Background
Adventure Works Cycles is high-end bicycle manufacturer in North America. The company sells 40 standard models as well as 100 limited-edition models per year to boutique retailers domestically.
Adventure Works has had the most success with the limited-edition bicycles. These bicycles have high margins, high demand, and a strong following with the younger generation biking community.
Current environment
Technology
During a recent global pandemic, the sales of bicycles increased enormously. To support this growth, Adventure Works is going to invest in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to standardize and streamline operations. Operations are currently managed with a custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and Microsoft Excel worksheets that address ERP product gaps.
Many processes are still maintained in Excel worksheets and then loaded into the ERP application.
Adventure Works wants to implement only those Dynamics 365 features that are areas of future investment for Microsoft, even if it means they implement fewer features.
Bicycles
1. Bicycle models can either be standard or made in a limited-edition release.
2. Bicycles are built based on a single item number that can have different sizes and frame styles. The sizes are XS, S, M, L, and XL. The frame styles are Male, Female, and Unisex.
3. The size and frame style combinations have different prices and barcodes.
4. All other bicycle properties are informational only.
5. Information-only properties do not have standardization or validation, which makes it easy to mistype data during product entry and difficult to identify mistakes.
6. Some limited-edition bicycles are not properly marked as limited edition in the current product management system due to the yes/no key indicator defaulting to no. This causes significant issues with item searching and reporting on the different bicycle models.
Limited-edition bicycles
1. The most recent limited-edition models include integrated face mask holders and extra storage containers welded to the bicycle frame.
2. The bicycles are restricted to one purchase per retailer per week.
3. The bicycles are announced on social media and are available for sale to retailers on the same day they are announced.
4. Customers can buy the bicycles at retailers shortly after they are announced.
5. The bicycles are sometimes available only through charity auctions.
Sales
1. Due to the global pandemic, it is difficult to keep products in stock. Retailers are buying as much inventory as possible each week.
2. Retailers email their sales to Adventure Works. The sales team in charge of each retailer manually enters the information into a shared Excel worksheet.
3. Retailers are required to submit one consolidated sales order by Wednesday every week so that the Adventure Works fulfillment team can organize and adjust sales order quantities based on availability.
4. Retailers are invoiced every three to five weeks. Adventure Works uses a manual process for invoicing.
The increased volume of purchases makes it difficult to keep up with invoicing.
5. To accommodate the demand for the Adventure Works limited-edition bicycles, the sales team enters orders for these items for fulfillment as soon as they appear on the SKU list.
6. Retailers can sometimes bypass Adventure Works order restriction policy. When this happens, it creates additional work for the fulfillment team.
Outbound
1. Finished bicycles are assigned a unique code to identify and track each bicycle.
2. Each bicycle that is picked for an outbound order is transferred to a quality control bench where it undergoes a 21-point mechanical inspection.
3. Bicycles that pass the mechanical inspection have their unique bicycle identification number recorded in the completed inspection list. The number is also recorded in the shipping manifest for customers to be able to verify that the bicycle
4. that was tested is the one that they received.
5. If a bicycle does not pass the mechanical inspection, the bicycle is moved to a quarantine location and another bicycle is picked and tested as a replacement for the order.
Inventory
1. Replenishment is simple but manual. It is currently all handled in Excel.
2. Every bicycle part for each standard model has a line in an Excel worksheet.
3. Adventure Works wants each storage space in the warehouse to be filled to capacity with the current products.
4. The team knows how many bill of materials (BOM) items can fit in the spaces without overflowing.
5. BOM items that make up the bicycles have different storage capacities.
6. Adventure Works uses Excel worksheets to make decisions about planned orders by period based on the supply and demand for finished bicycles.
Wheels
1. There are four types of wheels for all the bicycle models.
2. Customers often order a spare tire.
3. Wheels sometimes just disappear from the warehouse storage.
4. Adventure Works purchases wheels from only one manufacturer.
Master planning
1. There is no formal master planning process.
2. Replenishment activities occur weekly.
Requirements
Bicycles
All BOM items used the manufacturing process must be configured as unique products in Dynamics 365
Supply Chain Management.
The following manufactured bicycles' properties must be configured in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management:
1.
Size: XS. S, M, L, XL
2.
Frame style: Men, Women, Unisex
3.
Limited edition: [Blank], No, Yes
4.
Year: 2010-2020
5.
Manufacturer's note: Free form text up to 250 characters
6.
Rear suspension travel: 130 millimeters, 150 millimeters
7.
Full suspension: No, Yes
sales
1. Limited-edition bicycles must be systematically restricted to one bicycle per sales order. Overrides must not be allowed.
2. Retailers must automatically be invoiced once a month in a consolidated invoice for all delivered sales orders.
3. Limited-edition model bicycles must not be allowed for inclusion on sales orders until the bicycles' official release date.
Outbound
1. A bicycle's unique identification number must systematically be created as part of the standardized business process.
2. Bicycles must be pulled from a bin location in a First In, First Out (FIFO) inventory model and moved to a packing station.
Inventory
1. Overflow of any bicycle parts in the warehouse must be prevented, except for wheels.
2. System-generated recommendations to adjust Adventure Works' on-hand stock of wheels based on historical trends must be provided.
3. BOM items must be replenished before they run out. There must always be quantity available on-hand.
4. The system must maintain all inventory requirements through automated processes.
Master planning (MRP)
1. The tool that replaces the Excel worksheet must be able to show the supply and demand for the product family of finished bicycles and BOMs by period in a single screen. This single form screen will also be used for general supply and demand
2. inquiry only and not require intensive processing tasks. Inquiries to this form may result in non-system decisions and not with creating any planned orders.
3. The tool must allow for the creation of new planned production, sales, purchase, and transfer orders.
4. The MRP solution must have the best performance possible and allow for planned orders to be run in the middle of the day.
5. Planned orders that will not be firmed must not be changed. Adventure Works wants to be able to reference the planned orders later against any manual orders created until they feel more comfortable with the system.
6. Once Adventure Works is comfortable with the numbers that the system recommends, Adventure
Works wants to implement a mechanism to fully automate the generation of orders.