by Sheldon Kralstein
When we think about “Going Green” we tend to visualize conservation, protecting nature and our fragile environment. Businesses and technology play a very important role in the Green initiative where the definition can be extended to include:
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.
An important part of being a good reseller lies in the skill set of its consultants. The management and consulting teams at Clients First Business Solutions are true believers in the value of education and prove it by continually honing their knowledge and skill sets
We stay current on Microsoft Dynamics and Sage Software product releases and prove it by maintaining current certifications on these products. Microsoft and Sage alike develop these certification exams that test for not only competency, but also mastery of their software. When a new product or version is released, we study it, practice it, and then prove our knowledge through certification. In this way, our clients are assured that we possess the knowledge and skills that help us deliver the latest and greatest products.
Beyond the wide range of software certifications that we pursue and hold, we also embark on educational activities that improve our project management, communication skills, and team building. We do this because we believe that developing these “soft” skills is as important as our technical skill development. This approach brings balance to us individually and as a team.
We spend the time and money in education for our people because we know that the better we are as a group, the more value we can add for our clients. Let us show you how our approach to continuous education translates into a real benefit to you – our clients.
Dynamics AX 2009’ technology provides the capability for users to modify screens easily in Dynamics AX 2009 to meet their requirements and make their jobs easier to perform and data entry much more efficient.
Here is a screenshot of a standard Dynamics AX 2009 customer record screen, showing the general tab:
The user may find that many of the fields are not needed in this form and that navigating between the needed fields is time-consuming.
This is not a problem because Dynamics AX 2009’s technology makes is a simple matter to change the look of this form (and any other forms) to meet the user’s needs.
The user can right click on an unneeded field, or field group, and one of the options includes “hide” as shown below. Now the user can go through the form and hide any fields or groups that the user does not need.
Here is the same form, after the user has spent some time re-organizing it:
Notice that numerous fields been hidden and that the landscape that the hidden fields used to take up has been automatically rearranged as well. By the way, this change took less than 2 minutes to make. Now the user only sees what needs to be seen, thus speeding up data entry.
Keep in mind that access to this functionality is permissions-controlled and that changes made can be done for individual users or system wide.
Contact us through our website or by calling 888-222-8827 to learn how Dynamics AX 2009’s technology can help to make the user experience more efficient and productive. Ask us also about other features and benefits that Dynamics AX 2009 delivers.
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