Routings in Food Manufacturing & Distribution

Routings are a feature in standard Dynamics NAV that are utilized to help outline production processes. A defined routing specifies the sequence of operations necessary to manufacture an item or group of items. They are particularly well-suited to discrete manufacturing environments, in which separate parts of the manufacturing process can be clearly differentiated from one another, and in which the production planner must schedule each part of a production process.

While the basic manufacturing features provided in Food Manufacturing & Distribution are designed for a batch processing environment, in which production operations oftentimes function as a single continuous process, the routing capabilities found in the program can still be beneficial. In particular:

• Capacity ledger entries are created when routings are used, resulting in the ability to obtain direct and indirect capacity costs.
• Routings afford greater control over production scheduling, as the user is able to specify a production process's setup time, run time, wait time, and move time.

As such, it is possible to link a production BOM's equipment and activity based costs to routings.

While there are advantages to using routings in production, their inclusion in the production process requires more work on the part of the user, both in terms of initial setup and day-to-day data entry. Before making a decision to utilize routings, the user should consider the impact on the efficiency of data entry.

Equipment and Activity Based Costs

When defining a formula, item process, or package BOM, production equipment can be assigned to the production BOM. If routings are to be used in the production process, they can be assigned to pieces of equipment.

It is also possible to assign activity based costs to production BOMs. These activity based costs can be linked to the pieces of equipment that have been assigned to the production BOM. In this way it is possible to assign the same activity based cost to a production BOM multiple times, but with different quantities assigned based on equipment. If two pieces of equipment are assigned to a formula, for example, the user might assign the cost to operate the machinery as an activity based cost for each piece of assigned equipment.

Activity based costs can also be linked to specific routing operations via routing link codes.

Production

When a production order is created for an item, it must be scheduled to a piece of equipment. If the piece of equipment is linked to a routing on the production BOM, the program will assign the appropriate routing steps to the production order. In addition, the program will calculate the cost information for each operation from the activity based cost line on the production BOM that is linked to the operation. In this manner, the program can obtain a different cost for a manufactured item based on the piece of equipment on which it was produced.