Ontology

The operating model of your plant, as data.

An ontology is a model of what exists in your business, how it connects and what can change. CourageMFG's is built for manufacturers, on top of Business Central: 47 object types, 78 link types, 19 action types and 7 functions. Everything on this page is the product's own definition.

Business Central's object types on the inner ring, CourageMFG's around them. Choose any one to see what it links to and the actions that change it.

Object types

The nouns of the plant. Business Central objects are linked by their BC keys and open in BC. CourageMFG objects hold the work BC doesn't keep.

16 from Business Central

Object	What it is	Properties	Links
Work center	BC Work Center (line, cell).	4	4
Machine center	BC Machine Center under a work center.	4	4
Production order	BC released production order: output item, routing, components.	5	3
Item	BC Item: part, component or finished good.	6	6
Lot	BC lot (item tracking): the hub between floor, supply and customers.	5	11
Vendor	BC Vendor (supplier).	4	5
Customer	BC Customer: a sell-to or bill-to record in one BC company. Rolls up to a CourageMFG account.	5	4
Contact	BC Contact: a person at a customer or vendor.	4	2
Purchase order	BC purchase order and lines.	5	4
Sales quote	BC sales quote. Can be made out to a contact before the customer exists; BC creates the customer when it becomes an order.	5	2
Sales order	BC sales order and its shipments.	5	4
Purchase receipt	BC posted purchase receipt: what arrived, against which PO, into which lots.	4	2
Location	BC location (warehouse, plant) and its bins.	3	1
Employee	BC employee.	3	2
Fixed asset	BC fixed asset: book value and depreciation.	3	2
BOM / routing	BC production BOM and routing.	4	1

31 kept by CourageMFG

Object	What it is	Properties	Links
Issue	A problem or idea raised on the floor.	10	10
CAPA	Corrective/preventive action with root cause and effectiveness check.	7	8
Controlled document	Procedure, work instruction or spec with governed revisions.	6	5
SCAR	Corrective action request sent to a supplier.	5	2
PO acknowledgement	A supplier's answer to a PO line: accepted, a proposed date, split, quantity or price, or can't supply; and the promised date.	4	1
Downtime event	Minutes lost on a machine, with cause.	4	2
ECR / ECO	Engineering change, released to BC items, BOMs and routings.	5	4
Nonconformance	Disposition of nonconforming material.	5	2
Customer complaint	A sub-record of a service case: the quality complaint, traced to order, lot and production.	5	4
Lead	Someone who might buy, from a lead form, a trade-show list or a referral. Qualify it, then convert it to an account, a contact and an opportunity.	11	6
Campaign	A trade show, webinar, email push or content series, with its cost, leads, pipeline and won revenue.	9	5
Content item	A post, email, article, video or event on the marketing calendar, from idea to published.	7	2
Marketing email	A newsletter, announcement or invitation to a segment, written in the builder or imported as an HTML design, with who got it, opened and clicked.	12	5
Sequence	A few emails that go out on their own, days apart, from when a lead comes in or someone enters a segment.	9	2
Segment	A rule over leads and account contacts: who an email goes to, and who's left out and why.	4	1
Account	The company you sell to. A prospect until qualified; then it becomes one or more BC customers (sell-to, bill-to, each BC company).	8	6
Case	A customer question or problem; can become a complaint.	5	2
Opportunity	A deal in the pipeline. It carries its quotes; winning one creates the BC sales order.	7	5
Quote	A priced offer on an opportunity, costed from the BOM and routing, with revisions. Issued as a BC sales quote.	7	2
NPI project	A new product moving through stage gates to first production.	5	1
Inspection result	Measured results for a lot against its inspection plan.	6	3
Gauge	A measuring instrument with a calibration schedule and certificates.	5	1
Audit	An internal, supplier or customer audit, with findings.	5	1
Hold	A quality hold on a lot, bin or location, mirrored as Blocked in BC.	5	2
Asset	A maintained machine: its BC machine center and fixed asset, meters and history.	6	4
PM schedule	Preventive maintenance by calendar, run hours or cycles.	5	2
Maintenance work order	Corrective or planned work on an asset, with parts and labor.	6	4
Safety incident	An injury, near miss or property damage, with investigation and actions.	5	1
Qualification	An employee's sign-off to run an operation or work center, with expiry.	5	3
Kaizen project	An improvement project with an A3, actions and verified savings.	5	1
Request	Any form that needs approval: capex, purchase, deviation, travel.	5	2

Link types

Typed, directional relationships between objects, made in one of three ways.

Picked: Linked by the user (BC key)
Derived: Derived from BC data (item ledger, receipts, shipments)
Workflow: Created by a CourageMFG workflow

