Dynamics GP in Picking and Packing, Assembly on Order

  These companies, being either small or lower mid-size businesses often command unique business requirements to the Corporate ERP system selection and implementation.  It might be historical order based pricing; special requirements in WIP accounting; industry legislation compliance, etc.  In this small publication we would like to review how standards of the industry and custom features could be implemented in Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains.  Let’s begin with small discrete manufacturing:
1. Distribution Bill of Materials module, as extension to Inventory Control.  If you are small assembling on order business, chances are very high that you do not use such advanced manufacturing software features, as Capacity Planning, Quality Assurance, or if you are having these processes implemented – they are rather done in Excel or in simple in-house programmed applications (typically Microsoft Access, MySQL, FoxPro).  BOM, coming as part of Distribution suite of modules should be considered as the first option and we recommend you not to succumb the temptation (even if your chosen VAR is pushing the sale) to implement Manufacturing Suite.  Distribution BOM has as many phantom bills of materials as required and you have natural way of replacement parts, if this is what you are looking for.  And finally, if there is something short in BOM, it might be cheaper and more efficient to add custom features, programmed in Microsoft Dexterity, Modifier/VBA or eConnect
2. Picking and Packing.  Smaller distribution company may, in certain situations, not be able to pay from full scale Warehouse Management System, but it should consider the option to implement only, say Picking and Packing part of it.  P&P usually requires barcode scanning technology and you do it in Sales Order Processing transaction with manual allocation option (by default the allocation is done automatically as soon as you are entering the quantity in the SOP document item line).  Alba Spectrum WMS extensions to Great Plains has Order Allocation (and this is what you do in Sales Order picking and packing) logic, and if required it could be decoupled from the WMS package and specially customized to fit your unique small manufacturing requirements
3. Shipping and Receiving.  Shipping actually was described above, as this is another name for P&P.  Receiving is typically referred as Inventory Replenishment in Warehouse management System.  Receiving is done on the warehouse floor by barcode scanning received items barcode label and then uploading them as Purchase Receipt lines in Purchase Order Processing module
4. Well, so far everything looks great, but what if I have very complex legacy Small Business Manufacturing application with very unique business logic and precious data.  Should I keep it or convert it into Great Plains?  We have to admit that high percentage of small distributing and manufacturing companies have “family secret”, which they are protecting from being intruded, including such measures as isolating their office computer network from the internet (just in case, if employee needs to check email – there internet kiosks connected to the internet, but  isolated from the internal Ethernet).  We recommend you to consider the data migration and conversion options and find the reasonable compromise – maybe part of your legacy DB should stay and be available for data inquiry only and whatever is needed in your new Corporate ERP system should be probably converted
5. How to customize Great Plains?  If you feel that you have to do it, and there are no Add-ons available from ISV partner channel, the tools to consider are GP Dexterity, Modifier with VBA scripting, MS Visual Studio SDK for GP, eConnect, Integration Manager, Extender.  This is the long list and we have to admit that you have to read our earlier blogs on these tools, or simply read Microsoft Business Solutions technology whitepapers
6. Expanding internationally.  Nowadays even small manufacturers are outsourcing their production facilities to such countries as Brazil, Latin America, China, India, Philippines, Russia.  If you have the plans to save on ERP software licenses (by hosting all your subsidiaries on the same SQL Server in the US), the decision is not that simple and you need to review and take into considerations such factors as Corporate ERP localization for the targeted country.  For example, Dynamics GP is localized for most of the English speaking countries, Spanish speaking Latin America, plus French province of Canada (Quebec - Montreal).  If GP is not localized for the country where your subsidiary is located, we recommend you to consider Dynamics AX (former Axapta, it is pushed internationally by Microsoft), SAP Business One (this is very good option form smaller international operations)
7. Special recommendations for Brazil.  Well, our company was hired by Microsoft Business Solutions in Sao Paulo to localized Dynamics GP version 7.5 for Brazilian ERP market, this was back in 2004.  In the very short time Microsoft changed its mind and tried to feature Navision (Dynamics NAV) and in about a year from that decision making it finally decided to promote Axapta Dynamics AX.  At this time, January 2011, Dynamics AX might be recommended and proved to be established.  We also see very strong presence of SAP Business One, which is comparable to the number of SB1 installations in USA (about 30 percent, but respect the Brazilian MRP market capacity – it is definitely less comparing to the US).  Here in Brazil we recommend you also to take a look at local ERP solution – Microsiga
8. Russian Federation.  Well, again back in 1996 we were granted the certificate by Great Plains Software to be the first reseller in Moscow.  However Dough Burghum, GPS founder sold Great Plains Software to Microsoft in the late 1990th and shortly after Microsoft acquired Navision Software with two major Corporate ERP systems in its disposition – Navision and Axapta.  Navision was probably purchased with the plans to take over large portion of the European ERP market.  Currently AX is the recommended tool in RF.  We have our insiders there and they indicate that SAP BO is not really too strong and recommend to consider local package, such as 1S Bukhgalteria
9. For additional information please call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us: help@albaspectrum.com