Manufacturing Interview Question

1)      What is discrete manufacturing?

Ø  Execute multiple production strategies, including configure-to-order, assemble-to-order, make-to-stock, and make-to-order. Use both push and pull production control mechanisms.

Ø  Optimize production and materials planning, forecasting, and scheduling. Simultaneously schedule materials and capacity. Calculate available-to-promise (ATP) and capable-to-promise (CTP) deliveries.

Ø  Create, schedule, view, track, split, rollback, or categorize production orders.

Ø  Understand WIP and actual cost through production tracking and reporting. Track detailed resource and throughput costs, including work center costs. Report production variances to standard costs.

Ø  Manage to the route: Plan simple, sequential, and complex networks; use simultaneous routes in the same network. Use rough-cut capacity and detailed scheduling capabilities. Organize the shop floor into logical production units at individual sites.

Ø  Quickly schedule/reschedule jobs and simulate alternatives by dragging Gantt chart items. Resolve scheduling overloads by reassigning operations to alternate work centers. Optimize scheduling across the organization with a unified resource model and scheduling engine.

2)      What is Process manufacturing?

Ø  Define multiple inventory dimensions: dual units of measure, catch-weight calculations, packaging codes, variations to the main item, and lots.

Ø  Manage multilevel formulas or recipes, co-products and by-products, electronic signatures, and packaging options.

Ø  Let customers request multiple quality specifications per product while combining similar products in production to improve machine utilization.

Ø  Analyze and monitor production costs and requirements for each sales order component using graphical representations of multilevel formulas and recipes.

Ø  Reduce inventory costs and eliminate waste by pulling inventory in optimal sequence using “best-before” management and first expired/first-out (FEFO) or first-in/first-out (FIFO) picking guidance.

Ø  Facilitate regulatory compliance with agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by validating manufacturing processes.

3)      What is Lean Manufacturing?

Ø  Model manufacturing and logistics processes as production flows.

Ø  Use kanbans to signal the demand requirements.

Ø  Monitor and manage kanban jobs using kanban boards.

Difference between lean and discrete Manufacturing

Lean works pretty much the same way in AX as Discrete... It uses another management principle.
The idea is that if you have very regular costs or do not want to track production variations it is pretty handy.
At the core LEAN manufacturing backflush BOM and route at a given quantity (kanban size) when the production barcode is scanned. You move the raw materials from stock to cell by a transfer kanban. The chain of actions (transfer, production, transfer, production...)  and so on is known as a value stream. So each step is just a barcode scan and that moves or assemble a set of items. Quantity is dependent on the kanban size.

4)   What is shop floor control?

Ø  Register products, resources, and items for operations and jobs. Touch-enabled data entry simplifies the user experience.

5)      What is Quality Management?

Ø  Improve business processes for quality assurance, quality control, and lot traceability.

6)      Inventory Management and Master Planning?

Ø  Apply multiple options for inventory valuation, including first-in/first-out (FIFO), last in/first out (LIFO), standard cost, and weighted average.

Ø  Master planning: Create and run multiple plans across multiple sites to meet demand and keep orders synchronized based on changes in internal or external demand. Improve distribution planning and forecast scheduling with an overview of longer-term purchasing, production, and resource requirements.

Ø  Use action and future messages to take specific actions on system-generated orders.

Ø  Optimize enterprise-wide planning by providing upstream organizations in your supply chain with visibility into the demand of downstream organizations.

Ø  Streamline subsidiary trading and apply intercompany trading policies. Create intercompany order chains directly and automatically from sales order to end-customer with and without direct delivery, and update sales orders from purchase orders and vice versa.

Ø  Multisite: Maintain centralized control of all site parameters from any location, whether site-specific or company-specific, including inventory, performance goal management. BOMs, routing, costing, and profit and loss dimensions. Manage multiple, distributed warehouses; apply different costs, prices, and cost category rates; and route data by dimensions.

Ø  Support multiple time zones with preferences for date and time fields set at the user level.

7)      Product Information Management?

Ø  Centralize management of products and services across the organization, including bill-of-materials (discrete mfg.), formulas (process mfg.), and variant and configurable products.

