As we’ve learned over the past year, building a resilient supply chain is more important than ever. 94 percent of Fortune 1000 companies have reported supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of C-suite executives at manufacturing companies said their company either had no formal strategy or were taking an ad-hoc approach to digitization.
In this turbulent environment, resilience is a key theme for manufacturers. A recent survey found that the majority of supply chain leaders are planning to increase resilience, including many who said they would increase resilience even at the expense of short-term savings. Manufacturers are working hard to manage risk and costs, keep employees safe, and minimize operational disruption in order to keep manufacturing running smoothly for businesses and consumers.
To accomplish this, they need help accelerating the transformation of not only their operations but all aspects of their end-to-end business. As a Microsoft partner, you can help your manufacturing customers build a resilient supply chain using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, which provides companies with end-to-end supply chain visibility as well as agility in planning, sourcing, and distribution processes, so they can adapt to disruptions quickly and ensure business continuity.
This year, at Hannover Messe Digital Edition, we showcased new Dynamics 365 capabilities to help companies easily scale production and distribution, keep critical processes running, and ensure continuity on the frontlines of manufacturing. Now is a great time for you as a Microsoft partner to leverage these solutions and capabilities to help your manufacturing customers develop a resilient supply chain.
Wonder Cement pivots quickly to reduce risks
EY India is a great example of a Microsoft partner that has helped its customer, Wonder Cement, develop resilience by transitioning to the cloud with Dynamics 365. When COVID-19 forced them to work remotely last year, Wonder Cement was ready to pivot, and with more streamlined business processes, the company was able to reduce risk.
Headquartered in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Wonder Cement is among India’s largest cement producers. But the family-owned company believes that its business is much more than state-of-the-art cement production. Wonder Cement keeps its customers and the greater community at the forefront of everything it does.
That intense customer focus has propelled Wonder Cement, the youngest player in the Indian cement market, to one of the top three brands in the country. “People who buy from us once buy from us forever,” says Sanjay Joshi, Executive Director at Wonder Cement. “We have a deep emotional connection with our customers.”
As Wonder Cement has grown, the company has relied on innovative data technologies to help keep those close customer connections strong. In 2014, the company deployed Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, now known as Dynamics 365 Finance + Operations (on-premises).
Wonder Cement was pleased with the solution, but as the company’s needs changed, they decided to make the move to cloud-based Dynamics 365. “As our prominence in the industry has grown, operations have become much more complex, and our need for data has exploded,” Joshi said. “We chose Dynamics 365 because we wanted to focus our time and energy on what we do best.”
Unlocking new opportunities
Wonder Cement chose Microsoft partner EY India, which is part of the global consultancy EY, and the Microsoft FastTrack for Dynamics 365 team, to help them implement the solution. “With the EY and FastTrack for Dynamics 365 teams helping us, we were able to address any challenges,” said Arun Attri, Vice President of IT at Wonder Cement.
“Wonder Cement wanted to embrace the cloud computing trend and new technologies to unlock further opportunities,” said Yatin Patil, who is a partner at EY. “Technology is at the forefront of this transformation agenda. One of the foundational requirements at Wonder Cement was embracing cloud technology, along with new edge digital technologies like IoT and RFID.”
According to Patil, the EY team laid out a roadmap for digital transformation, deploying Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Dynamics 365 Finance. “It wasn’t just a platform upgrade,” Patil said. “We took advantage of the opportunity to examine, question, and greatly improve our processes by leveraging the new functionality in Dynamics 365. The out-of-the-box analytics in Dynamics 365 that link to Power BI was a critical component to democratize information to stakeholders.”
EY’s experience working with multiple cement-related businesses proved to be invaluable in helping Wonder Cement reengineer the company’s processes. “EY has a lot of process experience,” Attri said. “The EY team helped us think about our processes in new and different ways, cutting out unneeded steps and improving our methods.”
A deep understanding of their business
The transition to Dynamics 365 has led to process improvements across every part of the company. Inventory visibility has improved, and data management and reporting challenges have been significantly reduced. The company has also eliminated many third-party licenses, consolidating its software spend.
“The cement manufacturing process hasn’t changed over the past 70 years,” Joshi said. “The differentiation comes in our ability to market and sell to our customers. Dynamics 365 goes far beyond simply recording transactions—we now have a deep understanding of what’s happening in our business.”
That visibility translates to a range of practical, real-world benefits. “We save 80 to 85 percent of the time we used to spend on moving data from the production system to our ERP now that everything runs on Dynamics 365,” Attri said. “That’s a huge win for our company.”
Learn more
Learn more about how you can help your manufacturing customers create a more resilient and sustainable future using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
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