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7 Steps to Unlocking Millions in Gross Profit

The 2025 Action Plan: Eliminate Recurring Problems Companies lose gross margin when inefficiencies in planning, execution, and cross-functional workflows create blind spots that result in problems that no one understands how they start or how to eliminate them. Companies that identify and resolve the root causes of recurring operational challenges see significant gross margin improvement. For companies generating $100 million in gross profit, even a 1% improvement can unlock $1 million in additional profit. If you had better planning and execution, how far do you think could you move the gross margin needle? What’s Your Gross Margin Opportunity? The potential impact is real and measurable—the only questions are how much gross profit you are leaving on the table and how much of it can be captured and at what cost. At Ascent Innovations, we help companies initiate low-cost, high-value Agile ROI strategies—delivering measurable improvements within a month. This rapid business impact model helps build executive support for additional efforts. 7 Steps to Unlocking Millions in Gross Margin Step 1: Identify the Problems Costing You Money   What Are the Indicators of Opportunity?   What kind of problems are we talking about? It varies for every client—but to get your wheels turning, here are some common issues I’ve been helping organizations resolve: High Working Capital – Often a sign of inefficiencies in forecasting, demand planning, inventory management, receivables, or procurement. Margin Compression Despite Strong Sales – May indicate poor pricing governance, uncontrolled discounting, or breakdowns in cost pass-through processes. Frequent Budget Variances and Forecast Misses – Suggest weaknesses in forecast accuracy and cost management, leading to misaligned operational planning. Long Order-to-Delivery Lead Times – A signal of potential workflow misalignment or blind spots between sales, production, and fulfillment. Rising Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) – Points to opportunities in labor, material, and supplier management to better control variable costs. High Labor Costs and Excessive Overtime – Typically reflect upstream planning gaps, such as raw material availability or poor scheduling, limiting production efficiency and capacity. Each of these challenges represents a high-impact opportunity. With focused discovery, we can uncover the root causes behind recurring issues. And here’s the key insight: a single root cause often manifests in different ways across multiple departments. When we address the source, we not only eliminate recurring problems—we unlock broad, measurable performance gains across the organization.   Step 2: Quantify the Opportunity Cost of Your Problems   How much are recurring problems costing you?   Many organizations underestimate the financial impact of daily firefighting—leaving significant value on the table. Through a few focused discovery sessions, we help quantify that opportunity by identifying the business impact of fixing root causes that often manifest as repeated challenges across departments. Start with strategic goals – Align leadership around core priorities to ensure the focus stays on what drives the most value. Engage at the executive level – Review what’s working, what’s not, and where improvements are most needed. Discuss how these challenges are affecting performance today—and what the organization could achieve if they were resolved. Explore at the departmental level – Assess both functional and cross-functional workflows to identify execution and reporting gaps that hinder strategic goals. Capture how these issues impact daily operations and decision-making. Develop a comprehensive issue list – Document pain points across the organization to uncover root causes and prioritize high-impact opportunities. Identify quick wins with high value – Identify low-cost, high-impact improvements that can be implemented in 3–5 weeks to deliver immediate business results and build momentum. By structuring discovery this way, we create a clear connection between strategic objectives and operational improvements—with a focus on quick wins that deliver measurable results. These early successes not only improve performance but also build executive and board-level support for further modernization and long-term transformation.   Step 3: Fix the Process Gaps   Are Cross-functional Hand-offs a Challenge?   Businesses are structured vertically—in departments—but value is delivered horizontally, across functions. Customers don’t care about departmental boundaries; they’re impacted by how well the organization executes end-to-end. Functional silos persist within companies when systems and workflows are fragmented, making it difficult to coordinate planning and execution across the value chain. It’s like a relay race—no matter how fast each runner is, if the baton is dropped between exchanges, the race is lost.   What type of problems are rooted in a siloed organization? Here are a few common symptoms of cross-functional challenges :   Demand & Order Management: Misalignment Creates Delays Inaccurate demand forecasting leads to stockouts or excess inventory, tying up working capital. Manual order processing increases errors, rework, and fulfillment delays. Approval bottlenecks slow down order confirmations, delaying production start times. Impact: Orders take longer to process, increasing lead times, frustrating customers, and reducing sales velocity.   Production & Inventory: Inefficiencies Drive Higher Costs Siloed production planning leads to last-minute scheduling changes, increasing labor overtime and machine downtime. Disconnected inventory management causes materials shortages, stalling production and missing customer deadlines. Rigid capacity planning prevents flexibility, making it harder to respond to demand fluctuations. Impact: Production bottlenecks increase operating costs, reduce order fill rates, and weaken gross margin.   Logistics & Fulfillment: Shipping Disruptions and Customer Dissatisfaction Poor warehouse coordination leads to delays in picking, packing, and staging shipments. Lack of real-time tracking prevents proactive issue resolution, increasing OTIF failures. Inefficient routing and carrier selection result in higher freight costs and slower deliveries. Impact: Late shipments increase customer penalties, lost contracts, and damaged brand reputation.   Inefficiencies in the order-to-delivery process erode profitability, strain cash flow, and damage customer satisfaction. Ascent helps our clients understand what can be fixed in the current environment and what would be best addressed in a future ERP upgrade.   Step 4: Make Smart, Targeted System Enhancements   Leverage your existing ERP for quick, high-impact wins.   Rather than waiting a year or longer for the payoff of an ERP upgrade, companies can drive immediate ROI by optimizing what they already have: Fix broken or incomplete ERP processes that complicate daily execution. Improve integration between key systems … Read more

