Posts Tagged ‘dynamics ax’

Key Features and Benefits of the Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution — Part 1

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

by: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

People in the food and beverage industry already know that “standard” ERP systems can be less than ideal when it comes to product definitions, production management and materials management. The Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution changes all of that. It was designed with industry-specific functionality and capability that managing the processes in food and beverage companies a great deal easier and more effective.

I have spent a great deal of time with the solution and will share some of its key features and benefits, ones I think add value to these In the food and beverage industry, in the next several posts here.

Here are some starters.

Yield Planning and Tracking

Users can define yields at the top level of the product, or for individual ingredients. This has a few benefits. First, the system will allow users to calculate an accurate cost for the produced items and for their individual ingredient contributions. Second, when determining material requirements using MRP, users get the “real” requirements, thus helping to eliminate material shortages.

Integrated Quality Control

Users can design any needed quality control tests for incoming materials or produced items. Once created, users can associate those tests to production steps or receiving activities and define disposition codes for failed tests. With integrated QC, users always know the test results and dispositions of tested materials – all within the system and all without mandating this information in spreadsheets or other external systems.

Expiration Date Management

The Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution can automatically track expiration and best-before dates for raw materials and produced items. The system also tells users that expiration dates are approaching so that they can take appropriate action. This saves users from having to track dates off line and helps to reduce the waste

If you are interested in further information on this solution, then go ahead and give us a call at 888-222-8827. We can show you how the Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution can help solve your issues effectively.

At Clients First Business Solutions, we welcome opportunities to deliver software solutions that help make people’s lives easier and more productive. If you would like to see how we can help you, we would love to hear from you.

Tags: AX, axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, Dynamics AX Food and Beverage, food manufacturing software, manufacturing, new jersey, software
Posted in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Distribution, Food Processing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution – Formula and Recipe Management

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

by: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

Companies in the food and beverage industry have software needs that are unlike those found in other manufacturing companies. One of these needs is managing their formulas and recipes.

Many times when we talk to prospects that produce food products, we hear the same thing about how they manage formulas and recipes – they do it outside of their systems in Excel or they use work-around’s in their ERP systems. The fact is that traditional ERP does not provide the necessary tools to properly manage formulas or recipes. they are based on discrete models for product definitions and do not handle well products that are based on percentages like those in the food and beverage industry.

The Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution provides users with the ability to define their products whose components, or ingredients, are percentage-based. Some of the features in the solution include:

Formulation by percentages
Yield definition and tracking at the ingredient level
Ability to globally change ingredients or percentages
Capability to define co- and by-products
Security control that permits only authorized users to make changes

All of these capabilities deliver a much better way for food and beverage producers to define their products accurately and manage those definitions more easily and effectively. So why are you still using those spreadsheets when there is a much better way?

If you are interested in discussing formula or recipe management, or other food and beverage specific issues, with us then go ahead and give us a call at 888-222-8827. We can show you how the Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution can help solve your issues effectively.

Tags: AX, axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, Dynamics AX Food and Beverage, new jersey, nj
Posted in Food Processing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution — Catch Weight

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

by: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

I worked with a company once who had an interesting problem. They are a frozen foods distributor selling into institutions like schools and hospitals. A product they sell a great deal is frozen chicken breasts that come in large cases. Managing a seemingly simple product like this actually caused them a great deal of trouble.

The trouble came from the fact that they bought and sold the chicken in cases, yet the product itself was costed and valued in pounds. When purchased or sold, users needed to track, offline in Excel, the associated number of pounds per case. This was a time-consuming and inefficient process for them,

What this company needed was a way to track two different units of measure. As it turns out, there is a solution. The Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution provides a host of functionality that makes the lives of people in the industry much easier. One of these capabilities is catch weight management.

The catch weight solution allows users to track and manage multiple inventory units of measure at the same time, thus eliminating the headache created by off-line or manual methods. Catch weight functionality lets users transact inventory by either of the defined unit of measure. So, in the case of the chicken breast distributor, each case has a weight associated with it and when they sell cases, the system automatically knows the total pounds and, therefore, value sold.

If you are interested in discussing catch weight, or other food and beverage specific issues, with us then go ahead and give us a call at 888-222-8827. We can show you how the Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution can help solve your issues effectively.

Tags: AX, axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, new jersey, new york, Tips
Posted in Food Processing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

What is Sales and Operations Planning and Why Should we Worry About it?

Monday, May 24th, 2010

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.

Tags: AX, ca, california, dynamics ax, erp, new jersey, nj, sales improvement
Posted in Industry Insights, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Other | No Comments »

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

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.

Tags: axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, Food and Beverage, manufacturing, new jersey, new york, nj
Posted in Food Processing, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

Subscribe to our mailing list

Posts Tagged ‘dynamics ax’

Key Features and Benefits of the Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution — Part 1

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution – Formula and Recipe Management

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution — Catch Weight

What is Sales and Operations Planning and Why Should we Worry About it?

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution