Product Configurator – A Customer Story

Product Configurator – A Customer Story Rick Pace, CIO - Evans Manufacturing Jens Seiger, AX Program Manager – Western Computer

Agenda Introduction Functional use of the Configurator End to End Evans Configuration How to build the Configuration Model Considerations to make Sharing our Experience Approach Lessons Learned Tips and Tricks for you Q&A Understand the infrastructure of Product configurator Understand the available functions within the product configurator Get a real life insight on the challenges and successes of using the product configurator

Product Configuration Models Product configuration models are created to represent a generic product structure. The Product configuration feature set includes a user interface (UI) that provides a visual overview of the product configuration model structure, and also a declarative constraint syntax that doesn’t have to be compiled. Therefore, companies that want to support a configuration practice can get started more easily.

Product Configuration Models Possibility to setup a generic product structure to build dynamic BOMS, Routes, and defining sales prices Sales orders Sales quotations Purchase orders Production orders Intercompany controlled

Product Configuration Process

Functional use of the Configurator 4/12/2018 1:12 AM Functional use of the Configurator © 2016 Dynamic Communities. All rights reserved. DYNAMIC COMMUNITIES MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Demo

EVANS MFG – Configure an order Sales order using standard AX 2012 * Item 4316 Quantity 100

Sales order after configuration

How to build the Configuration Model 4/12/2018 1:12 AM How to build the Configuration Model © 2016 Dynamic Communities. All rights reserved. DYNAMIC COMMUNITIES MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Product Configuration Setup Item lookup control on sales orders and quotations Document management for sales price break down Default configuration ID and currency Cache control for better performance

Product Modelling – A few Key Features Reuse configurations Deep table constraints Map and use attributes on all levels System defined table constrains – include standard D365 tables. Attributes read-only Hide subcomponents and user requirements Expressions editor Attribute based sales prices

Product Modelling Components – Root or sub component Attributes and attribute types Constraints – Expression or table Calculations – Constraints and calculations User requirements (Phantom BOM’s) BOM lines with conditions Route operations with conditions Attribute based sales prices

Product Modelling - Components Main building blocks of configuration models One models can consists of one or more components Will be setup once and can be reused in several models Example: Configure a service or warranty plan in a component that can be used in several models.

Product Modelling - Attributes and attribute types Values that can be selected during configuration of product

Product Modelling - Constraints Rule sets for specific product configuration model Expression constraints Using the Expression editor Table constraints User defined System defined

Product Modelling - Expression Editor Building the conditional expressions using OML language Dynamic editor Check on naming and syntax https://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/ff524507(v=vs.93).aspx

Product Modelling - Calculations Calculations add to constraints by enabling values to be calculated by using decimal numbers when a product is configured.

Product Modelling Subcomponents and User Requirements Subcomponents represent the nodes in the models. When associated, this subcomponent must be bound to a product master and will create a sub BOM for the bound product master User requirements act as subcomponent, except from the creation of sub BOM. Included directly into the main configuration, hence phantom BOM

Product Modelling - BOM Lines Included to dynamically create the production BOM. Must be referenced to an item, or an attribute containing the value of an item BOM line setup handled by direct value or mapped to an attribute

Product Modelling - Route operations Included to dynamically create the production routings. Constraint controlled and values based on attributes Route operations setup handled by direct value or mapped to an attribute

Product Modelling - Attribute Based pricing Can be applied in all companies and carry multiple currencies Can be applied for specific order types and selection criteria Sales order Quotation – Customer Quotation - Prospect Conditions and expressions will follow specified currency, but can be defaulted from the default currency

Product Modelling - Attribute based pricing Price break down structure Generate Excel spreadsheet with price break down

Validate and release Validation User Interface Templates and Translations Exporting Models Activation and Versioning

Real Life Lessons Evans manufacturing

Evans – What Process did we follow? Create the 1st configuration Identify any similar products Export the configuration Make changes to the exported file (Find/Replace) Import the changes back into AX

Real Life Lessons - What did we learn? Configurations most likely will be the pacing item for your project Don’t rush the 1st Configuration Define ‘families /groups’ of similar items Include Accounting to validate your GL Costing, Costing, Costing!

RECAP – What did we go through today Walkthrough of complete product configuration setup, validation, testing, and activation Real life use

Other Real Life Stories Medical devices company – Global Implementation project Sales hubs throughout the world creating configured sales orders and intercompany orders, releasing configurations and variants in manufacturing company. Manufacturing company of wall art Extended the functionality to be applied during item creation from external PLM solution, via integration, and automatically create BOM and Route as well

Q&A