Posts related to the Manufacturing functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, things like Production BOM, Routing, MRP, Planning, Production Orders, Manufacturing Costs, etc..
This is a continuation of my last post where I described the Copilot Inventory Queries extension that I developed (available for free in AppSource). I have now taken that concept and applied it to the Planning Worksheet in Business Central. With this you get a Copilot user interface that can help explain the suggestions created by the material planning (MRP). I created this in a way that the AI model includes all the suggestions for the same item number, location and variant code for each query. So, if the plan makes multiple suggestions for the same item, you have the...
Hello! I am still around and working with Business Central. I know it’s been more than 8 years since my last blog post, but better late than never. 🙂 I went to Directions North America in April this year and met people that are still using and reading my blog, which was great to hear. I also learned that it is now possible to Reopen Finished Production Orders in Business Central, something that people have been waiting on for years (I have wanted this feature for 25 years now, finally!!). This made me so happy I decided to write this...
Production orders in Dynamics NAV allows you to consume both less and more than what’s defined on the components and to output both less and more than what’s defined on the operations in the routing. There is no check when you post, which is nice (sometime I which it was like that on sales and purchase orders as well, but that’s a topic for another post). But when you post more than you wanted you need to be able to reverse it. Luckily reversing production output and consumption is easy if you know how to do it (if the production...
This blog post is about the return merchandise (or material) authorization process in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, this is another topic that is more or less always discussed during Dynamics NAV implementations. The typical scenario is that a customer calls and wants to return a product that they have purchased to get a refund, replacement product or to get it repaired. For this they need an authorization, an RMA. So, how is this done in Dynamics NAV? The short answer is by using a sales return order, which is similar to a sales order but it goes the ‘other way’ and...
My last post about adding a field to the item tracking lines turned out to be very technical, so this time I am doing a post that is completely without any programming or changes to the application. The topic is parallel routings in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, it is nothing new but something that I get a fair amount of questions about and someone once suggested that I should write a blog post about it. So, here it is! 🙂 Parallel routings (sometimes also referred to as parallel sequences) are used when multiple manufacturing operations/processes can or is need to be...
If you have a relative large number of items to plan it could take a while to run the MRP calculations in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, an hour to do a full calculation is not uncommon, especially if you have been using the system for a while. In order to not have the MRP calculations to interrupt with the daily operations (such as posting orders) you typically want the calculations to take place during the night. This is a very common requirement and in fact a lot of people I talk to are surprised that this is not something Dynamics NAV...
When implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV in a manufacturing environment this question is always discussed; should the time posted against production orders be according to the expected values (e.g. the setup and run times in the routings, sometimes also referred to as nominal values) or should it be according to the actual time (entered by a user)? In my mind the answer to this should be driven by business requirements and should not be determined by the functionality available in a software (just like many other things when it comes to implementing an ERP system). My experience is that 3 out...
Using alternative production BOMs or routings is quite common in a manufacturing environment. It could for example be that larger orders are run in higher capacity machines, versions of products are produced with slight variations in components (like different colors), or you might produce the same item in two different locations and therefor need two different routings. These are just some examples, there are many more scenarios like that where you might need to change the production BOM or routing based on different factors. Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to manually change both the routing and production BOM used on...
A way to handle maintenance on machines in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is to create production orders with operations that represent the maintenance. The beauty of this is that you can then include the maintenance when scheduling the production orders, you also maintain history about when the maintenance was done and you have the option to capture the labor cost related to maintenance. Below is an example of how it can be done. (more…)
A topic that is discussed on all manufacturing implementations is Work Centers vs. Machine Centers. Questions like ‘should we be using machine centers?’ and ‘what are the differences?’ are always raised and discussed. It is very important to understand the differences and how to apply the functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. I have seen several installations where the setup has been much more complicated than it needed to be and therefor the system became hard to work with. I have also seen cases where standard functionality that could have added lots of value was not utilized and even modifications being...
