hand held device offering reporting production or batch orders as finished. Used by the shop floor operator role

Summary

In CU8 it is now possible to have put away work generated when reporting quantity on a production or batch order in the Dynamics AX client. For example this can be useful for customers who wants to enable the new warehouse processes offered in the R3 release, but wants to continue to use the shop floor terminal for manufacturing execution, or also want to enable the shop floor supervisor to make corrections.

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.

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.

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.