Microsoft Dynamics AX Production Order Scheduling: Tips and Tricks

This article provides an explanation of important fields in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that impact the result of production order scheduling in a significant way. The business requirements that these features address are well known, and AX 2012 has some very interesting options that are not widely known but that do address some of the requirements precisely.

1. Resource efficiency percentage

The efficiency percentage is a field that is found in all MRP/ ERP systems. It has an obvious purpose to take into account the real world. For example, if I work 8 hours a day according to my contract, the scheduling system cannot assume that I am indeed going to be available 8 hours to do work. The natural down time has to be taken into account. An efficiency of 85% is considered realistic for human workers. For machines one would leave it at 100%. When machines are down for maintenance or repair reasons, we do not use the efficiency percentage but actually adjust the calendar to zero hours for the duration of the maintenance.

The system uses this efficiency percentage to reduce the day length.

EXAMPLE:  If your calendar indicates 8 hours per working day, and your efficiency is 80%, the system will assume you only have 6.4 hours per day to do work. See screens below. 

In the standard definition, this is a field that has values below 100. But there is no problem entering values > 100 and this turned out to be very useful.

NOTE: In ...