Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part IV

I hope everyone had a great long weekend, and that you got a lot of rest, and ready to tackle the short week ahead.

Today, I wanted to post the final part IV, of Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, from guest blogger Brad Edwards. The following is a list of the previous parts of this four part series.:

• Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part I
• Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part II
• Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part III

So far, Brad has really taking us into a good deep dive into some of the great new features around Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Product Data Management (PDM) / Master Data Management (MDM) for products.

Brad wraps up his guest series, with taking us through intercompany implications, Product management for smaller organizations, as well as some closing thoughts. So, lets here what Brad has in store for us here.:


Intercompany implications

In previous versions, items must be carefully setup to be transacted via intercompany sales and purchase orders. With the release of AX 2012’s product hierarchy structure Released products are tied to one another via the Product number, eliminating the need for Company items setup, or External code setup to link items between companies.

Released products may still have different names in different companies. The Released product’s Item number may be changed by using the Record info > Rename function.

While this greatly reduces the time required to setup products for intercompany use, there are some potential drawbacks. As this is the only way to link Released products for intercompany use, it is no longer possible to link a Released product that is tracked by certain product dimensions in one company to a Released product that is not tracked by product dimensions in another company.

For example, if company A sells t-shirts in red, green, and blue under item number TSHIRT with color dimensions Red, Green, and Blue, and company B buys the t-shirts under the item numbers TRED, TGREEN, and TBLUE, AX 2012 will not support this type of setup. So it is important to consider the implications of the new product structure on intercompany processing for the organization in question.

Product management for smaller organizations

Thus far, all of the information discussed has assumed the creation and management of products at the instance level, and the release of products to individual AX companies. However, this structure would provide a large amount of overhead in smaller, single company organizations. However, the capabilities exist for users to create Released products directly in the Released products form. The user may do so by clicking the New Product button in the ribbons section of the form:



As with products at the instance level, the user must still specify the Product number, Product type, and Product sub-type so that the product may be created in the Products table. This method of Released product creation is much more suitable for smaller organizations that wish to manage products in a simpler manner.

Technical note

Thus far, the entire article has focused on the functional changes to the way in which products are managed. However, for the slightly technical users, there are some important technical changes to note. AX 2012 now makes use of table inheritance. This means that fields that appear on the Products form may not actually be on the products table, but on a parent table that the products table extends. Without going into too great of detail, it is important that functional users reference screenshots rather than table and field names when completing functional specs, to eliminate confusion during development.

Closing note

While this article has merely scratched the surface, its intent is to provide a high-level overview of the changes to come in the area of Product management in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. It is important to note that the release from which this article was written was based on a public beta instance, and there is still the potential for changes to be made. I hope that you all have found this information useful. Enjoy working with AX2012!


Well I would like to thank Brad for taking us through Product Management review, for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. It's hard to work in writing to a already very busy schedule, and so thanks Brad!

From here, we will continue to dive into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, including diving deeper into some of the topics touched on in this series of blog post. For example taking and doing some real comparisons, with impact, for orgazations of varying sizes, and how PDM would be different for each.

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come! Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part III

I hope everyone is doing well today, and that your thankful for having another day. I know I am! With that, we continue to dive into Product Management with expert Brad Edwards. This is part III in the series, you can read the first two here.:

• Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part I
• Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part II

In this next installment, Brad dives into Product Variants release as well as Release Product Management.



Product variant release
Once product variants have been created at the instance level, they must be released to individual companies before transactions may be performed in the respective company.

Variants may be released from any of the Products forms (All, Distinct, Product masters), or from the Product variants form by clicking Release products in the ribbon section of the form. This launches the Release products form:



The user will first select the product variants that they wish to release. This is done in the Product variants section for Product master releases, and the Products grid for Distinct product releases.

NOTE: before Product variants can be released for a Product master product, the Product master must be released. This is performed by checking Include product master in the Product variants section.

The user will then click Select companies.



Here, the user will select each of the companies to which the selected products are to be released, and click OK at the bottom of the form.

Any errors that occur may be viewed on the Open product releases form, accessible from Product information management > Common forms:



The user has the ability to view and infolog for each release issue. Once issues have been resolved, the products may be released directly from this form, or the open releases may be removed.

Released product management
Up to now, we have discussed management of products at the instance level. Users in all companies will see the same records in the Product master forms.

Once products have been released, they can be managed within the individual companies by going to Product information management > Common > Released products. This is the AX 2012 company specific item master. Here, the user will only see products and product variants that have been released to the AX company within which they are currently working. The form looks similar to the products form, but much more information can be stored for each Released product.



Much of the information that was setup at the Product level can also be setup at the Released product level. However, there are several fields which, if setup at the Product level, may NOT be changed at the Released product level. The most notable cases of this type of behavior are the Storage dimension group, and the Tracking dimension group.

