Land-based aquaculture executes a very complex production process to grow eggs into ready-to-be-sold full-grown biomass. In this operation, many components must be considered, such as feed amounts, oxygen concentration, and the PH of the water, to name a few.
One of the goals this process must achieve is to perform biomass harvesting in the most efficient way possible. This task can only be accomplished by having complete control over production plans and the execution of planned activities. The Production Control module within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can meet these requirements.
Production Control allows users to prepare all the production processes and keep track of their execution while generating reports with cost information and resources consumed by the different parts of the harvesting process.
Before starting, we must consider that the following functionalities apply to not only land-based aquaculture companies but also any company that works with Process Manufacturing.
In this blog, I want to briefly explain each main element of the module and how it can help the land-based aquaculture industry improve production processes.
Production orders are the core of the Production Control module; this is the basic order to produce a specific product, in a requested quantity, on a specific date. Production orders are based on formulas and routes (which I’ll explain later in this blog). There are other types of orders like Batch Order or Kanban Order, but I’ll discuss them in a future blog.
Production Orders have a status-based lifecycle:
As you can see, the best way to implement Production Orders into your land-based aquaculture production is by using a Production Order with many jobs, representing various tasks from the raw material (Ex. eggs) to the finished product (A full-grown adult)
The Formula is one of the most essential parts of the Production Control module when working with Process Manufacturing. Before a company can start production, the components necessary to create the product and quantity must be defined within Dynamics 365. Then, the Formula identifies the materials, ingredients, and outcomes of a specific process. Working in conjunction with the corresponding production route, the Formula defines the whole production process.
The way this feature can be applied to land-based aquaculture is the following:
Imagine that every phase of the fish is a product: the eggs are a product, the Alevins are a product, the Smolts are a product, and so on.
The Formula for each of the products would indicate the ingredients; for example, depending on the company’s processes, the Formula would show a certain quantity of Alevins and a specific amount of feed, oxygen, etc., to produce a specific quantity of Smolts.
The solution will help your company keep in check the number of resources and consumables spent on each part of the process and control the expenses, ensuring the most efficient work method and the most intelligent use of resources.
In Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, the production route determines the steps needed to produce a finished product. In other words, the route establishes the sequence of events that will take place to create the finished product.
One way to use this tool is to create a route for every part of the land-based aquaculture process; this will determine how to produce a certain quantity of finished products: Alevins, a Full-Grown Adult, or an Adult ready for consumption.
As its name implies, these are the company’s working resources. They can be anything that is used to produce goods or services. In Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, resources are classified into the following types.
In conclusion, Microsoft Dynamics Production Control is a great tool to monitor and control your production process while tracking and calculating costs and resource expenses. It comes especially handy in a Process Manufacturing type production when your objective is to automate and ease your manufacturing processes.
I hope it helped you see how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management can provide excellent coverage to maintain your company’s production process as efficiently as possible.
