Microsoft Supply Chain Management AI Consultant

Cost and structure decide margin. You build bills of materials, create costing versions, and manage costs for active products so that planning, production and inventory valuation agree.

• Bill of materials structure and versions
• Approving and activating BOM versions
• Costing versions: standard and planned
• Cost groups and cost price roll-up
• Inventory valuation models
• Managing cost changes on active products

You build A bill of materials and a costing version, with a cost roll-up checked against expectations.

Buying starts with deciding what to buy and from whom. You develop the procurement and sourcing strategy, set up procurement categories, onboard and manage vendors, and enable collaboration.

• Procurement categories and category hierarchies
• Vendor setup, groups and terms
• Approved vendor lists
• Vendor onboarding and vendor collaboration
• Vendor performance and holds
• Purchasing policies and approval rules

You build A procurement setup with categories, vendors, an approved vendor list and a purchasing policy.

Good prices come from a structured sourcing process. You run requests for quotation, compare responses, and create purchase agreements that later orders draw against.

• Purchase requisitions and approvals
• Request for quotation: creating, sending and comparing
• Awarding a quote
• Purchase agreements: quantity and value commitments
• Releasing orders against an agreement
• Price and discount trade agreements

You build An RFQ that is awarded and becomes a purchase agreement used by a purchase order.

The buying cycle closes with goods received and suppliers paid. You process purchase orders, receipts and invoices, match them, handle returns, and automate approvals with procurement workflows.

• Purchase orders and confirmations
• Product receipts and receiving
• Invoice matching and tolerances
• Vendor returns and credit notes
• Procurement workflows
• Accruals and the link to finance

You build A full purchase cycle with a three-way match and a vendor return.

Selling rules should be set before the first order. You develop sales policies, set up customers and groups, and configure unified pricing so that orders price themselves correctly.

• Customer setup, groups and credit
• Sales policies and order types
• Unified pricing: structure and rules
• Trade agreements and discounts
• Charges and miscellaneous charges
• Testing price calculation

You build A customer and pricing setup that prices a set of test orders correctly.

Orders must be promised, fulfilled and invoiced reliably. You process sales orders, use order promising for delivery dates, manage sales agreements, and handle customer returns.

• Sales quotations and orders
• Order promising: available to promise and capable to promise
• Sales agreements and releases
• Reservations and shipping
• Invoicing and settlement
• Return orders and credits

You build A sales order promised and fulfilled, with a customer return processed against it.

Planning begins with a view of demand. You develop the planning strategy, build forecast models, and run the sales and operations planning cycle that reconciles demand with capacity.

• Forecast to plan: scope and strategy
• Demand forecasts and forecast models
• How forecasts are consumed by actual orders
• Allocation keys and spreading a forecast
• The sales and operations planning cycle
• Reviewing and adjusting a forecast

You build A demand forecast model with adjusted forecast lines, and a written plan review.

Master planning turns demand into supply proposals. You configure coverage groups and planning parameters, run master planning, and review and process the planned orders it creates.

• Master plans and planning parameters
• Coverage groups and coverage codes
• Safety stock and lead times
• Running master planning and reading results
• Planned orders and firming
• Action messages and exceptions

You build A master plan run on test data, with planned orders reviewed and processed.

Production needs the right structure before orders flow. You develop the production strategy, define resources and routes, and set up subcontracting for work done outside the plant.

• Production types and strategy
• Resources, resource groups and capabilities
• Operations and routes
• Calendars and capacity
• Subcontracting with services and vendors
• Production parameters and policies

You build A route and resource setup, with one subcontracted operation.

Production orders turn plans into finished goods. You create and schedule production orders, release them, report progress and consumption, and finish and cost them.

• Creating and estimating production orders
• Scheduling and capacity
• Releasing and picking materials
• Reporting progress and finished goods
• Co-products and by-products
• Ending an order and cost settlement

You build A production order taken from planned order to end and cost settlement.

Warehouse operations run on configuration. You set up warehouses, locations and work templates, and use load planning to build efficient shipments.

• Warehouse and location structure
• Location profiles and directives
• Wave and work templates
• Mobile device menu items
• The load planning workbench
• Capacity and workload

You build A configured warehouse with work templates and a planned load.

Goods move in, around and out of the warehouse, and quality controls decide what may ship. You process receiving and shipping, run cross docking and journals, and manage quality orders.

• Inbound: receiving and put-away
• Outbound: picking, packing and shipping
• Cross docking
• Inventory counting and adjustment journals
• Quality orders and quarantine
• Inventory levels and visibility

You build A receive, move and ship flow that includes cross docking and a quality order.

Connect the six processes in one implementation. You configure products through payment, plan and produce, warehouse and deliver, then trace one item from forecast to cash.

• Mapping business requirements to the processes
• Configuring products, planning and procurement
• Configuring production, warehouse and sales
• Tracing one item through every process
• Documenting the configuration and decisions

You build A configured demo company with one item traced from forecast through production to customer payment.