Manufacturing Outsourcing: Microsoft Great Plains Implementation, Customization & Reporting

Manufacturing in the USA is far away down from mid 20th century top of the hill or its golden time. However we are in very competitive business environment and we have to do what market tends us to do. Nowadays competitive offshore manufacturing labor cost outweighs custom clearance fees and forces us to have not full-size manufacturing, but rather final assembly facilities here in the US distribution centers, such as Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles. We'd like to give you successful implementation/downsizing/outsourcing scenario of mid-size machinery manufacturer.

? Downsizing need. US recession of 2000-2004 decreased monthly crane trucks order from 200 per month to 50. Company laid off manufacturing and assembly workers. ERP system had full-featured manufacturing (Kewill manufacturing) and the annual maintenance fee to Kewill was about k$50 plus company had more employees in accounting department to enter manufacturing related data than it had manufacturing workers Kewill was serving just manufacturing automation, Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive SQL 2000 was in place of General Ledger (GL), Sales Order Processing and Account Payables module (AP)

? Switch to light Manufacturing. Great Plains Dynamics Bill of Materials (currently Microsoft Great Plains Bill of Materials) can serve light manufacturing and the cost of ownership is relatively low ? you pay 16% annual maintenance fee and this includes free new version and discounted Great Plains technical support from Microsoft Business Solutions directly. Client did purchase Great Plains Inventory Control module, Purchase Order Processing with PO Generator to replenish spare parts automatically. Great Plains Customization partner developed light Great Plains Dexterity customization to automatically build several blocks in Bill of Materials on SOP Sales Order allocation.

? Internet Ordering. eCommerce is very popular for apparels and general merchandise. For custom machinery assembly it will come in the next decade (we are not talking here about GM or Chrysler). Microsoft Great Plains SOP module tables, however allow you to develop ecommerce ordering via eConnect or custom stored procedures. Consider eOrder ? this is sale on account over the internet ? however it is ASP application, not ASPX or .Net

? Reporting. Crystal Reports is reporting maestro if we are talking about Microsoft SQL Server based System.

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) ? Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

---

Database Guru James F. Koopmann Reviews DBxtra Reporting and Query Tool

DBxtra is a powerful query and reporting tool that hides... Read More

Snort for Network IDS

What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More

A Case Study on Selecting Contract Management Software

Professional services firm cuts costs and improves productivity with integrated... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Distribution, Barcoding, Consignment ? overview for consultant

Microsoft Great Plains ? ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and... Read More

My Experience - Making a Vision into Reality

Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More

ERP Software Financing: the Future? ? Overview for Company Owner

In our case ? we serve Microsoft Business Solutions ERP... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Oil & Gas ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains serves the wide spectrum of horizontal markets.... Read More

Reduce Pop-ups and Annoying Ads

There is many things more frustrating than surfing a website... Read More

15 Questions to Ask Your Software Vendor

When making a decision to buy any piece of software... Read More

Software Upgrades Arent Always the Best Move

When my daughter was getting into AOL instant messaging (AIM)... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Getting New Users Licenses ? Annual Service Plan FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta, Microsoft CRM... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Data Conversion ? Overview For Developer

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More

Anti-Spyware Protection ? Holes in the Shining Armor

Looking at all the ads which promise to get rid... Read More

Great Plains DOS Support ? Notes for Consultant

Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies... Read More

Crystal Reports For Microsoft RMS ? Overview For Developer/Report Designer

If you are software developer or database administrator - we... Read More

Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Office

The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach... Read More

Editing Your Photos Using Microsoft Picture It Publishing Platinum 2002 - A Great Dinosaur

I started using PIP (Picture It Publishing) Platinum 2002 right... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Data Conversion & Migration Scenarios ? Overview for Consultant

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves multiple industries in the... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains & CRM in Transportation & Logistics ? Overview

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and MS CRM (client relation... Read More

Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise Upgrade ? Things to Consider and FAQ

If you have Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise (version 6.0 or earlier)... Read More

Five Reasons for Using an O/R Mapping Tool

So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More

Dig Out That Worm

Internet worms. Is your PC infected?If your computer has become... Read More

Recovering Microsoft Great Plains Customization ? Tips for IT Director

Remember nice and prosperous Clinton era? When you implemented innovative... Read More

Beware of Spyware

One day, you suddenly realize that your computer started to... Read More

Best Practices In Choosing Network Monitoring Software

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Hawaii (HMSA) found itself... Read More

Rapid Application Development - Is it Really a Need of Today?

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a software development methodology. In... Read More

The Opera Alternative

Security flaws have long plagued Internet Explorer (IE), the market-dominating... Read More

Corporate Accounting System: Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview

Corporate ERP/MRP selection might be tough one, especially considering very... Read More

Reporting Tools for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview For Developers

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More

Software Process Improvement -A Successful Journey

Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More

Imagine if Everyone Working In Your Office Was In Synch?

Microsoft-Outlook is a pretty amazing program. So much more than... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Manufacturing or Bill of Materials - Overview for IT Specialist

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions product, targeted... Read More

Internet Security Threats: Who Can Read Your Email?

Before being able to choose a secure Internet communication system,... Read More