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Consignment Inventory or Vendor-owned Inventory

Consignment inventory is an element of supply chain management in which the vendor inventory is held at the customer warehouse. The customer doesn’t pay for the goods until the goods are consumed, and in most cases, pays only the amount consumed. When receiving the inventory, the physical receipts and on-hand inventory transactions are posted in the system, without any general ledger postings. At the time of actual consumption, the ownership changes and the financial (GL) transactions are posted. The vendor can monitor the consumption of inventory at the customer site (usually through a Vendor Portal or system integration or EDI). This concept has a lot of advantages for both customer and vendor and continues to gain popularity in recent years. Beneficial for long-term business between supplier and the consumer. Reduced transportation and inventory costs. Higher quality assurance as goods typically come from a focused production run and manufactured date. Less risk in the form of purchasing and management approvals. Better cash flow for the consumer. Fewer variables in production planning. Reduced turnaround time leading to better end-customer experience. Supplier retains full ownership and visibility. More predictable demand forecasting and replenishment planning. Supplier gets to push any new products through its supply chain while still testing the demand. At the same time, the consumer (retailer) will be able to launch new product lines with minimal risk. As with anything, consignment does have some downsides. From the customers, there are risks associated with damaged inventory and stock counting errors. The disadvantages to suppliers are cash flow uncertainty and cost of unsold inventory. For non-durables, there are additional factors to be considered. How To Make Consignment Inventory Work For Everyone? Cultivate mutually beneficial relationships Suppliers and consumers can reap the biggest rewards from Consignment Inventory by developing an honest partnership, working together to improve their processes, sharing inventory details and strengthen their supply chain management. Both parties can benefit immensely by using a good inventory management software that automates the processing of consignment orders based on current inventory levels and keeps all parties informed Use an Inventory Management Software with Consignment Inventory feature An optimal solution would be to invest in an inventory management software that is designed to handle consignment inventory. The software should track the goods shipped & ordered, utilization and replenishment levels, and additional information regarding the inventory in both physical and financial terms. The information should be transparent, and the information flow automated. The brief overviews below are real world application of this concept, and we will keep this discussion at a conceptual level to maintain client confidentiality.   Scenario A: Due to the freight costs associated with moving large industrial equipment parts and the tremendous benefits of co-marketing, we helped one of our clients through this process of Consignment Inventory for a select few of their suppliers/vendors, also referred as Partners (as they truly are).   This process helped maintain a smooth production flow, meet the end-customer demand effectively and reduced freight costs. Being a 100-year company with strong trusted relationships with its business partners, made the execution go smooth.   Scenario B: In the steel and metal fabrication industry the trucking costs and material handling costs directly have an impact the company’s tight profit margin.   To be globally competitive, this concept is taking root. Few companies have implemented inventory management software systems to build that ecosystem with their business partners both on the supply side as well as on the demand side. EDI-enablement makes the workflow highly automated, information flow instantaneous and decision process based on real-time data.   When executing this concept, this metal processing company took a step-by-step approach. Certain products were ear-marked on specific production lines and those specific raw materials (goods) could be stored by the vendors in the warehouse. Vendors were informed in advance on the warehouse capacity. Suppliers have configured their inventory systems accordingly to make their plans, safety stock levels for the smooth production runs. Company and the suppliers were excited to partake in helping execute such a process and take the trust to a new level.   Vendors were notified of the consumption which initiated two activities at the vendor’s side. The first is to issue an invoice for the material consumed and the second is to replace the consumed stock when the levels go below threshold. Additionally, suppliers got an insight on consumption in order to do their own Production and Material Planning.   A consignment replenishment order is a document that is used to request and keep track of inventory quantities of products that a vendor intends to deliver within a certain date interval by creating ordered inventory transactions.   Typically, this will be based on the forecast and actual demand of the specific products. The inventory that’s going to be received against the consignment replenishment order remains in the ownership of the vendor.   This topic includes information about how to physically receive vendor-owned inventory on-hand without creating general ledger transactions, how to start a production process where the vendor-owned inventory can be physically reserved. and how to change the ownership of the raw material in order to be able to process the consumption as part of the production order processing. There’s also some information about how vendors can monitor consumption of their inventory using the vendor collaboration interface. The Dynamics 365 Supply Chain:   It is always delighting to the company when a major ERP solution like Microsoft Dynamics has got it right and most of the requirements were part of the standard feature set.   The consignment (replenishment) order effectively manages vendor owned inventory by marking the ownership of the received inventory to the vendor. Such receipts of inventory are updated only in the inventory register without any financial (GL) effect. The best part of consignment inventory is that the on-hand quantities are available for reservation and other planning processes. Of course, before consumption of vendor-owned inventories, the ownership should be changed to the company.   The process of changing the ownership releases … Read more

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Net customer and vendor balances

Customer and vendor balance netting is when the balances for a vendor and a customer are netted against each other, because the vendor and customer are the same party. This approach minimizes the exchange of money between an organization and the customer or vendor party. It can also help a company avoid making unnecessary payments or receipts, and save on transaction fees, by consolidating the company’s customer and vendor balances. Learn about Microsoft D365 Netting https://youtu.be/JZ73m5VoANQ About the Author Sohena Hafiz is the Founder and CEO of Ascent Innovations, with 20 years of experience in Microsoft Dynamics and 16 years leading ERP implementations. She has been directly involved in 50+ ERP projects, including 30+ in D365, across industries like industrial equipment, steel fabrication, food manufacturing, banking, recycling, retail, and the public sector.

