Amaco Process & Business Central Transition – Detailed Meeting Notes

Context & Meeting Overview

• Internal cross-functional discussion (IT, Finance, Sales, Shipping, Purchasing, Warehouse, Consulting partner – Rich / Carrie).
• Core focus: how current NAV 2018 processes create delays, errors and customer dissatisfaction; how to transition to Business Central (BC) while enforcing better business processes.
• Recurrent pain-points: long order-to-ship windows (esp. international), misuse of reservations, pervasive negative inventory, manual work-arounds, high turnover in Shipping, inconsistent documentation, dependence on IT for reports, and Brickyard POS issues.

Problem Statement – Long Lead Times & Customer Experience

• Average window quoted unofficially ≈ $\text{25 days}$ from order to shipment; goal vision expressed: $\le 2$ days.
• Customer calls (“Where’s my order?”) overwhelm Sales because:
  • Picks linger for weeks.
  • No proactive carrier e-mails.
  • Multiple manual touch-points (pro-forma, payment chase, container consolidation).
• Root-cause circle illustrated by Carrie:
  1. No reliable forecast → Purchasing guesses.
  2. Production ignores / can’t trust schedule → items not on shelf.
  3. Sales reprioritises orders ad-hoc → Warehouse re-shuffles.
  4. Picking pauses waiting for back-orders → Shipping delays.
  5. Customer dissatisfied → more calls → Sales escalates → cycle restarts.
• KPI proposed: days between pick creation & posted shipment; slice by customer class, export vs domestic, etc.

Reservations Functionality (Current vs. BC Future)

• Current NAV: reservations exist but ignored; negative inventory allowed so reservations can even go negative.
• When an SO is Released the reservation locks inventory immediately; debate whether to also auto-create pick or just visibility.
• Pitfalls:
  • Manual priority overrides (“rob Peter to pay Paul”).
  • Customisations that bypass reservation tables.
• Consensus: adopt reservations only after BC re-implementation and new business rules; treat as “future goal”.

International Order Workflow (why 6-12 week window)

1. SO entered, mostly prepaid.
2. Warehouse creates shipment doc → Pick/Pack/Stage.
3. Logistics requests freight quote, records on SO.
4. Accounting issues pro-forma & awaits wire.
5. Container availability delays (post-COVID 2 + weeks).
6. Possible consolidation with Mako (Ohio) or customer-arranged freight.
   • Adds unpredictable days.
7. Money arrives → release to ship.

• Proposal: reservations + better lead-time metrics + streamlined pro-forma chase.

Inventory, Negative Stock & Planning

• Company allows negative inventory; purchasing relies on it to plan replenishment.
• Down-side: too much negative skews on-hand and jeopardises operations.
• Suggested actions:
  • Use Planning/Requisition Worksheet training (filters, forecasts) to pre-empt Brickyard pulls.
  • Consider separate forecast records (Amaco, Brickyard, Transfer demand).
  • Evaluate new BC “Over-Pick” permission plus Overflow-bin & Replenishment reports (night-before run).
• Decision: keep negative inventory for now; revisit when reservations & forecasting stable.

Picking, Packing & Shipping Bottlenecks

• Picks created weeks ahead; paperwork stacked; aged picks > $48$ hours should be exception.
• Shipping turnover high (~2 new hires/week).
• Delay mostly between Pick Create vs Pick Register; once wrapped, carrier < $24$ h.
• Recommendations:
  • KPI: Pick Age.
  • “Customer Hold” or Reservation or physical hold-area until carrier confirmed.
  • Gamify speed: handheld “pew-pew” competitions, aisle target scans.
  • Explore TMS integration so “Ship” auto-posts invoice + e-mail tracking.

Gamification & Training Ideas

• Handheld wars (targets in aisles; consultant’s proven method).
• Use scanner sounds / display monitors to show pick leaderboard.
• High turnover can be leveraged: new staff easier to teach new expectations.

Business Central Migration & Customisation Strategy

• Zero-custom ethos; prefer AppSource ISVs; beware free/abandoned apps.
• Reservations fragile with bespoke code.
• Train-the-trainer session on BC UI differences (profiles, quick-entry).
• ClickLearn Cloud now stable; trial underway for dynamic work-instruction capture; historical on-prem version was unusable.
• Screen standardisation: hide unused actions, show Customer/Vendor Name everywhere via profiles.

