New Release – 15th MARCH 2020 – Improvements: Production Module, New Internal Note Field and Stock Tab with Availability Info Added to Product Page, New Clone Action for Assemblies, Decimal Places for Numeric Data Shown in Generated and Printed Reports are Configurable via General Settings, New UI Improvements

New Features

Feature 1: Production Module Improvements

Impact area: DEAR Production Module.

Introduction: The Production module is aimed at addressing the needs of the production process. New production features will provide our current customers with powerful, logical manufacturing solutions to add to their inventory solution.

Following on from our most recent releases, we are continuing to improve the Production module functionality and add features. This release’s new features are:

• Capacity Planning for Individual Resources: Set operational and non-operational intervals for each individual resource. Map labour resource to individual users in your organisation. See Managing Production Resources – Operational hours and capacity.
• Production BOM – Operation Type: Production BOM operations can now be set to Manufacturing or Setup type. Cycle time for Manufacturing operations depends on the quantity of finished goods to produce. Cycle time for Setup operations remains the same no matter the number of finished goods quantity.
  
• Reorder Suggestion – Production: Reorder suggestions from the Inventory Velocity report now include Production as well as Transfer and Purchase. Use this option to generate Production Orders for your reordered finished goods products and nested semi-finished components. See Reordering from the Reorder Suggestions page.
  
• Manufacturing Buffer: Manufacturing buffer is a value set in the Production BOM to protect production order deadlines. The buffer is set to allow enough time to complete the Production Order when something goes wrong. Manufacturing buffer now applies a buffer to component lead time when calculating a Production Order Release Date. See Manufacturing Buffer.
• Production Reports: It is important to have a transparent communication channel between production managers and sales managers. If the production manager implements production changes (e.g. re-plans orders), these changes impact the product delivery date and thus Sales Order completion. See Production Reports for more information.
  
  • Production Overdue Report: The Production Overdue report informs the Production Manager about any Production Orders/Production Runs that have not been started on their scheduled start date. Only Production Orders with the status Released appear in this report.
  • Production Required By Date Exceptions: Changes in production planning can cause schedules to be pushed forward. The Required by Date Exceptions report is intended for sales managers to check when the Required By Date of a Production Order differs from the Required by Date of a Sales Order, so the new date can be settled with the customer.
  • Production Reports can be scheduled automatically for customers with a DEAR Automation subscription.

Pre-conditions: None.

Feature 2: New Internal Note Field and Stock Tab with Availability Info Added to Product Page

Impact area: Inventory > Products.

Introduction: The Product page now includes a new Internal Note field and a Stock tab showing availability info. An Internal Note can be used for any information that should not be shared publicly. The Description field can still be used for information that needs to be shared with your customers on your sales channels.

Pre-conditions: None.

Functionality: When adding a new product from Inventory > New Product, an Internal Note can be included for the product.

Internal notes can also be added to existing products in your inventory. Go to Inventory > Products, select or search for the product to which an internal note is to be added, then enter the information on the Internal Note field.

To view availability info for the product, click the Stock tab on the left.

For more information on these features, see the Product/Service Document Header Fields and Viewing Stock Availability sections in our article on Product Service and Management.

Feature 3: New Clone Action for Assemblies

Impact area: Production > Assemblies.

Introduction: The Assembly page now includes the Clone feature which allows copying of the information about an existing assembly into a new Assembly record.

Pre-conditions: Create a new assembly from Production > Assembly.

Functionality: Opening the assembly record shows a Clone button. All your existing assembly records also display this same button. To copy an existing assembly into a new Assembly record, click the Clone button.

For more information on this feature, see Cloning an Assembly.

Feature 4: Decimal Places for Numeric Data Shown in Generated and Printed Reports are Configurable via General Settings

Impact area: Reports.

Introduction: Decimal places in reports in DEAR are configurable via Settings > General Settings. Numeric data in all reports generated in DEAR, including those that can be exported to PDF, will have the decimal places set under this option.

Pre-conditions: In Settings > General Settings > Organisation, set Maximum decimal in quantity to the desired decimal place (set to 2 by default).

Functionality: Numeric data in all reports generated in DEAR, including those exported to PDF, will display the decimal places based on the value set in the pre-condition.

For more information, see Managing Reports and Report FAQs.

New UI Improvements

DEAR announced new UI improvements to make the system more user-friendly and in line with current standards in our 16 February and 1 March 2020 release notes. This week, DEAR Inventory is implementing additional UI improvements in the following modules:

• Purchase
• Financials
• Settings
• Reports
• Automation.

Customers will immediately notice these changes in the aforementioned modules. UI improvements in other DEAR modules are set to be implemented in the coming weeks.

We’re currently updating our documentation to reflect these changes.