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Dynamics Update Resolves Challenges for Manufacturer | New Era Technology

Written by New Era Technology | Oct 2, 2019 4:00:00 AM

 

Challenge

A  global chemical manufacturer experienced performance problems and limited functionality after their original Dynamics AX implementation.  A Dynamics update that would enable added functionality is already a significant challenge, but at the same time, the company faced an unresolved issue where their warehouse scanners weren't assigning the correct codes to the corresponding products, leading to significant inventory discrepancies.

The vendor who performed the initial Dynamics implementation couldn’t diagnose the problem, and the only solution at the time was having warehouse workers manually enter product codes. However, this issue snowballed into multiple issues, including: 

  • Introducing human error while typing in codes, increasing inventory problems
  • Reducing fulfillment speed which negatively affected client satisfaction
  • Slowing down sales orders and product receiving
With their challenges snowballing, the company knew they needed answers and results quickly.  When they decided to take action, the chemical manufacturing company was already working with Fusion Alliance for Dynamics support. They came to us to discuss a Dynamics update as well as solutions for their challenging inventory issues so they could get operations and productivity back on track.  

Solution

Our team sat down with leaders at the chemical manufacturing company to determine their goals and create a plan of action to meet them. Because Dynamics AX ERP is the structure behind so much of their operations, our first step was to evaluate the platform and look for areas of improvement and opportunities to increase functionality that was not available in its existing iteration.  

Based on our evaluation, our support team recommended a Dynamics AX CU 13 update. This cumulative Dynamics update that enhanced tools and functionality across multiple departments, including BI, supply chain management, warehouse and transportation, and finance. This also gave us the opportunity to: 

  • Fix and repair integrations with third party software
  • Added custom code to address existing performance issues
  • Collaborate with our client's various partners to complete the initiative to improve their experiences.
As we implemented the Dynamics AX CU13 update, Fusion discovered that inventory dimensions were causing the scanning errors that led to inventory discrepancies. Inventory dimensions are the physical properties of inventory items, including size,  site, and batch number and these characteristics act as the backbone of Dynamics AX. The platform uses accurate inventory dimensions to reconcile accounts, evaluate costs, and maintain correct inventory qualities.  
 
Fusion fixed the issue within the platform that was putting out incorrect inventory dimensions and then coordinated with the manufacturing company's sales, purchasing, and production teams to correct the accuracy of the inventory. This gave our client a clean slate to start working from and allowed the warehouse team to resume using the scanners. 

With comprehensive experience in Dynamics implementation and best practices, our Fusion team added essential functionality and solve a challenging inventory issue. With the update installed successfully and other problems identified and resolved, we continue to remediate fallout from the scanner issue and provide additional assistance as part of an ongoing support contract.