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Power Platform: The Toolbox That Maximizes Your D365 Investment

Microsoft Power Platform isn’t just an add-on to Dynamics 365—it’s the toolbox that enables your business teams to continuously expand the return on investment of D365. While D365 provides the structure, automation, and data integrity needed for enterprise operations, Power Platform equips your people with the ability to extend, refine, and optimize processes over time. By leveraging Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Pages, organizations can move beyond standard ERP functionality and unlock new ways to drive efficiency, improve decision-making, and enhance customer and supplier engagement. But the challenge isn’t just having the right tools—it’s knowing where to apply them to drive the most business impact. The Transformation Journey Has Just Begun Going live on D365 was a major milestone, but it’s not the finish line—it’s the starting point for continuous improvement and innovation. The best-run organizations don’t just operate their ERP as-is; they use it as a foundation for continued business transformation. At Ascent Innovations, we help organizations identify the most valuable opportunities for process improvement, automation, and analytics—ensuring that Power Platform is used strategically to maximize business impact. Our approach ensures that: Every investment in Power Platform delivers measurable business value Your business teams are equipped with the tools and knowledge to optimize execution The transformation journey remains active, uncovering more opportunities for efficiency and growth Your D365 ROI is just the beginning—there’s much more opportunity yet to be realized. Agile ROI: Small, High-Impact Improvements That Drive Continuous Modernization Our Agile ROI methodology focuses on delivering high-value, incremental improvements that create a self-funding cycle for broader transformation. Phase 1: Identify Opportunities for Improvement Every modernization journey starts by asking the right questions. We work closely with your business teams to uncover areas where manual or non-integrated processes slow things down, customer interactions could be improved, or timely and trust reporting is not available for critical decisions. The goal is to identify high-impact opportunities where Power Platform can deliver immediate value. By linking each opportunity to a tangible business outcome, we ensure that every enhancement has a clear purpose and measurable ROI. Where can automation replace manual work and accelerate workflows? What customer or vendor interactions would benefit from a self-service portal? Which business processes could improve with heightened visibility into performance? What business impact would these capabilities produce? Phase 2: Implement Targeted Power Platform Enhancements to Deliver Immediate ROI Once opportunities are identified, we deploy focused Power Platform solutions that deliver results fast. Whether it’s a Power BI dashboard that transforms visibility, a Power App that simplifies approvals, or Power Automate flows that eliminate repetitive tasks—each enhancement is designed to solve a specific pain point. The result is faster workflows, better insights, and real business value in weeks—not months. Power BI creates real-time dashboards and analytics to enhance process monitoring and management. Power Automate eliminates manual workflows, ensuring seamless data flow across teams. Power Apps empowers teams to build custom applications that accelerate execution and streamline approvals. Power Pages & Portals improve external collaboration, enabling secure self-service access for customers and suppliers. Phase 3: Train and Develop Your People While Measuring Business Impact Technology alone doesn’t transform a business—people do. That’s why we embed training and hands-on learning into every phase of the journey. As teams engage directly with Power Platform tools, they build confidence and capability, gaining a deeper understanding of how to optimize their processes. This not only supports adoption but also lays the foundation for a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Power Platform not only enhances processes—it develops your team’s ability to work and collaborate in new ways. Employees gain hands-on experience in how modern applications and automation improve workflows, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. By actively participating in Power Platform enhancements, teams build an informed perspective on how to drive further innovation, preparing them for future transformation initiatives. Phase 4: Build the Case for Ongoing Digital Modernization With real results in hand—faster processes, fewer errors, better decisions—you now have the proof needed to expand the transformation. We help you measure and communicate the business impact in terms that resonate with leadership and stakeholders. The cycle repeats—with every phase delivering value and unlocking new potential for growth. Increased operational efficiency, reduced errors, and faster decision-making. Higher employee productivity and reduced IT burden. Real-world proof points that captivate executive and equity owner support for further investment—demonstrating that small, strategic improvements lead to larger transformation success. Unlock the Full Potential of Your D365 System With Power Platform, you can take your D365 environment to the next level, ensuring your investment keeps delivering measurable business impact. At Ascent Innovations, we specialize in helping organizations extend the value of D365 with Power Platform, enabling business-driven improvements that generate immediate ROI while laying the foundation for long-term success. Want to accelerate the business impact of your D365 investment? Let’s talk about how Power Platform can take your operations from efficient to exceptional. About the Author John Bruhnke is Managing Director at Ascent. He has 25 years of management consulting experience focused on system implementation and, for the last 7 years, modern analytics in the manufacturing industry. He collaborates with executive and management teams to drive alignment on strategic goals and develop a collective vision for modernization that balances both immediate business needs and long-term strategy.

