Microsoft introduced back in October 2020 new add-in/vertical solution specially focused on manufacturing industries. This add-in was acquired from To-increase, a Dutch VAR with many years of experience developing verticals and modules to the Dynamics family. Press announcement

What is it?

Is a module that integrates with the rest of Dynamics 365 SCM adding:

• Product versioning: using a new product dimension called “Version”
• Enhanced product release functionality: like automatic copying BOMs and Routes between legal entitites.
• Validation rules for product version activation (readiness checks): validation of fields like cost prices, barcodes, BOMs, etc.
• Improved product lifecycle management (PLM): supporting product lifecycle states and allowing to define engineering attributes to the different versions like measurements, design elements, finishing, etc.
• Engineering change request (ECR) and engineering change orders (ECO), both supported by workflows: ECR will capture a request for a change in a product, an idea, that is related to the product, BOM or route. Meanwhile the ECO will document the changes needed, and track the approval.

Is this suitable for your customer/you?

If your customer is a manufacturer who tracks the product versioning and/or uses a PLM solution, this add-in is ideal. It will not be the best PLM software out there it supports many of the key concepts and simplifies the integration with external PLMs if needed.

References:

TechTalk (Beatriz Nebot Garcia): https://community.dynamics.com/365/b/techtalks/posts/engineering-change-management-for-dynamics-365-supply-chain-management-december-9-2020

Engineering change management overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/engineering-change-management/product-engineering-overview

To-increase blog: https://www.to-increase.com/manufacturing/blog/engineering-change-management-solution-what-are-the-top-benefits

Hope this info helps you!