As with the Product dimension groups, Storage and Tracking dimension groups specify which dimensions are active for the Released product.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Storage and Tracking dimension groups are not required at the Product level. However, if they are specified on the Product, they will default each Released product, and may NOT be changed at the company level. This means that if Storage dimension group were specified for our testProduct product such that site and warehouse were the only active dimensions, then these settings will apply to all companies in which the product will be used. If it desired to maintain different Storage or Tracking dimensions in different companies, then these fields should be setup for each Released product in their respective companies.

Before Released products can be transacted upon within a company, several additional fields must be setup for the Released product:

• Item model group


• Storage dimension group


• Tracking dimension group

Item model group may be specified by clicking Edit in the ribbons section of the form, and changing the value in the Administration section of the form:



The two dimension groups may be modified by clicking Dimension groups in the ribbons section of the form:



If these three fields are not setup, a user will receive an error if trying to create a transaction for the newly Released product. This, however, is a nice improvement from previous versions of AX, where it was necessary to specify this information upon creation of the product. In actuality, the product designer may have no insight as to:

• How the Released product should be costed


• Whether or not physical updates should be posted to the general ledger


• Which WMS strategy should be used


• How reservation logic should occur


• Whether or not the Released product should be lot traceable or serialized

By eliminating the need to specify this information upon product creation, AX has now opened the window for product creation workflow capabilities that did not exist in the past. For example, a possible workflow may be setup such that product managers or engineers design and create the product, accounting specifies the necessary financial information, the warehouse manager specifies the necessary storage dimension group, and the quality manager specifies the necessary tracking dimension group.

One field that was not mentioned in the previous section is the Item group. In AX 2012, Item group may only be specified at the Released product level. However, Item group is no longer a required field. This is a very important change, as it affects the use of inventory posting profiles. While posting profiles still work in the same manner (Table/Group/All), if the Released product does not have an Item group specified, AX will skip the second option, and revert directly to the All items posting profile.

This means that it is very important to consider whether or not an All items posting profile should be used, as it could result in incorrect postings to the ledger. For example, if an All items posting profile is setup to post to the raw materials inventory GL account, and a user fails to specify an Item group for a newly released finished good, transactions will be incorrectly posted to the raw materials account. While this scenario exists in previous versions in the case where a user specified an incorrect Item group, it may be much more likely to occur, as Item group is no longer mandatory.

Now that all required pieces of information have been specified for the Released product, the product may be purchased, inventoried, and sold as defined by all of the specified properties.

Once again, I would like to thank Brad for the continued effort in giving us great insight into what's waiting for us with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, relating to Product Management.

This shows off the power of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, around Master Data Management (MDM) & Product Data Management (PDM) concepts. All companies need a good plan for this, and it's a very important topic.

That's all for now, check back soon as more to come! Till next time!

"Visit the Dynamics AX Community Page today!"

Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part II

I thought I would start back my normal post, with the continued guest posting of Brad Edwards, and a focus on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Product Management. You can view the first in this series, located here.: Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part I

In the second part of this series, Brad dives into the next section of Product Management, with Product, Tracking & Storage dimensions, as well as more.:



"Another key change coming with AX 2012 is the decoupling of Product dimensions from Storage dimensions and Tracking dimensions. See below:

• Product dimensions: Color, Size, Configuration


• Storage dimensions: Site, Warehouse, Location, Pallet ID


• Tracking dimensions: Batch number, Serial number

Product dimension requirements are now defined for the Product, whereas Storage and Tracking dimension requirements are defined for the Released products.
The Product dimension group defines whether or not each product dimension is active, as well as whether or not they are to be used in the price search for trade agreements.



The Configuration technology field specifies which type of product configuration, if any, will be applied to the newly created product.

• Predefined variant - This type should be chosen if the product will not be configured, but simply rely on the user’s choice of Color, and/or Size, and/or Configuration for each transaction


• Dimension-based configuration - This type should be chosen if the user will build a configurable BOM that relies on configuration rules to build the Config ID and the BOM lines. (This technology may only be chosen if Configuration is active on the Product dimension group selected for the product)


• Rule-based configuration - This type should be chosen if the product will use Product builder


• Constraint-based configuration - This type should be chosen if the product will use the new AX 2009 Constraint based product configuration method. (This technology may only be chosen if Configuration is active and is the lone Product dimension active for the Product dimension group selected for the product)

NOTE: No functionality around configuration technologies will be discussed in the remainder of the document.

Once all fields have been specified, the user simply clicks OK to create a new Product record. There are now two types of Products records (Product and Product master) that will be discussed further:



NOTE: Two additional menu items are accessible from the main module menu for managing products: Distinct products, and Product masters. These two menu items will respectively direct the user to Products of sub-type Product or Product master, and allow the user to manage these specific sub-types separately from one another, if desired.