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What is ABC Analysis?

ABC analysis is the process of classifying the inventory into A, B and C classes based on their relative significance to business, either by their monetary value, utilization, carrying cost or any other factor. This allows leaders to allocate the company’s resources to maximize the efficiency.| https://www.ascent365.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/bf463f6f-eb9f-4259-bf9e-f80048d3_3400.mp4 Class A:   Very important for an organization. High value, so tighter control, accurate records and frequent valuation required. Small (5-15) % of items account for Large (65-80) % of the value (consumption, costs, activity, etc).   Class C:   Is not critical for company’s operations. Comparatively low value so management will not lose sleep on the accuracy of inventory. Large (80+) % of items account for a relatively small (<15) % of the inventory value/consumption.   Class B:   Essentially in between classes A and C. Value at par with quantity.   There is no fixed or globally followed percentage or factor. Every business can do it differently, and in fact with sophisticated ERP systems, can do the classification on multiple factors and report/track simultaneously.   How is ABC Analysis applied Inventory planners can forecast the demand and manage the appropriate stock levels, in order to minimize carrying costs and avoid obsolete / low-demand (dead) stock. Companies can prioritize having quality trade agreements with suppliers on Class A items, at the best possible combined costs (item costs, shipping costs, services, quality, RMA, etc.). Optimize inventory by stocking up on popular/high-demand items and reducing stock of slow-moving items. Reducing the risk of running out of stock or plant slowdowns. Effective utilization of working capital. ABC classification can be applied to better understand the impact of price updates on margins. Continuous process improvements using periodic tracking and refinement of classification is important. The leadership can then prioritize resources for optimizing Class A items compared to doing the same for Classes B or C. For example, cycle counting. Enable informed stock replenishment decisions on changing the safety levels, etc. Introduction to Inventory Control Every business has a need to optimize their inventory and supply chain, and many times than not, it is a constant challenge. A proper inventory control helps organizations to manage the business uncertainties and fluctuations. Furthermore, as the cost of inventory is a sizable portion of working capital, organizations employ various inventory controlling techniques for effective utilization of available resources with minimal risk to business. In the advent of modern inventory control techniques, organizations can control the inventory better.   Applying such control techniques require vigor and most often being smart with classification of items, especially when dealing with hundreds to sometimes few thousands* of items. The inventory control techniques are applied selectively/discriminately to items. The inventory is classified based on its importance and specific inventory control is applied to each class, thus, optimizing the effort to manage large number of items.   If you have few thousands of items, there is usually a better option to use item variants or dimensions, to optimize your item list.   The most common and very widely used classification is the ABC classification, to classify items based on its relative importance to business, i.e. based on monitory value, availability of resources and carrying cost. The Law of Vital Few ABC classification uses the Pareto’s principle, popularly known as ‘the 80–20 rule’, also referred as ‘the law of vital few’. The law states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of causes. When applied to inventory, the same is interpreted as 20% of the items may account for 80% of total cost in the given period A sample diagram represents the classification of items based on inventory investment. It can be noted that 10% of items contribute to 70% of inventory investment, which is termed as the ‘significant few’ or otherwise called the A-class items. The next 20% of items that contribute the 20% of investment are termed as B-class items. The rest 70% of items, the major portion of items, contribute just 10% of inventory investment, which can be termed as the ‘insignificant many’ or C-class items. Thus, the classification provides the opportunity to apply different rigor but appropriate control techniques to respective class of items. While the A-class items deserve tightest control and most frequent review, B-class items can be put into medium level of control. C-class items can be managed through the simple rule of thumb. The sample used here is 70-20-10, and this ratio varies by organization. Benefits of ABC Analysis The classification of items into A, B& C yields many tangible and intangible benefits to the practicing organization. Smarter management of working capital: ABC analysis leads to The classification of items into A, B& C yields many tangible and intangible benefits to the practicing organization. A smarter management of working capital to manage optimal on-hand inventory and safety stocks, based on the consumption pattern and lead-times. Item replenishment policies can be derived from ABC analysis. Better Planning and forecasting: The ABC analysis help the planners to be more precise and effective in their demand and consumption forecasts. Wiser negotiations with vendors: With the insight of the vital few and insignificant many, negotiations with vendors become more wiser for price, lead time and delivery. Strategic pricing: Product pricing gets a shot in the arm as the analysis identifies the ‘vital few’ for profits and sales revenue. Marketing strategy and selling techniques could be revised based on the item classification to maximize revenue and profits. Optimized physical verification: Physical verification of stocks based on ABC classification helps organizations to effectively utilize organizational resources. While high value ‘vital few’ items could be checked more frequently, the low value ‘insignificant many’ can be checked seldom. There is a flip side to ABC classification that skips the cost of shortage or the effect of an item going out of stock, which is managed through the VED (Vital, Essential, Desirable) analysis. Frequency of the movement of an item is omitted in ABC classification, which is covered under FSN (Fast, Slow, Non-moving) analysis. How to use ABC classification? ABC analysis is usually running on … Read more

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Procurement Goals: We Don’t Need Any Toner

A former coworker and good buddy of mine is a Purchasing Manager for a mid-size manufacturing company. He always had a lot on his plate and more often than not, he would greet fellow colleagues to his office with “I can’t take it no mo’!”, “Please. Leave. Now.” or “I don’t want your ____”. I leave you to fill in the blank. While always said with a smile on his face, we all knew he was trying to stay on top of numerous rush purchase order orders, pushy sales reps, expedite requests and receiving issues. These situations aren’t new to procurement and purchasing teams. Fortunately, there are numerous modules and features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 which can help handle all the ______ Request for Quotation Good, Fast or Cheap. While typically used in project management, the principles of the Iron Triangle are certainly applicable to procurement. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the Request for Quotation process. D365’s RFQ functionality allows purchasing to send out requests to multiple vendors, track progress, record the responses and then compare all the results to pick the best option. The winning RFQ is then converted into a purchase order so the team has full visibility of the purchasing lifecycle. Purchasing Agreements Purchasing agreements are contracts between the customer and vendor which set special pricing and discounts for meeting certain quantities or dollar values. Once an agreement has been established in D365, the contract can be selected upon purchase order creation. The requirements and details are automatically populated into the order. Manual calculations, convoluted Excel formulas and time consuming phone calls and emails can be eliminated as all the necessary data resides in the system. Master Planning MRP is nothing new. However, a surprising number of companies fail to use it to its full potential, if at all. D365 Master Planning uses data from all areas of the company to generate planned purchase and production orders to reduce missed delivery targets, accommodate production schedules and flag any problem orders. Coupled with Demand Forecasting, procurement can place orders on in-house demand as well as forecasted demand from historical orders. By utilizing Buyer Groups, team members can filter planned orders by department, team or individual. Master Planning can also be configured to search for purchase agreements to make price and quantity adjustments. Purchasing Workflows Obsolete parts, incorrect purchase quantities and exceeded credit limits can be easy mistakes to make when placing orders. This is especially true when a coworker is covering for someone on vacation or sick-leave. One of the ways D365 can mitigate these issues is through workflows. Robust and customizable, workflows allow organizations to require approvals on purchase requisitions and orders to account for spending limits, missing information, vendor approval, etc. Quality Orders Nothing makes a customer service or production manager’s heart stop like a quality assurance issue. Thousands of questions begin whirling around and there’s usually precious little time to get them answered. D365 Quality Management allows mistakes and defective material to be caught before it gets to the production line or – worse yet – in the customer’s hands. Organizations can develop custom tests based on qualitative and quantitative measurements to track the material, batch & serial number, employee and vendor associated with each test. Additionally, material can be automatically directed to the quality department upon receipt to ensure nothing “slips through the cracks”.   All of these are extensive topics which need to be covered in more detail. That being said, if procurement is facing any of these challenges, then perhaps the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is worth looking into. When paired with an experienced partner like Ascent Innovations, D365 can reduce the stress and make your procurement team a more efficient department within your organization. Now, if you don’t mind, Please. Leave. Now. About the Author Matthew Newcomb is a seasoned and certified Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant, specializing in Advanced Warehousing and Production. His extensive experience in Dynamics 365 planning and implementation projects informs his approach to enhancing Dynamics 365 environments with the Power Platform. By leveraging tools such as Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI, Matthew enables businesses to automate processes, build custom applications, and gain deeper insights into their operations, thereby driving efficiency and innovation.

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D365 Supply Chain Management: Because Guesswork is Not a Strategy

Goodbye spreadsheets, hello real-time visibility Supply chain management is a delicate balancing act. Too much inventory? You’re stuck with pallets of unsold product gathering dust. Not enough? Customers are left empty-handed, and suddenly you’re in crisis mode, scrambling to make up for lost sales. If you’ve ever had to explain to an executive why a crucial shipment is still “in transit” (translation: no one knows where it is), you know that supply chain visibility is everything. That’s where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (D365 SCM) comes in. It replaces the spreadsheets, outdated reports, and “fingers-crossed” planning with real-time data, predictive analytics, and automated processes—all designed to keep your supply chain running like a well-oiled machine. Let’s be honest: Excel is great, but it was never meant to be a real-time supply chain management tool. Trying to track inventory, supplier performance, and logistics in a collection of shared spreadsheets is like trying to navigate a highway using hand-drawn maps. It works… until it doesn’t. D365 SCM pulls live data from across your supply chain—inventory, warehouse management, production schedules, supplier lead times, and customer demand—all into a single system. No more waiting for weekly reports or manually refreshing data. Instead, you get instant visibility into what’s happening right now. What that means for you No more “Where is it?” moments – Track shipments, inventory levels, and supplier updates in real time. Fewer stockouts and excess inventory – Forecast demand accurately and adjust purchasing before problems arise. Automated replenishment – Let the system handle reorders based on demand patterns, rather than last-minute panic buys. Predictive analytics: seeing the future (sort of) Reactive supply chain management is a nightmare. Something goes wrong, and suddenly everyone is in fire-drill mode. The magic of predictive analytics in D365 SCM is that it helps you spot risks before they become problems. Using AI and machine learning, D365 analyzes historical data, market trends, and supplier performance to forecast demand, detect potential disruptions, and recommend adjustments—before you’re knee-deep in an inventory crisis. Is it a crystal ball? No. But does it keep you on top of market trends? Absolutely. Supplier delays? Get alerts and alternative sourcing recommendations before it’s too late. Sudden demand spike? Adjust production schedules and distribution in real time. Warehouse bottlenecks? Identify inefficiencies and optimize layout and workflows. Automation: because you have better things to do A lot of supply chain headaches come from manual processes—rekeying purchase orders, chasing approvals, and updating inventory counts by hand. D365 SCM automates the busywork so you can focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. Some of the best time-saving automations in D365 SCM Automated procurement – The system tracks vendor performance, pricing, and lead times to suggest the best suppliers and auto-generate POs. Intelligent order fulfillment – Orders are routed automatically based on warehouse location, inventory levels, and shipping costs. AI-driven demand planning – The system adjusts stock levels and reorder points based on real-time sales trends and forecasts A smarter, more resilient supply chain D365 Supply Chain Management isn’t just about keeping things running—it’s about building resilience. Whether it’s handling supply disruptions, optimizing warehouse operations, or making smarter purchasing decisions, it takes the guesswork out of managing your supply chain. So, next time someone asks, “Where’s that shipment?” you won’t have to answer with, “Let me check the latest version of our Excel tracker.” Instead, you’ll have real-time, AI-powered insights at your fingertips—because guesswork is not a strategy. About the Author Matthew Newcomb has been navigating the twists and turns of ERP implementations long enough to know that supply chains run on data, not wishful thinking. As a Microsoft Dynamics AX & 365 Trade & Logistics Functional Senior Consultant, he helps businesses cut through the chaos with real-time insights, automation, and a little common sense. Whether it’s optimizing operations or figuring out why half your inventory is stuck in a warehouse 500 miles away, he ensures companies get the most out of their Microsoft solutions—without the headaches.

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What is Safety Stock?

Safety stock or buffer stock is the additional quantity of an item above the desired quantity that is held in the on-hand inventory. Such extra inventory is held with the sole purpose of avoiding the risk of running out of stock. Safety stock serves as an insurance or a cushion for manufacturers and retailers against possible out of stock situations for an item. Such stock outs are caused usually by : Changes in the demand for the item Inaccuracies in the forecasts of the item Unforeseen disruption to the supply line of the item Maintaining safety stock for an item comes with its own challenges. The first is the identification of the appropriate method of calculation in arriving at the right quantities that need to be maintained for each item. The second is the increase in the working capital to store additional on-hand quantities. So, the right safety stock for an item should strike a balance between the conflicting goals of maximizing customer experience (satisfaction) and the cost of managing additional inventories. Why to maintain Safety stock? The important reasons to maintain the safety stock is to prevent the business from stock out situations which arise due to various internal and external factors. Some of the major factors are : External Factors : Fluctuation in demand: A spike in consumer demand often results in stock outs. Spikes in consumer demand can be attributed to many reasons including festivals, seasonal and any act of nature (epidemic). Variation in supply line: Any disruption to the supply line by the vendor leads to stock outs. It might be due unforeseen reasons including weather-related shipping delays, and vendor’s production bottlenecks Internal Factors : Inaccurate Forecasts: Any inaccuracies in the forecasts lead to stock outs. Such inaccuracies might be due to the nature of the product itself, or lack of accurate data and lack of proper tools and techniques. Production delays: Any unexpected delays in the production and transportation in the internal value chain lead to stock outs. It might be due to unexpected breakdowns in the production line and industrial unrest. Variation in consumer demand is the single major reason for the maintenance of safety stocks. Stock outs are undesirable as they adversely affect the business. Some of the major impacts to business are: Loss of Sale: In the highly competitive marketplace, it is quite tough to regain a lost sale, and often declared as the ‘lost opportunity’. Erosion of Market Share: Poor service delivery due to stock out starts with the erosion of customer base and ends with the erosion of market share. Strained Supply chain: Stock out puts additional burden on the supply chain, and it strains the relationship between partners of supply chain. The advantages of maintaining safety stock levels Holding sufficient levels of safety stock reduces the risk to stock out and there by provides the business the following insurance cover : Prevents stock out due to sudden spikes in consumer demands Prevents stock out due to uncertain lead times of vendors and internal production line Prevents stock out due to disruption to the supply line from vendors Prevents stock out due to inaccurate forecast Ensures customer service and satisfaction levels Ensures continued sales and market share Helps to maintain healthy relationship with supply chain partners Helps to automate the reorder points How to employ Safety stock in the supply chain? Though the purpose of maintaining safety stock is to avoid stock outs, it is not intended for all stock outs but for majority of them. While calculating the safety stock levels a right balance should be arrived between the opposing objectives of satisfying customer requirements at a specific service level and the cost of holding additional inventory. Since not all items are same, any general application of safety stock policy has adverse effects. Some organizations often employ the policy of using their rule of thumb to arrive at the safety stock levels in the absence of any modern automation tool or software under their disposal. Such policies often end up with more disturbances to business than the expected improvement. A robust inventory management system supported by a dynamic planning engine is required for business to handle the safety stock level and to process automate item replenishments. A statistical calculation technique is required for business to manage the conflicting goals of maximizing customer experience and the cost of managing the additional inventories. Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a robust and scalable supply chain solution to manufacturers and retailers with end-to-end supply chain and inventory management processes, including the safety stock management, and seamlessly integrated with the modules of Finance, Purchase and Master Planning for accounting, replenishment and reporting. Solution offered by D365 Finance & Supply Chain (or Operations) Safety stock level fulfills the following purposes : Act as the buffer stock against to prevent stock out scenarios. Act as a demand (reorder point) thereby triggering the automatic fulfillment ordersWhile safety stock levels prevent stock outs, it also serves as the reorder point or act as a system generated demand, where automatic replenishment policies can plan for item coverage for a given period. Thus, safety stock offers the process automation and reduces human efforts in managing the desired stock levels. As part of item replenishment policy, safety stocks are configured for items according to their consumption and importance to business. With a clear marking of safety stocks for items, master planning engine takes care of replenishment based on the (Coverage plan) policies attached to the item. Management of safety stocks in D365 F&O requires knowledge about 3 different aspects of safety stock. Configuration required for using safety stock Automatic replenishment policies Recalculation of safety stock levels Configuration and automatic replenishment policies The configuration and automatic replenishment policies for safety stock cover the following : What to plan? Where to plan? When to plan? How to plan? What to plan: The fundamental and one of the important set up for safety stock is the setup of the coverage plan (replenishment policy) for the item. Items … Read more

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D365 Business Central: Because Guesswork is Not a Strategy

Running a business without an integrated system is like driving with a foggy windshield—you can sort of see where you’re going, but it’s mostly guesswork, and you’ll probably hit something eventually. That’s why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central exists. It clears up the view by giving companies real-time visibility into finance, inventory, and operations—without bogging people down with features they don’t need. Making Decisions Without Second-Guessing Most decisions are made with some combination of spreadsheets, gut instincts, and “we’ve always done it this way” logic. Sometimes it works. Other times, it’s a costly mistake that everyone pretends never happened. Business Central fixes this by centralizing financials, supply chain oversight, and business analytics into one system. No more process gaps. No more reporting blind spots. Just accurate, up-to-date information that actually tells you what’s happening across the company. So when a manager asks, “Where’s that report?”, the answer isn’t “I’ll check with accounting” (which we all know means “You won’t see it for three days”). Instead, the numbers are already there—live, in real time, ready for decision-making. Why Business Central Works at Every Level? For Executives: Clarity on What Is Really Happening   Everyone wants to make data-driven decisions, but that’s hard to do when the data is scattered across five different systems, three spreadsheets, and one email thread. With Business Central, everything is integrated. Financials, sales, supply chain, and operations are all in sync, so leaders can actually see what’s working (and what’s not) before it becomes a problem. What this means in practice   Cross-functional teams solve problems faster because they’re working from the same information. No more “firefighting” meetings because the system flags issues before they become crises. Accountability becomes real since reports are trusted to be accurate, everyone takes ownership, and the results are a team effort. For Departments: The Time and the Facts for Collaboration   Every functional team is locked in a daily battle to keep things moving. Finance is reconciling numbers, chasing discrepancies, and making sure cash flow isn’t a guessing game. Sales is focused on closing deals, often making promises based on a hallway chat rather than data. Operations is managing fulfillment, dealing with unexpected delays, and constantly adjusting schedules. Supply chain is pushing orders through while hoping inventory holds up. Each team is winning the day, but only by fighting fires as they come—which burns out your people and limits growth. With so much time spent figuring out what’s happening and reacting to problems, there’s little room for deeper analysis—let alone collaboration with peers. Teams want to work smarter, but rarely have the breathing room to step back and see the bigger picture. Business Central fixes this   Lead-to-order and order-to-cash processes are fully streamlined, meaning sales, finance, and fulfillment all see the same data at the same time. The S&OP process actually works because teams can track performance metrics in real time, not in outdated spreadsheets, to improve planning and execution. Automation eliminates manual tasks, freeing your best people from admin work so they can analyze real-time trends, solve problems faster, and make adjustments before it’s too late to change results. Adjustments can be made before problems spiral since teams can monitor real-time result, instead of playing catch-up days or weeks late. For Finance: Finally, a System That Makes Sense   Finance teams love numbers. But they don’t love chasing them across disconnected systems. Business Central simplifies Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) by providing a single view into daily sales, operational, and financial performance. This means : Real-time financial data, eliminating the wait for someone to “run the numbers.” Better forecasting and budgeting, as the system helps predict trends instead of relying on historical guesswork. Fewer surprises, since KPIs that drive sales, operating margin, and cash flow are visible at all times. For Supply Chain & Inventory Management: A Scoreboard for Success   Stock-outs disappoint customers and create backlog, slowing the cash conversion cycle. If inventory management is a sport, most businesses are playing without a scoreboard—lots of action, constant movement, but no clear way to track what’s working or where they need to adjust to win for both the customer and the company. Business Central fixes this with   Inventory valuation tracking, supporting FIFO, LIFO, and average costing—configured for accuracy. Automated replenishment, allowing businesses to set reorder points and let the system handle purchase orders. Warehouse efficiency tools, including bin tracking, shipment tracking, and streamlined receiving processes to keep inventory moving smoothly. ERP Right-Sized for SMB   D365 Business Central isn’t for massive enterprises with infinite IT resources—it’s for companies that need real control over finance, inventory, and operations without getting bogged down in complexity. So, if you’re tired of making business decisions based on outdated reports, best guesses, or sheer optimism, it might be time to take a serious look at D365 Business Central. About the Author Balaji Sekar has spent 18 years configuring, customizing, and making ERP systems actually work. As a Microsoft Dynamics 365 consultant, he helps manufacturing companies ditch manual processes and embrace automation in D365 Finance and Supply Chain and D365 Business Central. With deep expertise in cross-functional business process design, he knows firsthand that the real challenge isn’t just implementing a system—it’s about getting the details right the first time.

