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Order Planning with Variants

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Posted on by KellyJFrancis

Hope you can help, I am adding new product ranges and we are using variants for the first time, so I raised my SO added qty to assemble, then searched order planning to look for my assembly order, I found it, when I went to make an order from it it highlighted that I hadn't selected my variants on the lines, so I went to the Order to add those, then went back to Order planning, recalculated and now my Assembly order isn't listed? Why would this be? How do I rectify?

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Ben Baxter 6,620 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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First, I would encourage you to NOT use Order Planning. It sucks the value out of your ERP's planning capabilities.

Second, if you are doing 1-to-1 planning like that, you should set your Item to an Assembly Policy of "Assemble-to-Order" so that it creates the Assembly Order automatically when you enter your Quantity. The only time I wouldn't suggest this is if you are making the order ahead of shipping, and it sits in your inventory for a while, in that case use Assemble-to-Stock with an "Order" Reordering Policy, read below for how to generate the plan for this.

Third, if you want Many-to-1 or stock-based planning, you should use Assemble-to-Stock and any of the other three Reordering Policies. Then the Planning Worksheet can be used to suggest when and how many to make via true Planning. If you have more than one (1) Location you will be Planning for, then you should create Stockkeeping Units for each Item/Location combination that will be included in the Plan.

This may not be what you were looking for, but this is the information you need to better utilize your Business Central software.

Best Regards,

Ben Baxter

Accent Software Inc

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KellyJFrancis 84 on at

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Thanks so much Ben, I'm new to the company and to Dynamics, currently they plan all their orders this way, do you know roughly the bullet point steps in the official best way to use dynamics for order planning at all? maybe they way we are doing it is the problem here.

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Valentin Castravet 31,553 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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To answer your original question, did you perhaps create the assembly order without a variant code? So this is why when you run order planning again, the planning engine doesn't suggest a new assembly order.

Valentin Castravet
Work: Zander ERP Services
Blog: Dynamics 365 Business Central Insights
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/valentin-c-0500a247/

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KellyJFrancis 84 on at

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Hi Valentin :)

Yes the variant is selected on the assembly order and pulls through to order planning, see order planning screenshot below, so now the line is selected I choose 'Make Order' and then I go to Requisition Worksheets and the item should be listed but the worksheet is blank?

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KellyJFrancis 84 on at

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An update :)

I've discovered that when I select 'Make Order' it is creating a Purchase Order and not going to Requisition Worksheet, what settings determine this please? So I can get it to go to requisition worksheet instead?

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Ben Baxter 6,620 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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The "Replenishment System" field on the "Replenishment" tab of the Item or SKU determines what is created. Yours is set to "Purchase" and switching it to "Assembly Order" will create an Assembly Order upon "Make Order". This will not send anything to the Req. Worksheet though.

If you want to use the Req. Worksheet (quick tip: the Planning Worksheet is more powerful and available in Essentials version), update your Replenishment System, then set the "Reordering Policy" on the "Planning" tab of the Item/SKU to "Order". Then run the "Calculate Plan..." (Req. Wksht.) or "Regenerative Plan" (Planning Wksht.). I would encourage you to filter to your specific Item for testing purposes to make it run faster.

Start Date = Tomorrow (hard to plan for today or the past)

End Date = Longer than the longest Lead Time you are planning for, otherwise you'll be ordering in the past

Also, check the "Respect Planning Parameters" Boolean, and it should stay checked going forward.

Let us know if you get a suggestion for an Assembly Order in your Req./Planning Worksheet. This is assuming you have not made the Assembly Order via Order Planning.

P.S. If your Assembly Policy is "Make-to-Order" (doubt yours is) you need to switch it to "Make-to-Stock" to use Planning.

Best Regards,

Ben Baxter

Accent Software Inc

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