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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.

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.

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.