Foodware: Assembly
Many companies in the food & beverage industry have a simple production process with just one operation. For example if you are packing or re-packing foodstuffs into customer specific consumer packaging. Although this might be a simple process, you will have to deal with the same internal and external requirements that apply to a complicated production process.
The flow of goods from multiple items into one finished product must be traceable. Furthermore, it is important to register the material used and the output per production order. In other words, you want to manage your inventory registration based on an assembly bill of material, because that is the basis for your cost price calculations.
Even though Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV
contains a good manufacturing solution, companies that recognize
themselves in the situation outlined above require a different,
simpler solution.
Foodware
The Food and Beverage industry is characterized by specific
requirements which can often not be catered for by a standard
company-wide solution. For this reason Microsoft and its resellers
have combined their many years of knowledge and experience into
Foodware®. In combination with Microsoft Dynamics® NAV, Foodware®
forms a fully integrated standard company-wide ERP solution
specifically for food and beverage companies. Foodware is under
continuous development and meets the latest industry requirements.
This creates a specific solution, where costs remain manageable as
the amount of customization is reduced to a minimum. Foodware has
been recognized by Microsoft with the highest quality label
‘Certified for Microsoft Dynamics’. Foodware consists of a number of
integrated solutions, one of which is Foodware - Assembly. With this
solution, food & beverage companies can easily manage and register
the flow of goods in assembly orders.
Create Bills of Material and
calculate cost prices
Foodware - Assembly begins with specifying the assembly bill of
material (BOM). This BOM consists of the various consumable items of
which the item is composed. The BOM is linked to the item master
record of the product that is to be assembled. An example of a bill
of material is shown below. When the assembly BOM is complete, the
cost price can be calculated at the click of a button. The cost
price also includes the cost of any resources used such as labor and
machines.
Integration with Product
Specifications
Using Foodware, you can also define product specifications, such
as packaging specifications and ingredient declarations. These can
be calculated based on the assembly BOM.
Create assembly order
Foodware is fully integrated into Dynamics NAV so when you
create an assembly order you will not notice any distinction. The
‘Assembly’ menu has simply been added to the menu from where
assembly orders can be created. In this example, 100 boxes of
FP00008 mixed nuts 200g x 20 are to be made. At this stage you can
assign a lot number to the items to be assembled because of
compulsory traceability. You can also assign a location or bin code
where the finished product is to be stored after assembly, for
example cold storage.
Lot numbers
From the assembly order, the assembly BOM can be retrieved and
displayed on the screen at the click of a button. If required, a
preferred lot number can be selected from the list of lot numbers in
stock to fulfill the material requirements. Of course, multiple lots
can be selected to reach the required quantity. When the order
details are complete, the order is released for assembly. Assembly
with Consignment Management can be integrated within Foodware. This
means that for consignment account sales, revenues relating to
assembled batches can be booked to the batches of consumable items.
Book output and consumption in one
transaction
To increase simplicity and speed of working it is possible to
book the output and the consumption in a single transaction. In that
case the location and/or bin code specified in the assembly order is
used to book the consumption as well as the output. However, the
user can override these details. When booking the consumption of an
item connected to a lot number, the actual lot number consumed must
be entered manually. At the same time the inspection status is
checked. Assigning an inspection status to a finished product or
checking the inspection status of a consumption item (raw material
or semi-finished product) is possible if Quality Control is also
integrated with Foodware - Assembly. Once the consumption and the
output have been booked, the assembly order and the accompanying
administrative transactions are created. It is then possible to zoom
in on the various transactions, for instance by zooming in on a
warehouse transaction you can see all the underlying bookings. When
the consumption has been booked, the order is marked as complete.
Traceability and inspection status
As indicated before, Foodware is fully integrated with Dynamics
NAV. Therefore, from within an assembly order you can retrieve all
the information related to the lot number of an item required. For
example the due date or the inspection status. Based on those
conditions, a lot can be selected for assembly. It is also possible
to trace any lot in any phase of its life-cycle, either forwards or
backwards.
Conditions for Foodware - Assembly
As indicated above, this solution has been developed to provide
administrative support for a simple production process. The
conditions for using this ‘lean and mean’ production solution are:
- You do not want to make use of
version management for bills of material.
- You only want to register
material consumption.
- You do not want to use capacity
planning.
- You do not want to integrate assembly with warehouse management.
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