Dynamics 365 Guides is another example of how we can use mixed reality to create experiences that are part of the production or maintenance process. The other would be Remote Assist, which we have already covered previously, so check this link in case you have missed one.
Back to D365 Guides – this is actually a feature that is configured to work out of the box with Finance & Operations when you use the new asset management module.
Setup & Configuration
When we take a look at the set-up process, there are four main steps:
- Configure Dual Write with a Common Data Service to copy the data from F&O into the Common Data Service;
- Flight MRGuidesFeature;
- Enable the configuration keys that are part of that feature;
- Setup Guides.
The configuration process inside of F&O is as simple as the setup process. You will need to create those guides by using a PC to create details of that guide to Hololens to place the actual holograms later. In case you are not familiar with holograms – these give you reference points on a machine, or on a particular tool cabinet that might be to help with the spatial recognition when you are wearing a hololens device.
Once guides created and holograms added, you go into F&O to create a maintenance checklist template to link the guide with the template afterward. The final step would be creating and processing those work orders from inside of Dynamics 365 F&O with the ability to open D365 Guides that are related to those particular checklists.
Again, this is an out of the box scenario but there are also some additional ones where you might be able to extend F&O to leverage the power of Dynamics 365 Guides.
Manufacturing Execution Guides
In this example, there would be two kinds of extension points. You would first create an extension to add a guide to the operation instructions. There is an out of the box feature that allows creating operation instructions that include text in pictures or even videos, but you could extend the solution to allow a guide to be added to those operation instructions.
Then, on the actual job card device or job card terminal, you would extend the actual device or terminal page so that the guide that is linked to that particular operation is displayed – so that the user put on the Hololens and pull up the proper guide and start processing that particular production step.
Quality Orders Guides
In this particular case, we could use Guides to help with your quality order or your inspection process, for example. Here, you could add an extension that allows you to link or add a guide to a test/test group, depending on what your business requirements are and how many different instructions you might need.
Then, you can add another extension to the actual quality order page that allows you to see guides that are related to the test or test groups that you’ve selected on that particular quality order. That way the quality management personnel can quickly and easily open that guide again from the Hololens.