Configuring BOMS Based On Attributes

Once you have all of your attributes configured, with their values, and constraints, you can now create the rules that will allow Dynamics AX to use them to create dynamic BOM’s on the fly.

NOTE: This is part of the Building Dynamic Products with the Product Configurator blueprint series where we show how to configure product configuration models within Dynamics AX, and use them to create dynamics BOM’s and Routes based on the configurations. If you want to see all of the other posts in this series, click here.

Getting Ready…

Before we start though, make sure that you have created all of your product masters that you are going to be using in the BOM’s that the Product configurator will be creating:

How to do it…

To configure a BOM based on attributes, follow these steps:

1. To define the BOM creation rules, open the Product configuration model maintenance form and expand the BOM lines panel. From the menu bar, click on the Add menu button to create a new BOM line rule.
2. Give your BOM line rule a unique Name and a Description.
3. If this BOM line is dependent on an attribute being a certain value then add the expression that you want to check in the Condition field.
   
4. Once you have created the line, click on eth BOM details button in the BOM lines menu bar to open the BOM line designer.
5. In the BOM line details form, enter in the Item number that you want to use in the BOM line.
   
6. Then configure any of the BOM line fields that you want to use. In this example we set the Calculation, Quantity, and Unit fields.
   
7. Continue this for all of the other types of BOM lines that you want Dynamics AX to use.Tip: after creating all of your rules, click on the Validate button in the Run group of the Models ribbon bar to check all of your conditions, and expressions. If there are any errors then it will notify you and you can debug your rules.

   

How it works…

To see this in action, you can create a new sales order and create a line on the order for the configured product that you just created. Open up the detail tabs at the bottom, and select the Products tab. Notice that there is no Sub-BOM value at this point.

From the Product and supply drop down menu in the Sales order lines panel, select the Configure line menu item.

This will open up the same configuration screen that you have seen during the testing of your product configuration. Fill in the attributes that you want to use for the product configuration, and click the OK button.

After you have finished, you will now see that Dynamics AX has created and assigned a Sub-BOM to your order line.

If you drill into the Sub-BOM you will see that it has created a new BOM, you will see the BOM lines that it has automatically built for you.

Additionally, from the Update line drop down menu in the Sales order lines panel, select the (Calculate) Based on BOM/Formula menu item.

This will open up the cost calculation form for quotation purposes. To calculate the cost of the product configuration, just click on the OK button. You will then be shown how much the configuration will cost to build based on the base components of the BOM allowing you to quote the expected price to the customer.