Ø  Maintain items easily by using up to three item dimensions, configuration, size, and color. Predefine the valid combinations of these dimensions to minimize product maintenance.

Ø  Manage the release of products and services to individual legal entities.

Ø  Specify dimensions for advanced inventory control, tracking, and tracing.

Ø  Configure custom products with a unique bill of material and routing using the product configurator. The product configuration models are based on constraints and can be used from a sales order, sales quotation, purchase order, and production order.

8)      What is BOM line type?

a)      Item

b)      Phantom

c)       Pegged supply

d)      Vendor

a)      Item

Select Item when the item is a raw material or semi-finished item that is picked from inventory, or when the item is a service.

b)      Phantom

Select Phantom when you want to explode any lower-level BOM items that are contained on the BOM line. When you estimate the production order, and the BOM items are exploded, the component items are listed as BOM lines in the production order and the corresponding routes are added to the production route.

BOM items are exploded by using the current configuration. When you use the Phantom line type, you can handle production and measurement configurations that occur at different BOM levels.

c)       Pegged supply

Select Pegged supply when you want to create a sub production for any BOM items that are contained on the BOM line. The sub production is created when you estimate the production order. The required item quantities are automatically reserved for the production.

d)      Vendor

Select a Vendor if the production process uses a subcontractor, and you want to create a sub production or a purchase order for the subcontractor automatically.

9)      What are the production control stages?

There are seven stages in production control

i)                    Create

ii)                  Estimated

iii)                 Scheduled

iv)                 Released

v)                  Started

vi)                 Reported as finished

vii)               Ended

Status	Description
Created	You’ll normally only see this status when you create a production order manually – although you can setup master planning to create ‘Created’ production orders when you firm a planned order. The Item BOM has been copied to the production BOM. The production BOM can be deleted and re-copied The Item route has been copied to the production Route. The production Route can be deleted and re-copied The production order can be deleted Master planning processes the production order (parent) item only. There are no demands on components There are no capacity reservations
Estimated	Phantoms have been exploded. (The Bill of material items and route operations from the phantom are copied into the production order BOM and Route, and the phantom item is deleted from the production BOM). Planned inventory transactions have been created for the production of BOM component items. Component items are scheduled for the delivery date of the production order (i.e. no production order lead time). Sub-contract purchase orders (and Sub-production orders) have been created. The production order price calculation is created. You don’t normally see this status, because normally you’d just Schedule the order.
Scheduled	Capacity is reserved Components are scheduled according to the beginning (or end) of their ‘deliver to’ operation
Released	Shop floor documents are printed
Started	Material can be issued, hours recorded, and production reported as finished
	<Issue materials> <Record hours> <Report as finished>
Reported as finished	All outstanding inventory transactions (issues and receipts) are deleted. Outstanding capacity reservations are deleted
Ended	Physical inventory accounting postings are reversed. Financial inventory postings are created. No further transactions can be posted. The production order can be deleted.

10)  What is Job scheduling and operation scheduling.

Can anyone explain to me the meaning of the "Production scheduling" in AX2012 in general and the difference between Job scheduling and operation scheduling, and if it has a cost effect on the production cost or it is just only a way to manage the available resources in my factory??

If you set scheduling a method as "operational scheduling" in the Automatic Execution field in Parameter by Site form, and if you skip job scheduling and press any upward status button then your production order will not be job scheduled...(it only Operational scheduled)

11)  Costing Sheets, Cost Groups, Cost Categories and BOM Calculation.

Cost groups are added to the BOM lines consumed in the production for grouping purposes.

The cost categories are added to the resources and carry the cost for the different route operations/jobs. The cost categories are also grouped by cost group.

The costing sheet organize the cost groups in a tree structure and you can also add indirect costs to your variable or direct manufacturing costs based on the cost groups.

The costing sheet is visually easier to read than the entire breakdown of the BOM, but it does only work for the first level in the consumed BOM at production cost calculation which is done when estimating a production order. At this stage also any phantom items in your production BOM are exploded.

12)  Estimated cost amount is different from the actual cost amount in the production process.

