Choosing Business Central over Finance and SCM for Manufacturing
The next generation of Dynamics AX
If you’re a manufacturer looking to migrate from Microsoft Dynamics AX to Finance and Supply Chain Management, you might want to take a closer look at Business Central before you decide.
The combination of Finance and Supply Chain Management is the next generation of AX. It is a powerful ERP solution for large manufacturers, global companies, and multinational entities and has all the features that were in AX plus a lot more.
So why would you look at anything else?
To begin with, Finance and Supply Chain Management (F+SCM) is not simply an upgrade for AX; it is a new installation. And while it is flexible, it is also complex to install and requires a minimum of 20 users to license.
Why Business Central for manufacturing?
There was a time when a company’s size was the determining factor for choosing an enterprise ERP. That is no longer the case. Today, the complexity of the company’s operations, not its size, drives that choice. If you use process or mixed-mode manufacturing, have complex supply chain or transportation management requirements, or handle hundreds of thousands of transactions daily, then Business Central might not be a viable solution for you.
But if you only use a part of AX and feel that you need to stay with an “enterprise” ERP like F+SCM because you are coming from AX, there is an alternative: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Business Central offers many of the features you are looking for in an ERP without the cost or complexity of F+SCM.
Although considered an ERP for SMBs, Business Central has many manufacturing, warehouse management, and supply chain management features that most manufacturers need. Business Central is easy to customize, has a wide selection of third-party add-on products to expand Business Central’s manufacturing capabilities even further, is much faster (and up to 5-10x less expensive) to install than F+SCM, and only requires a minimum of one user license (although it can handle large numbers of simultaneous users). Business Central supports multi-entity companies with multiple currencies, different charts of accounts, and differing financial years. Business Central also integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications, Microsoft’s Power Platform, and Microsoft’s productivity suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc.).
Business Central features for manufacturing
As a manufacturer, you will be interested in what Business Central (BC) can offer you. Although not as extensive as F+SCM, the Business Central premium license provides the manufacturing, service management, supply chain, and warehousing features most manufacturers need, including:
Manufacturing features
- Visibility into work-in-process (WIP).
- Support for agile forecasting and rescheduling on demand with dynamic master plans.
- Create bills of material and routes for sales and production variants.
- Support for available-to-promise (ATP) and capable-to-promise (CTP) so you can automatically replan production to accommodate sales demands.
- Track item costs throughout production, including inventory, WIP, and cost of goods sold (COGS).
- Plan your production schedule and reallocate resources and machines as needed.
Warehouse Management features
- Organize inventory by defining warehouse locations and bins.
- Streamline the pick-and-put-away process with handheld devices to reduce errors and improve efficiency.
- Streamline shipping and receiving with integrated packing and shipping.
- Monitor real-time inventory levels and locations, set up alerts for low stock levels, and automate reorder processes.
- Manage multiple warehouse locations and transfer stock between sites efficiently.
Find out for yourself if Business Central is right for you
If you’re a manufacturer looking to move off AX, take our quiz to find out if Business Central is a good fit for your company.
Have a list of your current and future needs, and then talk to ArcherPoint about what Business Central can do for you. Call us for a free assessment.