Tag Archief van: Dynamics AX 2012

Resource Model in Dynamics AX 2012 (Part 2)

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In my previous blog on the resource model in Dynamics AX 2012 (part 1) the extension of resource types and resource capabilities have been explained. Also, a short introduction on resource planning is given. In this blog I will elaborate on the resource planning in more detail.

Dynamics AX 2012 provides more features to optimize the production planning process in your organisation. One of these features includes the ‘property’ concept. This helps the planning process in case a manufacturing process should be tailormade for a specific customer.

The property feature in Dynamics AX 2012 gives the ability and important advantages including

  • Sequential planning of work orders in order to minimize required time for setup between the job operations;
  • Optimizing job sequencing to the same resource at the shop floor;
  • Scheduling and rescheduling of work orders and jobs can be managed in an improved way.

To realize the property based production and job schedule the following configurations are prerequisite and can be managed easily in Dynamics AX2012:

  1. Assigning a property to a Product

A product property can be used to classify it as a tailor made product or to assign a specific product attribute. This feature can be used to activate production routes which are property based.

Path: Product Information Management > Released product details > Engineer fast tab

 

  1. Assigning the property to the route operation and the production

Dynamics AX 2012 enables to differentiate job operations (part of the route) and products which are property specific. This simplifies maintaining job routes for customer specific use or to differentiate product specific manufacturing operations.

 

  1. Job scheduling based on predefined timeslots

In case a work order and jobs are restricted to be scheduled during a specific period of days or hours the same set of properties can be assigned to predefined working time templates. These working templates can easily be updated and assigned to the working template.

Path: Organization Administration – Common – Calendars – Working time templates – ‘overview’ tab

Dynamics AX 2012 enables that job scheduling can be based on time intervals based on product specific properties. During the job scheduling the correct property will be considered based on the time intervals. In the example below the property ‘10’ assigned operations and/ or product will be scheduled during the Monday morning.

Path: Organization Administration – Common – Calendars – Working time templates – ‘Monday’ tab

  1. Impact of property scheduling on resource scheduling

If jobs can only be performed by specific resources based on the property rules setup and resource needs to be allocated then this can be managed in the resource master data. Also the scheduling of job orders considers the capacity availability based on efficiency parameters of a certain resource which can be human resource, machine, tool, location or other types.

The MRP process will schedule planned work orders based on the finite and infinite planning rules which are applicable for materials, resources AND property based allocation. At the same time resources will be allocated for that specific job in order to ensure on-time delivery. If the resources can only be scheduled during specific timeslots in the week the working time templates (see 3.) helps optimizing this.

In the example illustration above the resource 00502 will be allocated for specific products based on the property principle.

Pad: Organization Administration – Resource – Resource

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Resource Model in Dynamics AX 2012 (Part 1)

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In Dynamics AX 2012 a number of impacting enhancements have been realized around resource scheduling. In previous versions of Dynamics AX the use of resources scheduling was restricted when the processes applicable within an organization were complex. A known example is the use of alternative resources. In AX 2009 the use of taskgroups was needed for which it was a prerequisite to use taskscheduling. In Dynamics AX 2012 this is not required any longer because of a number of features.

  1. Resource Types

Next to defining people, machines and tools also locations can also be defined as a resource in Dynamics AX 2012. This will enable using locations in resource scheduling in case this resource type must be considered as bottleneck.

  1. Configuration of resources are simplified and usable for multiple purposes

Resources and resource groups (was: workcenter(groups)) only needs to be created once. In previous versions of Dynamics AX workcenters had to be duplicated if it was to be used for multiple situations. In addition, resources can be assigned to a specific group of resources based on a predefined effectiveness period.

Another big enhancement is the assignment of compentences to a resource which are partly connected to the human resource module in Dynamics AX.

These resource capabilities can be defined as follows.

The matrix of compentences visualizes the skills per resource and resource group as illustrated below. This provides the planner a quick overview of capabilities and skills for each resource (group). Determining the right resource for the job is peace-of-cake for the job scheduler. Answering simple questions like who has the right certificates to execute the operation can be checked in this overview.

  1. Resource planning

Dynamics AX 2012 gives the possibility to define a production route based on required capabilities. These capabilities relate to required machines, tools, people, locations and other resource types. The resources which have the capabilities assigned are applied during the resource scheduling when planning workorders.

In short Dynamics AX simplifies job scheduling of workcenters by:

  • Assigning resources to capabilities and skills;
  • Defining production routes (manufacturing operations) to required resource capabilities.

 

Dynamics AX also gives you more flexibility in using resources for generating a rough cut capacity planning and a detailed job scheduling. In previous versions of Dynamics resource groups and resources had to be duplicated to simulate resource planning at different levels.

The route feasibility overview (see below) gives the job scheduler the required information to determine bottlenecks of a specific operation. Also, it can be checked which resources can be used as an alternative based on the required capabilities. In a nutshell some great features to make life easier for a job planner.

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Shop Floor Control With Dynamics AX 2012

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In the prior versions to Dynamics AX 2012 the Shop Floor Control module was known for its restrictions. In the 2012 version the modules Time & Attendance and Manufacturing Execution has been designed realizing an improved and more mature functionality which can be better fit to the business requirements of a manufacturing company. In this blog I will give you a glance of the improved functionalities.

  1. Personalizing the registration form

Dynamics AX 2012 enables configuring the shopfloor registration form at a terminal or even at employee level. The configuration permits to determine if information should be displayed in a minimized way or at detailed level.

The activity panes can be personalized in different ways. Predefining combination keys to manage the recurring activities (e.g. stock counting) can be assigned to a specific combination key (e.g. <F6>) Personalisation even includes configuring the layout of a form based on a predefined profile. No help of a developer needed here. It means that the labels of fields and even the sequence can be personalized in Dynamics AX 2012.

In the example illustrated below the ‘Production’ profile (typically being used by people who need to update and maintain the feedback during the manufacturing process) would include updating inventory adjustments (F6) or update a clock out (F7).

An employee assigned to the ‘Production’ user profile will get to see the following forms and menu options.

  1. Defining a Shop Supervisor profile

The out-of-the-box business roles in Dynamics AX 2012 include the so called ‘Shop Supervisor’ role which has predefined priviliges assigned permitting the role to process and/ or monitor specific activities. Based on business process requirements these priviliges can be adjusted. As each business role has its own predefined (and adjustable) dashboard the supervisor can monitor predefined KPI’s, open and due work order lists, etc.

Based on the business role specific permissions in the system the employee linked to the supervisor role is able to:

  • Monitor and adjust the reported time attendance hours;
  • Adjust the priority assigned to a work and/ or job order;
  • Check the job history if needed.

In this example the job supervisor is allowed to check and modify the job sequence which is assigned to a specific resource within a certain production unit. The supervisor can easily check relevant data like capacity reservations of (alternative) resoures in a table or graphical mode. Adjustments in job scheduling can be pushed by submitting or reverted by resetting the sequence.

This is only a glance of a few enhancements realized in the module ‘Time & Attendance and Manufacturing Execution. This module has clearly been developed into a more mature and practical module considering the extended functionalities and user friendly interface.

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