This morning we presented a reasonably successful demo to a potential client, mainly concentrating on the manufacturing area of Navision. One point that was raised during the demo was with regard to how Navision would handle production orders that are to be processed at a different site to the remainder of the order. The scenario is as follows… The client has two sites. The main site is responsible for taking the sales order and assembling most of the finished product, and the production BOM for the sold items contain a combination of purchase items and BOM’s. Either at the point of creating the production BOM, or upon viewing the Production order, a decision may be made for some of the sub-assemblies to be produced at the remote site. I can see that it is possible to manually change the location for a line on the production order (after cancelling the reservation for the line) however, is it possible within standard functionality to define (using SKU’s or another method) a specific locations for lines on the production order?
So not to answer the question but to ask more! Is the decision manual to decide where to make, or are you going to let the system drive this? You could use SKU’s, transfer for the sales location and manufacturing at the remote location. Then when the sales order is loaded and the production order is loaded on the assembly site depending upon the stock and reordering policies the stock will be transferred from the remote site, or if you have no stock it will create a transfer order and a production order for the goods to be transferred. Also with SKU’s you have the Copmponents at Location option and therefore when you load a purchase order for the parent at one location the components are drawn from another location. So it depends how you want to do it. Of course if the decision is manual Navision cannot really drive it, so it will require manual intervention.
Hi Steve, Thanks as always for getting back. I’m really only after a theoretical yes or no at the minute as to whether Navision can handle this kind of scenario. The nuts and bolts aren’t necessary at the moment. I get the impression from your reply that it is possible, it will just depend on the exact implementatation as to how it happens. Let me try to explain things with some more details, to give you a bit more idea when I’m coming from. My client sells and assembles sheds. When a shed is sold, it is normally assembled and then put into stock at the main site (LOCATION1). Therefore the production BOM will contain a combination of sub-assemblies e.g. side panels, doors etc, plus some purchase items, e.g. hinges and nails. Production orders will be created, and the subsequently generated Planning Worksheet will be used to generate any additional production orders for the sub assemblies, and purchase orders for the hinges etc. I think I’ve replicated this satisfactorily. However, for some of its sale items, the roof for example will be assembled at the second location which is 150 miles away (LOCATION2), perhaps because certain machinery is required that is not available at LOCATION1, alternatively, the planner may decide to manually move the production to LOCATION2. Either way, after assembly at LOCATION2, the roof will be moved to LOCATION1 where it is attached to the rest of the building. In this situation, I guess the production BOM would contain sub-assemblies as defined in the first scenario but I think we need the Production Order generated for the roof to have LOCATION2. Then any purchase orders raised for the roof components, e.g. wood, nails and cladding, will be for booking into LOCATION2. In my fiddlings, my production orders for the roof are always coming through with LOCATION1. Granted this may just be a problem with my replenishment and planning setup, and also, the planner would be able to manually change the Location on the Production Order, but I guess all I’m asking is whether this should be able to driven automatically. Is there something around the BOM that would define the location for the roof to be LOCATION2. I hope this helps you understand a little more what they want to do. As I say, I’m not asking for a “How to do…” for this, but just confirmation that Navision is capable of it or at least something similar. Something keeps nagging me about Work Centres but I can’t see how to maintain stock visibility across the 2 sites, e.g. 3 roofs in stock at LOCATION1 awaiting assembly into final product, 5 completed roofs in stock at LOCATION2 awaiting transportation. Thanks again
Hi Gary Well I would set it up with SKU’s and the replenishment of the roof to be driven by trasnsfer order in location 1, and it transfers it from location 2. If stock exists at location 2 it becomes an instant transfer, if not it will tell the system to make one. If the replenishment system is set to Prod. Order on thE SKU, the Production Order will be raised on location 2. What you may then need to worry about are the components of the roof, are they held at location 2 as well? I hope so otherwise you may need to use the components at location to define that at location 2 you consume the components from location 1, but not very practical if the locations are miles apart. Good luck.
Thanks Steve, I think you’re suggestion is correct and that will suffice our purposes for now. Just got to try to get it to work now! Thanks again
My curiosity just got the better of me and I wanted to try this out. I’ve created a single item, with replenishment method Production order and Lot for Lot ordering to order. I’ve also created an SKU for LOCATION1 defining “Components at Location” LOCATION2. I have tried replenishment method transfer and production. On the Production BOM, I have a single item with replenishment method Purchase with Vendor V1. I place demand for the item in LOCATION1, produce a Production order (also shows LOCATION1) then Regenerate Production Worksheet lines. However, although a purchase requisition for the component is created, it is for LOCATION1 not LOCATION2. Is there anything obvious I have missed? I have Location Mandatory in my Warehousing setup. Thanks in advance
I will presume you are testing this in 4.0 because I have set this up in 4.0 and you are correct it does not work. However if you set it up in version 3.70 it works perfectly [:D]. Looks like they decided to break something between versions. I do not know if it is resolved in SP1 but if you report it to Microsoft they should be able to assist you - just let us know how you get on.
You’re correct Steven I was trying this in V4.0. I haven’t tried it yet in 3.7 but will do that shortly. I probably won’t waste too much time on this at the moment but will keep it on the back burner and let you know if and when I get anywhere Thanks again