Unified Operations & Dynamics AX Forum

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Hi Steve,
To address Sales Kits in D365FO (and in AX2012), the most common approaches to addressing this I have seen besides exploding the BOM on a Sales Line are:
* Using the Supplementary Items functionality
* Using Retail Product Kits
* Using the Product Configurator (which is similar to the Retail Product Kit as it is also based on the configurator)
* Using Retail Mix and Match Discount functionality
* Customizing the BOM Explosion on a Sales Line functionality
* Using a 3rd Party solution

There are pros / cons to each of these approaches, so some time would have to be invested in determining which is the best match to your needs.

------------------------------
Jack Moran
Director of Industry Solutions
Columbus
Greenfield NH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 28, 2019 10:49 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Thank you Jack,

I found a 3rd party product, AXtension Kitting, but they have discontinued this product in D365FO.  So, still searching to see if there is another.

Retail and Configurator functionality is too complicated for our needs so we'll probably need to customize the BOM Explosion functionality.

If anyone has done a customization of the BOM Explosion on a Sales Order Line, I would be very interested in hearing about what you've done.

We sell a large product that is custom manufactured and ships on anywhere from 3 to 13 pallets.  We call these "Shipping pieces" in our current system.   Each pallet has it's own dimensions and weight that is needed for picking, freight handling, freight charges and etc.  But, the collection of shipping pieces is just 1 product that we sell.   That's what is priced and sold.


------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 29, 2019 08:11 AM
From: Jack Moran
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

Hi Steve,
To address Sales Kits in D365FO (and in AX2012), the most common approaches to addressing this I have seen besides exploding the BOM on a Sales Line are:
* Using the Supplementary Items functionality
* Using Retail Product Kits
* Using the Product Configurator (which is similar to the Retail Product Kit as it is also based on the configurator)
* Using Retail Mix and Match Discount functionality
* Customizing the BOM Explosion on a Sales Line functionality
* Using a 3rd Party solution

There are pros / cons to each of these approaches, so some time would have to be invested in determining which is the best match to your needs.

------------------------------
Jack Moran
Director of Industry Solutions
Columbus
Greenfield NH

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 28, 2019 10:49 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Hi Steve, Microsoft are investigating kitting, but possibly with not enough urgency.
You could log onto their ideas website and vote on the kitting solution.
We encouraged others in our organisation to do so as well.
Here's the link:
Kitting - picking, packing and returning (composition and decomposition).

Experience Dynamics 365		remove preview
Kitting - picking, packing and returning (composition and decomposition). Improve Kitting in WMS module. In sale orders when we selling Items for e.g. furniture (cabinet, wardrobe) which is The Set with different parts. Sometimes this parts are already half-completed in packages (like IKEA). We sale one Item, but different parts/SKU are in different places. View this on Experience Dynamics 365 >

https://experience.dynamics.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=4443ef58-a7d6-e711-80c0-00155d7cb38d

Cheers,

------------------------------
Bart Couvreur
ERP Manager
NHP Electrical Engineering Products Pty Ltd
Richmond
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 29, 2019 08:53 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

Thank you Jack,

I found a 3rd party product, AXtension Kitting, but they have discontinued this product in D365FO.  So, still searching to see if there is another.

Retail and Configurator functionality is too complicated for our needs so we'll probably need to customize the BOM Explosion functionality.

If anyone has done a customization of the BOM Explosion on a Sales Order Line, I would be very interested in hearing about what you've done.

We sell a large product that is custom manufactured and ships on anywhere from 3 to 13 pallets.  We call these "Shipping pieces" in our current system.   Each pallet has it's own dimensions and weight that is needed for picking, freight handling, freight charges and etc.  But, the collection of shipping pieces is just 1 product that we sell.   That's what is priced and sold.


------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 29, 2019 08:11 AM
From: Jack Moran
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

Hi Steve,
To address Sales Kits in D365FO (and in AX2012), the most common approaches to addressing this I have seen besides exploding the BOM on a Sales Line are:
* Using the Supplementary Items functionality
* Using Retail Product Kits
* Using the Product Configurator (which is similar to the Retail Product Kit as it is also based on the configurator)
* Using Retail Mix and Match Discount functionality
* Customizing the BOM Explosion on a Sales Line functionality
* Using a 3rd Party solution

There are pros / cons to each of these approaches, so some time would have to be invested in determining which is the best match to your needs.

