Creating and managing automation rules if your ERP system is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Automation rules allow you to create inspection orders automatically in case events occur, for example, when new goods reach the warehouse or a production run is completed. The automatic generation of inspection orders is triggered when a new document corresponding to such an event is detected in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and that document meets the conditions specified in an active automation rule.

Business Central documents monitored for this functionality are

• purchase receipts, since these documents indicate that goods are received that may require quality inspection; and
• production receipts, as they are the documents that indicate that a production run has been completed

To display the list of available automation rules, select the Automation menu entry on the left of the Inspect / Manager screen. It opens on the Goods receipt tab where you can specify automation rules to generate inspection orders when a purchase receipt with a given content is detected in Business Central. Select the Production receipt tab to set up automation rules that generate inspection orders when a production receipt with a given content is created in Business Central.

Creating automation rules

Click Add rule in the top right corner of the list to create a new row in the table and enter a descriptive name for your new rule.

The new rule will be displayed on the top of the list of automation rules. You will need to select it to edit its details (see below).

Managing automation rules

Click the options (°°°) icon on the right side of the list to edit the details of the given rule or to delete it. You can also select the name of an automation rule in the list to specify / edit its details.

The screenshots below show the detail view of a goods receipt automation rule that will trigger the creation of an inspection order if - as stated in the Conditions section of the automation rule - the supplier specified in the Business Central purchase receipt is Lasercom.

Automation rule details

The following details can be entered / edited in an automation rule:

• Rule activation

Your automation is effective only if you have ticked the Active checkbox in the top right corner of the tab.

An automation rule can be marked as Active only if you have selected an inspection plan and specified at least one condition.

• Name

You can change the name of the automation rule.

• Inspection plan

Select the inspection plan you want to base your automatically created inspection orders on from the drop-down list.

• Sampling plan

Select the way you want to calculate the number of samples in your automatically created inspection orders from the drop-down list.

• Conditions

Use AND and/or OR operators to specify the conditions that a newly detected document in the ERP system needs to meet in order to invoke your automation rule. Clicking on the + sign allows you to add a new condition or a new group of conditions connected by an AND or an OR operator.

A condition can refer to a supplier / customer, an item or an item group. (Though item property is also displayed among the options, it is not supported for Business Central.) Each of these elements can be associated with (required to be equal to or not equal to) a value to be selected from a drop-down list.

For example, if you want your goods receipt automation rule to take effect if the Microsoft Business Central purchase receipt has the supplier Lumarx and the item Printer Label, then use the following formula:

• Finalize automatically

Tick the Finalize automatically checkbox to close the order if it has passed.

• Order generation and release

For an item managed by lots (batches) in Microsoft Business Central, select the corresponding radio button to generate one inspection order for each line in the Business Central source document, or to have an order for each lot (batch) covered by the document.

Similarly, for an item managed by serial numbers in Business Central, select the corresponding radio button to generate one inspection order for each line in the Business Central source document, or to have an order for each serial number covered by the document.

The default setting is Create one order per document line for both batch and serial number managed items.

Selecting Create one order per serial number may potentially result in a great number of inspection orders.

Newly created orders are added directly to the operator’s list in Inspect / Operator, unless you uncheck the Release automatically checkbox (which is checked by default).

• Batch release

Tick the Batch release checkbox to release the lot (batch) automatically in Business Central if the order has passed and is finalized.

Handling conflicting automation rules

If multiple active rules match a document, only one of them will be used to create an inspection order. The winner is either the most specific matching rule, or – if two rules have identical conditions – the one that is positioned higher in the list of rules. Reordering may help you get the desired outcome. Click the (drag) icon to drag and drop the given rule to a different position.