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Define, plan, run, control, and track production operations with the plan to produce process

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Applies to: Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Guides, Dynamics 365 Human Resources, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate

The plan to produce process is broken down into business process areas for defining production strategies, planning production operations, executing production operations, outsourcing production operations, controlling production quality, and tracking production costs. The following sections further describe the business process areas.

Define production strategies

Definition of production strategies encompasses foundational steps that enable an organization to carry out the rest of the plan to produce process. These steps might include choosing a mode of production, identifying the production resources, defining inputs and outputs of the production process, and establishing standard production operating procedures. This information feeds the setup for products such as bills of materials (BOMs) and routes. It also feeds production configurations such as capacity, lead times, and scheduling logic.

Learn more at Define production strategies.

Plan production operations

Planning production operations refers to the set of business processes that are run on a periodic basis to look at the plan generated in the forecast to plan business process and translate that to a production schedule. Planners will use tools in Dynamics 365 like job scheduling and the Gantt chart to optimize the sequence of production orders to maximize efficiency while still respecting constraints around capacity and order promise dates. Planning production operations may also include ad-hoc updates to the production schedule around substitutions, reactions to supply chain disruptions, or re-prioritization of demand.

Learn more at Plan production operations overview.

Run production operations

Once a production schedule has been planned and materials are available, the process of running production operations is ready to begin. This begins with picking raw materials and moving to the production input location, printing production documents, and releasing orders to the shop floor. Throughout the physical process of production, users record status updates, material consumption, and report the outputs of the production process.

Learn more at Run production operations overview.

Outsource production orders

In some organizations, certain steps of the production process are completed by external vendors, which is referred to as outsourcing, subcontracting, or tolling. This business process area includes the movement of work in process or raw materials to the vendor, receiving the product from the vendor, and updating the production documentation to reflect the added service and include it in the total cost of production.

Learn more at Outsource production operations overview.

Control production quality

Quality of produced items is a key part of customer satisfaction and brand loyalty for any manufacturer. This business process area includes defining sampling plans, quality tests and acceptance criteria, as well as the execution of the quality process throughout the steps of production. Often quality control measures are implemented on input materials, throughout production operations, with a final quality check on the finished good.

Learn more at Control production quality overview.

Track production costs

Tracking accurate production costs helps businesses clearly understand the true costs of production to help set better sales prices and estimate revenue. It also enables organizations to identify sources of variance within the production process to drive continuous improvement activities. This business process area includes defining the components of calculation production costs such as labor, materials, and overhead, estimating the cost of production, recording actual costs throughout the process, and analyzing cost metrics.

Learn more at Track production costs overview.

Next steps

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to help with your track production costs business processes, use the following resources and steps to learn more.

  1. Define product costing overview

  2. Define production strategies

  3. Plan production operations

  4. Run production operations overview

  5. Outsource production operations

  6. Control production quality

  7. Track production costs

Learn more

If you want to implement Dynamics 365 solutions to assist with your plan to produce business processes, use the following resources and steps to learn more.

You can use the following resources to learn more about the plan to produce process in Dynamics 365.