Sucden transferred two enterprises for production of sugar to Dynamics AX 2012

One of the largest Russian enterprises for production of white sugar will replace the outdated ERP solution with a new multifunction information system based on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The consulting company Columbus acts as the partner of the project.

The Sucden group - one of the largest producers of sugar in the territory of the Russian Federation, manages three large sugar plants and several agricultural firms. JSC Dobrinsky Sugar Plant (DSP) – the flagman production site of holding – is a prime vendor of leading manufacturers of food in the domestic market.

2017

To the project with Columbus of the enterprise of holding used ERP systems of different generations, both from them did not meet the requirements of performance and unification of business processes of all plants Sucden any more. Solutions did not support transactions, important for holding, for example, there were no convenient tools on budgeting and automatic formation of accounting and tax statements. The management of Sucden looked for the complete solution capable to cover and optimize problems of finance, logistics, production and packaging of products, accounting of cost of raw materials, production and non-productive costs, cost accounting of finished goods, etc. Reengineering of processes of budgeting, management of warehouses and shipments was required.

Not only creation of effective business processes and their automation, but also deployment of easily scalable information system, approaches to which creation will take as a basis and other Sucden plants, was a project objective at the Dobrinsky sugar plant.

The project team was faced by the following tasks:

• make the most transparent the movement of financial and material flows,
• provide automatic calculation of net value of finished goods,
• simplify the analysis and data processing,
• create a single platform for accounting,
• systematize process of preparation of the reference information,
• optimize directories of the nomenclature, suppliers and clients,
• exclude double entry of data.

The general project duration on JSC Dobrinsky Sugar Plant was about two years, as a result of implementation about 170 jobs were automated.

Deployment of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 on JSC Atmis-sakhar became the next stage of the global project of updates of ERP systems at the Sucden plants. The business model created for the Dobrinsky sugar plant, but with a number of the completions considering specifics in the organization of processes of two enterprises was taken as a basis. For these purposes the user integration test based on which specialists found out whether JSC Atmis-sakhar the solution of the flagman plant approaches was carried out. Need of each change of a system was carefully analyzed based on what the customer solved, to use practice of the Dobrinsky sugar plant or to expand functionality of a system. So, for example, features for automation of transactions of packaging of finished goods in pallets and packing on 1 kg were added.

System deployment in JSC Atmis-sakhar took 8 months, as a result of implementation 90 jobs were automated.

Project Results

The functionality of the ERP system covered activity of all divisions of the company. At the Dobrinsky and Kamensk sugar plants processes were automated and unified:

• Productions and packagings of products;
• Budgeting and maintaining reference books of a system;
• Shipments of finished goods;
• Managements of warehouses - for example, use of barcoding and data collection terminals is entered;
• Material consumptions;
• Quality control;
• Purchases of beet and raw sugar, spare parts, services, general economy means;
• Acceptance of materials on a warehouse;
• Sales, payments and cash transactions;
• Issues of fixed assets, overalls and invaluable fixed assets (IFA);
• Accounting of the credits and loans, formation of accounting and tax statements.

2014

Long term and low quality of request processing of business pushed the management of Sucden to assessment of a functional status of the current version of the ERP system used at "the Dobrinsky sugar plant". Management brought up a question of its replacement by a new system based on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The acting solution on the basis Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 was operated by the enterprise more than ten years.

Before a migration project startup specialists of consulting company Columbus booked audit of this system. The report including the following information became a project deliverable:

• The analysis of the key business processes (KBP) of business activities of DSZ, in terms of a possibility of their automation due to standard functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and also ready-made solutions of Columbus.
• The analysis of KBP which are subject to automation in the new version of the ERP system of Dynamics AX 2012 in terms of the fields of their functional application.
• The analysis of modifications of the current version of the ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0) with indication of expediency of their transfer / use in the new version of a system.
• The list of the additional modifications necessary for accomplishment of all business requirements to implementation of processes in the new version of a system.
• The description of strategy of migration of historical data in a system on the basis of the new version of a system.
• The preliminary estimate of volume of services and duration of the subsequent stages of automation prepared according to the KBP list and the proposed to implement approach.
• The analysis of the current situation with the licenses ERP systems Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 and recommendation about their converting in the license of the new version of Dynamics AX 2012.

Smirnov Vasily, the director of information department of SDI LLC, Russian division of the Sucden group, tells: "We understood that the ERP system of Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 used at our flagman plant does not meet all requirements of business any more, not completely supports basic processes. Specialists of Columbus company booked audit of an information system in DSZ and prepared a detailed report on the basis of which we made the final decision on expediency of transition to the new version of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012".

The project of technical audit of the ERP solution operated at "the Dobrinsky sugar plant" lasted about 1.5 months. Lushin Roman, the IT director of the Sucden group in the Russian Federation, positively speaks work of the Columbus command: "Data and recommendations provided by specialists of Columbus allowed to understand in parts how the current ERP solution functions, to estimate extent of its modification, to reveal the hidden threats and possible effects for business of the company. It should be noted also that the report of Columbus was prepared in English".

The management of Sucden considered the concept of development of the operating information system offered by consulting company Columbus within migration on the new version of the platform. As a result the company decided to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 at "the Dobrinsky sugar plant". Further the management of the Sucden group intends to transfer to a new system all holding structure of the company in the territory of the Russian Federation.