What’s New for Manufacturers in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations 2023 Release Wave 2 

The 2023 Release Wave 2 plan for Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations includes several key updates that manufacturing companies will find useful, especially if they operate in a project engineer-to-order manufacturing environment and have engineering change management needs.

Below are some of the key updates.

Note: Even though most customers, commentators, and consultants still call it Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations or D365FO, Microsoft now technically licenses it as Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

Key Updates in 2023 Release Wave 2

Compound Charges and Order Classes: These new features increase the agility of the sales process when it comes to complex requirements for surcharges, which can be beneficial for managing complex engineer-to-order projects. For more details, read the Microsoft documentation.

Better React to Last-Minute Changes in Production: Manufacturers frequently have to deal with last-minute changes to production orders. These changes can stem from a variety of sources, such as modifications to the items in production, adjustments in routing, margin updates, or scheduling changes aimed at optimizing on-hand inventory utilization. Fortunately, there is additional functionality in this release to offer the much-needed flexibility to adapt to these situations. For more details, read the Microsoft documentation.

Export Control Capabilities: These control capabilities help companies manage compliance with export restrictions, which can be important if your finished goods are subject to such regulations. For more details, read the Microsoft documentation.

Global Inventory Accounting Add-in: Manufacturing firms can now leverage the power of the Global Inventory Accounting Add-in within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to seamlessly execute concurrent inventory accounting procedures (for instance, for multiple countries with different compliance requirements), employing standard cost methodologies, all based on a unified document. For more details, read the Microsoft documentation.

Automatically Update Documents When Receiving Purchase Orders: For warehouse employees, this functionality offers significant advantages. It simplifies the purchase order receiving process by enabling the system to update the pertinent purchase documents automatically once inventory arrives in the warehouse. This will result in time savings, increased operational efficiency, and the elimination of the manual effort required to update purchase orders after inventory receipt. For more details, read the Microsoft documentation.

For advice on how to leverage these new capabilities to elevate your company’s processes, please contact us.

Features Becoming Mandatory With the 10.0.36 Release

Below are some features to review and watch out for, since they have become mandatory and can no longer be disabled. You can read more about these features becoming mandatory with the 10.0.36 release from Microsoft.

• Auto-picking of warehouse enabled materials for auto-posted picking lists.
• Copy generic routes enables the system to update all relevant information after the copy route function has been used to overwrite a route that is not yet assigned to an item.
• Enable partial receipt of subcontracted items and fix an issue with the calculation of scrap for BOM lines of type Vendor.
• The My jobs tab on the production floor execution interface allows you to easily view all unstarted and unfinished jobs.
• Pilots for production teams in the production floor execution interface allows you to nominate one worker as a pilot. This feature also supports the assist resource scenario.
• Update related resource requirements when a route operation is changed.

As always, with any new Dynamics release, the best practice is to take this update, then do a refresh from your production environment to your test environment, and run through your current work processes to assess any changes. Look for places where your business processes, documentation, or training may need to be updated to reflect the new functionality.

This is especially important for companies using related functionalities (WMS, production orders, subcontractors, and resourcing for route operations), and for those who have customizations related to those aspects of Dynamics 365.

For further assistance on implementing these features and functionalities, please feel free to reach out to Encore.