Outsourced production: New ideas for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
Outsourcing is a widely used business process in the manufacturing industry. The main reasons are:
- In the manufacturing facility, certain machines are not available because they would not be used enough to justify the high cost. Outsourced anodizing, heat treatment, black oxide treatment, many examples exist. It is cheaper to have these operations done permanently “outside”.
- The manufacturing facility has the ability (machines/personnel) to do the work but the facility is too busy in a certain time period. This is capacity-driven outsourcing and it is also a very frequent phenomenon.
Outsourcing comes in two main flavors. Our focus in this article is only on one type of outsourcing, where my materials are sent to a contractor and he returns a finished part number. This can be a permanent arrangement, or it could be done ad-hoc.
Let us compare the two main flavors of outsourcing in the manufacturing industry from the perspective of D365FO:
Subcontracting
an operation |
Subcontracting
as outsourced production |
In the Production order routing one or more steps are outsourced
operations, the other operations are in-house. |
There is typically only one routing step, and it contains a Vendor
resource group or resource. |
The part number leaving my facility is the same part number that
returns from the contractor. |
Part number(s) leaving my facility is/are
different then what comes back from the contractor. |
This scenario is represented in the system by an “in-house” production
order with an associated Purchase order for a service item. |
This scenario is represented in the system by a vendor production
order with an associated Purchase order for a service item. |
Receiving consists of receiving the subcontracted PO. |
Receiving consists of two steps: receiving the subcontracted PO and
Reporting as Finished of the vendor production order (but not in this
sequence!). |
Purchasing deals with subcontract Purchase orders only. |
Purchasing has to deal with Purchase orders
and Production orders. |
No need for a vendor warehouse or a vendor location in the system |
Need to set a vendor warehouse and/or location where my materials are
showing as on-hand at the contractor |
The following will only discuss the subcontracting of the entire process, where my part numbers are sent to the contractor and he sends me a different part number back.
Standard features of D365FO for Subcontracting as outsourced production
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