How to Manage Your Production in Business Central

Production managers are primarily responsible for planning processes. The system takes a lot of work off your hands with AI-powered sales and inventory forecasting. This forecasts potential sales based on historical data, providing an overview of expected demand and anticipated stockouts.

Sales and stock forecast on an article card

Production and material requirements planning

Using the Calculate Regeneration function, production and material requirements can be calculated based on actual and planned demand. Both production program planning and net requirements can be calculated separately or simultaneously.

Material requirements planning/net requirements

Material requirements planning forecasts the material needs for components based on actual demand. The main purpose of net requirements planning is to schedule formal plans for each item to provide the right item at the right time, in the right place, and in the right quantity.

Production program planning

Production program planning is the calculation of a production plan based on actual demand and sales planning. The calculation of the production program planning is performed for finished items with a plan or a sales order line. These items are referred to as “production program planning items” and are marked as dynamic when the calculation is started.

The visual representation of your planning can be expanded with various add-ons such as the Netronic Visual (Advanced) Production Scheduler.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing selected operations to vendors is common in many manufacturing companies. Outsourcing is realized through special work center groups assigned to vendors. The software recognizes the need for subcontracting, which can be created through the subcontracting proposal. Service costs can be added to the cost of production through this process.

Bills of materials

With bills of materials (production or assembly bills of materials), you structure higher-level products consisting of individual components.

Production parts list

Fulfillment orders can be created directly from sales orders, from production planning (planning proposal), or from order planning.

Within the system, a production order (abbreviated as PO) can have different statuses depending on its processing stage (PO status). The following PO statuses are distinguished:

• Simulated production orders: A simulated production order is mainly used for order creation and calculation. One could say it is an example of a production order. Thus, it has no impact on order planning.
• Planned production orders: A planned production order represents the best estimate of future workload at the work center or work center group based on available information. It also provides information for capacity planning by showing the capacity requirements by work center or work center group.
• Firm planned production orders: A firm planned production order, as the name suggests, is planned and can be released soon. Unlike the simulated and planned production orders, it is not deleted in the planning proposal.
• Released production orders: Changing the status of the production order to “released” initiates work for the corresponding order. Actual material consumption and actual reporting can be recorded with a released production order. Additionally, automatic consumption and reporting can only be done for released production orders.
• Completed production orders: A completed production order is typically a production order whose items have been produced in the specified quantity. Completing a production order is an important task when finalizing the overall cost assessment of the item being produced. Completing a production order allows for adjustment and reconciliation of the assessment. Completed production orders are used for generating statistical reports and supporting traceability to other orders (e.g., sales orders, production orders, and purchase orders). The ability to trace to a completed production order enables you to trace the exact history. A completed production order cannot be modified retrospectively.

As soon as the production order has been created and planned, it can be released for the production area and then executed. In the meantime, the materials, working time and quantity of the manufactured item are recorded.

The material consumption can be recorded either manually via the FA consumption book sheet or the production book sheet. In addition to the manual method, you can also use forward or backward posting. With forward and backward booking, you also have the choice of whether this should be recorded for the entire order or for each work step.

There are various options for material postings. Small parts, such as screws, can be configured so that they are automatically booked according to the planned quantity from the parts list. Other items may require picking and should be entered manually as consumption by the production employees. Subsequent correction postings are also possible.

Create planned production order

Actual reporting

Actual reporting can be processed through the PO Actual Reporting Journal. It serves to track how much time the order has taken and the quantity produced of the manufactured item. Actual reporting helps determine the exact manufacturing costs.

Similar to material consumption, there are three methods for actual reporting: manual, forward, or backward. Through the PO Actual Reporting Journal, you can also book scrap and downtimes.

Journals

The Production Journal, the PO Consumption Journal, and the aforementioned PO Actual Reporting Journal are essential in the production process. The Production Journal is essentially a combination of the other two journals, allowing you to capture both consumption and actual reporting of a production order in one place.

Analysis and error source minimization

With the system, you can monitor production declines or scrap and identify causes more easily to avoid scrap in the long term.

You can also enter and record scrap and downtimes in the system. The same applies to downtimes.

Production key performance indicator reporting

Reports on essential production key performance indicators can be easily generated due to the system’s robust reporting capabilities and scheduled as desired. For example, you can set up a report to be delivered to management every Monday morning at 8 a.m.

“Detailed calculation” report

Monitoring (quantity and quality)

Through Azure IoT, it’s possible to connect physical objects (e.g., machines) and virtual objects (e.g., cloud). Why? This allows for proactive and predictive minimization of error sources (e.g., machine failures, machine overheating). To achieve this, a large amount of data is collected and analyzed.