This article is relevant if you are seeking to work with NetSuite and use a third-party file system or replacement file cabinet.
Background
For a recent NetSuite implementation for a client in the medical device manufacturing industry, we enhanced NetSuite’s concept of work orders and assembly builds to bring forth a custom lot master record. While NetSuite offers lot based assembly item records, the primary purpose of that record type is to manage lot based costing, not lot based manufacturing operations. Hence, a custom record was used to facilitate the complex ways that lots are managed to control outcomes.
As part of the manufacturing operation, the client’s Quality Assurance team needed to take samples of newly manufactured products and perform various testing procedures. Because the organization operates under the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) agency, they are subject to practices that are approved and well documented. Hence, the existing conventional paper-based practices must be adhered to so they stay in compliance with their operating license. At a future phase, we can eliminate the paper — but that demands getting recertified — an effort to not take lightly.
A number of practices are paper-based in their operation:
- Batch Record Testing: specific procedures for each batch of work must be tested to measure if the newly manufactured item conforms to specifications.
- Label Accountability: labels are generated and adhered to the product. Each label needs to be accounted for.
- Supervisor Approval: a supervisor must physically record that the goods meet criteria under the acceptability requirements.
The organization scans all the actual paperwork so that it can maintain it electronically. The paperwork demonstrates the practice, but now that it is electronic, we have an opportunity to manage the work powerfully in NetSuite.
Extend the NetSuite File System
The first matter to attend to is how and where are we going to store the electronic PDF files. NetSuite’s file system offers a basic structure for holding files. Yet, for our workflow, we need more capacity:
- Storage Capacity: given the nature of this electronic image data, we can anticipate demand for high capacity storage. The client did not want any imposed NetSuite’s basic storage limitations on the solution.
- FileSystem Extensibility: we want to be able to describe the nature of the document so that we can treat it appropriately as part of the business process. NetSuite’s file system is not extensible like much of the rest of the business platform.
- Choice of Storage Solution: we need to be able to store files where we want them and not be subject to the dictates of the storage provider. The client was worried that if we want with a third-party cloud file system, such as that offered by box.com, and then later wanted to change storage providers, the business application would be too tightly bound to that vendor’s NetSuite add-on. Flexibility and options were valued.
Rule-Based Lot Manufacturing with File Attachment Attributes
We decided to work with the eXtendTech’s eXtendFiles as it is a Built-for-NetSuite add-in that is designed to give us multiple choices for our cloud-based storage operations. Because the client is on Office 365 for email and productivity applications, we initially worked with the client to connect up with Microsoft One-Drive. But during the implementation, we discovered that Amazon S3 simply worked faster in these flows and had more flexible abilities to handle private and public URLs to drive requirements for server and client processing. Having choice was valuable because there indeed does appear to be differences between back-end cloud storage offerings. Note, eXtendFiles supports box.com and Google Drive as an option — yet we didn’t explore this.
The key feature of the eXtendFiles system is that each file stored in the cloud is represented by a custom NetSuite record. This record is designed to be enhanced so that it can attach to respective business records. In our case, we created a custom sublist of different “File Types” which then allowed the file to be categorized according to the business file type. Click on the image to get an idea of the file types in question. We then enhanced eXtendFile’s built-in drag-and-drop file feature so that we can properly tag the record as to its nature (file type).
Once we were able to attach files into the NetSuite environment which were properly tagged by their business content, we then could design a fully automated exception-based Quality Assurance workflow. Here, we invented a record state to model the way the client moves through its natural lot master record life-cycle in its manufacturing operation. Each state would be automatically determined and moved forward by analyzing rules to read the underlying database.
I discuss the Record State Manager and Rules framework in these articles as the concept is applicable for any business that seeks to shape work in a highly visible framework:
- Learn how to Manage any NetSuite Record by Exception
- Learn How to Build Scalable NetSuite Sales Order Practices
- Learn How To Create Additional NetSuite Statuses to Produce Transaction Control
- Get Control: Auto Approve NetSuite Transactions with Hold Rule Checks
Examples of NetSuite File Cabinet Workflow Operations
Once we have our extensible NetSuite file cabinet (through our add-on eXtendFiles) in place, we built rules to confirm all the compliance checks were covered. Since a NetSuite work order represents planned manufacturing work, and the assembly build record represents the actual production, the custom Lot Master record represented a story of the constitution of the manufactured good. Thus, the care of the lot allowed for acceptability criteria for an assembly build and ultimately reliable production. If a lot failed to meet criteria, we easily moved the newly produced, but unusable, inventory into a quarantined area leveraging NetSuite’s recently enhanced inventory status capacity.
Click the image to get a feel for how the Lot Record works with both the attached files and the record state.
Talent Tying it Together With the NetSuite Platform
As a NetSuite Systems Integrator, our business model is simply about shaping the NetSuite software to fit our clients’ specific situations. We love the NetSuite Platform because it represents a space to innovate — when others say “no”, we say “yes”. The key to getting more value out of the NetSuite investment is to carefully listen to the nuance in our clients’ stated concerns — there is always a recurring pattern there because, within the game of business, all of us are fundamentally in service to trade via our commitments to fulfill on promises. Most anything else is a drama that keeps it interesting.
Our commitment to our clients is to give them the best our experience can offer; much of our experience has been organized into accelerator bundles that we give to our customers free of license charge which our clients are free to adapt to fit their unique concerns. The key is to keep options open and not be locked in.
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Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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