Looking to understand how other are managing dimensional inventory in Business Central. Are there other programs that you are running with BC?
I appreciate the help!
How do you define dimensional. Are you talking only about the dimensions in BC or are you talking about locations, bins, zones and so on?
We deal with sheets and rolls of cloth and rubber belting material which we cut up for customers- frequently putting a remnant back in inventory. We need to know the dimensions of each piece in inventory. Currently we put the pieces to be sold and remnants back in inventory, but use square footage, so it doesn’t tell you which pieces are not the full width or length of the original item.
Hilary - Your issue is complex as remnant sizes are limitless. There are a couple of things to consider:
Physical side - The system tells me I have a remnant large enough to use but how do I find it easily, are the remnants already labeled with the size, etc. - maybe you have a method to do this already and it is not an issue. The ability to find the remnant is key as you would not want an operator searching through a stack of remnants for very long.
System side - when the remnant is put back into inventory (using an item journal as an example) after entering the item and sq inches you enter a couple of dimensions for width and length as an example. You would need to create a report listing the item and showing all the ILE’s with remaining inventory with the dimensions sorted for the operator to know if there is a remnant large enough - the dimension will allow you to add as you need too - something like that without knowing all your specific details.
Best Regards
John Grant
Innovia Consulting
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I would add that we often use Lot Tracking as a way of identifying the remaining size of a piece. So if you started with a full sheet, cut out a corner (consumed a dimensional value of the Item), the Lot would tell you how much of the sheet is remaining. It would not tell you the shape or dimensions of the remaining amount, just how much is remaining.
Depending on how you do your cutting or slitting will determine whether this is enough or if more information will be needed to track general size of the remainder.
Best Regards,
Ben Baxter
Accent Software Inc.
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Hi John - Great points.
On the Physical side, all pieces are labeled and easy to find, we don’t have an issue in this particular area.
On the system side, this is where we find the biggest struggle. We are having the operators currently look through the physical material to verify if we have size of what we need for production. If we had a way to list this in the system, the check could be done digitally before it is sent to production.
In being able to introduce this on the system side - how would we go about doing that? Is that a program that is added on in BC or is it already something that is possible and exists?
Hi Ben,
We currently use lot tracking to verify how much s remaining of sheets of material, our challenge is that we can only view the square footage of the remainder and don’t know if we have width or length remaining. We are looking to know the dimensions remaining on the material. We cut and slit at width and at length, so that is where the challenge lies in knowing which was done to the material still remaining.
Hilary - To have the system check if you have a remnant large enough would be best to work with your partner as to how to ‘find’ it and reserve it for the production order. Base BC has functionality that could help but likely you would also need custom code/logic.
You are also touching on materials planning - planning may think you have enough inventory based on sq inches but in reality, you do not have a remnant large enough. The Bill of Material allows you to add length and width, but planning will always be in sq inches meaning your base unit of measure. Just something I am pointing out as tracking remnants and cutoffs gets very interesting.
Best Regards
John Grant
Innovia Consulting