Manufacturing Renaissance Article

This AME-sponsored event, hosted by capital equipment and engineering solutions provider Barry-Wehmiller, brought together manufacturing leaders whose companies represent what is possible when people-centric leadership is coupled with enterprise excellence.

View: Manufacturing Renaissance Article

Webinar - Best Practices ERP Selection

Organizations change their Business Software, such as an ERP, for various reasons. Some feel the pain in operations due to an antiquated ERP; some suffer revenue loss due to restrictions imposed. Whatever the reason, most organizations agree there is a need for an Objective, Structured, and Thorough process for ERP selection.

Join BWIR for an interactive discussion during which, you will find out:
 

• How to establish a compelling business need for a new ERP
• How to establish a set of evaluation parameters
• How to execute the actual selection process
• What are the major elements of the deliverables

Join Hosts: Pat McGrath and Shantanoo Govilkar

October 17, 2013 - 10:00 - 11:00 AM CST

 
The panel will also take questions from the community and provide practical insights.


Register Here

Register for this informative webinar to kick-start your objective, structured, and thorough ERP selection process!

ERP Modernization with Dynamics AX

A savvy business should stay informed about new or upcoming technologies. The same can be said about your ERP system. A system created in the 1990’s will not be able to cater to the needs of a modern business. If your systems is one or two generations behind the modern iteration then you are missing out on exciting new features and losing ground to more modern competitors. The chart below contains just a sample of the benefits a business can achieve when using Dynamics AX 2012.

Benefits	Features
Manufacturing Flexibly manage resources Perform better with flexible routings Enhance production flow Gain increased production efficiency Easily monitor production costs Gain insight into production	Manufacturing Capacity Scheduling can produce a reliable overview of the manufacturing resources required to meet customer demand Set up different routing versions and network routes to help you avoid bottlenecks Perform scheduling at different levels of detail Minimize lead times by creating cross-group links between resources that handle the same task Job monitoring gives you an overview of individual work center’s activities Record consumption and costs prior to production or record actual consumption during production Use the Gantt chart to easily schedule changes using simple drag and drop functionality
Project Increase productivity More control over projects Gain business insight Increased cash flow management	Project Speed up project creation by using templates from previous projects Break down large and complex projects into sub-projects Project Accounting will help you identify and address delays and cost overruns Get actionable data to help you identify market trends and take on the right projects while avoiding unprofitable Keep your customers updated with accurate and timely progress reports Shorten the billing cycle when you generate invoices immediately and get paid for projects faster
MRP Optimize the flow of production Function across multiple warehouses Increase efficiency with flexible planning Easy outsourcing of production Quick response to changes Reduce costs by minimizing inventory levels Keep delivery promises	MRP Run simulations and scenarios to foresee the effect of plans and strategies Changes to purchase and production orders will be suggested by, Action messages based on changing requirements Run available-to-promise and capable-to-promise calculations Project production and purchasing plans that match your demand with forecast scheduling Automatically generate transfer orders to fulfill inventory requirements
Inventory Easy to create bills of material Efficient management of bills of material Optimized inventory levels Detailed inventory insight	Inventory The graphical BOM designer makes it easy to create BOMs using drag and drop features Manage forty BOM levels effectively Perform price calculations for each level of the BOM Create sales and purchase forecasts based on items and time periods Use serial and batch numbers to track items in the system
Order Management Greater cost control with more visibility Optimized purchasing process Easily trade with subsidiaries Better customer service	Order Management Cost and Price inventory is consistently  updated to reflect the actual price Look into real time available to promise data Compare quotes from suppliers on multiple parameters Make informed purchasing decisions with historical data and analysis tools Apply various intercompany trading policies Gain advanced control over sales orders
Finance Greater insight into your finances Efficient financial operations and planning Effective cash flow management Fewer geographic boundaries	Finance Generate reports financial reports with advanced reporting tools. Register financial data in the ledger in real time Analyze you financials with cash flow forecasts Use electronic payments visible on all accounts Support for multiple languages and currencies Manage local legal and regulatory compliance
Reporting Easy to customize and create Integrates with your general ledger Access reports in various ways Greater financial intelligence	Reporting The report wizard  can create key financial reports in as few as seven steps Quickly create accurate and up-to-date reports Gain a greater understanding business trends with comparative data
HRM Manage talent Centralized employee information Automated recruitment processes Model organizational units	HRM Track and compare professional skills and aptitudes, and personal skills Manage employees, teams and departments throughout your organization Control the entire hiring process from application to employment Make changes in the organizational structure easily

Get ahead of the competition with a modern ERP and prepare your company for the future.

 

Is an AX upgrade or implementation right for you? Email me any questions you might have.

Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn for AX related news and the latest information.

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.

Free Webinar - Dynamics AX Upgrade Options

Are you considering an upgrade to your AX environment, while streamlining licenses and hardware?

 

Things that you might want to consider: 

• Reducing the hardware footprint
• Restructuring license models
• Deploying automation
• Agile project execution approach

Each of the items above has resulted in cost savings and other intangible benefits. In some cases, the savings funded the cost of the upgrade itself!

 

BWIR's AX experts will work with you to define a holistic upgrade strategy. After a thorough review of your AX environment we will define a plan that will deliver savings and results.

 

Register for the Webinar!

 

 

And please feel free to check out BWIR's website, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for access to the most up-to-date information.

