Setting up the Visual Production Sequencer involves several steps across several pages. The pages and steps described below are the most logical order to follow when setting up the system.
Product registration
Before using the Visual Production Sequencer, start it in the Product Registration page. Go to Departments > Solution Center > Product Registration and select the link for Product Registration.
If the line for FVPS - Visual Production Sequencer is not yet shown in the list, select Register All in the ribbon.
Select the line for FVPS - Visual Production Sequencer and in the ribbon select Install and then Enable.
If product registration is not completed, certain fields are not visible and the production planning parameters do not use the new functionality.
Users
Start setting up the Visual Production Sequencer with the user information. Go to Departments > Administration > Application Setup > Users > User Setup and create a record for each user who needs access to the Visual Production Planner.
For each user in the list, determine whether the user is a Planner or a Viewer and set the value in the Planner Type column accordingly.
Also appoint one or more planning administrators. These are the users who can end other users' sessions on the Visual Production Sequencer in an emergency. The number of planners and viewers is determined by the content of your D365 BC license.
Visual Production Sequencer Setup
Go to Departments > Manufacturing > Administration and choose Visual Production Sequencer Setup.
General tab
On the General tab, choose the colors for displaying Firm Planned and Released production orders, as well as non-production events.
The snap settings you enter determine the time interval the system uses to "snap" the moved production order to the first available time frame. For example, if the snap setting for Fine is set to 5 minutes and you are viewing the Visual Sequencer at a high level of magnification (only two or three hours visible without scrolling), moving a production order causes the system to snap the order to start at the nearest 5-minute interval (12:00, 12:05, 12:10, and so on).
In a "coarse" setting (more than one day visible without scrolling), the system snaps to the nearest 15 minutes or 1 hour, depending on the specific value.
Hover Text tab
The Visual Production Sequencer can show information about a specific production order when you hover over the order's bar. Set up the specific information displayed in the Hover Text tab of the Visual Production Sequencer Setup.
There are two parts: hover information for non-production events and hover information for production orders. Enter data the same way for both parts, plain text appears as text, and variables entered between { and } are treated as variables and display as data.
The available variables are:
StartDate
StartTime
EndDate
EndTime
ItemNo
ItemDescription
ItemAttribute, followed by :Parameter (in the demo database these parameters are Package Size and Intermediate Type)
AllergensExist, the item being produced contains allergens or "may contains"
AllergenList, the list of allergens involved
Shiftcode
Equipment, the equipment code on which the production order is planned
Duration, the duration of the production order (time between start time and end time)
Description, the description of the production order (this can differ from the item description)
ProdOrderUoM, the unit of measure in which the production order is expressed
ProdOrderQuantity, the quantity being produced
ProdOrderTime, the net production time, not taking non-production time into account
Variant
ItemCategory
Session tab
Heartbeat (seconds) is the time interval the system uses to check whether a session is still active. The default value is 30 seconds.
Location setup
Set up the location data. Go to Departments > Warehouse > Administration > Setup > Locations. On the Locations page, select the appropriate location code and choose Edit in the ribbon.
Go to the Production Planning tab and enter the following fields:
Normal Starting and Normal Ending Time: used as a fallback if no other information is available for the shop time of a resource.
Shop Calendar Code: the shop calendar code used as a default value when creating resource groups and resources. This value is inherited: depending on the value of Shop Calendar Priority on the Process Setup page, either the location code or the resource group code is used as the default when creating a new resource. When no shop calendar code is entered on a resource, the system uses the value on the location record or the resource group record depending on this setting.
Cross Shift: determines whether production orders are allowed to run into the next shift if shifts are defined on the calendar.
Stop/Resume Allowed: determines whether a production order is allowed to stop at the end of the day and resume the next day. This does not apply to shift changes, only to spanning a non-production time interval.
Overrun Allowed: determines whether a production order that ends in non-working time (as defined in the shop calendar) is allowed to be planned. If not, you cannot end production orders later than the end time of the specific resource the order is planned on, and stopping and resuming the next day is not allowed. The system only accepts orders that fall within normal operating hours.
Maximum Overrun (minutes): if a production order is allowed to run into non-operating hours, this field determines the maximum time the order is allowed to run into that time bracket. The value is expressed in minutes.
Resource group setup
Setting up resource groups is optional for the Visual Production Sequencer, but you can use them to group resources together. If you create a resource group, set up the same fields described above for the location code.
The system uses these fields because when using the Visual Production Sequencer, a specific hierarchy of settings applies. The system first looks for values on the resource shown in the Visual Sequencer. If no values are found, it looks at the resource group level. If these values are not found, it uses the location code values.
If the location code also has no values, the system throws an error that a shop calendar code cannot be found.
Note that you can change the order in which the system looks for settings (resource / resource group / location) by changing the Shop Calendar Priority field on the Process Setup page. The default value is Resource Group, but you can set it to Location. In that case the system looks at the resource, then the location code, and finally the resource group level.
Resource setup
In addition to the normal setup of a resource, you can deviate from the production planning setup at the resource group level.
On the Resource page, go to the Production Planning tab. The values for Shop Calendar Code, Cross Shift, Stop/Resume, Allow Overrun, and Maximum Overrun (Minutes) each appear twice. The grey value is the inherited value from the resource group or the location code. The white value is the resource-specific value.
If you leave the white value blank, the system uses the inherited value. If you enter a value in the white field, the grey field value changes accordingly. This prevents confusion about which value the system uses.