Manufacturing: Spot Cost and Efficiency Anomalies with AI-Powered Insights

Finding production variances has become faster and smarter in MYOB Acumatica 2025.2.1.

Instead of digging through data to find outliers, you can now rely on AI-powered detection to highlight potential anomalies automatically—before they turn into costly problems.

New generic inquiries, combined with anomaly detection, help you monitor:

  • Material costs
  • Labor time
  • Production totals
  • Employee efficiency

Anomalies now surface automatically—so you spend less time searching and more time solving.

Attention: This functionality is available only if the Detection of Numeric Anomalies in Generic Inquiries feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.

Let’s explore the tools that make managing your operations easier and more accurate.

New Generic Inquiries

MYOB Acumatica now contains four new generic inquiries specifically designed to use anomaly detection.

  • Production Total Variance (AM0018ML): Get a complete picture of cost variances for each production order so that you can review exceptions before period-end and correct discrepancies quickly.
  • Production Labor Variance (AM0024ML): Identify discrepancies in labor time and cost to catch inaccurate reporting or outdated BOM estimates.
  • Production Material Variance (AM0025ML): Analyze material cost deviations between planned and actual values for WIP and completed production orders—broken down by operation.
  • Production Employee Efficiency (AM0030ML): Compare actual performance across employees doing the same operations, enabling fair evaluation and targeted coaching without overadjusting BOM labor times.

Each inquiry:

  • Works with In Process, Completed, Locked, and Closed production orders
  • Includes only operations with completed quantities

Recommended Settings

By default, anomaly detection is not enabled for the new generic inquiries—that is, the Detect Anomalies check box is cleared on the Generic Inquiry (SM208000) form. This is because the system currently supports anomaly detection for no more than 10 generic inquiries at a time.

To enable anomaly detection, select the Detect Anomalies check box. Then open the Anomaly Detection tab and fill in the Field for Analysis box and the Data Field column in the Grouping section. For reliable results, use the recommended settings in the table below.

Field for Analysis Grouping
For the Production Total Variance (AM0018ML) generic inquiry:
Total Operation Variance (%)

BOM ID

BOM Revision

Operation ID
For the Production Labor Variance (AM0024ML) generic inquiry:
Labor Cost Variance (%)

BOM ID

BOM Revision

Operation ID
For the Production Material Variance (AM0025ML) generic inquiry:
Material Cost Variance (%)

BOM ID

BOM Revision

Operation ID
For the Production Employee Efficiency (AM0030ML) generic inquiry:
Efficiency (%)

Order Type

BOM ID

BOM Revision

Operation ID

Key Takeaways

  • Faster insights: Automatically detect deviations in cost and time without combing through reports.
  • Smarter decisions: Improve BOM accuracy, labor planning, and material sourcing with data-backed evidence.
  • Targeted actions: From employee performance gaps to underperforming materials, act on what matters most.
  • Ready out of the box: Use the new generic inquiries with anomaly detection from day one—no setup required.

Learn More

For more information about the configuration and use of anomaly detection, see Detecting Anomalies in Generic Inquiries.