Product variant creation and management
A large amount of information may be maintained at the Product master level, including, but not limited to:

• Product dimensions


• Images


• Product categories


• Product attributes


• Unit conversions

For Product master products, Product dimensions and Product variants are extremely important. Both may be managed from menu items in the ribbons section of the Products form:



Product dimensions allow the user to define color, size, and configuration values (if active) for the product.

Product variants are the AX 2012 version of Item dimension combination, or unique combinations of color, size, and configuration. These may be created for a product by clicking Product variants from the Products form:



Users may manually create the variants by creating a new record, and selecting the appropriate product dimensions for the variant.

Users still have the option to allow AX to automatically create all possible product variants by selecting the Generate variants automatically checkbox in the product details (by clicking Edit from the Products form):



As noted during product creation, Distinct products do not have product dimensions, and therefore, do not have the ability to create multiple product variants. In fact, a Distinct product is actually, itself, a Product variant."

I would like to thank Brad for his continued efforts in giving us detailed insight into the world of Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Stay tuned as I have a lot more coming, including book reviews, interviews, deeper dives into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, and a lot more... till next time!



Visit Hillstar Business Intelligence (www.HillstarBI.com) in order to truly unlock your data trapped in your Microsoft Dynamics investment. With our value driven business intelligence strategy Hillstar help you transform into a data informed company.


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Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Part I

As part of my continued effort to try and help grow the Microsoft Dynamics Community and Ecosystem, I have reached out to those peers of mine that I trust. The reach out, is an effort to get them to use their knowledge, and expertise to help the Dynamics community at large.

As part of this effort, Brad Edwards, Supply Chain Consultant with Sunrise Technologies, has agreed to do a guest post here on my blog.

With the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a lot is changing. That means deeper functional depth, and more possible ways for customers to maximize their investment with AX.

Brad, in this series of guest post, takes us through the new possibilities with product management, for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.



With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 comes some rather large, but exciting changes to the way in which products are managed. In previous versions, item masters were kept at the company level by default, often times causing headaches for organizations that wished to share product masters between two or more legal entities.

While technically, the potential existed to share the Item master between companies, this option tended to result in more drawbacks than advantages. This typically caused organizations that desired such functionality to create jobs to synchronize items between AX companies. In AX 2012, products are now managed at the instance level, and released to AX companies as necessary. This series of post, will provide a high level overview of this change, as well as other changes in the area of product management.

Product creation and management
The first major change to notice, is that product management has been moved out of the Inventory and Warehouse Management module (formerly Inventory management), and into a new Product information management module.



Base product information is managed via the menu items highlighted above.

The shared product master can be accessed via the All products menu item.



The form shown above is the new AX 2012 Product master. This is DIFFERENT than the AX 2009 Item master, as this shows all of the products that are used across all companies in the AX instance.

The creation of new products is performed by clicking the New product button in the ribbons section of the form, or hitting CTRL+N on the keyboard. The user is then presented with the following dialog:



The first value that the user must specify is the Product type. Here, the user has two choices: Item or Service. This field is the AX 2012 version of Item type from previous versions of AX.

• Item type - This option will be selected if the product is an inventoried product


• Service type - This option will be selected if the product is a non-inventoried product


• Lack of the BOM type - AX 2012 has done away with the need for the BOM item type.

All Released products (company specific items…to be discussed later in the series of post) of type Item may now have a BOM, and the sourcing of the product is determined by its default order settings

The second value that the user must specify is the Product sub-type. Here, the user has two choices: Product or Product master. This field allows the user to choose whether or not the product will have any Product dimensions (Color, Size, or Configuration).

• Product master sub-type - Products of this sub-type must have a product dimension group that specifies the product dimensions that are active for the product (color, size, configuration)


• Product sub-type - Products of this sub-type do NOT have any product dimensions, and therefore do not have a product dimension group

This, in essence, is both a product master and a product variant

If the product sub-type is set to Product, the user need only fill in the Product number, Product name, and Search name (as with previous versions, the Product name, and Search name default to the value of the Product number).



If the product sub-type is set to Product master, the user must specify the fields shown above, as well as the Product dimension group, and the Configuration technology:




That is all for the first part, in the multiple part series. I would like to thank Brad for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share with us his deep dive into Product Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Check back next week, as the second part of this series is posted!

For reference, the following is Brad's Bio:
>Brad Edwards is a Senior Supply Chain Consultant with Sunrise Technologies. While his specialty is functional consulting in the areas of supply chain management, manufacturing, and warehouse management, he also has strong technical skills that prove to be very valuable during project implementation. Brad has worked on numerous AX implementations in the areas of Food & Beverage, Apparel, and Furniture. He resides in Atlanta, GA and is an alumnus and avid supporter of The Georgia Institute of Technology.

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