------------------------------
Jack Moran
Director of Industry Solutions
Columbus
Greenfield NH

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 28, 2019 10:49 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

We struggled with the same issue when implementing AX2012R3.  It seems the application is made to support pre-assembly primarily, but 60% of our products needed to be picked to order.  The options we reviewed:
1. Exploding the BOMs on the SO as you mentioned:  Pros=Building BOMs the same as we have always done, fulfillment has the pick/pack lists they need, ATP delivery date control works.  Cons = Mod to "auto-explode" as the option was a manual function and not clear to sales taker.  Pricing, trade agreements, coupons do not work based off the BOM header price so mods needed, mods for our data warehouse and auxiliary applications to capture the demand on header for analysis, website works off of header so need mod for inventory available to sell calc.
2. Use Retail Kit functionality: New functionality so wary though it has great bonuses like pricing management, "disassemble at register' option for our Brick and Mortar stores, inventory on header so delivery control seemed fine and analysis easy. Cons = unable to modify after made, fulfillment was a big unknown, not seeing picking components listed, discovered if no inventory then kit will auto generate a journal entry showing need to fulfill so ATP delivery date control moot.  All in all, good potential but hoping it was worked out more fully in AX365 which sounds like it's not.
3. We decided the lesser of the evils was "Auto-report as finished" functionality, which is what we are using. This is a simple check box on the item engineering fast-tab setup that causes an auto-generated assembly order which processes to finished making item in stock for fulfillment. Pros= Item setup is the same, easy to modify the BOM itself, only the single BOM item on sales orders so our pricing, TA's and coupons work fine as well as data warehouse and auxiliary systems as transactions remain in view on the header. Cons = ATP delivery date control does not work since there is never stock until the SO generates the finished item, so we needed to calculate availability based on sum of components first available date and make sure the components reflected an on-order issue for backorders when no stock on hand to reserve (big mod), inventory to our website needed the same change (mod), components do not list on pick/pack so needed to change that for fulfillment (mod).
All in all, we did not find an existing perfect solution.  Hope this is helpful input.

------------------------------
Janine Breton
Business and Reporting Analyst
America's Gardening Resource
Burlington VT
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 28, 2019 10:49 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Thank you Janine.   I think it's going to ultimately be a customization of the BOMs on the SO.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 29, 2019 10:09 AM
From: Janine Breton
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We struggled with the same issue when implementing AX2012R3.  It seems the application is made to support pre-assembly primarily, but 60% of our products needed to be picked to order.  The options we reviewed:
1. Exploding the BOMs on the SO as you mentioned:  Pros=Building BOMs the same as we have always done, fulfillment has the pick/pack lists they need, ATP delivery date control works.  Cons = Mod to "auto-explode" as the option was a manual function and not clear to sales taker.  Pricing, trade agreements, coupons do not work based off the BOM header price so mods needed, mods for our data warehouse and auxiliary applications to capture the demand on header for analysis, website works off of header so need mod for inventory available to sell calc.
2. Use Retail Kit functionality: New functionality so wary though it has great bonuses like pricing management, "disassemble at register' option for our Brick and Mortar stores, inventory on header so delivery control seemed fine and analysis easy. Cons = unable to modify after made, fulfillment was a big unknown, not seeing picking components listed, discovered if no inventory then kit will auto generate a journal entry showing need to fulfill so ATP delivery date control moot.  All in all, good potential but hoping it was worked out more fully in AX365 which sounds like it's not.
3. We decided the lesser of the evils was "Auto-report as finished" functionality, which is what we are using. This is a simple check box on the item engineering fast-tab setup that causes an auto-generated assembly order which processes to finished making item in stock for fulfillment. Pros= Item setup is the same, easy to modify the BOM itself, only the single BOM item on sales orders so our pricing, TA's and coupons work fine as well as data warehouse and auxiliary systems as transactions remain in view on the header. Cons = ATP delivery date control does not work since there is never stock until the SO generates the finished item, so we needed to calculate availability based on sum of components first available date and make sure the components reflected an on-order issue for backorders when no stock on hand to reserve (big mod), inventory to our website needed the same change (mod), components do not list on pick/pack so needed to change that for fulfillment (mod).
All in all, we did not find an existing perfect solution.  Hope this is helpful input.

------------------------------
Janine Breton
Business and Reporting Analyst
America's Gardening Resource
Burlington VT

Original Message:
Sent: Mar 28, 2019 10:49 AM
From: Steve Weber
Subject: D365 Sales Kits

We are evaluating the use of exploding BOMs on a Sales Order Line for Kits.   But, we have a scenario where this does not work for our business.   We always pick, pack and ship the components so that's ok.   But, we have several situations where we have given a price of the total kit to the customer, that's what is on our catalog/website and the kit needs to print on all customer facing documents along with the associated price.

I am wondering if anyone has ran into this issue.

------------------------------
Steve Weber
Director of IT
Illinois Tool Works
Glenview IL
------------------------------