Rebecca Gibson |
This article first appeared in the
Autumn 2017 issue of The Record.
When a grain, milling, and commodities company acquired a new milling facility from one of its key customers, it was required to discontinue its use of its SAP enterprise resource planning system and its enterprise asset management system from Maximo. Not only did the company need to migrate from SAP and Maximo to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform within seven months, but it also had to integrate all their production machines and various existing proprietary and third-party systems with the new solution, including a warehouse management system (WMS) and an electronic data interchange (EDI) solution. The consequences of not meeting this compressed timeline would result in a significant, negative financial and operational impact.
The company turned to leading supply chain consulting and IT services firm enVista, which provides full implementation and support services for several Microsoft business applications. These include Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Azure, SharePoint and Office 365.
To ensure that all safety and quality requirements were met in optimal fashion in the appropriate systems and further support the client, enVista brought in Stone Technologies, a systems integration firm that specialises in manufacturing operations management.
A vital part of the implementation involved migrating the client’s existing Wonderware SCADA platform and replacing proprietary quality, recipe, and lab systems. Working with Stone Technologies, enVista focused on meeting the deadlines for the company’s set go-live date, while at the same time establishing a platform to allow it to optimise both production and operation activities in future.
Thanks to the help of both enVista and Stone Technologies, the grain and milling company has successfully met its goal for an aggressive phase one implementation, completing the migration on time (in just seven months) and within budget. Together, enVista and the client are now focused on exploring additional process improvement opportunities and leveraging all systems to give the latter a competitive advantage. Future areas of focus will include production scheduling, commodity management and trade, and transportation optimisation.