Imagine putting together a puzzle with your eyes closed. Sure, you might eventually get it done based on touch alone, but with opened eyes, you complete it faster and more accurately. The same goes for your supply chain. If you can’t see what’s going on in each link of the supply chain, you can expect to operate slowly and inefficiently.

That’s exactly what Microsoft allows for manufacturing and distribution organizations. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management offers real-time visibility and intelligence to move from reactive to proactive operations. From vendor management, inbound and outbound logistics, asset management, and more, end-to-end supply chain visibility gives you a full picture of your organization’s strengths and opportunities to improve.

Vendor Management

With integrated data, you have visibility into vendor pricing and capabilities as well as your company’s demand. When you need to collaborate with vendors, all the information you need to make informed decisions is at your fingertips. Microsoft’s interface displays data about purchase orders, invoices, and consignment stock. Once you partner with a vendor, they will also have the most updated information on purchase order statuses so they can respond to orders that are awaiting approval.

Better yet, you won’t have to worry about going over your budget; Microsoft employs spending limits based on your custom purchasing policies that won’t let you over your requisition spending and other elements of your purchasing workflow.

After all is said and done, all the tasks and actions are recorded, so you have them on hand for any future audits or vendor performance evaluations. With all your procurement process data in one application, you have full control and visibility to manage contracts and vendors, and monitor on-time delivery performance.

Inbound Logistics and Warehousing

With Microsoft’s real-time visibility from procurement, warehousing, production scheduling managers, and transportation staff, you can make informed decisions that directly and indirectly impact delivery time and shipment accuracy.

With full data visibility, you can see vendor and routing solutions for inbound orders, such as the fastest route or the least expensive shipment rate. Use the transportation management engines to calculate tasks, such as the carrier transportation rate or total mileage for the route.

Manufacturing 

Microsoft’s end-to-end visibility into warehouse operations allows your organization to effectively manage the capacity, consumption, and movement of your raw materials and finished goods.

Increase capacity and reduce fulfillment times through intelligent automations for put-away activities, storage across stock rooms and distribution centers, and accelerated pick-pack-ship activities.

When it comes to asset management, Microsoft offers unparalleled visibility into all your assets’ lifecycles, locations, and hierarchies. With asset data all working together, you can calculate when and where to deploy your various assets to improve effectiveness as well as lengthen their lifespan.

This is especially true for asset maintenance. When you can plan and predict maintenance based on the manufacturer’s recommendations, your company saves time and money. Microsoft offers a single solution that supports multiple types of maintenance, including:

• Predictive
• Corrective
• Condition
• Preventative

While your workers are not traditionally known as assets, you likely have a firm understanding of how critical they are. Create plans around any key parameters such as worker capacity and availability, or even how critical the work order is.

Finished Goods and Outbound Logistics

What good are inbound logistics efficiencies if fulfillment processes are ineffective or slow? Take control of your outbound logistics through Microsoft’s synchronized information across logistics, sales, and purchase management. Break down data silos, so you have all the information you require to accelerate fulfillment and delivery.

To improve outbound efficiency and accuracy, your organization needs granular real-time details that integrate with sales, production, and shipping. This integrated visibility provides the ability to predict when and what to replenish. It also means that you know exactly what inventory you have on hand or what kind of capacity constraints you have to work with across your various sites and warehouses. You can’t ship something you don’t have.

Gain End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility

All the visibility in the world is useless unless the systems and data streams work together and communicate with each other. With centralized data from finance, sales, service, and operations, you get an accurate view of your entire business. Make informed decisions based on unified data from across your supply chain.

If you’re ready to implement the right Microsoft product for your business, Rangeline Solutions, a Nexer Group Company is here to help. We are a boutique ERP solutions provider that modernizes manufacturing and distribution organizations by leveraging our specialized supply chain and Microsoft technology expertise.

Not sure where to start? Our fully-encompassing business analysis will help you better understand both the technical and functional aspects of your operations. In our consultation sessions, we gather insight into how and why you perform operations so that we can design and deliver a solution that offers you faster, more efficient business processes.

We would love to chat more with you about gaining the much-needed visibility into your supply chain operations through Microsoft. Request a consultation today!