1. AX Product Configurator
John Jedrzejewski (yen-jee-ess-key) Director, Business Process Optimization
Key Technology, Inc.
July 21, 2016

2. Agenda
Key Technology
Terms
Key’s implementation
Demos

3. Key Technology Inc.
Manufacturer of automated digital sorting systems and advanced material handling equipment to provide complete solutions for processors of food and pharmaceutical products
Publicly Traded- KTEC
~ 600 employees
4 manufacturing facilities (Europe & US)
ERP Stats:
AX2012 R2 CU7
3 transactional companies
ETO & CTO design & manufacturing

4. Discuss: Product vs. Sales Configurator
Product Configurator
Better at building:
Production BOM's & Routes
Builds one sales line at a time
Capturing costs
Less aware of, or harder to integrate sales features.
Quotation documents,
Elaborate pricing tables
Approval matrixes
Sales Configurator
Better at building:
Proposals
Can build multiple sales lines onto quote
Sales documents
Managing T's & C's
Pricing tables's approval matrix's
More difficult to drive:
BOM's & Routes
Drive regional differences

5. Sales & Product Configurator
Both use rules to drive the inclusion or exclusion of objects
Both can have simple or complex rule structures based on configurator selected
AX is definitely a Product Configurator
Can do light sales configuration but much better at Product Configuration
Unfortunately businesses usually need both.

6. Key’s Implementation We do both.
AX drives some configuration data to SFDC
Three Transactional companies, configure in 3 companies
SFDC builds quote.
Upon winning deal. Use AX to configure SO lines
Sorting configurations are based on customers applications
Example: Blueberries, vs. walnuts. Frozen vs. fresh, whole or pieces.
Application drives rules that drive BOM & Route.

7. Some of Key’s Products

8. Configurators in Use
Veryx – New sorting platform, Belt or Chute, Laser & Camera
Configure to Order
Multi-level Configuration >20 Configurable Subcomponents
Up to 2000 parts, 10 levels in BOM
Over 10,000 combinations
Laser configurations, width, type, belt colors, service side, voltages, languages, Where built, etc
Output: Templates for SFDC, BOM, Route
VLP Screen – separates material
Replaces Engineer to order
Applies Design rules
Over 800,000 combinations
Type, Length, Width, hole size, hole type, finish, handles, where built
Output: BOM, Route, Doc Reference set for manufacturing

9. Configuration Process & SFDC
For Veryx AX Configuration Templates are used to align base configuration to customer application
Template is referenced in SFDC for quoting and pricing
Template is referenced at order entry to expedite configuration and align to quote.
For VLP change from ETO to CTO process, almost 0 Project Engineering (hours to minutes)

10. Customizations / Middleware
AX Mod to add attributes to Product Dimension Name
Name used on production documents and configuration references, provides distinguishing descriptions of configurations.
AX Mod to template forms to export / import and send templates electronically to SFDC
Created BI Launchpad Configuration Report
Middleware- Jitterbit transfer templates to SFDC, includes ability to receive templates to AX.

11. Demo’s VLP Screens Veryx Design rule verification User requirements
BOM / Route
Veryx
Templates

12. Limitations No good error reporting
As shown, error is “Configuration is not finished”. No custom messages
Design error reporting is limited, “Configuration is in contradiction”, Does not report line or location of error
UI is limited in what to present and how to interact with user.
Templates are limited, updating a model can cause errors in templates
Not easy to get holistic view of a complex config
Not enough for a developer but too little for a novice.

13. Comments Adoption Maintenance Need testing & organizational involvment
Must be considered prior to deploying
Generally it is not the AX team, but down stream users.
Existing Configurations
Who & What
Which functions do what?
Design, manufacturing, etc?