D365 Finance & Operations and Dynamics AX Forum

My company deals with bulk and packaged inventory in warehouses. We are entertaining utilizing D365 but would like to understand what successes and challenges others have encountered with utilizing D365 for handling inventory like this. If we move ahead with this, we would be looking at utilizing D365 for all aspects of managing inventory including purchasing, selling, accounting for inventory, barcode scanning, inventory adjustments, breaking bulk, repackaging, product loss, product shrink, product aging, etc. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with standing up this functionality for their business, please send me a note. I would love to have a conversation. 

Thank you,

------------------------------
Karl Arensdorf
Corporate Controller
Mansfield Oil Company
Gainesville GA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 4/12/2022 8:06:00 AM
From: Karl Arensdorf
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

My company deals with bulk and packaged inventory in warehouses. We are entertaining utilizing D365 but would like to understand what successes and challenges others have encountered with utilizing D365 for handling inventory like this. If we move ahead with this, we would be looking at utilizing D365 for all aspects of managing inventory including purchasing, selling, accounting for inventory, barcode scanning, inventory adjustments, breaking bulk, repackaging, product loss, product shrink, product aging, etc. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with standing up this functionality for their business, please send me a note. I would love to have a conversation. 

Thank you,

------------------------------
Karl Arensdorf
Corporate Controller
Mansfield Oil Company
Gainesville GA
------------------------------

Hi Karl, 
  Being totally transparent, I'm biased as I implement / support D365 on a daily basis.  I think D365 a great solution for a mid market company doing the things you describe.  As Carl stated, you could do this with product variants or use the Bulk / Packed product structure that is part of the process manufacturing functionality.  Additionally, clients like you also use batch attribute pricing, commodity pricing, quality orders among other things.  

Additionally, when considering any ERP package, I would highly recommend engaging with an advisor to aid in the selection process.  Most clients that I see successfully go through an implementation did a good job with their due diligence in evaluating different ERP products and implementation partners.

------------------------------
Colby Gallagher
Managed Application Services Supervisor
RSM
OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 12, 2022 08:06 AM
From: Karl Arensdorf
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

My company deals with bulk and packaged inventory in warehouses. We are entertaining utilizing D365 but would like to understand what successes and challenges others have encountered with utilizing D365 for handling inventory like this. If we move ahead with this, we would be looking at utilizing D365 for all aspects of managing inventory including purchasing, selling, accounting for inventory, barcode scanning, inventory adjustments, breaking bulk, repackaging, product loss, product shrink, product aging, etc. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with standing up this functionality for their business, please send me a note. I would love to have a conversation. 

Thank you,

------------------------------
Karl Arensdorf
Corporate Controller
Mansfield Oil Company
Gainesville GA
------------------------------

Karl,

We use D365 F&O for process manufacturing. We found it easier to manage inventory creating separate SKU's for bulk vs. containerized products, as well as for managing ownership of customer supplied materials and bill & hold finished goods. It has the benefit of simplicity, but doesn't provide an ideal view into on-hand inventory for a master item. 

A couple of things we learned the hard way from our implementation that you need to be aware of:

• Make sure you clearly understand the options for inventory costing methods available in D365, both how they work and the requirements around running an inventory close to finalize your COGS numbers. We learned the hard way that "weighted average" to us (a rolling weighted average) did not mean the same thing in the D365 world, and our implementation partners didn't bother to explain the options. We said weighted average, they went with weighted average, and we were 6 months live on the product before anyone mentioned the term "inventory close" to us. In the meantime, we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out how the system was calculating costs when we "knew" it should have been a rolling average.
• If there's a good way to manage capacity of a bulk storage tank containing co-mingled material (in our case, same material but different owners), we haven't found it. 
• Don't extend the # of decimal places in the system beyond 2 if you can help it. Use per 100 or per 1000 measurements to get to the costing you need. The system WILL do calculations beyond 2 decimal places behind the scenes, but we opted to do 4 decimal places in our AX 2012 implementation and kept it during conversion to D365 (where it became a system-wide setting) because it was what our production managers were used to seeing. Having 4 decimal places showing on all your financial transactions will drive your finance people nuts. Plus, you get into rounding issues on your financial transactions. We had to set rounding rules on all the currencies we use, including USD, just to keep from getting occasional transactions posting to more than 2 decimal places to the GL. Depending on your company culture and the system you are coming from, your production side folks may push hard for extending the decimal places. Push back. At the very least, make sure you and your partners are fully aware of the implications before you do it. You apparently can't just do it on the inventory quantities side anymore, it affects every number in the system.
• Finally, our experience has been that AX/D365 provides a great framework where you can do almost anything, but it provides no hand-holding in how to set things up to get the desired outcomes. Rely on your partners but also do your own online research. 

Colby, 

Is there any documentation (or better yet, blog posts) for bulk/packed product structures you can provide a link to? Microsoft is great at providing the options, but lousy at telling the how and why to make them work.​

------------------------------
Steve Latta
Accountant
Ortec, Inc.
Easley SC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 22, 2022 08:27 AM
From: Colby Gallagher
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

Hi Karl, 
  Being totally transparent, I'm biased as I implement / support D365 on a daily basis.  I think D365 a great solution for a mid market company doing the things you describe.  As Carl stated, you could do this with product variants or use the Bulk / Packed product structure that is part of the process manufacturing functionality.  Additionally, clients like you also use batch attribute pricing, commodity pricing, quality orders among other things.  

Additionally, when considering any ERP package, I would highly recommend engaging with an advisor to aid in the selection process.  Most clients that I see successfully go through an implementation did a good job with their due diligence in evaluating different ERP products and implementation partners.

------------------------------
Colby Gallagher
Managed Application Services Supervisor
RSM
OH

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 12, 2022 08:06 AM
From: Karl Arensdorf
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

My company deals with bulk and packaged inventory in warehouses. We are entertaining utilizing D365 but would like to understand what successes and challenges others have encountered with utilizing D365 for handling inventory like this. If we move ahead with this, we would be looking at utilizing D365 for all aspects of managing inventory including purchasing, selling, accounting for inventory, barcode scanning, inventory adjustments, breaking bulk, repackaging, product loss, product shrink, product aging, etc. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with standing up this functionality for their business, please send me a note. I would love to have a conversation. 

Thank you,

------------------------------
Karl Arensdorf
Corporate Controller
Mansfield Oil Company
Gainesville GA
------------------------------

@Steve Latta
  Very good points all around.  For your co-mingled batches, is it figuring out who owns what inventory, or ensuring you don't overfill the tank?  If its figuring out who own's what and the items are batch tracked, you could use batch attribute values and customer specific batch attribute ranges to get the visibility you want.  

The best write up I've seen online for bulk / packed products is here, its from 2012 R3, but hasn't changed in D365: How to configure Bulk items into a Formula for a Packed Item and have MRP generate Planned orders for both - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

You can shoot me a PM if you need more and I'll send you over the notes I have on process mfg. 


------------------------------
Colby Gallagher
Managed Application Services Manager
RSM
OH
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 25, 2022 12:10 PM
From: Steve Latta
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

Karl,

We use D365 F&O for process manufacturing. We found it easier to manage inventory creating separate SKU's for bulk vs. containerized products, as well as for managing ownership of customer supplied materials and bill & hold finished goods. It has the benefit of simplicity, but doesn't provide an ideal view into on-hand inventory for a master item. 

A couple of things we learned the hard way from our implementation that you need to be aware of:

• Make sure you clearly understand the options for inventory costing methods available in D365, both how they work and the requirements around running an inventory close to finalize your COGS numbers. We learned the hard way that "weighted average" to us (a rolling weighted average) did not mean the same thing in the D365 world, and our implementation partners didn't bother to explain the options. We said weighted average, they went with weighted average, and we were 6 months live on the product before anyone mentioned the term "inventory close" to us. In the meantime, we were pulling our hair out trying to figure out how the system was calculating costs when we "knew" it should have been a rolling average.
• If there's a good way to manage capacity of a bulk storage tank containing co-mingled material (in our case, same material but different owners), we haven't found it. 
• Don't extend the # of decimal places in the system beyond 2 if you can help it. Use per 100 or per 1000 measurements to get to the costing you need. The system WILL do calculations beyond 2 decimal places behind the scenes, but we opted to do 4 decimal places in our AX 2012 implementation and kept it during conversion to D365 (where it became a system-wide setting) because it was what our production managers were used to seeing. Having 4 decimal places showing on all your financial transactions will drive your finance people nuts. Plus, you get into rounding issues on your financial transactions. We had to set rounding rules on all the currencies we use, including USD, just to keep from getting occasional transactions posting to more than 2 decimal places to the GL. Depending on your company culture and the system you are coming from, your production side folks may push hard for extending the decimal places. Push back. At the very least, make sure you and your partners are fully aware of the implications before you do it. You apparently can't just do it on the inventory quantities side anymore, it affects every number in the system.
• Finally, our experience has been that AX/D365 provides a great framework where you can do almost anything, but it provides no hand-holding in how to set things up to get the desired outcomes. Rely on your partners but also do your own online research. 

Colby, 

Is there any documentation (or better yet, blog posts) for bulk/packed product structures you can provide a link to? Microsoft is great at providing the options, but lousy at telling the how and why to make them work.​

------------------------------
Steve Latta
Accountant
Ortec, Inc.
Easley SC

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 22, 2022 08:27 AM
From: Colby Gallagher
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

Hi Karl, 
  Being totally transparent, I'm biased as I implement / support D365 on a daily basis.  I think D365 a great solution for a mid market company doing the things you describe.  As Carl stated, you could do this with product variants or use the Bulk / Packed product structure that is part of the process manufacturing functionality.  Additionally, clients like you also use batch attribute pricing, commodity pricing, quality orders among other things.  

Additionally, when considering any ERP package, I would highly recommend engaging with an advisor to aid in the selection process.  Most clients that I see successfully go through an implementation did a good job with their due diligence in evaluating different ERP products and implementation partners.

------------------------------
Colby Gallagher
Managed Application Services Supervisor
RSM
OH

Original Message:
Sent: Apr 12, 2022 08:06 AM
From: Karl Arensdorf
Subject: Warehouse Inventory - Liquids (bulk & packaged)

My company deals with bulk and packaged inventory in warehouses. We are entertaining utilizing D365 but would like to understand what successes and challenges others have encountered with utilizing D365 for handling inventory like this. If we move ahead with this, we would be looking at utilizing D365 for all aspects of managing inventory including purchasing, selling, accounting for inventory, barcode scanning, inventory adjustments, breaking bulk, repackaging, product loss, product shrink, product aging, etc. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with standing up this functionality for their business, please send me a note. I would love to have a conversation. 

Thank you,

------------------------------
Karl Arensdorf
Corporate Controller
Mansfield Oil Company
Gainesville GA
------------------------------​