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. Courage's is built for manufacturers, on top of Business Central: 42 object types, 68 link types, 18 action types and 7 functions. Everything on this page is the product's own definition.
Object types
The nouns of the plant. Business Central objects are read live from BC and open in BC. Courage objects hold the work BC doesn't keep, and link to BC records by key.
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 |
26 kept by Courage
| 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. Qualify it, then convert it to an account and an opportunity. | 7 | 3 |
| 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 | 5 |
| 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 | 4 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
35 of the 68 link types. The rest come with the applications that create them.
Action types
The only way anything changes. Each one says who may run it, what it writes in Courage, and what it writes back to Business Central, as the person who ran it, under BC's own permissions and validation.
| Action | What it does | Writes back to Business Central | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
Raise issuecreate_issue | Log a problem or idea on the floor, linked to the BC records it touches. | Nothing in BC | Anyone signed in |
Triage issuetriage_issue | Set severity and owner; the issue moves to Triaged. | Nothing in BC | Supervisors and quality |
Escalate to CAPAescalate_to_capa | Open a CAPA from an issue; the CAPA inherits the issue's BC links. | Nothing in BC | Quality |
Move stagetransition_record | Move a record to its next allowed stage, with a note. | Nothing in BC | Owner or quality |
| Send SCAR | Ask a supplier for corrective action; they answer in the portal. | Nothing in BC | Quality, purchasing |
| Acknowledge PO line | Supplier confirms a PO line and its ship date. | Promised receipt date on the BC purchase line (optional) | Supplier (portal) |
| Put lot on hold | Quarantine a lot while quality decides. | Sets Blocked on the BC Lot No. Information | Quality |
| Release ECO | Apply an approved change to BC. | New certified BOM/routing version; item revision | Engineering, after approval |
| Convert lead | Turn a qualified lead into an account (or match an existing one), a contact and an opportunity. | Creates the BC contact (no customer yet) | Sales |
| 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 | Sales, estimating |
| 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 | Sales ops or finance |
| 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 | Sales |
| Approve document revision | Sign off a revision; it becomes effective on its date. | Nothing in BC | Document approvers |
| Record calibration | Log a calibration; out of tolerance flags every lot the gauge measured since the last good one. | Nothing in BC | Quality lab |
| 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 | Anyone; maintenance plans it |
| Report safety incident | Report an injury or near miss from a phone, in under a minute. | Nothing in BC | Anyone |
| Sign off qualification | A trainer signs an employee off on an operation. | Nothing in BC | Trainers and supervisors |
| Submit request | Submit a capex, purchase or other request for approval. | On approval, creates the BC purchase order or fixed asset | Anyone |
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.
| Function | Takes | Returns | What it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
Searchsearch | text, optional type | Issues and CAPAs | Find records by number, title, details or a linked BC key. |
Everything on a BC recordget_related | BC record type + key | Linked objects | All issues and CAPAs linked to one lot, item, vendor or work center. |
Paretopareto | dimension, days | Ranked counts with cumulative % | What's driving issues, by category or by BC record. |
My workmy_work | the signed-in user | Open objects | Open records the user owns or raised. |
| Lot trace | lot | Production orders, vendors, customers | Forward and backward trace through BC item ledger entries. |
| Supplier scorecard | vendor, period | OTD, PPM, SCAR responsiveness | Delivery from BC receipts, quality from linked issues. |
| Cost of quality | period | Cost by category | Scrap, rework and returns costed from BC, by issue category. |
Questions
What the linked model answers, and the path through the ontology each one walks.
What is driving defects on Line 3 this month?
IssueWork centerWhich recurring issues have no CAPA yet?
IssueCAPAWhich other customers got parts from the same lot?
Customer complaintLotCustomerWhich suppliers have overdue corrective actions?
CAPASCARVendorWhich engineering changes came from quality problems?
CAPAECR / ECOBOM / routingWhich work instructions change when this ECO releases?
ECR / ECOControlled documentWhich leads from the trade show became customers, and what did they order?
LeadAccountCustomerSales orderWhich open opportunities have a quote below target margin?
OpportunityQuoteWhich accounts have open complaints and open opportunities?
AccountCaseCustomer complaintWhich machines lose the most hours, and are PMs on time?
Downtime eventMaintenance work orderAssetPM scheduleWhich lots were measured with a gauge that later failed calibration?
GaugeInspection resultLotWho on second shift is qualified to run Line 3?
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.