How Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing Can Transform your Business

The digital landscape is becoming increasingly complex. New machines, more labor, complex supply chain processes, and increasing customer demands make manufacturing processes challenging and time-consuming. Fortunately, Microsoft introduced Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing to manage operations quickly and efficiently.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a robust business management solution that helps manufacturers seamlessly track and manage their supply chain activities, streamline their operations, and use new tools to boost productivity.

Leveraging Modern Technology to Create a Bigger Impact – Digital Transformation Redefined

Microsoft Dynamics 365 uses the power of big data analytics, machine learning, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence to help businesses stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in technology for a more significant impact in the manufacturing industry. Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing helps manufacturers and distributors have a holistic view of their supply chain and manufacturing lifecycles, warehouse management, and delivery schedules. In addition, it automates processes to avoid repetition and provides a common platform to analyze, predict, and solve complex issues that are bound to arise in supply chain operations.

Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing – Unified Processes, Integrated Functions

Manufacturers face several common challenges: siloed systems, disparate operations, and haphazard processes. Dynamics 365 integrates vital business processes such as sales, Manufacturing, and customer service into a unified platform, automatically enhancing customer experiences and employee engagement. Centralizing information increases transparency and helps manufacturers view and access large amounts of data. With a single solution to manage multiple channels, Dynamics 365 seamlessly tracks financial performance and customer data in real-time within a single solution. In addition, transparency and visibility in operations help businesses generate accurate customer quotes in real time.

While integration is the foundation, the strategic advantages go much deeper. For a more detailed look at the specific pain points this technology eliminates, explore our guide on why manufacturers should choose Dynamics 365 to solve business challenges.

Benefits of Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing

1) Agile project management

Dynamics 365 tracks and manages end-to-end manufacturing operations and monitors production performance with intuitive Power BI reports and dashboards that help review and approve costs, timelines, and pre-empt risks. Additionally, critical KPIs ensure timely service delivery with top-notch quality. You also get relevant skills-based assignments with real-time access to resources that help you make well-informed product utilization and supply chain management decisions. Business Intelligence and low-code custom apps provide access to critical business data across various platforms anytime and anywhere.

2) End-to-end visibility

A 360-degree view of supply chain activities is the key to successful product delivery processes. Dynamics 365 provides real-time visibility and connectivity among supply chain processes such as production, supply, service, and sales. It enhances business connectivity and team collaboration by providing accurate product metrics to improve operational performance and helps manufacturers control supply chain activities globally.

3) Employee engagement

A happy workplace makes a company successful. Dynamics 365 offers role-specific tools to increase the efficiency of everyday tasks and creates a structured workflow of business processes by connecting operations. Further, it provides employees with continuous feedback and collaborative assessments to make work enjoyable.

4) Production management

Track data related to inventory, consumption, and production costs. Dynamics 365 automatically tracks work orders through the production process, monitors the consumption of resources, tracks work orders, and manages inventory with sophisticated planning tools and flexible work benches. As a result, it helps companies keep their total production costs in check while maximizing productivity across the shop floor.

We saw these benefits in action when a Texas-based manufacturing firm implemented a Business Central ERP solution to gain real-time visibility into their production performance and inventory levels, successfully digitizing their entire operation.

5) Rich customer experiences

Dynamics 365 for Marketing helps the sales and marketing teams gain a competitive edge by personalizing customer experiences, tracking their journeys, and managing sales processes. As a result, it allows companies to build more collaborative and profitable partnerships with suppliers and forge deeper customer bonds. In addition, it unifies all the customer data into a single source that all the departments can view. Further, it enables customer self-service across various communities and social channels. With surveys, online forums, feedback forms, and social listening, Dynamics 365 personalizes interactions and delivers value at every customer touch point.

6) Improved productivity

Dynamics 365 easily integrates with Office 365 tools, smoothens sales processes, prioritizes workloads, and creates personalized sales documents that categorize documents according to relevance and context. In addition, it saves agents a lot of time concentrating on main tasks by providing them tools that can be used on the go and across multiple devices, regardless of network connectivity.

A suite of Microsoft Business Applications for Manufacturing

• Finance and Operations: Dynamics 365 Finance automates financial processes and provides better planning tools for back-end operations.
• Production Control: Seamlessly manage all the critical processes of production schedules, such as market demand, equipment, labor capacity, supply chain, and others.
• Human Resource: It is an end-to-end employee management platform that handles complex HR functions and saves time, money, and resources.
• Supply Chain Management: A cloud ERP provides the data necessary to monitor supply chain activities and helps companies monitor expenses.
• Sales: Dynamics 365 delivers sales process automation, enabling access to insightful customer data and a complete picture of each prospect’s journey.
• Marketing: Dynamics 365 combines sales and marketing modules to automate business processes and maximize ROI.
• Field service: Interactive schedule boards manage resource assignments across several work orders, and smart scheduling features allocate skilled field service agents to designated locations to resolve customer issues quickly.
• E-Commerce: Create exceptional shopping services across several online channels with Dynamics 365 Commerce.
• Customer Service: Dynamics 365 records all customer communications across several channels, which makes it easy to create more personalized communication strategies with customers.
• Business Intelligence: It helps companies manage their finances, track their performance, manage their supplier network, and assist in insightful decision-making with built-in predictive analytics and intelligence.

With reduced production waste, minimal errors, better decisions, connected operations, and improved efficiency, Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing helps several companies digitize their processes for a more extensive customer base, increased ROI, and louder impact, opening doors for a data-driven future. To help your organization navigate this complex transition, we offer specialized Microsoft Dynamics 365 for manufacturing implementation and consulting services designed to align your shop floor with your front office. Our experts ensure your solution is built for scalability and peak operational efficiency. To learn more about Dynamics 365 for Manufacturing, connect to one of our industry experts.