COSMO Body, Chassis & Trailers

COSMO Body, Chassis & Trailers is an industry offering for manufacturers of vehicle bodies, chassis and trailers working with customer-specific product configurations. It extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with capabilities that connect specification capture and quotation preparation to order-specific manufacturing, external processing, production scheduling and quality checks. Configure–price–quote and customer specifications Sales teams can capture product requirements through structured question-and-answer checklists assigned to configurable items. Formulas and rules define dependencies between answers and validate the permitted choices. Each sales line can have its own specification, allowing the same base item to appear more than once in a quotation with different configurations. The checklist becomes part of the transaction rather than changing the original template. When a quotation becomes an order, its document checklist, bill of materials, calculation and attributes transfer with it, preserving the information needed to process the selected configuration. Product configuration and dynamic bills of materials The configuration process connects checklist answers with a dynamic master bill of materials. This master structure holds the valid component and operation options for a product. Rules use the selected specifications to determine which positions apply, the required quantities, and operation setup and run times. The result is an order-related bill of materials representing the customer’s chosen product. This connects the commercial specification with the materials and operations needed for production, rather than relying on a separate static structure for every possible combination. Order-specific manufacturing structures Document bills of materials retain the configuration associated with an individual quotation or order. Users can adjust these transaction-specific structures without altering the reusable master structure. An order-specific structure can be transferred into a construction order for technical review and modification before a production order is created. Components and routing information then provide the basis for manufacturing and material requirements planning in Business Central. This gives sales and production a connected representation of the product being supplied. Cost calculation throughout the order lifecycle Calculations can follow the product through sales quotations, sales orders, document bills of materials, construction orders and production orders. Multi-level calculations address products containing several assemblies. Concurrent calculations bring together relevant document structures and expected and actual production costs. Material and capacity calculation groups can be carried through the order-specific structure, allowing costs to be organised according to the particular build. Subcontracting prices are considered in the calculation, including prices maintained for external service items where these are used. This supports quotation preparation and subsequent comparison of the planned and incurred costs. Text management and operational instructions Reusable text modules hold additional information against items, customers, vendors, resources and manufacturing master data. Text can be inserted manually or automatically as document headers, footers and line information in sales, purchasing and production. Language-specific texts support communication with different customers and suppliers. Information can also be displayed as an internal system message without appearing on a printed document, separating operational guidance from customer-facing wording. Vendor evaluation Supplier evaluation combines delivery and quality information with configurable rating criteria. Delivery-date ratings compare promised receipt dates with actual arrival dates, while quantity ratings compare agreed quantities with the quantities received. Users can record quality assessments for deliveries and combine calculated and manually assessed criteria into vendor scores. This provides a structured basis for reviewing the performance of suppliers providing components, materials and external services. Subcontracting and material supply External production extends Business Central’s subcontracting process with the handling of materials supplied to the subcontractor. Material can come from internal stock or be delivered directly by another vendor to the subcontractor. Subcontracting structures connect external operations, the material provided and purchasing information. Pricing can use subcontracting work-centre prices or external service items, including different units of measure and purchase prices. These costs feed into the related manufacturing calculations. Graphical production and capacity planning Graphical planning views display production orders, order lines and routing operations on a timeline. Planners can move scheduled work to another date or adjust its start and finish times, updating the corresponding production information. Capacity views show work-centre and machine-centre loads and highlight potential overloads. Planners can open the affected orders, focus on the critical capacity and adjust the schedule. The visual views remain connected to Business Central records, with access to components, availability, reservations and routing details. Quality assurance Quality assurance provides structured test plans and test orders for incoming materials and manufactured products. Test plans combine the properties to be checked with the relevant test-property sets and test devices. Test orders can be created manually or automatically within the supply chain, recording quality checks within the enterprise resource planning process. This connects inspection activities with purchasing and manufacturing records rather than maintaining quality information only in separate documents. Platform requirements The solution operates within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Its discrete-manufacturing functionality requires the Premium edition.