From	Link	To	Made
Issue	happened at	Work center	Picked
Issue	happened on	Machine center	Picked
Issue	occurred on	Production order	Picked
Issue	affects	Item	Picked
Issue	involves	Lot	Picked
Issue	supplied by	Vendor	Picked
Issue	for	Customer	Picked
Issue	escalated to	CAPA	Workflow
CAPA	sends	SCAR	Workflow
CAPA	revises	Controlled document	Workflow
CAPA	contains	Lot	Workflow
CAPA	targets	Vendor	Workflow
SCAR	sent to	Vendor	Picked
PO acknowledgement	acknowledges	Purchase order	Picked
Controlled document	applies to	Item	Picked
Controlled document	used at	Work center	Picked
Lead	converts to	Account	Workflow
Lead	converts to	Opportunity	Workflow
Campaign	brought in	Lead	Picked
Campaign	includes	Content item	Picked
Campaign	sourced	Opportunity	Workflow
Campaign	sends	Marketing email	Picked
Marketing email	is on the calendar as	Content item	Workflow
Segment	is the audience of	Marketing email	Picked
Marketing email	sent to	Lead	Workflow
Marketing email	sent to people at	Account	Workflow
Campaign	runs	Sequence	Picked
Sequence	follows up	Lead	Workflow
Account	becomes, once qualified	Customer	Workflow
Opportunity	for	Account	Picked
Opportunity	has	Quote	Workflow
Quote	is issued as	Sales quote	Workflow
Sales quote	converts to	Sales order	Derived
Opportunity	when won, creates	Sales order	Workflow
Asset	is	Machine center	Picked
PM schedule	maintains	Asset	Picked
PM schedule	generates	Maintenance work order	Workflow
Maintenance work order	is on	Asset	Picked
Maintenance work order	uses spare parts	Item	Picked
Purchase receipt	receives	Purchase order	Derived
Purchase receipt	brings in	Lot	Derived
Production order	produces	Item	Derived
Production order	consumed	Lot	Derived
Lot	received from	Vendor	Derived
Lot	shipped to	Customer	Derived
Purchase order	from	Vendor	Derived
Work center	contains	Machine center	Derived

47 of the 78 link types. The rest come with the applications that create them.

Action types

The governed changes to the model. Each one says who may run it, what it writes in CourageMFG, and what it writes back to Business Central. The status column says which are live today.

Action	What it does	Writes back to Business Central	Status
Raise issue `create_issue`	Log a problem or idea on the floor, linked to the BC records it touches.	Nothing in BC	Live
Triage issue `triage_issue`	Set severity and owner; the issue moves to Triaged.	Nothing in BC	Live
Escalate to CAPA `escalate_to_capa`	Open a CAPA from an issue; the CAPA inherits the issue's BC links.	Nothing in BC	Live
Move stage `transition_record`	Move a record to its next allowed stage, with a note.	Nothing in BC	Live
Convert lead	Turn a qualified lead into an account (or match an existing one), a contact on it and an opportunity that keeps the lead's campaign.	Nothing in BC	Live
Send email	Send a marketing email to everyone in its segment who can be emailed, now or at a set time, with each person's own merge values and an unsubscribe link.	Nothing in BC	Live
Create quote	Price the opportunity from an estimate and issue it as a BC sales quote.	Creates the BC sales quote, made out to the contact until the account is a customer	Live
Convert account to customer	Once an account is qualified (credit check, terms), create it as a customer in BC.	Creates the BC customer, as the signed-in user	Live
Win opportunity	Close the deal on its accepted quote and create the order in BC.	Converts the BC sales quote to a sales order; creates the customer first if the account isn't one yet	Live
Send SCAR	Ask a supplier for corrective action; they answer in the portal.	Nothing in BC	Next
Acknowledge PO line	Supplier confirms a PO line and its ship date.	Promised receipt date on the BC purchase line (optional)	Next
Approve document revision	Sign off a revision; it becomes effective on its date.	Nothing in BC	Next
Release ECO	Apply an approved change to BC.	New certified BOM/routing version; item revision	Next
Put lot on hold	Quarantine a lot while quality decides.	Sets Blocked on the BC Lot No. Information	Planned
Record calibration	Log a calibration; out of tolerance flags every lot the gauge measured since the last good one.	Nothing in BC	Planned
Open maintenance work order	Request work on an asset, from the floor, a PM or a downtime event.	Spare parts used post as item consumption in BC	Planned
Report safety incident	Report an injury or near miss from a phone, in under a minute.	Nothing in BC	Planned
Sign off qualification	A trainer signs an employee off on an operation.	Nothing in BC	Planned
Submit request	Submit a capex, purchase or other request for approval.	On approval, creates the BC purchase order or fixed asset	Planned

Functions

Logic over the graph: search, everything on a BC record, Pareto, traces and scorecards. The ones with a tool name are what Claude and Copilot call over MCP; the status column says which are live today.

Function	Takes	What it answers	Status
Search `search`	text, optional type	Find records by number, title, details or a linked BC key.	Live
Everything on a BC record `get_related`	BC record type + key	All issues and CAPAs linked to one lot, item, vendor or work center.	Live
Pareto `pareto`	dimension, days	What's driving issues, by category or by BC record.	Live
My work `my_work`	the signed-in user	Open records the user owns or raised.	Live
Lot trace	lot	Forward and backward trace through BC item ledger entries.	Next
Supplier scorecard	vendor, period	Delivery from BC receipts, quality from linked issues.	Next
Cost of quality	period	Scrap, rework and returns costed from BC, by issue category.	Planned

Questions

What the linked model answers, and the path through the ontology each one walks.

What is driving defects on Line 3 this month? Live
IssueWork center
Which recurring issues have no CAPA yet? Live
IssueCAPA
Which other customers got parts from the same lot? Next
Customer complaintLotCustomer
Which suppliers have overdue corrective actions? Next
CAPASCARVendor
Which engineering changes came from quality problems? Next
CAPAECR / ECOBOM / routing
Which work instructions change when this ECO releases? Next
ECR / ECOControlled document
Which leads from the trade show became customers, and what did they order? Planned
LeadAccountCustomerSales order
Which open opportunities have a quote below target margin? Planned
OpportunityQuote
Which accounts have open complaints and open opportunities? Planned
AccountCaseCustomer complaint
Which machines lose the most hours, and are PMs on time? Planned
Downtime eventMaintenance work orderAssetPM schedule
Which lots were measured with a gauge that later failed calibration? Planned
GaugeInspection resultLot
Who on second shift is qualified to run Line 3? Planned
QualificationEmployeeWork center

See your own plant in it.

We'll map your Business Central into the ontology and walk you through your own objects and links.

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