Bills of materials and routings
What a product is made of and which operations it goes through.
- Multi-level bills of materials
- Routings and work centres
- Versions for product changes
- Planned scrap
Industries · Discrete manufacturing
Orders, parts and the shop floor — in one plan
Makers of furniture, metal structures, equipment, packaging or PVC windows work with bills of materials, machine operations and delivery dates promised to customers. Business Central links sales, purchasing, production orders, the warehouse and finance, so you know what needs to be bought, what is being made today and what each product actually cost.
In manufacturing, margin is lost between the warehouse and the shop floor
An order is accepted at one price, materials are bought at another, and the shop floor uses more than the standard. When bills of materials live in Excel and actual consumption is collected at the end of the month, the cost of each product remains an estimate. A shared record shows every day what was consumed, what was produced and what it cost.
Challenges
Key Challenges for Manufacturers
Common situations at plants that make to order or to stock.
- Bills of materials are kept in Excel and do not match actual consumption
- Production stops because a single part is missing
- Nobody knows whether the shop floor has capacity for a new order
- The actual cost of a product is only known at month end
- The delivery date promised to the customer is a guess
- There is no way to tell which batch of parts went into a product under complaint
What Business Central covers
Planning, shop floor and cost in one system
Standard Business Central manufacturing features; they are part of the Premium licence. Quality control, machine data collection and other specific requirements are analysed separately.
Planning
What needs to be made and bought to meet the dates.
- Material requirements planning (MRP)
- Machine and labour capacity
- Make to order or make to stock
- Calculated delivery date for the customer
Production orders
The shop floor sees what to do, and the office sees what has been done.
- Issuing materials from the warehouse
- Consumption and output reported by operation
- Operations at subcontractors
- Serial and lot numbers
Production cost
Planned and actual cost of every order, with the variances explained.
- Standard or average cost
- Materials, labour and overheads
- Variances from standard
- Margin by product and customer
Benefits
What a manufacturer gains
Results depend on your processes and data quality. Here is what becomes possible.
Materials arrive on time
Requirements are calculated from orders and stock, not from memory.
Dates you can keep
The customer's date takes materials and shop floor capacity into account.
The actual cost of every product
See where consumption and time exceed the standard.
Next step
From the first estimate to a working system
We support you from the first estimate to life after go-live.
Estimate the cost
An indicative budget in a few minutes, based on your answers.
Learn moreImplementation and migration
Clear stages, verified data and go-live on the agreed date.
Learn moreTraining
Every employee learns the tasks of their role.
Learn moreSupport
Help after go-live and further development of the system.
Learn more First step
Start from the business processes, not from licenses
Enter a few company parameters and instantly receive a preliminary project estimate.