In today’s business world, it’s crucial to encourage supply chain managers to use advanced technology to streamline operations and stay connected throughout every phase of the complete product lifecycle.
Enter Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management!
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is an operational management software powered by the Microsoft Cloud, offering pre-built connections to the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) functions, and mixed reality capabilities to provide actionable insights and improve manufacturing productivity and agility.
Read on to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and where our senior-level Dynamics consultants can come in to help.
What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management?
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is an operational management software solution that provides a complete view of the entire supply chain operations while improving access to critical supply and demand data and real-time insights.
Manufacturers, distributors, consumer goods groups, and retailers need capabilities for end-to-end processes, including procure-to-pay, quote-to-cash, and more, to meet their supply chain management demands.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management offers capabilities previously found in the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations module, including:
- Complicated manufacturing management
- Asset management and maintenance
- Warehouse management system
- Transportation management
- Product information management
- Supply chain planning
- Inventory management
- Sales and procurement
Why Choose Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management?
Rather than switching from one solution to another, D365 Supply Chain Management can digitize the entire supply chain functionality, maximize productivity, and improve end-to-end visibility across an entire organization.
Here are a few reasons people choose the D365 Supply Chain Management solution:
Leverage IoT to Build an End-To-End Smart Factory
Allow the sensors from IoT devices to collect relevant data from every point in the supply chain by using IoT intelligence for D365 Supply Chain Management. When there are potential delays to supply timelines, companies can remotely monitor production and notify staff via push alerts.
Users can ensure more robust supply chain functionality and better product quality by keeping an eye on the entire production process. Automatic notifications alert you when specifications fall outside the permitted bounds and can be configured to meet a company’s evolving workforce needs.
Companies can reduce expensive operational downtime by automatically submitting repair requests when manufacturing equipment breaks down. Predictive maintenance can also identify when a machine may need repairs before employees are forced to deal with a far more costly equipment failure.
Improve Structure and Discipline for Change Management
Gain more control over changes in product lifecycles to simplify the complexity of managing your supply networks. Utilize D365 Supply Chain Management workflows to automate the release and acceptance of products. Communicate with the appropriate individuals so they can respond to any engineering requests and change orders quickly.
Use Dynamics Supply Chain Management to:
- Create specific lifecycle management controls
- Enforce product versioning requirements more effectively
- Extract and cleanse master data before implementing a new product launch plan
Enhance Demand Forecasting
Companies can use machine learning capabilities embedded in Dynamics Supply Chain Management to merge sales and operations planning, improving their ability to deliver products on time and keep inventory counts balanced.
Users can leverage the platform’s in-built mixed reality and AI functionality to improve business predictions and decisions across all teams and areas of the organization. By leveraging the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, users can decrease the risk of overstocking, move products through the warehouse more rapidly, reduce costs, and shorten overall cash-to-cash cycle times.
Using preferred techniques, create a baseline demand projection based on past data from sources like your warehouses, customer accounts, and top-selling locations.
With advanced SCM functionality, users can also:
- Create visual representations to identify potential adjustments
- Clean historical supply and demand data
- Create what-if analysis and make more accurate predictions
Features of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
Here are ten of the main features of the Supply Chain Management module:
1. Flexible Configurations Models
With the help of scalable, user-friendly configuration models and embedded product limits, customer needs and product quality standards can be easily configured into the sales process.
Scalable models automatically generate necessary materials and routes for producing and delivering key products, ensuring timelines for each product are met. Users can decide whether they want to engineer their product through the following approaches: product-to-order, make-to-order, configure-to-order, or make-to-stock.
2. Accounting and Predicting
To help users manage their finances and plan for future budgets, D365 Supply Chain Management provides extensive breakdowns of material costs, variations, and indirect costs. With more intelligent, data-driven decisions, users can also improve trust in key decision-makers and mitigate supply chain bottlenecks and issues over time.
3. Custom Production Floor Management Workspace
Users can access an overview of all current supply chain tasks through the intelligent production floor management workspace. Before sending orders to the production shop floor, users can quickly examine pending production orders and release pages and ensure material availability on the workspace’s tiles.
The workspace also includes default Gantt charts to improve operational transparency, alter timetables to accurately forecast results, and find issues before customers receive their products.
4. Productions Controls
The Production Control feature allows floor managers and other manufacturing personnel to view and prioritize job lists on their product lines through their mobile or job card devices while on the shop floor.
5. Distributed Order Management
The supply management process can be complicated due to industry-specific management requirements, such as routing, traceability, valuation, and component dependencies.
D365 Supply Chain Management supports operational requirements, like quality checks, profit margins, picking cycles, and revisions, and it offers comprehensive production and fulfillment expense insights. As a result, the Dynamics 365 SCM module makes it easier to manage overall demand and products beyond the factory floor.
6. Custom Reports
Users can leverage Microsoft Dynamics Supply Chain Management to create custom reports from existing business strategies, capture data, identify trends, and maximize operational excellence.
7. Power BI Integrations
To support data aggregation, analytics, and critical real-time insights on each transaction, from ordering to warehousing, transport, delivery, and more, D365 Supply Chain Management interacts with Microsoft’s Business Intelligence (BI) tools.
Manufacturers can respond quickly to changing market conditions by integrating Power BI, utilizing intelligent insights into production costs to encourage maximum efficiency, and scaling routing to meet production demand.
The Power BI Warehousing pack further improves inventory and warehouse processes by offering an out-of-the-box scanning solution with cutting-edge business analytics. It also allows managers to observe counting, on-hand precision, and outbound shipment processes whenever and wherever they need to immediately.
8. Order Transportation
This module helps optimize the movement of products and materials through the supply chain, making it easier for manufacturers to reduce costs, manage containers, loads, routes, and vehicles, meet deadlines, and exceed customer expectations.
9. Simple Collaboration
The Dynamics 365 SCM module allows users to collaborate with multiple vendors and automatically update vendor master data to keep clear communication throughout the supply chain process.
10. Customer Returns
With D365 Supply Chain Management, companies can simplify customer returns by tracking all returned products and reasons for return through predictive insights and advanced analytics tools.
Benefits of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
Here are some of the main benefits of this supply chain solution:
Consistency
- Ensure consistent product quality by finding and resolving issues as soon as they arise.
Demand Prediction
- Leverage AI prediction functionality to predict demand for real-time production and supply planning optimization tasks.
Enhance Strategy
- Enhance the effectiveness of your production strategy with real-time production, distribution, and integrated warehouse management system visibility.
Intelligence
- Utilize intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and mixed reality tools to implement cutting-edge processes and improve supply chain efficiency.
Quick Adaptation
- Accelerate innovation and quick adaptation to changes in client behaviors or overall product demand.
Optimize Logistics
- Enhance overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and extend asset lifecycles to save costs and achieve greater operational productivity.
Operational Efficiency
- Improve process efficiency by leveraging supply chain logistics, stock management, warehousing, and material sourcing tools.
How We Can Help
Whether you’re looking to increase productivity or cash flow across your organization, need an intuitive supply chain management solution to achieve business goals, or need a hand getting started on your journey with Microsoft Dynamics, Surety Systems can help.
Our senior-level Dynamics consultants have the experience and skills you need to implement new products and achieve seamless functionality of existing Microsoft Dynamics solutions across teams.
Contact Us
Ready to learn more about Dynamics Supply Chain Management or where our tailored Microsoft Dynamics consulting services can fit in your organization?
Contact us today!
