Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Manufacturing Implementation in 15 000 steps
Recently DynamicsDC customer SOFA.COM went live with manufacturing module in NAV 2015. The project had a very tight schedule – 3 months. When you combine it with the scope which included production orders, routing management, huge item varieties (approximately 200 000), printing labels with barcodes, using remote scanning devices, outbound scanning and key production stages scanning, development, uff! Just looking at it can make someone sick and implementing it on time, on budget and on scope was clearly an amazing challenge.
On cut-over day, late evening, after getting home I was drinking cup of tea and relaxing, when my mobile beeped. I had earned a new reward! According to my step counting app I set a new record that day – 15872 steps (about 12 km or 7.5 miles). I was truly surprised, but giving that a thought it all made perfect sense.
Implementation phase of the project (especially cut over) is usually the most challenging one. During a day or a couple of days, project team must deliver many task. Any delays, issues etc. can easily lead to failure. For manufacturing companies the cut over (switching to new ERP system – Dynamics NAV 2015) usually means stopping the production for a short period of time. In this case production was stopped for 2 days. The goal was to label all finished goods and work in progress in all departments and then reflect finished goods and production in Dynamics NAV 2015.
Key activities that were done were:
- Physical inventory counting, including work in progress
- Updating master data in Dynamics NAV 2015
- Printing 3500 labels with bar codes
- Labelling every item on the shop floor
- Scan all labels (using remote devices) in order to reflect production status
- Verify data in Dynamics NAV 2015
One of many lessons learned is ‘Do not underestimate physical aspects of the project’. Shop floor surface of 11 000 square meters (108 000 feet). 10 production departments. Over 20 project team members. Coordinating work, ensuring proper communication, solving issues on the fly, motivating and finally controlling progress can easily lead to blisters on project manager feet.