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Committing to Accurate Barcodes: Because Royal Doulton Looks Weird Next to a Sippy Cup

Take a moment and think about the most exciting and joyful moment of your wedding. If you aren’t married, then try to imagine it. What did you pick?The expression of your love and faithfulness to your spouse? While that’s a sweet sentiment, you’re wrong. Throwing a party for your family and friends? Barring the judgmental looks from Great-Aunt Ethel, sure, that’s fun. However, the price can sap away some of the enjoyment. So, no. Still wrong. What about the cake? Surely something so simple, honest and delicious has to be the right answer. Nice try, but still no. No, the most exciting and joyful moment of your entire wedding is setting up a wedding registry and walking around the store with a scanner. You get to pick all the things you like, decide in that moment you are absolutely going to host weekly candlelight suppers for 12 guests, and shoot laser beams out of a handheld device. The entire experience hinges on two very important principles: Commitment and Accuracy. If you and your spouse aren’t in love with the Royal Doulton with the hand-painted periwinkles, then you might be stuck with that pattern for a long time. Likewise, if you want twelve place settings and find out much later the store doesn’t quite have twelve of everything, then one of your guests is going to have an awkward dining experience. Similarly, a successful inventory barcode process heavily relies on commitment and accuracy to ensure a dependable and long-lasting implementation within your organization. Commitment On the surface, one might think that developing an inventory barcode process is pretty simple. Take some key data, translate it into a barcode or QR code, print it on a label and slap it on the box. Done. However, a barcode label is a commitment to a static set of parameters and a narrow interpretation of that data. Let’s take some typically requested fields and put them into context. Logo: Putting the company logo or name on a product label is very common. However, think of the potential ramifications once that package leaves your dock. Do you have customers that demand private labelling? That logo is going to lead to some angry phone calls. Does the competition have access to your client’s facilities or inventory? Don’t make it easy for them to cross-reference your product. Space: Once you have committed to a certain label size, make sure all the fields are tested. If one line on the label can only fit 45 characters but the form field has a 60-character limit, you risk wrapping to the next line and most barcode scanners cannot read that information. Even worse, the extra characters may get cut-off entirely leaving incomplete data and a non-readable barcode. Description: This is a helpful field. While an item number means something to procurement, it might be useless to a warehouse worker. The description should very clearly indicate what the item is. That said, does it really need a barcode? Perhaps that extra space could be utilized elsewhere. Date: A date is good, especially for items with a shelf-life. Which date do we use? Purchase date? Receipt date? Label print date? This should be clearly indicated on the label. Remember, we want to leave as little open to interpretation as possible. Alternatively, consider relying on batch and/or serial numbers, as that data can be easily traced to the originating documents and journals. Quantity: This is commonly requested and very tricky. Let’s assume we’re receiving one box of twelve tubes of sealant. As long as we always commit an entire box in our sales or production process, there’s no issue. However, as soon as we remove one tube from that box, our label is incorrect and that can lead to serious inventory issues and the segue to our next topic. Accuracy Simply put, bad data is asking for trouble. Printing a barcode and placing it on a box is capturing a moment in time. Once any of the variables change, the label is no longer accurate. If the label is inaccurate, then it’s only a matter of time before your physical inventory no longer matches your database inventory. Timing: When are labels reprinted? Assuming the original label is printed upon product receipt, when, if ever, is an updated label generated? If we remove certain fields such as quantity or date, we can avoid bad reporting. Reprint Functionality: If a label is to be reprinted, what is the process? A warehouse worker may think they are being helpful by reprinting a missing label. However, if they assume the serial or item number, we may have a serious problem. There needs to be a safeguard in the business process or at the label generation point to ensure the correct data is printed. Warehouse Dimensions: While it may seem like a good idea to print the item’s location at receipt, that data can become problematic after the fact. Let’s say the inventory was received into Bin 1 but was moved via transfer journal to Bin 2 for space optimization. Without reprinting the label, a worker may think he found an item in the wrong location and move it back. Special Characters: Ampersands, slashes and hyphens are great for shortening and delineating descriptions but they can wreak havoc on a barcode. If the scanner cannot read special characters, then have them removed from the barcode programmatically or consider reformatting the form field. When developing a barcode label, the most important thing to remember is that data is dynamic and labels are static. As managers and consultants, our goal is to make a user’s job as easy and foolproof as possible. Labels can help, but they can hinder as well. Inaccurate inventory counts, loose reprint procedures and poor formatting can lead to questions which then lead to assumptions and inefficiencies. A label should provide fixed information which will help users find the dynamic information. Matthew Newcomb Matthew Newcomb is a seasoned and certified Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 … Read more

🍔 Annual Food Drive!

(November 3 to 17)

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“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one”

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