Operating Units in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Operating unit is an organization that is used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. People in an operating unit have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, improve processes, and account for their performance.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX, the types of operating units include cost centers, business units, value streams, departments, and retail channels. The following table provides more information about each type of operating unit.

Operating unit type	Description	Purpose
Cost center	An operating unit in which managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures.	Used for the management and operational control of business processes that span legal entities.
Business unit	A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives.	Used for financial reporting that is based on industries or product lines that the organization serves independently of legal entities.
Value stream	An operating unit that controls one or more production flows.	Commonly used in lean manufacturing to control the activities and flows that are required to supply a product or service to consumers.
Department	An operating unit that represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task, such as sales or accounting.	Used to report on functional areas. A department may have profit and loss responsibility, and may consist of a group of cost centers.
Retail channel	An operating unit that represents a brick and mortar store, an online store or an online marketplace.	Used for the management and operational control of one or more stores within or across legal entities.

Error during Upgrade from AX 2009 to AX 2012 - Create Tables Task

During the upgrade process from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (Source to Target upgrade process), when running the Create tables task We might receive errors during the ‘Create tables’ step in the AX2012 Upgrade checklist. The errors were of the following format, and exceeded 10000…


Error 
[Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near ‘?’.
INSERT INTO SQLSYNCINFO (TEXT,TABLENAME,ID,PARENTID,LOGTYPE,MESSAGETYPE,SEQUENCE,
SYNCTABLE, WARNINGOK,RECVERSION,RECID) VALUES (?/*’/* block */’*/,?/*”*/,?/*0*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*0*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*5637172525*/)




Cause 
The AX Server configuration was configured with the ‘-internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse’ command. This setting is recommended by Microsoft for the duration of the upgrade, however, it needs to be set prior to executing the bulk copy scripts. The system errors out, if the setting is present during the ‘Create Tables’ step.
Solution 
Removed the -internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse command from the AX Server Configuration. (*added it back at a later stage in the upgrade process)

Solution found on WOLFTEK's Dynamics AX Blog

Call Center in AX 2012 R3

Next May 2014, Microsoft will Release the new version of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - R3 with a lot of new functions and modules, one of the new functions that had been added to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for retail is Call Center for managing Call center department for Retail Organizations (Delivery orders and somebody call). Microsoft have added the call center as a new type of retail channel in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. New call centers and call center catalogs are created in the Retail module. Many tasks that are related to the setup and management of a call center are performed in the new Call center.

Features outlines

• A new retail channel type is added: call center. In a call center, workers take customer orders over the phone and create sales orders. Call centers can be added to organization hierarchies, and can be managed together with online stores and retail stores.
• You can create catalogs for call centers, and use new catalog features.
• You can associate details with sales items. This feature lets you view additional information about the selected line in the sales order form, such as images, purchase order information, delivery dates, and other relevant text.
• You can create scripts that appear in the Sales order form at the time of order entry.
• You can prompt the clerk who enters sales orders to up-sell or cross-sell products.
• You can set up and manage continuity programs, in which customers receive regular product shipments on a predefined schedule.
• You can create orders from an item list, which is a saved list of products that customers frequently order together.
• You can track the status of a direct delivery purchase order via the associated sales order, and use the direct delivery workbench to create and release purchase orders for direct delivery. You can also specify products that are always sent to customers via direct delivery.
• You can perform full-text searches for products in the Sales order form.
• Precise control over pricing for call center sales orders is available.
• You can view the calculated margin values for broker royalties and rebates in the sales order form.

Enhanced payment functionality can be used for call center orders.

• Default sales tax groups can be used to create and view default priorities for calculating sales tax groups.
• You can create coupons that can be applied to call center sales orders.
• Installment payments can be used in sales orders.
• Broker support is available.
• You can put sales orders on hold.
• You can set up an expedited shipping mode that can be applied to a sales order or sales order line.
• Automatic notification and cancellation for backorders is available.
• You can track sales order events.
• You can view detailed order status.
• You can attach notes to a customer, order, or order line.
• You can define letter templates that can be used to generate personalized customer communications.
• You can define fraud rules to warn call center workers about potential fraud situations.
• RFM analysis can be performed on customers.
• You can track customer statistics.
• Enhanced functionality for customer service is added.
• You can track customer cases.
• Sales history can be purged.

New Warehouse Management Functionality in Dynamics AX 2012 R3

With the release of Dynamics AX 2012 R3, full warehouse management and transportation management will be incorporated into the core AX product. Some of the key elements of the new warehouse management functionality are outlined below.

Integrated Data Collection / Bar-Coding

One of the most notable benefits of the new functionality will be the ability to utilize hand-held data collection devices (bar-code scanners) without the need to purchase 3^rd party software. This, of course, allows workers in the warehouse and on the production floor to gain real-time access to Dynamics AX. The bar-coding devices will support purchasing and receiving processes, inventory adjustments, transfers, and stock counts, issuing materials to production orders and reporting production as finished, as well as the pick, pack, and ship process.

Workflow and Process Optimization

Warehouse management functionality does, of course, go beyond simple handheld data collection. Dynamics AX will now support configurable workflows. These workflows can be used to optimize the receiving and put-away processes, as well as the picking, packing, and loading of goods for delivery to customers.

License Plate Numbers

Dynamics AX will now support full License Plate Control, whereby pallets / containers can be assigned a unique license plate number. When receiving or putting away an item, items can be assigned to a specific license plate (i.e. to a specific container / pallet). Then, when that container or pallet is transferred, shipped, or received at a new location, the user need only indicate which license plate is being moved, and all of the items stored on that container/pallet will be updated as well, without having to individually identify them.

