A company uses Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and wants to automate the creation of purchase orders based on demand from sales orders. Which feature should they use?
Master planning calculates net requirements and can generate planned purchase orders automatically.
Why this answer
Master planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management uses demand from sales orders to generate planned purchase orders, ensuring inventory levels meet requirements. It performs net requirements calculations, considering existing stock, lead times, and order quantities, to automate procurement suggestions. This directly addresses the need to create purchase orders based on sales order demand.
Exam trap
The trap here is that candidates confuse purchase requisitions (a manual approval workflow) with master planning (an automated demand-driven engine), assuming any procurement-related feature can automate purchase order creation from sales orders.
How to eliminate wrong answers
Option A is wrong because a purchase requisition is a manual request for goods or services that must be approved before becoming a purchase order; it does not automatically generate purchase orders from sales order demand. Option C is wrong because consignment inventory is a vendor-managed stock model where goods are stored at the customer's site but not owned until consumed; it does not automate purchase order creation based on sales orders. Option D is wrong because vendor collaboration is a portal for sharing documents and data with suppliers, such as purchase orders or forecasts, but it does not generate purchase orders from demand.