Going Lean with an ERP

Chances are your company has already embarked on lean initiatives. Many companies have realized that waste is the opposite of value. Because of this they work to optimize in order to remain profitable and competitive. But what value can an ERP bring to your lean initiatives? First, let’s assess our lean practices.

How many of these rules do you follow?

1.       Do not over-purchase

2.       Do not over-produce

3.       Simplify processes and procedures

4.       Minimize wait-time

5.       Optimize human movement in moving material

6.       Measure and Improve continuously

What is your score on the practices above? 3 out of 6? Maybe more or maybe less? Did you know that an ERP system such as Dynamics AX can help you achieve the above practices right out of the box?

ERP systems are built with lean in mind, and can really aid in a manufacturer’s lean efforts.

What can an ERP do specifically?

Reduce waste: An ERP will increase your flow of information through its routings and workflows. The planning module will minimize inventory while making effective use of transportation and warehouse facilities. It will also eliminate waste or delays in the supply chain by becoming a link to your trading partners. This means that your warehouse will be able to capitalize on the available space provided by trade and logistics, while your supply chain eliminates excess inventory and shortages through supply chain management.

Increase your Business Intelligence: An ERP system contains documentation of your processes and procedures. It will record and implement any changes placed into the system. This will deliver the most up-to-date information while providing info on changes in relation to costs, lead-times, and efficiency. Built in Business Intelligence tools will monitor performance indicators and notify management of changes whether they are good or bad. BI tools will also allow for the analysis of data that, in turn, can reduce waste.

Increase Collaboration: Use the knowledge that resides in your sales people, representatives, distributors, agents and customers. AX in conjunction with MS Office provides electronic collaboration tools to make doing business easy. Trading partners can forecast accuracy; ensure quality service and timely delivery.

Are you the lean super star of your business? Are you leveraging the lean capabilities of your ERP software? Make sure your ERP system keeps with your lean practices.

 

Check out BWIR's website, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for access to the most up-to-date information.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Manufacturing Highlights: Inventory Management, Master Planning and Warehouse Management

We hope to highlight the value that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 brings to manufacturers. This week we will focus on some features that can aid in inventory management, master planning and warehouse management.

Inventory Management and Master Planning:

•       Control inventory with a variety of models and safety stock support.

•       Apply multiple options for inventory valuation, including: first in/first out (FIFO), last in/first out (LIFO), standard cost, and weighted average.

•       Master planning: Create and run multiple plans across multiple sites to meet demand and keep orders synchronized based on changes in internal or external demand. Improve distribution planning and forecast scheduling with an overview of longer-term purchasing, production, and resource requirements.

•       Optimize enterprise-wide planning by providing upstream organizations in your supply chain with visibility into the demand of downstream organizations.

•       Streamline subsidiary trading and apply intercompany trading policies. Create intercompany order chains directly and automatically from sales order to end-customer with and without direct delivery, and update sales orders from purchase orders and vice versa.

•       Multisite: Maintain centralized control of all site parameters from any location, whether site-specific or company-specific, including inventory, performance goal management. BOMs, routing, costing, and profit and loss dimensions. Manage multiple, distributed warehouses; apply different costs, prices, and cost category rates; and route data by dimensions.

•       Support multiple time zones with preferences for date and time fields set at the user level.

•       Improve business processes for quality assurance, quality control, and lot traceability.

Warehouse Management

•       Automatically receive suggestions for received item placement based on preset rules for one or multiple warehouses. Track received orders with pallet identification; generate an optimized picking route. Use bar codes to track items and locations electronically.

•       Streamline outbound processes by configuring rules for sending and printing shipment documents.

If you have a question about Dynamics AX that you would like answered, please email us. Or visit the BWIR website for more information about the company.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Manufacturing Highlights: Discrete Manufacturing

We hope to highlight the value that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 brings to manufacturers, starting with some features that can aid discrete manufacturing companies.

 

• Execute multiple production strategies, including configure-to-order, assemble-to-order, make-to-stock, and make-to-order. Use both push and pull production control mechanisms.

• Optimize production and materials planning, forecasting, and scheduling. Simultaneously schedule materials and capacity. Calculate available-to-promise (ATP) and capable-to-promise (CTP) deliveries.

• Create, schedule, view, track, split, roll back, or categorize production orders.

• Understand WIP and actual cost through production tracking and reporting. Track detailed resource and throughput costs, including work center costs. Report production variances to standard costs.

• Manage routing: Plan simple, sequential, and complex networks; use simultaneous routes in the same network. Use rough-cut capacity and detailed scheduling capabilities. Organize the shop floor into logical production units at individual sites.

• Quickly schedule/reschedule jobs and simulate alternatives by dragging Gantt chart items. Resolve scheduling overloads by reassigning operations to alternate work centers. Optimize scheduling across the organization with a unified resource model and scheduling engine.

 

If you have a question about Dynamics AX that you would like answered, please email us. Or visit the BWIR website for more information about the company.

Automated Microsoft Dynamics AX Testing

Many organizations recognize the need for test automation.  Automated testing improves quality, reduces costs, and minimizes dependencies on 'stretched thin' knowledgeable staff.  Yet these organizations struggle to garner enough resources to build a mature Test Automation Framework.

