Microsoft Great Plains: carpet, textile, fabric, felt distributor – implementation overview

By Andrew Karasev

Alba Spectrum Technologies

1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com   

In this small article we will show you the possible way of deploying Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains for the market niche of large, mid-size and small reselling and distribution business in carpeting and floor covering, textile & fabric.  We will not be talking about fabric production, but rather cutting for the end-user or small retailer.  Microsoft Great Plains itself in our case should be considered as a platform for light customization and modification.  We’ll describe industry requirements and the way them to be implemented in Great Plains

• Variable Length Rolls.  Usually, when you place and order through your supplier – there is no way to know exact length of the roll or bolt.  It might have 75 yards or 80 yards – you typically know the average length, say 77 yards and this is why you know what to expect in yards if you purchase 10 bolts
• Inventory in Yards.  When you receive the roll – you need to place it into inventory in exact yards.  Typical method is to assign lot number to the bolt and then associate the exact initial length in yards with this unique lot number.  This is Great Plains Dexterity customization, which provides parallel unit of measure, associated with the lot number
• Light Assembly.  Bill of Materials would be probably too complex for cutting the fabric.  This is why we suggest to deploy automatic inventory decrease and increase adjustments – you decrease number of yards in the roll and increase your finished good in the number of units assembled
• Meter / Yard challenge.  If you purchase from the supplier in China, Mexico, South East Asia or Europe – they measure their rolls in meters, not yards – so you need to implement automatic unit of measure translation and conversion.  You resolve this on the level of your EDI – electronic document interchange
• Cut-beds tracking to original roll.  If you are assembling/cutting something like billiard table beds – you would like them to be tracked to the original roll in the case of customer complaint.  This means that you will have to assign the same or modified lot number to the cut-bed
• Inventory Count.  You need to track what is the current length of the bolt/roll.  This is realized via custom Dexterity table, having Item Number, Lot Number, Initial Length in Yards, Current Length in Yards
• Customization Tools:  Great Plains Dexterity – this is Great Plains Dynamics programming language and development environment; Modifier with VBA – will allow your modify Great Plains forms and attach VBA scripts to your custom buttons; SQL scripts and stored procedures – low level database programming, excellent for the professional with profound GP tables structure and data flow knowledge.

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help!  If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com  ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in

California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia