ERP Six Pack: AI Powered Updates in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

The latest updates in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (SCM) are bringing some incredible AI-driven updates to the table. From automation to better quality management, these new features are set to make your supply chain smoother and more efficient. Optimized testing, improved regulatory compliance, and new demand planning tools are in play and ready to help businesses level up their operations and keep things running smoothly.

1.     An Agent for Procure-to-Pay

A lot of businesses still handle procurement manually, which means lots of time spent on tasks like talking to vendors, updating purchase orders, and managing change requests. The supplier communications agent steps in to automate these repetitive tasks based on rules you set up. This not only saves time but also boosts productivity and makes your supply chain more resilient.

Here’s what the supplier communications agent can do for you:

• Automated Follow-ups: It can draft emails to vendors asking about delayed orders or reminding them to confirm purchase orders.

• Speedy Purchase Order Updates: It reads your incoming vendor emails, figures out what’s related to purchase orders, and then updates everything based on your rules.

These features cut down on the manual work, letting you focus on more important stuff and making your procurement process smoother overall.

2.      Advanced Quality Management Upgrades

Boost your supply chain with advanced quality management! This approach helps you continuously improve, keep customers happy, meet regulations, and achieve top-notch quality. By integrating these capabilities, you can reduce the need for third-party solutions, ensure compliance, enhance product quality, and increase customer satisfaction. Plus, it promotes ongoing improvement and risk reduction through feedback.

Key Features:

• Optimized Testing: Flexible sampling plans, skip-lot testing, quality-order triggers, sample management, instrument calibration, and AQL testing.

• Regulatory Compliance: Approved customer lists, customer-specific certificates of analysis (COA), and better electronic signatures.

• Digitized Manufacturing: Electronic batch records and precise production dispensing.

• Continuous Improvement: Manage corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) and improve non-conformance handling.

• User-Friendly: Easier quality test result entries and new workspaces for quality management.

3.      New Demand Planning Features in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

What's New:

• Assortment Planning: Now you can easily forecast demand across different dimensions like products, customers, or channels. Just set up your allocation basis, and you're good to go!

• Time Freeze: Need a break? You can now set periods where your continuous forecast calculations won't update their baseline forecasts. No more constant changes!

• Forecast with Signals: You can use multiple input signals and choose between different forecast algorithms like Prophet, XGBoost, or the best-fit model that picks the best forecast for each dimension. It's like having a personal forecasting assistant!

• Auto Detect Seasonality: The system will automatically identify seasonality patterns across different dimensions, making your forecasts even more accurate without any extra effort from you.

All these features are turned on by default, so you can start using them right away with both new and existing forecasts. Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to more accurate predictions!

4.      Real Upgrades to Lean, Catch Weight, and Step!

What's New:

·       Lean Manufacturing: This is all about maximizing value for your customers while cutting down on waste. Inspired by the Toyota production system, it focuses on continuous improvement and operational efficiency. So, you get to streamline your processes and keep things running smoothly.

·       Catch Weight: If you're in the food industry, this one's for you! Catch weight pricing means you can sell products based on their actual weight rather than a fixed weight. This is super handy for items like meat, seafood, and fresh produce that naturally vary in size and weight.

·       Step Consumption: This feature helps you manage material consumption in a way that fits non-linear consumption rates based on production quantities. It means you can better handle materials and reduce waste.

With these new features, Planning Optimization helps you create fast and accurate supply plans, making your supply chain more agile and responsive. All these capabilities are enabled by default, so you can start using them right away to improve your planning and boost your financial outcomes.

5.      CLM+Source to Pay

With the new flexible integration to external contract lifecycle management (CLM) systems, managing your contracts with suppliers just got a whole lot easier. Now, you can efficiently handle the entire contract lifecycle in your source-to-pay process.

Purchase agreements in these contracts seamlessly integrate with your operations, ensuring the correct terms and pricing are applied every time. CLM is a crucial part of the source-to-pay process, and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management makes it super simple to connect with an external CLM system.

This feature comes with ready-to-use rules and integration points for smooth interaction with CLM. It supports both purchase agreements and non-disclosure agreements, leveraging master data from Supply Chain Management to keep everything in sync.

6.      Simplify Supplier Management

What's New:

• All-in-One Workspace: Manage everything from one place. No more jumping between systems!

• Supplier Portal: Onboard new suppliers and collaborate with them throughout the relationship. This includes handling requests for quotation (RFQs), purchase orders, and invoices. It's all streamlined and super user-friendly.

• Enhanced Collaboration: The supplier-facing portal, built on Microsoft Power Pages, supports everything from tactical to operational and transactional aspects. It makes it easy for new suppliers to get started and for existing suppliers to engage with your company through various transactions.

We hope this document has provided valuable insights into the latest AI-powered updates to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Remember, the team at ps Hummingbird is always here to support you in your journey to modern ERP!