How Dynamics 365 Helps Manufacturers Manage Assets More Efficiently

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, an app from the Dynamics 365 suite, is widely used by manufacturers to streamline complex mid- and back-office processes, including those related to managing production equipment, plant utilities, vehicle fleets, and other assets.

Specifically, by adopting Dynamics 365 for manufacturing and using asset management capabilities of Dynamics 365, companies can track assets across locations throughout their lifecycle, carry out timely maintenance to keep them operational and maximize their lifespan, and receive data-driven insights to enhance asset performance and minimize assets’ TCO.

In this article, experts from Itransition, a certified Microsoft partner that helps businesses implement tailored Dynamics 365 solutions, highlight how Dynamics 365 can streamline asset management in manufacturing.

Facilitating and improving asset tracking

Tracking assets efficiently can be challenging, especially when they are distributed across multiple facilities, production lines, and work centers, and this is where Dynamics 365 can be highly useful.

Particularly, Dynamics 365 allows companies to create functional locations – virtual, hierarchical representations of their real-world buildings, factory lines, and work centers. Assets installed in real-world locations can be linked to their corresponding functional locations, which helps manufacturers have a clear understanding of the location of each machine, tool, or vehicle. 

Сompanies can also instruct workers to "reinstall" assets into a different functional location when moving them from one physical space to another to ensure that the new placement is properly documented and, therefore, can be traced. To minimize undocumented movement of assets, manufacturers can additionally require workers to scan barcodes or asset tags through the asset management mobile app when picking up or dropping off an asset at a new location, and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management will automatically log and update this information.

Additionally, companies using Dynamics 365 can design lifecycle models, which define the sequence of states assets can transition through their lifespan (for example, “Active,” “Under maintenance,” or “Disposed”). Once the models are in place, assets’ lifecycle states can be displayed in asset records, allowing employees to easily track the current status of any machine, vehicle, or equipment. By providing employees with visibility into assets' lifecycle states, manufacturers can prevent a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from their improper use to accidental disposal.

Dynamics 365 also enables defining specific parameters to track and evaluate operational conditions of their assets, including temperature, humidity, vibration, cycle counts, and hours of operation. After these parameters are logged manually by technicians or captured automatically through telemetry, employees can easily access and review them directly within the asset records to gain a picture of assets’ condition and health without requiring to physically inspect them every time.

Enhancing asset maintenance and servicing

Systematic asset maintenance helps prevent equipment breakdowns, reduce the cost of repairs, and extend asset lifespan. Asset management capabilities in Dynamics 365 can be highly useful in this regard, as they enable companies to efficiently manage reactive, preventive, and predictive maintenance. Here is how this works:

• Reactive maintenance

A reactive maintenance process is usually triggered by an unexpected equipment breakdown and starts with the manual creation of a maintenance request by a shop floor supervisor or machine operator in Dynamics 365. After approval, the unplanned request is manually converted into a work order document, which is used to define a maintenance task and outline associated labor and materials needs. Since reactive maintenance is commonly associated with issues that disrupt production workflows, work orders are often assigned to the next available technician due to urgency. After the work order is completed, the original maintenance request closes automatically.

• Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance activities are typically triggered automatically based on pre-defined maintenance schedules, with Dynamics 365 auto-creating work orders based on these schedules. Then, Dynamics 365 matches these tasks to suitable technicians based on their geographical zone, availability, and skills and then schedules the job to them, usually weeks or months in advance. 

• Predictive maintenance

Instead of a fixed schedule, predictive maintenance mostly relies on continuous monitoring of assets’ condition and is triggered when metrics deviate from the normal baseline. Typically, once some anomaly is detected (a temperature drop, voltage fluctuation, etc.), Dynamics 365 automatically generates a maintenance request and auto-populates it with the asset ID and data from sensors attached to the asset. If the asset needs immediate intervention, Dynamics 365 can automatically trigger a work order and assign it to the most suitable technician based on skills, location, and availability. Otherwise, a work order can be created and scheduled manually.

Supporting asset performance and cost optimization

To achieve higher returns on investment from their assets, manufacturers should continuously optimize asset performance and the costs associated with them. Asset management capabilities offered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help manufacturing companies handle this task.

Particularly, Dynamics 365 enables companies to track asset fault registrations to understand their total number across specific assets, asset types, or functional locations during a specific period, as well as calculate maintenance metrics like Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time Production Stops (MTPS) for their assets. By analyzing fault data and maintenance KPIs, manufacturers can easily spot which of their assets are underperforming to justify their replacement, instead of continuing to pour money into repeated repairs. It also enables companies to understand what issues cause asset breakdowns and apply corrective actions that address root causes of faults, such as redesigning faulty components or enhancing preventative maintenance tactics.

Final thoughts

Overseeing and controlling facilities, equipment, vehicles, and other assets, especially when they are distributed across various locations, can be a highly complex task for manufacturers. Asset management capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics 365 help companies address this complexity by streamlining and facilitating asset tracking, optimizing asset maintenance processes, and enhancing asset performance and cost optimization activities.

An experienced Microsoft solution partner can help your company leverage these essential capabilities of Dynamics 365 to help you ensure real-time asset visibility, enhance the efficiency of your maintenance strategies, and eventually maximize asset ROI. Particularly, experts can analyze your business processes to help conceptualize and build a reliable and future-proof Dynamics 365 solution, aid with implementing it smoothly, and offer ongoing maintenance and support services to optimize and maximize your Dynamics 365 solution performance.