The Future of Manufacturing with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Businesses all around the globe, from every vertical and industry, have been positioning themselves to thrive digitally by initiating, or at the very least, planning their digital transformations. Digital transformation has become a crucial need in today’s turbulent landscape, and businesses, despite their industry, need to develop the ability to withstand operational challenges.

The manufacturing industry, in recent years, has been forced to navigate tricky waters with geo-political supply chain disruptions and cash flow challenges. The industry is already diverse in its range of operations, where several cogs need to function together in harmony to ascertain its successful operationality. In this scenario, digital transformation acts as the need-of-the-hour lubricant which ensures the smooth functionality of the manufacturing cogs like supply chain, production, warehousing, quality control, finances, and customer support. Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is the lubricant i.e., the digital transformation tool which enables manufacturers to streamline financial and operational processes from one place.

How Can the Manufacturing Industry Benefit from Digital Transformation?

Manufacturing businesses have a plethora of problems to deal with, from ever-evolving customer expectations to instable market conditions. Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 are the light at the end of the tunnel for manufacturing professionals in these turbulent times. Digital transformation, as a key for unlocking Industry 4.0, unearths a variety of benefits for the manufacturing industry. Fueled by factors like data analytics, machine learning and generative AI, the digital transformation equips manufacturing businesses with the necessary technologies to enhance operational efficiency of manufacturing processes. Here are some major benefits which manufacturers can enjoy from digital transformations:

• Unifies all data to be accessed from a single platform.
• Intelligently analyzes data for business insights.
• Secures data and business processes.
• Equips manufacturers with proactive approaches instead of reactive ones.
• Optimizes cost control with resource usage and waste reduction.
• Automates processes to save time.

A Brief Introduction to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

At its core, Microsoft Dynamis 365 Finance & Operation is an Enterprise Resource Planning solution which functions on the cloudi. It is usually regarded as a single application, but it consists of two applications, Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain, which are provided in a single solution which requires a single implementation.

It allows manufacturing businesses to manage their financial and business operations like inventory, warehousing, and supply chains, from a single source. It is scalable and provides unparalleled accessibility with its cloud-based foundation, enabling managers to access and manage their manufacturing data from anywhere around the globe.

As a Microsoft product, it is easily integrated with other Microsoft services like:

• Power Automate for Robotic Process Automation.
• Power BI for intelligent business analytics.
• Azure AI for building intelligent automation solutions.
• Azure IoT for connecting factory equipment and leveraging powerful analytics.
• Microsoft Security products for unparalleled cyber security.

Now let us divulge into how Dynamics 365 Finance and Operation empowers the manufacturing industry.

Production Planning and Scheduling Capabilities

It offers seamless production planning and scheduling capabilities for manufacturers. It comes with a priority-based planning feature which assesses real-time data and prioritizes urgent demands like replenishing items based on their current stock and order rate. It also equips managers with demand-driven planning which generates planned orders which are driven by planning priorities instead of requirement dates. Its master planning allows businesses to determine the supply and capacity required to meet the current demand i.e., the net requirements.

Its scheduling capabilities come with features like:

• Operations Scheduling: Provides a general estimate of the entire production processes.
• Job Scheduling: Allows in-depth scheduling of individual jobs and shop orders.

Asset Management

Assets are the bread and butter of a manufacturing business. Managing assets and streamlining their maintenance is key in ensuring their longevity.

Its dashboard allows manufacturers to closely monitor their factory equipment through data gained from asset performance, in real-time. Equipment performance, usage and lifecycle information can be viewed from anywhere, anytime. It enables managers to leverage the power of predictive analytics and foresee any possible disruption and take corrective measures in time.

Financial Management Capabilities

Finances are a big sore spot for a lot of businesses. For clear visibility into business performance, the financial data needs to be properly streamlined. However, managing it properly is a task due to filled-to-the-brim spreadsheets and overwhelming reports. Dynamics 365 F&O supremely calculates and manages all financial data and prepares it for easy viewing. Managers can gain complete control of business finances and core bookkeeping functions to view aspects like income, expenses, liabilities, and depreciation.

It also allows them to easily navigate through payables, receivables, assets, and liabilities in real-time to:

• Update the general ledger.
• Simplify balance sheets and income statements.
• Prepare in advance for cash flows.

Businesses can also shorten transaction cycles by automating processes related to payables and receivables to save time and chances of miscalculation. They can also leverage intelligent AI-powered insights to anticipate conditions of future cash flows and payments.

Data Analytics

Manufacturing businesses have an ocean of data to deal with. Supply chain information, warehouse capacities, production floor performance, data from IoT sensors, consumer demand, financial progress, inventory levels- all are quantifiable types of data. This data, if utilized properly, holds endless possibilities of attainable business productivity. But if it remains unutilized, it can cause data siloes, difficulty in collaboration, unanticipated inventory stockouts and dissatisfied customers.

Dynamics 365 F&O provides top-notch data management capabilities. It streamlines and unifies data from all the manufacturing workflows and drives intelligent business insights. Data unification also allows managers to track their supply chains, or raw materials in real-time and schedule production accordingly.

Data Analytics in Dynamics F&O leverages insights driven by machine learning models to empower managers in strategic decision-making against business insights. Intelligent insights can also help build strategies that save costs, make processes more efficient and enhance workforce productivity.

Improve Manufacturing Processes with Dynamics Solution and Technology

Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations provides endless benefits which this blogpost cannot possibly cover. The real results and benefits can only be realized after a proper consultation call with one of our Dynamics 365 experts. Only then can your manufacturing business truly yield the benefits of its digital transformation and gain benefits like reduced costs, enhanced operations, satisfied customers, and data-driven insights.

Choose Dynamics Solution and Technology as your implementation partner and expedite your manufacturing business towards sustained success. But first you can schedule a personalized demo with our experts to see the full potential of this solution. Our team of seasoned professionals plan dynamics 365 implementation after gauging the need. As Microsoft’s Solutions and Gold partners, we have been digitally transforming businesses across the Gulf, MENA and European regions.