Since the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution, manufacturing has been the force pushing industrial and societal transformation forward. As we are more than halfway through 2021, new technologies are becoming more readily available every day, transforming modern manufacturing further into a highly integrated, intelligent, and productive industry. Modern manufacturers must now rely heavily on technology to power the innovations of the future and to drive intelligent operations. Dynamics 365 for Finance & SCM unifies data and IT drives connected manufacturing by providing AI tools that allow more accurate outputs and deliver intelligence to every corner of the business. In this blog, we will discuss how the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence work to provide complete data, modernizing your management infrastructure with more powerful, robust, and scalable technology.
Meet the New, Fully Connected Business
In just the last decade, technology has accelerated further than we could ever have imagined, pushing manufacturing companies to explore a more connected business. With the growing ubiquity of cloud computing, finance professionals, IT professionals, and COOs have been quick to digitize their company through computers, mobile devices, etc. Then, they aggregated the data captured on these devices. To prevent siloed data, companies used APIs to transfer data between siloed business units, which resulted in slow speeds, duplicate data sets, and increased security risks. However, as cloud technology matured, and advancements in tech such as Dynamics 365 emerged, companies were able to aggregate their data into a central database, which both receives and sends data across the organization, in real-time. D365‘s real-time database allows professionals to access live data, which not only helps make strategic decisions but also ensures that everyone in the company has the most updated information. Through these changes and new tools, financial reporting is far quicker and more accurate, market performance improves, and businesses gain the infrastructure needed to innovate and grow.
Gain Visibility Into Performance and Operations
A connected business offers the ability to leverage unified data from across the organization. This gives professionals better visibility into both performance and operations, leading them to make faster and smarter decisions. An integrated database such as D365‘s real-time database paints a complete picture that allows companies to identify correlations and relationships from one part of the business to another, or from one area of the supply chain to another. Visibility also improves forecasting due to the ability to identify market trends. Not only can companies shift strategies and capitalize based on evolving consumer demands and interests, but they can also mitigate risks through early recognition of operational or production issues.
Unlock Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence
Approximately eight in ten US companies are currently investing in digital transformation to improve performance, meet customer demands, and remain competitive. And with the hot topic of digital transformation comes artificial intelligence (AI), which has been a buzzword and a hot topic for news coverage in the past decade. However, the issue with AI solutions is not their functionality or efficiency, but rather the potential lack of quality in outputted data. Suboptimal data outputs could result in incorrect forecasting, poor business decisions, and could ultimately steer companies in the wrong direction. Dynamics 365 for Finance & SCM‘s integrated database provides unified data from across the organization, addressing data flaws, end-to-end supply chain visibility, and potential equipment failures. The broader data set enables high-quality data for primary analysis, allows AI to discover connections in discrete parts of the business, and removes silos. By unlocking the true potential of AI, businesses can ensure intelligent tools are leveraged across all business units to elevate them and maximize and maintain supply chain resilience.
Next Steps
If you are interested in learning more about how unified data and IT drive connected manufacturing in D365 as well as maximizing the use of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain Management contact us here to find out how we can help you grow your business. You can also email us at info@loganconsulting.com or call (312) 345-8817.