Article Source ERP Software Blog

A Shift to Effective Demand Forecasting With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3

Demand forecasters increasingly want systems that combine simplicity and agility, yet are powerful enough to handle a high volume of transactions. The forecasting systems in high demand are those that are intuitive, complement existing user knowledge and capabilities to do more with less, and are flexible enough to adapt to changing marketplace requirements.
Organizations require powerful tools for analysis – not simply more raw data – so their users will have the right information, delivered at the right time and in the right format. In today’s business environment where IT investments are routinely scrutinized, business applications must not only enhance user efficiencies and drive overall business improvement – there also must be a solid ROI associated with the investment.
A good tool will significantly improve a planner’s ability to successfully meet customers’ needs while minimizing inventory carrying costs, which is always important to manufacturers.
Demand Forecasting With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3
When we release Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, we are planning to include a lightweight, yet powerful demand forecasting tool that enables users to forecast demand based on historical data, adjust the forecasted demand, and import the values into Microsoft Dynamics AX forecast models. By design, Microsoft Dynamics AX utilizes the basic concepts of gathering the historical data, taking that data and generating a statistical forecast based on that demand, and then giving the user the ability to easily make changes to those forecasting recommendations in Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft was able to utilize several of its existing solutions in order to create new functionality that will handle the demand forecasting requirements of our customers. As a result of utilizing familiar Microsoft technology, demand forecasting will be a cost-effective solution. To generate the baseline forecast, we rely on the power of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. To visualize the forecast, adjust the forecast, and view or create new KPIs, we rely on the extensive functionality of Microsoft Excel.
What’s the Value Proposition?
We’d like to share with you a few of the proposed demand forecasting capabilities slated to be in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3:

• Works Seamlessly with Microsoft Products

Demand forecasting will leverage Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 in such a way that there is no need for data migration and integration (as long as you keep your historical transactions in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 database).

• Familiar Tools

Planners can use a familiar Microsoft Dynamics AX user interface to determine the historical data range and parameters of the algorithm applied. You can read more about the forecasting methods and the parameters available here and more about time series forecasting in SQL Server Analysis Services here.
The forecast itself is provided in Excel and can be easily manipulated by the planner. Equally important, users running Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 on SQL Server Standard Edition will not have to upgrade SQL Server in order to use demand forecasting. However, there are certain performance benefits for companies running SQL Server Enterprise Edition or SQL Server BI Edition. These advantages occur because processing data mining models run in parallel in SQL Server Enterprise/BI edition.

• Flexibility In Processing

Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 will offer the capability to perform forecast at any order penetration point in the supply chain. Demand forecasting for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 builds upon this functionality and offers the ability to forecast both dependent and independent demand.

So How Does It Work?
The key to the effectiveness of demand forecasting is in the way it works seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Excel, and SQL Server Analysis Services. The demand forecast generation starts inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. This forecast is quantity based and can be generated at different levels: item allocation key, released product variant, warehouse, customer, and by geographical area. Historical transactional data from the Microsoft Dynamics AX database is gathered and populates a staging table, which is then fed into a SQL Server Analysis Services mining model.

Inside the mining model, SQL Server Analysis Services time series forecasting methods are used to calculate a baseline forecast. The parameters for the forecasting methods are set in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. Changes made to the demand forecast and historical data from previous iterations are also made available in this demand forecasting cube.
In order to view and modify the baseline forecast, Microsoft Excel is used to connect to the demand forecasting cube. Any manual adjustments made must be published back to the cube before they can be imported into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. Notice at any time there is only one demand forecasting cube, hence only one version of the forecast exists. This will give planners confidence in knowing they can trust the system.
After the manual entries/adjustments to the forecast are made in the demand forecasting cube, the adjusted forecast is imported back into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 and used in forecast plans. The planner can use the generated forecast with the Master Planning capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Now, the production planners (or purchasing department) can leverage this valuable information to do their jobs. The key to this demand forecasting process is that it is executed in an intuitive, user-friendly environment which utilizes the power of Excel, allowing the user to quickly and easily update the data.
This simple design approach allows the systems to interact seamlessly while allowing the user to work in a familiar environment:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX – to determine product family, algorithm parameters and range of historical data
• Microsoft Excel – for usage, sharing and adjustment of the forecast

Microsoft Dynamics AX: Delivering Excellence
Delivering excellence is not just about providing best of breed functionality. It’s also important to make sure that you meet the individual needs of users while doing so within a reasonable budget. The design approach that we’ve taken with the planned demand forecasting functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 not only provides great functionality, but also utilizes existing Microsoft platform components (SQL Server and Excel) that most customers already use. With this demand forecasting functionality users are able to leverage historical data available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. This data is then turned into forecasting recommendations by applying advanced forecasting algorithms available in SQL Server Analysis Services. Finally, users are able to view and manage all of this data through a user-friendly and familiar work interface with Microsoft Office Excel. This “One Microsoft” approach helps customers achieve a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while also providing a common platform and common user interface that makes for a quicker and more successful user adoption.
Using the demand forecasting functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, demand forecasters will be able to work in a system that is powerful enough to handle intense planning requirements placed on them while trying to predict future demand needs. They will have a tool with a user-friendly interface that is agile enough to adapt to the ever-changing business environment they live in where demand variability is the norm. This is an environment where Demand Planners will succeed and the manufacturing organization as a whole will benefit – an environment where they meet and surpass customer needs while minimizing inventory carrying requirements

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