As a Manufacturing consultant, I often visit our clients to review their production processes, and offer ideas for optimizing their use of Dynamics GP. One of my frequent requests of our Manufacturing clients who process in-house repairs is to review the Depot Management module.
Depot Management is part of the Field Service Suite, and offers functionality specific to repairing products. I find that clients tend to force the repair process through the Manufacturing module. They create alternative Routings and manually update the Manufacturing Order Picklist, as most time the steps and components required to manufacture a new Item are different from the ones required to repair it. This can have an undesired impact on costing, and can make it difficult to separate out repair expenses.
Some of the advantages of using the Depot Management module are:
- It provides the ability to enter Work Orders, schedule repair technicians, and keep track of the usage of parts and labor in the repair process.
- Repair parts needed can be entered on the Work Order on-the-fly, or repair BOMs can be set up.
- Using Inbound and Outbound Item numbers, it allows you to easily update the item code, should the repair upgrade or downgrade the product.
- It offers functionality to define steps of the repair and move the product from work station to work station.
- Items needing repair can be company-owned or customer-owned. As the Depot Management module links directly to the Returns Management module, a new Work Order can be generated from a RMA, with actual repair costs being fed back to the RMA.
- It allows you to separate repairs from manufacturing, providing the ability to track personnel, costs, budgets, and profitability from each.
If you’re using the Manufacturing module to handle your repairs, it may be time to contact Sikich to review the Depot Management module for your in-house repair needs.