POS / Brickyard Issues

• Current InsightWorks POS disliked (or user resistance).
• Options listed: LS Retail, LS Express (lighter), InsightWorks BC, others.
• Must compile requirement list before demos; priorities vs nice-to-have.
• Idea: spin Brickyard into separate BC company early:
  • Pros: isolate inventory, treat as distributor, small pilot, reduces day-to-day noise.
  • Cons: duplicate add-ons, need intercompany, separate bank/check processing, shared services decisions.
• Brickyard future web-store wanted – integration must be considered; current BigCommerce + Jitterbit path stalled; Shopify not automatic fit.

Work Instructions & Quality Module

• Today: customised blob docs delivered on paper in messy mixing area.
• BC options:
  • Embed steps in Routings (scales with lot size? test).
  • Pop-up work instructions module (InsideWorks, InsightQuality, Quality Inspector).
• Need scaling for “super-tank” batch sizes.
• Quality: discrete attribute capture & CPK desired; investigate InsightWorks Quality + API linkage to BC item card.

Over-Picking & Warehouse Replenishment

• New BC functionality allows authorised over-pick lines.
• Implement overflow bins + Replenishment report (run nightly) → storekeepers pre-stage lower-level bins → fewer line-side shortage calls.

Document Management & Artwork

• Fear of DB bloat; want link-only storage.
• Candidates: Data Haven (tree view fact-box, auto path), Zetadocs, PairSoft.
• Must pair choice with future e-commerce platform.
• Marketing stores high-res on Synology; needs single source accessible to BC and Web.

Reporting, Dashboards & KPIs

• Finance wants ownership; move from Jet to native BC financial reporter or Cosmos; IT only maintains plumbing.
• Sales & Marketing require Power BI / Jet cubes; confirm Power BI can join NAV 2018 + BC cloud DBs (ask ODL).
• Ticketing system (Zendesk) should capture IT labor hours; monthly heat-map to show true cost of rework.

Number Series & Screen Simplification

• Sales complain about multiple doc numbers.
• Education: duplicates needed for back-orders, separate posted docs.
• Idea: keep alpha prefixes (SO, SS, etc.) but sync numeric segment.
• Data Haven tree may render number gripe moot.
• Evaluate simplification during BC cut-over.

Customer Communication & Tracking

• Current first visibility of tracking = invoice e-mail (AP contact only).
• Requirement: automatic “Shipped” e-mail with carrier link at moment of posting.
• TMS already has NAV connector – verify can push event + update SO; else assess alternative shipping ISV.
• Portal on roadmap so customers self-serve status.

Empathy, Ownership & Change Management

• Carrie proposes “Empathy Workshops”:
  • Map one process/month; list actions that break downstream $\Rightarrow$ visual of $300$ ripple effects.
  • Staff grasp why rules matter; peer-to-peer reinforcement replaces IT policing.
• Super-user model eroded; need clear responsibilities; discourage "IT will fix it" culture by surfacing labor cost.

Open Action Items / Next Steps

1. Draft detailed requirements (Reservations, POS, Shipping/TMS, Document Mgmt, Quality, Portal).
2. Schedule demos: LS Retail, LS Express, InsightWorks BC POS, Data Haven, Quality ISVs, Shipping ISVs.
3. KPI baseline: extract current average days – SO Release → Posted Shipment, Pick Age, Back-order %.
4. Pilot ClickLearn Cloud; stress-test update feature (move fields, rerun).
5. Prepare BC profile templates (Sales, Warehouse, Purchasing, AP, AR) – hide unused buttons, ensure Name columns visible.
6. Evaluate early Brickyard company spin-off feasibility (licensing, bank, inter-co, pricing tables).
7. Train Purchasing on Planning Worksheet forecasting & Brickyard demand.
8. Investigate Power BI cross-DB model; confirm need/no-need for data warehouse.
9. Draft TMS integration flow – auto e-mail & auto invoice – include address verification (Avalara) in scope.
10. Schedule Empathy Workshop #1 (Sales Order life-cycle) – build cause/effect diagram.

Numerical & Statistical References (captured)

• $48\ \text{hours}$ – desired max age of open picks.
• $\$3{,}000$ Amazon sign-on bonus cited for turnover.
• “Weeks” old picks; some export picks dated April.
• Handheld wars require scanning targets certain number of times/shift.
• $20\%$ of two IT staff’s time spent correcting one user’s mistakes (historical).
• High turnover: ~$2$ new hires/week in Shipping.
• Target future lead time example: $5$-day ship promise (historic) or aspirational $2$-day.