AXeptance helps customers avoid:

·         Down-time in production

o   due to deploying an inadequately tested AX

·         Performance bottlenecks

o   due to insufficient load testing resources

·         Quality issues

o   due to incomplete regression and other testing by testers, due to incomplete final testing by business users

·         Being exposed to regulatory non-compliance

o   Because of not testing the functionality against the regulations 

Find out how Barry-Wehmiller International Resources can advance to the next level of testing maturity by deploying AXeptance, an Automated Testing solution that is embedded in AX.

Sign-up for this webinar to find out how AXeptance can bring tangible results to your AX testing efforts.

About AXeptance:

AXeptance is a Test Automation tool that automates AX performance, functional, regression testing activities.  AXeptance can provide a measurable ROI with its powerful features packed in a simple footprint.  AXeptance is brought you by Barry-Wehmiller International Resource and Rodl Consulting.

What's New in AX 2012 R2: Project Accounting and Sales and Marketing

We hope to share some of the changes coming to AX 2012 R2. We will cover accounting to sales and everywhere in between. It is our job to put the value in AX.

Take time to discover the new changes in-store for AX 2012 R2 and stay ahead of the curve.

Project accounting

• Choose a value model for estimate eliminations


• Consumption of project items on product receipt without an item requirement


• Enabling intercompany resource scheduling and UX improvements


• Enhancements to project invoice proposals and printing project documents


• Expanded support for project budget checks when document lines are saved


• Improved support for project estimates and revenue recognition


• Option to designate a project cost price as an effective labor rate


• Reservation of funds in a project contract

Sales and marketing      

 
• Cases are secured by case category


• Generate a lead or opportunity record from a campaign or call list target record


• Update the name of a party from the party record


• Update, in bulk, the list of party records assigned to an address book


• Updates to Sales and marketing Role Centers and the reporting information provided

If you have a question about Dynamics AX that you would like answered, please email us. Or visit the BWIR website for more information about the company.

AX 2012 Comprehensive List of Upgrade Options

Upgrade Options


Considering business drivers and existing AX environment, several upgrade options exist for an organization to evaluate:

 
1. ERP and related software upgrade only


2. Hardware and software upgrade


3. Relocating hardware to a third-party hosting


4. Re-implementation instead of convention ‘upgrade’

Before choosing an upgrade strategy for AX 2012 upgrade, it is important to establish a context.  The context consists of business drivers as well as an assessment of the existing AX environment.


Business Drivers (Why Upgrade?)


ERP vendors, like Microsoft, release several major and minor versions over time.  Many organizations choose not to upgrade for a multitude of business reasons.  The ones who choose to upgrade often have one or many of the following Business Drivers:

 
• Save on infrastructure costs


• Sunset the version at its ‘end-of-support’


• Leverage new functionality to improve operations / decision-making

 Existing AX Environment


Having established the business drivers, organizations ask the next set of questions centered on the following:

• Stability of the current environment


• Need for a 24 / 7 support level


• Cost of additional hardware to sustain newer, resource intensive software


• Plans for adding more users due to business growth / acquisitions


• Seasonal spikes in the user counts

Upgrades are critical and significant initiatives for any business.  Exploring available options, and evaluating them against parameters, such as:  TCO, maintainability, architectural strength, variable user load, 24 / 7 support requirements, extent of customization, among others, are key factors in decision making.


If you have a question about Dynamics AX that you would like answered, please email us. Or visit the BWIR website for more information about the company.

What's New in AX 2012 R2: Procurement and Sourcing and Product Information Management

We hope to share some of the changes coming to AX 2012 R2. We will cover accounting to sales and everywhere in between. It is our job to put the value in AX.

Take time to discover the new changes in-store for AX 2012 R2 and stay ahead of the curve.

Procurement and sourcing

• Changes to Order management features


• Data partition added for the Order management upgrade


• Enhancements to the new vendor registration process


• Enhancements to the purchase order change management process


• Fulfillment of purchase requisition demand orchestrated by master planning


• Integration of sales agreements and return orders


• Product search on Employee Services site


• Sales auto charges based on tiers and modes of delivery in sales orders

Product information management

• Enhanced modeling capabilities in Product configurator


• Improvements made to the overview of production information, approval and calculation of worker registration on projection jobs, and worker absences


• Improvements to planning tools


• The Configuration form in Product configurator is easier to extend

 If you have a question about Dynamics AX that you would like answered, please email us. Or visit the BWIR website for more information about the company.

How Top Performing Manufacturers Use ERP to Drive Continuous Improvement and Innovation

Nick Castellina, Senior Research Analyst in Aberdeen's Business Planning and Execution practice recent video reveals how Best-in-Class organizations utilize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software as a hub for continuous improvement and innovation.

See more at the Aberdeen Group

Fixed Asset Posting Profile Setup in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Fixed asset posting profile is one of the most difficult subledger setups in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Setting up a subledger posting profile depends on the financial processes in a company. In this article I will explain posting profile setup with simple examples, with the assumption that you already have basic knowledge of accounting.

Below is the ideal Fixed Asset lifecycle. The setup of the fixed asset posting profile in Dynamics AX should follow these stages, as we will see below.

FIXED ...

Read Muhammad Burhan's post