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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce / Planning for Co-Produc...
Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce
Answered

Planning for Co-Products when making purchases

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Posted on by MarcRohde 344 User Group Leader
While I know there are techniques for planning for co-products and by-products in manufacturing, are there any good methods for doing the same when we are making purchases? For example, if we have a mode that produces a top and bottom of a part, we treat them as two parts, but our contract manufacturer will always run them together in a single mold. We then cut a PO for X quantity for the top part and X quantity for the bottom part.
 
Occasionally we miss including one of the items on the PO and I'm trying to find methods we could use to help ensure we are buying these items together all the time.
 
Another scenario we run into and may need a different solution is different variants of the same product, for example, one item packaged in a different configuration. Think about cans of soda that are packaged in 6 pack, 12 pack, and 24 pack. We have a minimum order size of X thousands of cans and price breaks for larger quantities but the supplier doesn't care how many of each configuration we buy. How do other companies plan for this or at least notify a buyer they should be considering ordering the different variants simultaneously?
 
 
Categories:
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
I have the same question (0)
  • Verified answer
    Zain Mehmood Profile Picture
    Zain Mehmood 4,187 Most Valuable Professional on at
    Hi MarcRohde, 
    I think the best way to achieve the first requirement would be from custom alert or X++ business rule that checks if one of the two items is on the PO and flags it if the other is missing. As none of the OOB rules would allow it to happen while being in purchase. 
     
    For the 2nd requirement, 

    Product Master with Variant Planning Groups 

    Use a Product Master with configuration key “Variant planning” enabled:

     

    Group the variants (e.g., 6-pack, 12-pack, 24-pack) under a single product master.

     

    Use coverage groups and safety stock settings at the variant level.

    Then, use forecasting and planning item setup to aggregate planning at the product master level.

    This helps MRP calculate needs based on total demand (e.g., total cans), even if the demand is spread across multiple variants.

    Let me know if this answers your query. 

    Thanks, 

    Zain 

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