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.

 

 

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.

  1. View the batch order jobs, 
  2. View the formula connected to the batch order for which jobs are being displayed 
  3. View the non-conformances connected to the jobs being displayed
  4. 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
  5. "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

  1. Production journals
  2. Route jobs form
  3. Route form
  4. 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:

  1. Edit jobs list form
  2. Change feedback form
  3. Raw registrations form
  4. Posted registrations form
  5. Quantity reports form
  6. 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.