Introduction
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central features Built-in Automatic Flushing Methods, a powerful yet often overlooked feature that simplifies posting material and resource consumption during production orders. These methods streamline the process, reducing manual intervention and enhancing data accuracy.
What Are Automatic Flushing Methods?
Automatic Flushing Methods automate the posting of material and resource consumption based on specific system events, like changing the status of a production order. These methods are invoked and executed without user intervention, making the process more efficient.
Industries That Benefit
Manufacturing organizations, especially those producing standard products with well-defined Bills of Materials (BOMs), can significantly benefit from these features. These organizations, primarily involved in Make-To-Stock production, can use Automatic Flushing Methods to ease data entry and improve accuracy during production.
Detailed Overview of Flushing Methods
Business Central offers two types of Automatic Flushing Methods: Forward and Backward. These methods are defined for both material consumption and resource capacity consumption and are updated on the Item card for material consumption and on Work Centers/Machine Centers for capacity consumption.
Flushing Method on Item Card
- Location: Replenishment Tab
Flushing Method on Work Center Card
- Location: Posting Field
How Do the Flushing Methods Work?
Forward Flushing
Forward Flushing is triggered when a Released Production Order is created or when a Firm Planned Production Order’s status changes to Released. Here’s what happens:
- All Production Order components are immediately flushed out from stock, and consumption is posted.
- Consumption entries are created, and the related material cost is assigned to the Production Order.
- All operations of the routing are posted automatically with standard run time and setup time, if any.
- The output quantity of the Production Order item is credited to stock.
Backward Flushing
Backward Flushing can be complete or linked to routing operations.
Complete Backward Flushing
Backward Flushing happens when the status of a Released Production Order is changed to Finished:
- All Production Order components are flushed out from stock, and consumption is posted.
- Consumption entries are created, and the related material cost is assigned to the Production Order.
Backward Flushing with Routing Link
Business Central provides a concept of Routing Link, which links BOM items to related routing operations. This is useful for organizations with lengthy production order execution periods. Instead of waiting until all processes are completed, consumption can be posted after each operation:
- When an operation is posted through the Production Journal or Output Journal, only the items linked to that operation through the Routing Link are posted as consumed.
Important Note
For both forward and backward Automatic Flushing Methods to execute successfully, the required quantity of items must be available in stock at the specified location/bins.