Helping a growing high-tech manufacturer connect international operations through Microsoft Dynamics AX (Now known as Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management)
The Challenge: Disconnected Operations Across Three Countries
As nLight expanded internationally, its operations became increasingly interconnected. But the systems supporting those businesses had not developed in the same way.
The company’s U.S. operations used Microsoft Dynamics AX, while Shanghai relied on a separate order-entry system and Finland used a homegrown application. Inventory costing was managed in Excel, and intercompany transactions involved multiple people working across disconnected processes.
Meanwhile, business activity routinely crossed international boundaries. Products manufactured in China could be shipped directly to U.S. customers. Finland sold to both China and the United States. Purchases, R&D expenses, commissions, and other transactions moved between companies, each with its own financial and operational requirements.
nLight needed a common ERP foundation that could connect these operations without forcing every location to work the same way.
Connecting Global Operations with Microsoft Dynamics AX
nLight partnered with Strategic Solutions NW (SSNW) to extend its existing Dynamics AX environment into its Shanghai and Finland operations.
The project focused on three priorities:
- Connecting international operations: Bringing finance, purchasing, sales, and inventory activity into a more consistent global environment.
- Supporting intercompany transactions: Establishing processes for products, purchases, and financial activity moving between the U.S., China, and Finland.
- Balancing consistency with local requirements: Creating common financial and operational structures while accommodating different currencies, business practices, and country-specific requirements.
Rather than simply replicating the U.S. system internationally, SSNW worked with nLight to understand how its businesses interacted and where processes needed to remain distinct.
The result was an ERP approach designed around the company’s global operations rather than the limitations of its existing systems.
Supporting High-Tech Manufacturing Complexity
Connecting nLight’s international operations also meant accounting for the complexity of its manufacturing business.
The company maintained approximately 8,000 parts in its item master. Its U.S. and Chinese operations manufactured many of the same products and worked with common suppliers, but often used different part numbers. Serialized inventory, R&D purchasing, international shipping, and varying units of measure added further complexity.
SSNW worked with nLight to bring greater consistency to the customer, vendor, product, and inventory information supporting these activities. Customer records alone spanned nearly 40 countries, each potentially introducing different financial and operational requirements.
The objective wasn’t to eliminate those differences. It was to give nLight a common business platform capable of accommodating them.
The Result: A Common Foundation for Global Operations
The project established a more consistent Dynamics AX environment for nLight’s international financial and operational processes.
Previously, different locations relied on separate applications, spreadsheets, and manual coordination to manage business activity across company boundaries. The expanded ERP environment provided a common foundation for managing finance, purchasing, sales, inventory, and intercompany transactions.
Just as importantly, nLight could maintain the local processes and requirements necessary to operate in different countries while working within a more consistent global structure.
For SSNW, the engagement demonstrated an approach that remains relevant to high-tech manufacturers today: connect the business where consistency matters, preserve flexibility where it is necessary, and build systems around how the organization actually operates.
An ERP Foundation Built Around the Business
High-tech manufacturers rarely grow in simple ways. New products, international suppliers, customers, and facilities can create complexity faster than existing business systems can accommodate it.
Strategic Solutions NW helps high-tech manufacturers build connected Microsoft Dynamics environments that support the realities of their operations and provide a foundation for what comes next. Learn more about our ERP solutions for high-tech manufacturers.
Talk with SSNW about your ERP environment.
Related Case Study
More Experience in High-Tech Manufacturing
See how SSNW helped another high-tech manufacturer address complex ERP challenges. Read the MTI Case Study.