Configuring Vendor Ratings and Scorecards in Dynamics AX - A Tinkerers Notebook - Microsoft Dynamics AX - Microsoft Dynamics Community

Dynamics AX allows you to configure your own Vendor Evaluation Criteria and then track the vendor performance against any or all of the criteria that you have defined. When you combine this with the Power BI tools, you get a great way to rate vendors, and also a nice way to present Vendor Scorecards.

In this worked example we will show how to configure the Vendor Evaluations, and also how to create a simple Vendor Scorecard without breaking a sweat.

Creating Vendor Evaluation Criteria Groups

The first step in configuring the Vendor Ratings within Dynamics AX is to create some Vendor Evaluation Criteria Groups. These will be used to group common sets of evaluation criteria together and allow you to get summary results on the evaluations at the criteria group level.

Read More at Murry Fife's Blog

Some info on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2014/2015 Next Major Release codenamed "Rainier" or "Rainer

There has been some buzz around on the next release of AX codenamed "Rainier" or "Rainer" - I'm not sure on the correct codename.

I'm not able to find this particular link anymore but here are some of the striking points which I had noted down from the original poster.

Features:

a. Cloud Based Solutions
b. Platform independence - Browser enabled clients
c. AD Federation and more integration with Azure
d. More investments on Visual Studio (Development Environment will be VS)
e. Application Development targetting any OS through Rainier
f. No longer need to invest on Sharepoint hosting as Enterprise portal will be eliminated
g. 3 key pillars - New client, Cloud Readiness, New Development Stack
h. No RPC based communication (Atleast, now it's assured that the event logs won't get full by RPC errors which was the case with AX 2009)
i. Programming language will still be X++ but everything will be .net compiled
j. Capability to expose updatable views using OData
k. HTML 5 based Web Client so more faster and richer experience

So, all looks exciting for the next major release of Dynamics AX which would be somewhere in end of 2014 or early 2015!


Read Dilip's original post here

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: Procurement and Sourcing, Financial, Compliance and Controls

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 procurement and sourcing, financial, compliance and controls.

 

 

Procurement and Sourcing

• Facilitate direct and indirect procurement of goods and services.

• Utilize self-service capabilities to empower employees to order day-to-day goods and services from searchable online catalogs.

• Help vendors operate more efficiently by enabling them to perform a variety of tasks online, such as updating profile data and catalog.

• Content, submitting invoices, and reviewing payments.

• Enhance buyer capability to support procurement policies and processes.

• Extend your procurement process with a cloud-based service facilitating the RFQ process (Sites Services).

 

Financial, Compliance and Controls

• Optimize financial operations with general ledger, bank management, fixed assets, accounts payable and receivable, cost accounting, budgetary control, intercompany accounting, and shared services support.

• Help ensure organizational compliance with laws, regulations, policies, and business rules, including internal controls through the

• Compliance Center. Take advantage of the Audit Workbench to define your organization’s policies and automate auditing processes.

• Use an Environmental Sustainability Dashboard to track energy use and carbon footprint.

 

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: 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: Process and Lean Manufacturing

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 process and lean manufacturing companies.

Process Manufacturing

·         Define multiple inventory dimensions: dual units of measure, catch-weight calculations, packaging codes, variations to the main item, and lots.

·         Manage multilevel formulas or recipes, co-products and by-products, electronic signatures, and packaging options.

·         Let customers request multiple quality specifications per product while combining similar products in production to improve machine utilization.

·         Analyze and monitor production costs and requirements for each sales order component using graphical representations of multilevel formulas and recipes.

·         Reduce inventory costs and eliminate waste by pulling inventory in optimal sequence using “best-before” management and first expired/first out (FEFO) or first in/first out (FIFO) picking guidance.

·         Facilitate regulatory compliance with agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by validating manufacturing processes.

Lean Manufacturing

·         Model manufacturing and logistics processes as production flows.

·         Use kanbans to signal demand requirements.

·         Monitor and manage kanban jobs using kanban boards.

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.

AXceptance Webinar: Automated Testing in AX, Presented by BWIR

About a week and a half ago Barry-Wehmiller International Resources held a webinar focused on Automated Testing through AXceptance. We are pleased to have an opportunity to share this webinar with our social community. And hope you find it as valuable and informative as those who had a chance to attend the webinar.
 

As always, I invite anyone seeking additional information to contact me via email or to visit the all new BWIR website for more information about the company.

Task Recorder Update White Paper for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

This white paper describes how to use the advanced functions in Task recorder that are available in Knowledgebase article 2863182.

You can generate artifacts that can be uploaded to Business process modeler in Lifecycle Services for Microsoft Dynamics. You can create cross functional flowcharts and task steps that you can modify to identify business process requirements and generate implementation artifacts.

View: Task Recorder Update White Paper for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012


Source: Microsoft PartnerSource

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.

Security Upgrade Advisor Tool for Dynamics AX 2012 - Dynamics AX Server Team - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Find out the differences between security in AX 2009 and AX 2012 upgrade!

The security framework has undergone significant changes between AX 2009 and AX 2012. There is no automatic path for upgrade of security configuration from AX 2009 to AX 2012. In order to assist the upgrade of security settings, we have written a tool called the Security Upgrade Advisor.

Read More of ParthP's Post

Balancing act: The importance of the internal team on Microsoft Dynamics AX project success | MSDynamicsWorld.com

If experience is the best teacher, then who better to offer information about implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX than someone who's already been there, done that? That was the premise of a recent meeting of the AXUG's Currently Implementing Companies Spec

Read More of Linda Rosencrance's Post

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.