An Overview of Production Orders in Business Central

Posted on: August 23, 2021 | By: Jim Bertler | Microsoft Dynamics Business Central

Business Central is equipped with a multitude of functions that make management of operations simple. In Business Central, you are given the power of visibility, so you can comprehensively follow a product from placement to fulfillment. One of the central components of manufacturing is production orders because they are the first step in planning future manufacturing, monitoring current manufacturing, and staying aware of finished manufacturing. In today’s post we are going to review the different aspects of production orders in Business Central.

Creation of Production Orders

In Business Central, you can manually create production orders from the Production Order page as well as from the Sales Order Planning page. If you want to create multiple orders, you use the Planning Worksheet page. In order to generate these orders, you need the following information:

  • Items
  • Production BOMs
  • Routings
  • Machine centers
  • Work centers

It is important to note that if you create production orders from different pages or means, they will not be automatically reserved and tracked.

Production Order Status 

Depending on the specified status of a production order, it will function differently in Business Central. Essentially, the display and information of the production are prompted by the status of the order. Note that you cannot manually change the production order status. Instead, you have to use the Change Status function in the specified order.

Simulated Production Order

If a production order status is defined as simulated, this means its main purpose is to provide a cost estimate for the user, and does not impact planning of orders. 

Planned Production Order

When you have a planned production order, you can automatically generate one from a sales order. This type of production order helps give insight on capacity requirements planning by looking at the necessary work center or machine center. When a planned production order is generated, a planned order release results in tangent, giving a specific quantity, release date, and due date. 

Firm Planned Production Order

You can also automatically generate this type of order from a sales order, and it will act as a placeholder within the manufacturing planning schedule. They also have a planned order release suggestion generated that includes a specified quantity, release date, and due date.

Released Production Order

Released production orders are automatically generated from sales orders, but this definition does not necessarily mean the materials have been acquired or the job has moved to the first step of operation. This type of production order allows you to manually record actual material consumption and product output.

Finished Production Order

This type of production order occurs generally when an order has been manufactured. Once a production order is finished, costing can be adjusted and checked in the general ledger. This type of order is useful for statistical purposes and helps track back to other orders. It is important to note that finished production orders can never be altered. 

Production Order Execution

After the creation and scheduling of a production order, it must be released to the work floor in order to complete the order. When it is released for completion, you have to track materials used, the amount of time spent completing the order, and the quantity of the order. You can record these data points manually or automatically in Business Central

Next Steps

These are just a few of the many aspects of production orders in Business Central, and if you are interested in learning more about how this ERP system specializes in assisting manufacturing, reach out to Logan Consulting, a Microsoft partner based in Chicago who has helped clients nationwide transform their business processes through the implementation of Business Central.



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