Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a compelling solution for manufacturers. It offers 10 powerful manufacturing features, as highlighted below. Dynamics 365 Business Central also integrates with accounting and finance, giving you a robust overall business management capability. The following are available in the “Premium” edition of the software.

#1—Production Orders

Dynamics 365 Business Central allows you to create production orders and then manage them through the software. You can post consumption and facility output data to production orders you created. The toolset also lets you calculate net requirements. This includes the choice between manual and automatic supply planning tools.

#2—Production Bill of Materials (BOM)

The Bill of Materials (BOM) lists everything you need to produce your order. With Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can create BOMs and add up your standard costs.

#3 BOM Version Management

You may want to put together different versions of a BOM, e.g. when you have two similar versions of the same product. You can save time with Dynamics 365, which allows you to establish different versions of the BOM and related routings.

#4—Agile Manufacturing

If your business is engaged in agile manufacturing, this solution helps you manage it in all its details. Dynamics 365 Business Central has a module dedicated to agile manufacturing as well as associated modules for supply and capacity planning.

#5—Supply Planning

The Basic Supply Planning module lets you plan your material requirements based on demand. Additional detail can come from the master production scheduling and Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) features found in Dynamics 365 Business Central. It includes automatic Purchase Orders (POs) and production orders along with action messages that help you balance supply and demand.

#6—Sales and Inventory Forecasting

Extension for Sales and Inventory Forecast gives you insights in your potential sales as well as clarity about looming stock-outs. As a Microsoft solution, it includes Cortana Intelligence that integrates historical data. The resulting forecasts drive vendor replenishment requests.

#7—Demand Forecasting

To get optimal results from operations and assets, it’s essential to know how much demand you’re facing. Dynamics 365 Business Central gives you the tools to manage demand forecasting based on sales forecasts. The resulting data makes it possible for the system to plan and set up production and purchase orders that align with the demand forecast and inventory.

#8—Finite Loading

Every manufacturing capability is finite. Overloading a resource will create delays. To avoid this, Dynamics 365 Business Central provides finite loading of capacity-constrained resources. This way, you can plan for production in ways that takes capacity constraints into consideration.

#9— Machine Centers

With Dynamics 365 Business Central, a “Machine Center” refers to a piece of equipment and related capacity. Multiple Machine Centers comprise a “Work Center.” The software allows you to manage the capacity of a machine or equivalent production resource. You can then plan and manage multiple Machine Centers on a consolidated basis—factoring in data points like set up times and scrap percentages.

#10—Capacity Planning

If you want to add capacity elements like Work Centers to your manufacturing process, you can perform this task in Dynamics 365 Business Central. You can also set up routings, view loads and so forth.

If you’re not using ERP for manufacturing, this is a great moment to consider making the move to a modern manufacturing management software solution. We have worked with many manufacturers on the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for manufacturing. To learn how this valuable toolset could benefit your manufacturing business, contact us for a demo and free consultation.