business central for manufacturing

Manufacturing Industry is Transforming: Are You Up to the Challenge?

May 21, 2020

There is a growing realisation that the manufacturing industry post-COVID-19 will not be the same. For an industry crucial to the UK economy, widespread disruption to supply chains and weakening market demand have presented critical challenges.

Is your manufacturing organisation well prepared to thrive in the fluctuating market?  

It’s difficult to ignore that new opportunities have emerged in the new situation; change is rapid and consistent! Without future-proofing your manufacturing business now, you will be unable to respond to market challenges and opportunities or increase production levels.

COVID-19 has highlighted that now more than ever, upgrading to cloud ERP, if you haven’t already done so, is a no brainer.

Business Central is Transforming the Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing-industry

Dynamics 365 Business Central is Microsoft’s market-leading solution that is scalable and cutting edge. It’s a great fit for a variety of environments and needs – and can help you take charge in steering your manufacturing business towards success. With Business Central for your manufacturing business, you will be able to: 

  • Optimise your supply chain operations and lead an efficient manufacturing process, with accurate forecasting and decreased inventory costs 
  • Streamline workflows into one continuous process rather than managing different parts of a manufacturing line separately 
  • Manage upcoming product demand and track inventory to match that demand 
  • Make smarter decisions using enhanced AI-enabled insights 

Moreover, it’s easy to configure, use, and adapt – you can move quickly – we can migrate your existing ERP to Business Central in under 3 weeks with only 24 hours of your involvement, and at a price payable across 12 months!

Business Central can help your manufacturing business succeed even during difficult times:

1. Measure consumption, manufacturing, and more with Production Orders

With Business Central for your manufacturing business, you get one-click access to all the aspects of your order – inventory, workforce, customer service, installation, etc. vital to your business.

You can create production orders, forecast consumption against the manufacturing data, and calculate your net requirements. You can create different types of supply orders with the tools to manually plan for sales and future demand.

2. Track your stocks and make smarter decisions with Inventory Planning and Forecasting

With Business Central’s forecasting capabilities, you will have knowledge of potential sales and track your expected stockouts to get deep insights on your inventory.

business-central-inventory-level

Since you have real-time insights on your stock, you can schedule your orders accordingly, and even automate them. Furthermore, using AI-powered “Cortana Intelligence”, you can analyse historical data and make smarter decisions in managing your stocks and responding to your customers.

For example, by having visibility into the current inventory levels for products you sell, you will be able to predict stockouts that potentially lead to missed sales.

3. Meet market demands consistently with Demand Forecasting

Demand forecasting allows you to create “what if” scenarios and cost-effectively plan on meeting the market demand.

You can enter this forecast into the system in ‘daily’, ‘monthly’, or ‘quarterly format’. The system plans and creates production and purchase orders based on the available inventory automatically by considering the demand forecast.

demand-forecasting

4. Keep production in check with Capacity Measurement and Management

Business Central’s capacity management feature will let know when you need additional resources in your facility, materials, and team to handle incoming orders.

Often, you will have the supply process taken care of, but your orders will go beyond your capacity. By monitoring your capacity, materials, and projects consistently, you can avoid attributing more work than what the resources can produce.

5. Prioritise vital processes with Scheduling

Dynamics 365 Business Central allows you to schedule actions by prioritising them and helps you avoid any last-minute hassle or errors. Scheduling is easily one of the vulnerable aspects of the manufacturing process and therefore requires careful handling.

You will be able to streamline your scheduling process, prioritise activities efficiently, and refrain from having to adjust your entire schedule because of minor errors.

6. Monitor standard costs of raw materials over time with Production Bill of Materials (BOM)

Production Bills of Materials (BOMs) consist of the list of components that go into producing an inventory item. By having precise information on virtually every item that you need to create a certain product, you will be able to calculate standard costs and increase your manufacturing efficiency.

With BOMs, you can monitor the data on how the raw materials of a finished good impact the cost of the final item as they change over time.

7. Ensure smooth production with Machine Centres

Machine centres in Business Central help you manage capacity of your machinery on a more detailed level. Machines and producing resources play a vital role in manufacturing; managing their capacity will ensure smooth operations within the business and increase production rates.

You can add machine centre modules to manage the individual capacity of each machine unit or production. You can store additional information about manufacturing processes such as setup times in the system.

Take the first step – Move to Business Central for your manufacturing business!

It’s time for you to move quickly; we can migrate your existing ERP to Dynamics 365 Business Central in under 3 weeks! It can be fitted to your priorities – you can set and drive the agenda and priorities. Or try our Business Central price calculator to estimate the cost of implementation for your company.

Our special financing offer during this COVID-19 period lets you get started with Business Central in less than £10k (no fees, 0% interest). You can choose to spread this payment across 12 months!

To take advantage of this opportunity, get in touch with us today at +44 01296 328 689 or info@dogmagroup.co.uk and we will get it done for you.