13)   

I have used 1 raw material, 2 service items for a finished product of formula structure in AX 2012 R3.

I have used the FIFO costing method for all items including finished products.

I am creating a Batch order for this process, after doing the ended process of a batch order I am getting the Cost amount different from the Estimated Cost amount.

I am getting the difference in raw material actual cost and 1 service item actual cost from that of the estimated cost.

I have done recalculation also for this item, but no voucher is updated and no changes happen to the final cost amount.

I have attached an excel sheet to this post explaining Bom/Formula calculation.

I am not getting the actual cost amount as same as the Estimated cost amount.

Do check on this issue, and update me about the solution.

14)   What is Production Type used in product information management?

BOM, Co-Product, By-Product, None, Planning Item, Formula

15)  What is a Co-product and By-product in Process manufacturing?

Co-products & By-Products: What they are and how to ensure accurate tracking & costing.

Co-product and by-product management is critical in food manufacturing and more specifically the meat industry.  Regularly clients approach us seeking functionality to help them efficiently manage, track, and account for the costs of multiple outputs from a single production run.  So a beef sub-primal would output various sizes of steaks (co-products) and various by-products: stew, trim, etc.  Unfortunately, it is all too common that the ability to do this is lacking in many off the shelf ERP applications that are utilized by food manufacturers.

So what are co-product and by-products?

A manufacturing process can yield several products, especially in the meat industry. These products are called co-products and by-products. But, what is what? Co-products are necessary secondary goods that are generated during the manufacturing process and can be sold or reused profitably.  By-products are unavoidable residual outputs that are usually unusable and have to be disposed of at a cost. The tracking and costing of both, co-products and by-products, are critical to a food manufacturer.

Co-product and by-product recipe management

Ideally, a meat processor will utilize an ERP system that offers a co-product and a by-product Bill of Material (BOM), where a single production run can have several desired or secondary outputs. Each of these outputs could be packaged into a separate finished good item or used in other production activities. Columbus’ solution, Columbus Food offers our clients the functionality and allows them to properly costing of the co and by-product items. For a finished good item, the production BOM number field maintains the packaging BOM number and Columbus’s production grouping item field indicates the intermediate item used to produce this finished good item.  Allowing for more accurate lot tracking and traceability; a critical need for meat producers.

Supply planning

Many ERP solutions can provide production planning and scheduling tools, however many meat processors need the ability to do supply-driven planning to reduce waste and spoilage and also, avoid stock-outs of desired items.  Columbus works with clients to provide a supply-driven planning worksheet to filter by location and define how far out they want to view supply and demand. The processor can see a list of process orders and then package orders planned. Finally, selecting create orders will create new production orders based on what has been set.

Production reporting

Consumption and output reporting is mandatory during and after the production process. Columbus Food enables full real-time consumption and output reporting. This includes integration to key equipment like scales and labelers on production lines. Columbus also offers a tool called batch reporting. This tool not only gives the processor a view of the previously posted production activity but also allows him to make additional entries.

16)  How many types of production journal in AX?

Production journal types

The journal types that are used in production are as follows:

Picking list - This journal is a record of the raw materials that are drawn out of inventory.

Route card - This journal is a record of the route consumption.

Job card - This journal is a record of the operations resource consumption using feedback job cards.

Reported as finished - This journal is a record of all items that are finished.

Production journals and lines

Production journals are divided into two components: the journal itself and the journal lines or actual journal records.

Journals - The production journal contains information that pertains to all entries. This information includes the journal type, name, and number; and, it collectively identifies which journal you are working with.

A production journal can also contain information such as status, the method that was used to post information, whether a negative deduction is permitted, and whether certain kinds of errors are accepted.

Lines - Journal lines reflect the actual records or entries present in the journal itself. These records can include a list of production materials ready for release, the amount of time consumed, the number of good and defective items, and so on. Because journal records contain item transactions that create financial transactions, the information in the records is also in the ledger.

7) what is the difference between resource and resource group in d365.

Assign an operations resource to a resource group

You must assign at least one operations resource to a resource group. Resource groups are collections of resources that share common business needs. To schedule production on resources, a resource group must contain operations resources.