Insight Works boasts a number of clients that select Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central versions based on their particular business requirements, with choices that include either Essentials or Premium in addition to either a Cloud ERP or On-Premise Deployment. With either deployment, the Business Central Manufacturing Capabilities’ Premium variant provides all of the vast functionality in Essentials, plus robust manufacturing features such as:

  • Production Bill of Materials
  • Production Orders
  • Agile Manufacturing
  • Version Management
  • Supply Planning
  • Demand Forecasting
  • Sales and Inventory Forecasting
  • Capacity Planning
  • Finite Loading
  • Machine Centers

As an all-in-one business management solution that is easy to use and adapt, our manufacturing clients have found Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central instrumental in helping them make smarter decisions and connect their business in ways they never thought of.

Here’s what’s key to remember: Business Central can grow as your business requirements change – all while you take advantage of the latest technology – so if you have been looking for an all-around ideal manufacturing management system to put you at ease, go no further than Microsoft’s answer in this digital age.

Let’s now take a closer look at Business Central’s Manufacturing Capabilities:

Production Bill of Materials

As a required protocol for the configuration of all other Manufacturing modules, this enables you to create bills of materials and calculate standard costs.

Production Orders

The Production Orders module includes a manual supply planning tool as an alternative to automatic planning, and with it you can create and manage production orders while posting consumption and output to those orders. After a production order has been created, you can calculate net requirements based on that production order.

Agile Manufacturing

This enables you to run the Agile Manufacturing, Supply Planning and Capacity Planning modules.

Version Management

Create and manage different versions of the manufacturing bill of materials and routings.

Supply Planning

Plan material requirements based on demand with support for master production scheduling and materials requirements planning; basic Supply Planning encompasses:

  • Automatic production/purchase orders
  • Action messages for fast and easy balancing of supply and demand
  • Support for “bucket-less” and “bucketed” material requirements planning
  • Setup for items with their own reordering policy, whether manufactured by or purchased from a third party

Demand Forecasting

Manage demand forecasting based on items and input demand (sales) forecasts for products and components in a more convenient way (daily/monthly/quarterly).

Sales and Inventory Forecasting

You can take advantage of the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension to gain deep insight about potential sales and a clear overview of expected stock-outs; the built-in Cortana Intelligence leverages historical data to help you manage your stock and respond to your customers.

Capacity Planning

Add capacities (work centers) to the manufacturing process by setting up routings and using them on production orders and in material requirements planning.

Finite Loading

Manage finite loading of capacity-constraint resources; through Finite Loading, you can take capacity constraints into account so that no more work is assigned to a work center than the capacities can be expected to execute during a given time period.

Machine Centers

Designed to help you manage capacity of a single machine/producing resource, machine centers allows you to plan/manage capacity on several levels – on a more detailed level for machine centers and on a consolidated level for work centers.