Exploring Discrete Manufacturing in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: An Interview with Scott Hamilton

Over recent releases, Microsoft Dynamics AX has maintained a clear and continued focus on the needs of discrete and process manufacturers.  This focus is reflected in Microsoft's R&D investments which have significantly accelerated the rate of new capabilities added to Dynamics AX, most recently with the release of AX 2012. 

Scott Hamilton has written about this progression in recent articles about using AX 2012 in food products manufacturing and discrete manufacturing,  The second article is drawn from Scott's new book about using AX 2012 in discrete manufacturing.

The new book has received strong reviews.  Rakesh Kumar, Global Industries Director for Manufacturing at Microsoft wrote that," Extending Microsoft's strategic focus on the discrete manufacturing industries, Scott describes how Dynamics AX 2012 addresses the industry challenges and provides business value."  And AX solution architect and MVP at IDB Solutions Brandon George wrote that "the functional depth, scale and knowledge that Dr. Hamilton shares in his books have been tremendously helpful for those of us within the global Dynamics community."  Other favorable reviews have been posted for the new book on Amazon.com.  

We recently interviewed Scott about the writing of this new book, and some of his suggestions about using AX 2012.

Your last book focused on process manufacturing for AX 2012, and now you are looking at discrete manufacturers.  How much overlap - or difference - is there for these different types of companies?

AX 2012 provides a single system that supports both process and discrete manufacturers as well as mixed mode environments.  In terms of supply chain management, there is a great deal of overlap in software ...