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Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce
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Process manufacturing - Multiple Outputs, Not All Operations are Shared, and Unknown Output Yield

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Hi experts,

I’m working on a continuous process manufacturing case in the food industry.

A single input can produce four finished products, but the yield per product is unknown during production (planning item is not an option).

We have seven operations: .

  • 10 – raw material is consumed here; shared by all products.
  • 20 – only for Product 1 (RAF point).
  • 30 – shared by Products 2, 3, and 4.
  • 40 – only for Product 2 (RAF).
  • 50 – shared by Products 3 and 4.
  • 60 – only for Product 3 (RAF).
  • 70 – only for Product 4 (RAF).

Due to the lack of clear allocation during shared operations, I’m considering splitting this into:

  • Intermediate production orders for shared operations (A, C, E).
  • Final production orders starting at each product’s RAF point (B, D, F, G).

Would you recommend this approach in standard D365 SCM? The client uses Production for Execution, so this setup seems viable to manage.

Any better alternatives — or customizations — for managing RAF and cost tracking?

Thanks in advance!

  • Verified answer
    Zain Mehmood Profile Picture
    4,151 Moderator on at
    Process manufacturing - Multiple Outputs, Not All Operations are Shared, and Unknown Output Yield
    Hi,
    Yes, your approach of splitting into intermediate and final production orders is valid and aligns with standard D365 SCM. It allows for better RAF control and cost tracking when yields are unknown. Co-product setup may not work well due to unpredictable outputs. Just ensure good coordination between orders and manage material backflush carefully.
     
    Warm Regards,
    Zain 
  • Verified answer
    Danny Bilodeau Profile Picture
    4,599 Moderator on at
    Process manufacturing - Multiple Outputs, Not All Operations are Shared, and Unknown Output Yield
    Hi,
    That is definitely an option it. You would end up with multiple production orders for Semi-finished and FG, requiring to manage the inventory for the WIP items (or semi-finished).  In you case, that would require picking/deducting these semi-finished items as they move along the line.  Unless there is physical movement between these operations, that would be difficult.
     
    If there is a clear break between your operations (ie there is transport between operations), it makes sense to break your operations in Production orders.   
     
    I work in the steel industry with a company that operates with 1 Batch order for each operation (each for a different machine resource), which can lead to a string of 8 productions orders (one per operation); i find that it greatly complicates planning and inventory management (to be fair, we are planning for upwards of 60 machine resources which adds to the complexity).  
     
    I had another client that was washing a bagging carrots of different size, each size being an item.  It was more of a supply driven process than a demand driven one. Carrots were coming in in bulk from the field, moved to a conveyor belt to be washed and then on a hopper that was sorting them by size with chutes to various bagging stations. Its been a while but my recollection is that we were using a planning item (representing the carrot container coming in from the field,  without an idea as to the yield for each size) with co-products for each carrot size.  In that case, it was a single resource (the cleaner/hoper) with a few operators so it was truly a continuous process and made sense.            
     
     
     

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