{"id":14315,"date":"2021-04-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/how-to-run-a-manufacturing-facility-using-the-one-microsoft-cloud\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:54:30","slug":"how-to-run-a-manufacturing-facility-using-the-one-microsoft-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-apps\/how-to-run-a-manufacturing-facility-using-the-one-microsoft-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Run a Manufacturing Facility Using the One Microsoft Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you to April Dunnam<\/a>, Greg Hurlman<\/a>, and Matt Soucoup<\/a>\u00a0for their contributions to this post, Microsoft Learn Path<\/a> and eBook<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Scenario<\/h2>\n

There is a factory that makes boxes. A key activity is cutting large sheets of cardboard into the standard sizes needed to make these boxes. The factory has several lathes doing this cutting work across several factories around the world. The company partners with a set of vendors to provide replacement blades and service the lathes when they need repair or replacement.<\/p>\n

Everybody in the factory, from the tech team to the floor workers, collaborates and communicates using Microsoft Teams. The team also tracks the productivity of the cutting lathes using Power BI. The Power BI report shows production outputs from the last 24 hours \u2013 monitoring both good and reject boxes across the company and for each factory location.<\/p>\n

A Standard Manufacturing Challenge<\/h2>\n

One day, the Chief Operations Officer notices a high number of rejects on one of the lathes. He assigns a work item to the Factory Floor Manager to investigate. The Floor Manager checks the machine and realizes the lathe will need to be serviced soon.<\/p>\n

A New Kind of Solution<\/h2>\n

Rather than calling all the vendors the factory contracts with to gather quotes and schedule service, then manually keep track whether a lathe has been scheduled for service or not, and the service history the Floor Manager wonders if there\u2019s a better way.<\/p>\n

The Floor Manager sits down with the tech team and tells them her predicament:<\/p>\n

Every time the Chief Operations Manager notices an issue with a lathe, he asks her to investigate. This could mean checking on the lathe directly or contacting a colleague via Teams to do it. Depending on the findings, she may end up calling many different vendors to schedule repairs for the lathe. She also must keep a log of the lathe repair service history. And coordinate with Floor Managers from factories around the world who do the same thing.<\/p>\n

With all the hand-written work this process has introduced errors before.<\/p>\n

The Floor Manager, and her counterparts in the other factories around the world, have an idea of what the application should look and act like to best fit into their day-to-day workflow.<\/p>\n

The tech team tells the Floor Manager they can create a web API that interfaces with various vendor systems to schedule service. And APIs to record all service history and mark whether a lathe is currently in production or not.<\/p>\n

Using that info, the Floor Manager knows she can create an app using Power Apps that will reside in the existing Power BI dashboard. That app will do exactly what she wants, and it will work exactly to her specific workflow \u2013 because she designed and created it for her exact needs.<\/p>\n

This Fusion Development Team of high-code, or professional developers and low-code, or citizen developers get down to work.<\/p>\n

High-Code \/ ProDev Architecture<\/h2>\n

The high-code or professional developer team will create a web API that performs the following actions:<\/p>\n