Manufacturing is still a major engine in today’s economy. The fundamental success factors in this industry remain constant: produce the right products, in the right quantities, at the right time, with good quality, and at a price the customer is willing to pay. However, flexibility and continuous improvements are also imperative. This includes the flexibility to respond to emerging markets, such as today’s growth opportunities in China and Eastern Europe, and the flexibility to respond to the ever-changing needs of the customers. Capitalizing on these opportunities and demands involves quickly adapting to new approaches, trading partners, and procurement strategies. This is especially true for small- to medium-size manufacturers, seeking to grow and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Even small companies can have complex business needs. A small company benefits just as much as, or more than, a large company from a technology infrastructure built to support powerful manufacturing processes. Microsoft can help you meet these challenges. Here are five critical competencies for excelling in manufacturing, and how we can help: 1. Integrated communication and collaboration.You need to synchronize communication between engineering, manufacturing, and subcontractors. For example, if engineering makes design changes, operation should know the details immediately. | • | Your communication solution needs to integrate with your ERP system to ensure the increased agility in engineering is supported by your subcontractors. Product data management and integration between CAD and Microsoft ERP Solutions have helped customers improve product design. Engineers can get an overview of reported errors in drawings, and manufacturing can confirm the latest design is being produced. | | • | Business portals let you share information within your systems via the Web to the right people at the right time to keep your business moving forward and your customers happy. |
2. Outstanding customer service.Landing a contract or making the sale isn't enough. You need to provide outstanding after-sales service to ensure customer loyalty. | • | With Microsoft Dynamics for Field Service Management, you can track a project from design through "as-built" configuration. The bottom line: Your service personnel will be able to deliver the right parts—a critical first step towards effective preventive maintenance. | | • | Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives you access to deep customer knowledge based on past experiences, helping you identify and meet or exceed your service level agreements (SLAs) and contract requirements. |
3. Accurate estimating and quoting.You can efficiently align customer requirements with your capabilities by maintaining a standardized product line and by using your previous experience with a customer to suggest the most effective equipment. | • | In many cases the subsequent discovery of omissions or mistakes poses the biggest challenge. Microsoft CRM can help you record customer requirements accurately and reuse the information in future quotes. |
4. Flexible production planning.Production planners often struggle with keeping each job separate and visible in order to match specific customer requirements with resources. When production-runs encounter problems, planning or engineering needs to change the process. But in many cases, these changes are lost in aggregate production activities and data.To help you respond effectively, Microsoft Dynamics support manufacturing modes like engineer-to-order, make-to-order, make-to-stock, or mixed/hybrid modes. You decide and define your best practices and how you want the planning system to execute. Additionally, wireless technology can help increase the capability and flexibility of your plant and workers. 5. Efficient project management.Good project management helps you deliver on-time and accounts for resources like materials, capacity, engineers, service personnel, critical paths, and slack time. It also helps you identify the completion state of tasks and provides an overview status of the project. With Microsoft Dynamics for Project Management, you can set budgets, manage billing, review current costs, and track all activities and resources related to a project at any level of detail. You can also leverage knowledge and content from existing or prior projects to improve your processes and avoid mistakes.
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