Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

With real-time cost management tracking, businesses can monitor production costs, procurement costs and logistics costs as they occur. This ensures that variances are quickly identified, enabling prompt action and financial visibility.
Costs are tracked at multiple levels, including materials, labor, overhead and external services, providing a detailed view of cost breakdowns for each process.

Supports various production and inventory costing methods, including Standard, Actual, FIFO and LIFO and Weighted Average Costings.
Adjust the cost of inventory for revaluation when market conditions or other factors cause significant changes in product cost.

Vendor self-service portals for suppliers to update information, submit invoices and check order status.
Rate and assess vendor performance based on accuracy, quality and compliance. Automate purchase requisitions and approvals based on workflows, on item availability and demand forecasts.
Create purchase orders manually or automatically based on demand forecasts or reorder points.
Purchase agreements and contract pricing management for better cost control.
Create and send RFQs to multiple vendors to get competitive pricing.
Compare bids, negotiate terms and select the best supplier with an audit trail of negotiations and pricing history.

Master Planning features help businesses determine what to produce, purchase, or transfer, when to produce or order materials and how much inventory is needed.
It generates planned orders based on demand forecasts, sales orders, inventory levels and supplier lead times.
Key features include Static, Dynamic and Forecast Planning, Multi-Site Planning, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), Demand Forecasting and Supply Planning & Capacity Constraints.

Track and manage the usage of raw materials and resources in production. Ensure that material consumption is recorded accurately and optimized for efficiency with features that include BOM (Bill of Materials) Consumption Tracking, Production Order Consumption, Inventory Consumption in Warehouses, Consumption Forecasting with AI and Batch & Serial Number Tracking for full supply chain visibility and accuracy.

Centralize, standardize and manage product-related data across the supply chain. Features ensure consistency, accuracy and efficiency in handling product details, making it essential for manufacturers, distributors and retailers dealing with complex product catalogs. Features include…
Maintain a centralized repository of products and services with price lists.
Purchase from predefined catalogs with negotiated pricing.
Product categories and classification (hierarchies, attributes etc.) help the organization of catalogs.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integration supports versions, updates, phase-outs etc. with full audit history of version control throughout the product chain.
Product Variants and Configurations help manage size, color, material etc. under a single product definition.

Supports discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing and lean manufacturing strategies, ensuring end to end efficient resource utilization and cost control. Features include Production Order Management, Production Scheduling & Capacity Planning, Manufacturing Execution System (MES) integration, Bill of Materials (BOM) & Formula Management, Lean Manufacturing (JIT and Kanban etc.), Process Manufacturing (batch orders, co and by products, yield, waste, traceability etc.), Quality Control, Material and Inventory management, costing integration and advanced analytics with AI.

Handles various manufacturing modes, enabling businesses to combine them based on production needs, including Made-to-Stock (MTS), Made-to-Order (MTO), Configure-to-Order (CTO), Engineer-to-Order (ETO), Process Manufacturing and Lean Manufacturing.
Flexible features in one ERP system include Multi-Mode Production Orders, Hybrid BOMs & Formulas, Flexible Production Scheduling & Planning, Integrated Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Lean Manufacturing & Kanban integration, Demand-Driven Order Management and Hybrid Costing & Financial Management.

Increase asset uptime and ensure that equipment and machinery used in manufacturing remain operational, reduce downtime and costs. Improving efficiency with features such as Asset Management, Work Order Management, Spare Parts and Inventory Management, Downtime tracking and Root-cause Analysis and Compliance and Safety Management. It integrates maintenance scheduling and activities with production workflows, helping businesses implement proactive maintenance strategies like preventive, predictive and reactive maintenance with IoT.

Extend the life and performance of your equipment. Use IoT and mixed reality to plan, predict and proactively perform asset maintenance.
Manage production equipment, machinery and tools in a centralized system.
Track machine usage, wear and tear and maintenance history.
Supports asset hierarchies to organize equipment into logical groups (e.g., factory > production line > machine).

Manage after-sales services, warranties, repairs and maintenance contracts efficiently. It enables organizations to track service requests, allocate resources, track costs, schedule technicians and optimize customer service operations.
Define service contracts, warranties and maintenance agreements for customers.
Set up contract pricing, SLA (Service Level Agreements), billing rules and automate renewals.
Create, assign and track service work orders for repairs, maintenance or inspections, with full integration with warehouse management to track spare parts availability with mobile access for technicians.
Self-service portals for customers to log and track their service requests.

Optimize storage, tracking and movement of inventory. It provides real-time visibility (on-hand, in-transit, reserved and available stock), advanced automation and AI-driven insights to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.
Manage your inventory and stock in any number of warehouses from anywhere at multiple levels (site, warehouse, zone, bin, pallet, etc.) with full mobile and handheld device integration for intelligent inventory management.
Advanced Warehouse Management capabilities optimize movement – define warehouse layouts, zones, aisles, bins and picking routes, use wave, batch and zone picking strategies, enable cross-docking, put-away and directed picking and traceability via Lot and Serial Number tracking.
Fulfil across multiple channels, with features for drop-shipping, order picking and last-mile delivery tracking, returns management, plus real-time ATP (Available-to-Promise) calculations.

