Posted February 3rd, 2012 / No Comments
What would you use one for?
Well; Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 has a really cool feature which represents a Heijunka Planning Board, except that in AX2012 it’s called the Kanban Schedule Board.
Lean Schedule Groups are designed to allow you to see products or groups of products easily recognizable by colour, in the Kanban Schedule Board. So for folks who can recognize colours easily, it’s an added bonus.
So how do we do it?
Navigate to Production Control -> Set Up -> Lean manufacturing -> Lean Schedule Groups
Create a new record:

You can then assign products to the Group:

Item relations can be either Individual Items or Groups of Items.
You can also specify Configurations, size and colour as well as assigning the Throughput Ratio for the Item/Group. This last parameter is utilised in capacity planning.
As Kanbans are created and scheduled, they will appear on the Kanban Schedule Board, easily recognizable by their different colours.

Simple, but effective use of graphics!
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Posted February 3rd, 2012 / No Comments
This webinar will be an overview of the Office Add-ins with AX 2012, including exporting and importing data with Excel and creating Word templates.
Title: Office Integration with Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012
Speaker: Mat Grisham, I.B.I.S. Consultant
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Posted February 3rd, 2012 / No Comments
Available to promise a great tool to use in Dynamics AX 2009 for getting more accurate order dates to your customers. There are quite a few simple setups involved on an item in its default order settings that can affect ATP. I’ll go through them in this post and explain what days use working days and which use calendar days.
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Posted January 30th, 2012 / No Comments
Manufacturers take down, or disassemble, as well as assemble products.
Why? For a variety of reasons!
Faulty assembly or reclamation/refurbishment for resale to name just two.
How can we handle that type of transaction in AX?
This simple method uses a BOM Journal to perform the task. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted January 30th, 2012 / No Comments
Scheduling in AX uses resources (labor, machines, tools, vendors, etc.), groups, skills, capabilities, etc. These are applied to production and projects from both planning to actual resource scheduling and can be shared across functional areas. Not only is scheduling based on resources but also based on multiple options in the selection of scheduling directions. This webinar will explore resources, scheduling in production and projects, and also include the use of the new supply schedule tool.
Title: Scheduling in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012
Speaker: Merrie Cosby, I.B.I.S. Consultant
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Posted January 30th, 2012 / No Comments
Master Planning: Safety Stock Journals
In review of min / max coverage items in AX 2012, safety stock journal functionality can be used to review inventory statistics and generated ‘recommended’ minimum level adjustments based on inventory transactions.
The following example is meant to aide in understanding the results from a safety stock journal in Master Planning Dynamics AX 2012. The avg. issue during lead time is used in this example / calculation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted January 25th, 2012 / No Comments
Learn how AX 2012 can support your transformation from traditional manufacturing to a Leaner, greener manufacturer by leveraging the latest in Microsoft ERP development coupled with Lean principles!
Title: The Lean, Green AX Machine
Speaker: Mike Gooding, I.B.I.S. Consultant
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Posted January 23rd, 2012 / No Comments
A recent CFO.com headline asked us to Imagine there is No Excel. The article goes on to discuss how companies are dealing with analytics and the rise of big data.The beauty of Excel is not just it’s power and ease of use but it’s ubiquity. You can’t throw a rock in a Finance or Accounting department without hitting an Excel spreadsheet so it’s not going to go quietly into the night.
The CFO.com article touches on analysis products for big companies (Hyperion, Cognos) and for startups (QuickBooks users) but curiously leave out mid-sized companies.
I’ve been spending time lately with deFacto Performance Management and frankly, it does a great job of tackling many of the items discussed in the article for mid-sized firms. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted January 13th, 2012 / 1 Comment
So, there I was setting up my Sales Event Kanban in a training environment, enjoying life and learning something new! Everything was going swimmingly well until I decided to go check the results of my set up in the Kanban Scheduling Board, or for the real Lean aficionados – the Heijunka Board (Why did Microsoft change the name?).
No sign of my Kanban – oops! Then I noticed that I did not see the correct period, silly me! So I clicked on the advance arrow, and it moved forward by one day; not what I expected! Ok, let’s look at changing the period settings, because I don’t’ want to move from January 2011, to January 2012, one click at a time do I? How do you change the period? Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted January 3rd, 2012 / No Comments
Learn how you can improve your demand planning while implementing lean concepts with Demand Solutions.
Title: Lean Forecasting with Demand Solutions
Speaker: Fred Tolbert, Demand Solutions
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