ERPAXelerates News about ERP implementations and upgrades seem to be ten-a-penny at the moment as companies replace legacy systems, experiment with cloud technology and generally invest for improvement in data management and operations. But is there anything genuinely new coming out? Malcolm Wheatley talks to Rakesh Kumar, global industry product director, Manufacturing at Microsoft Dynamics ERP, about the launch of AX 2012.
Despite
the grey Seattle skies, who now is the global industry product director of Microsoft’s Rakesh Kumar is manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics ERP - is only too in a buoyant mood. And the reason isn’t difficult to see. keen to explain. The software giant is just weeks away from the launch “For a sizeable proportion of the customer base, of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, reckoned to be one of mixed-mode manufacturing and lean - and the the most exciting Dynamics releases for several years. combination of the two - is important, and something In short, with more than a thousand new features that they wanted better reflected in their ERP system,” and enhancements across its core ERP and industryhe says. “It’s what our partners, and our customers, specific capabilities, Dynamics AX 2012 boasts major were telling us. In industries as diverse as food and advances on a number of fronts. Admittedly, while metals manufacture, for instance, you start off with Dynamics isn’t just targeted at the manufacturing a process, continue into discrete operations, and industry, a number of those features are almost certain then want to involve lean principles at downstream to be of great interest to manufacturers. operations such as assembly, packing and shipping.” According to insiders, for instance, a ‘mixed mode’ capability will allow manufacturers to run process and discrete manufacturing models in a single instance of AX, and be able to better model lean manufacturing practices in a way best suited to their own individual circumstances. Throw in a host of improvements to scheduling, bill of material definition, kanban rules and product configuration, and you’re looking at a major upgrade milestone. So what, strategically, was the impetus and thinking behind the new release? Kumar, a former Unilever IT executive who has also run AX 2012 has enhanced scheduling capabilities for ‘mix mode’ manufacturing models manufacturing operations in Asia - and
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