AI and machine learning (ML) helps to optimize inventory levels, balance stock, optimize supplier lead times, automate reordering and reduce stockouts or overstocking, by leveraging demand forecasting, historical data and real-time analytics.
Automated Replenishment Triggers define minimum and maximum stock levels per product and warehouse, AI calculates reorder points and optimal order quantities. Purchase orders and stock transfers are automated when levels hit predefined thresholds.
Machine Learning pattern recognition identifies sales trends, demand fluctuations and slow-moving items. It recommends adjustments to stock levels based on real-time changes and learns from past data to continuously improve replenishment accuracy.

Improve forecast accuracy and use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) predictive analytics to forecast demand, optimize production planning, manage inventory and reduce shortages or overstock for procurement and sales.
Maintain optimal stock levels and minimize carrying costs.
Improve sales and operations planning (S&OP).

Efficiently manage inventory availability and fulfil orders even when all requested stock is not available
Advanced stock reservation based on demand, priority customers etc., with automatic allocation by order priority, warehouse location or expiration date.
Partially ship available items immediately while backordering the remaining items and notify customers of estimated deliveries directly or via the self-service portal.
Automatically split invoices based on partial shipments, configure billing rules for partial deliveries (e.g., charge per shipment or full invoice upfront) and track revenues.

Optimize the allocation and management of batch-controlled (by batch number) inventory across multiple locations or warehouses. It ensures that items in inventory are efficiently allocated to various processes, like picking, packing and shipping, while maintaining optimal stock levels and improving warehouse productivity.
For industries like food and pharmaceuticals where product expiration is a concern, batch balancing ensures that older batches are used first using Expiration Date Management
Take actions (like discounts or promotions) to clear older stock before it becomes obsolete or expires by using Inventory Aging features.
Batch balancing can be integrated with quality control procedures to ensure that only products meeting the required quality standards are processed and shipped. If a batch fails quality testing, it can be isolated and removed from the active inventory pool.
If a batch is in limited supply or has a shorter shelf life, balancing ensures that the correct inventory is used for production planning.

Efficiently plan, execute and monitor the movement of goods. Features help optimize shipping costs, carrier selection, route planning and freight management to enhance supply chain efficiency.
Supports multiple carrier integrations (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.), selecting the best carrier based on cost, service level and delivery time with automation.
AI-driven route optimization reduces transit time and costs, with dynamic adjustments based on traffic, weather etc.
Supports multi-stop, multi-leg and cross-docking shipments, with real-time tracking.
For Load Planning and Consolidation, it optimizes truckload (TL), less-than-truckload (LTL) and container loads. Consolidates multiple shipments into a single route and uses weight and volume to determine the best shipping configurations.
Full costing, yard, dock and customs regulation compliance features.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) assigns user roles and permissions to restrict access based on job functions, MFA authentication for access, with audit logs on user activity.
Uses Microsoft Azure security protection to encrypt data at rest and in transit.
Compliance to GDPR, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 protects sensitive data.
AI-powered fraud detection tools monitor supply chain transactions, detecting anomalies in orders, payments and shipments plus approval workflows.
Hosted on Microsoft Azure, with built-in disaster recovery and backup, complies with global regulations (HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, ISO and NIST).
Built-in audit trails and reporting for regulatory compliance.

Track Carbon Footprint by measuring CO2 emissions across transportation, manufacturing and logistics, with compliance with environmental regulations.
Sustainability analytics with recommendations of alternative, eco-friendly transportation modes.
Enables prioritizes and tracks supplier sustainability scoring based on carbon footprint and green sourcing policies.
Minimizes inventory excess to prevent waste, tracks product lifecycles for recycling, sustainability and recalls.
Manages returns, refurbishments and reverse logistics efficiently.
Optimizes production schedules, warehouse energy consumption with IoT sensors.

Microsoft Teams integration means users can share real-time order, inventory and shipment details and receive automated notifications within Teams and collaborate with suppliers, logistics partners and internal teams without leaving Dynamics 365.
Microsoft Power BI Integration for advanced analytics and reporting, customizable business intelligence dashboards to gain real-time insights – visualize inventory levels, supplier performance and demand forecasting.
Microsoft Power Platform integration (Power Apps and Power Automate) for custom apps such as mobile apps for warehouse staff and workflow automations of manual tasks such as purchasing, stock replenishment and order processing.
Dynamics 365 Finance integration to sync supply chain costs, procurement, inventory, profit analysis and invoices with Finance and Operations.
Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement integration for Customer Service, Sales Order management.
Third party integrations including vendors and carriers via EDI or API, ecommerce platforms and external ERP and CRM applications.