As we talked about in an earlier post, New Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations are in effect as of July 1, 2010. In addition to standards for your accounting software these standards also cover other areas of business processes. If you process credit cards, there are questionnaires you are required to complete. (more…)
By: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP
Balancing demand with supply is the basic objective of every single enterprise. This is easy to state but as it turns out, not so simple in practice. Some organizations meet this balance well, while others survive through crisis management.
Those that do not bring supply and demand into balance suffer the consequences. Excess inventory, disrupted production schedules, missed deliveries, etc., become the norm. All of these conditions create a huge amount of waste and then the finger pointing begins, pitting departments against each other. Ultimately, it is our customers who suffer and sure enough, they will begin to go away.
On the other hand, a thorough understanding of demand, along with developing a comprehensive supply strategy to meet that demand, will allow organizations to effectively produce and deliver product, with greatly reduced waste. A vital tool to achieve this goal is the sales and operations planning process.
Sales and operations planning (S&OP) brings together all of the functions of an organization to create a companywide game plan. The output of this plan forms the basis for all of our short-term decisions and activities. Beyond the immediate result of creating this agreed upon plan, sales and operations planning helps in breaking down the barriers that exist between our departments and helps the company to move forward as a cohesive team.
Once a month, at least, the top people from each department work together to review actual performance since the last meeting, identify areas of improvement, determine the next period’s projected demand and then make sure the resources exist to meet that demand.
Dynamics AX 2009 provides users with the tools they need to perform the S&OP processes. It has item forecast capability, resource profiles to see how much work can be done and load profiles to see the effect of operations plans on existing capacity.
If you would like to take a look at it, let us know. Thanks and have a great day.
By: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP
By now, everyone has probably heard of, and many implemented, the concepts of “Lean”. You know – analyzing your processes, finding and eliminating waste, implementing Kanban methodology and pull systems, adopting Heijunka scheduling techniques and the like – these are what most people think of when they think of Lean.
There are the Lean purists in the world who will be happy to tell you that a company (I am thinking of a manufacturing company here) who is truly lean no longer needs an ERP system to do things like planning, scheduling and execution. I have heard from some folks that ERP becomes obsolete as a company becomes lean; that Lean and ERP are mutually exclusive and therefore calling any ERP system lean is an oxymoron.
I say that this is not true.
As a student of manufacturing practices for the past 26 years, I have seen many theories become popular, many companies adopt them, consultants make money teaching them, and then they get ditched by the side of the road for the new “flavor of the month”. Is Lean one of these fads? No.
However, to say that Lean will render ERP obsolete in manufacturing companies, just does not fly. Back in the 1970’s and 80’s when Just in Time (Lean’s father) was gaining acceptance, there were those who said that it would make MRP obsolete. True JIT practices, they said, would eliminate the need for detailed planning that MRP provides. This never happened. JIT practices were focused on execution and without MRP planning materials there would be nothing available to produce.
Just like in the JIT/MRP relationship of the past, the best planned and executed Lean program still requires the tightly integrated material planning engine that an ERP system gives us. In fact, an ERP system can help a company better manage their Lean initiatives. How so?
Take for example Lean Manufacturing in Dynamics AX 2009. In this module, users can automate many lean processes including:
I would not mind showing you how lean works in an ERP system if you have the time and inclination. Thanks and have a great day.
FRxBuzz, a blog about all things FRx has done a shootout between FRx and it’s soon to be replacment Microsoft Management Reporter
This was the first time I really looked at this new product and I was surprised and happy to learn that it’s still VERY similar to FRx and not a complete redesign. It’s completely modernized, but if you are familiar with FRx, the learning curve looks very short. I think it is supposed to convert FRx report definitions but I need to confirm.
The one major issue is this solution is only available for Microsoft Dynamics. So if you are on, sage Sage MAS90, MAS200 or MAS500, Sage is moving to a new set of financial report writers that may be as good if not better, but will be different from FRx and thus will have a longer learning curve for those familiar with FRx.
Here is the article.
Adapting standard ERP applications to the demanding needs of food and beverage producers and distributors is usually quite a chore. Work-around processes, add-in modules and continued reliance on spreadsheets are the orders of the day.
Microsoft has changed all of that through the introduction of its Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009. This product delivers the functionality food and beverage producers need to run their businesses effectively.
Here is the product fact sheet – don’t worry because it is not long.
Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution
Take some time to find out more about how the Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009 can help your business improve. Contact our California office at 888-222-8827 if you would like more information or if you would like to see a no-charge demonstration of this product.
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