How to Avoid Production Delays in Business Central Due to Missing Components

Every production team knows this moment when a work order seems ready, but a single missing part brings everything to a halt. Machines sit idle. Delivery schedules slip. Customers wait for updates. A single missing component can throw off the master production schedule, making on-time delivery impossible.

In most cases, these problems start inside the ERP itself. In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, users can create and refresh production orders even when materials are short. The system does not issue a warning until the posting stage. By then, it is too late.

Our Business Central consultants have seen how this gap quietly drains efficiency. That is why we built a simple, proactive control, an enhancement that stops production before it starts when components are not available.

In standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the production module does not validate material availability when creating or refreshing a production order. The system loads all components into the order, regardless of current stock levels.

Business Central is a strong production platform, but its default behaviour leaves one key risk unchecked.

• There is no early warning when a user creates or refreshes a production order.
• Shortages only appear during Production Journal posting.
• No automatic replenishment is triggered, and planners must create orders manually.

This reactive flow causes downtime, missed deadlines, and strained customer relationships. For manufacturers running tight schedules, this is a serious operational cost.

Modern manufacturing depends on timing. Even small delays disrupt entire production lines. That is why we believe the system should prevent users from starting production without all the required components.

Restricting users early does more than stop errors:

• It prevents unplanned halts on the shop floor.
• It protects delivery timelines and customer commitments.
• It supports just-in-time reliability, ensuring every order starts on solid ground.

Restricting users ensures production starts only when all required components are secured or replenishment is in motion. This proactive safeguard shifts Business Central from reactive issue handling to controlled and predictable production planning.

By introducing early restriction, manufacturers can align production orders with both material and capacity planning, ensuring that production schedules reflect not just available components, but also resource availability.

Our custom enhancement in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces an intelligent component availability check during the Bill of Materials (BOM) refresh process.

This complements the platform’s material requirements planning (MRP), giving production planners a full picture of what is needed, when it is needed, and before any job proceeds. It transforms production control from reactive to preventive by validating materials before execution begins.

When a user refreshes a Bill of Materials (BOM) in a production order, the system automatically checks each component’s availability in real time.

If even one part is short, the refresh is stopped. The user gets an alert showing which components are missing and the current inventory levels for each item. From there, the user can choose to:

• Create purchase or sub-production orders automatically.
• Review shortage quantities and expected due dates before resuming.

Production can only continue once all required materials are available or replenishment orders are confirmed.

This proactive control eliminates wasted setup time, prevents mid-process stoppages, and ensures that every production order in Business Central begins with full material readiness.

Whether your manufacturing operation is high-volume or highly customized, this restriction mechanism integrates directly into the Business Central production workflow. The restriction mechanism integrates directly into the standard Business Central production workflow. It runs automatically during the component refresh process, ensuring production cannot proceed without confirmed component availability.

• When a business user plans to manufacture a product for a particular location on a certain date, the user will create a production order in Business Central.
• During the refreshing of components, the system will prompt an indication if we don’t have sufficient components to meet the production demand.
• On the given date, the raw components availability is calculated based on the Inbound and outbound transactions (open sales orders, purchase orders, and any other work orders that are consuming the same raw material).
• In BC, there is an existing logic, which calculates “Item available to promise”, which is utilized to effectively calculate the item’s availability.
• A work order component contains raw materials and/or semi-finished goods.
• If the Components are raw materials and it is not available, a purchase order will be placed.

Note: If the component item has a vendor no. assigned to it in the item master, a Purchase Order will be created. Otherwise, an error will be prompted at the creation of the Purchase order to add the Vendor No. for that Item.

• If the Components are semi-finished goods and it is not available, a planned production order will be created.
• The related orders (Purchase/ Production order) have a corresponding Production order No. populated in the Work Description. This is to identify during Audits.
• The work order will not be refreshed until the respective orders are posted, unless any manual orders are created that will ensure the item’s availability.

This automated sequence ensures every production order in Business Central starts with full component readiness, which reduces downtime, prevents manual oversight, and maintains schedule reliability.

The custom restriction logic in Business Central adds transparency and traceability to every replenishment process. Each automatically generated purchase or sub-production order is linked directly to the parent production order.

We designed a provision for the users to navigate to the related Purchase order / Planned productions orders. This is available in Planned Production Order & Released Production Order pages.

There are cases that unlink the related orders. Any inbound orders that satisfy the inventory need and when the user try to refresh the work order. At this stage, the link between the orders (which we automatically created) and the current work order is removed.

Implementing a proactive restriction mechanism in Business Central delivers measurable operational and planning benefits. Each production cycle becomes more predictable, traceable, and aligned with material readiness.

This restriction approach transforms Business Central from a reactive control environment into a proactive production management system that minimizes risk and maximizes schedule accuracy.

Manufacturers do not need to wait for a posting error to know something is missing.

With our restriction logic, Business Central can now ensure that production starts only when all components are confirmed and ready. This not only improves production execution but also elevates your entire supply chain management by reducing unexpected shortages and expediting procurement when necessary.

Ready to eliminate component-related production delays? Contact our Business Central experts today to see this proactive control in action and keep every production order fully prepared before it starts.