Connected production planning, shop floor capture, quality, costing, and Power BI

Client Overview

Company Name

NovaCast Industries

Company Address

Unit 12, Brackenhurst Business Park, Sheffield, S9 1RY, England.

Industry Details

Precision metal casting and CNC machining for the automotive, aerospace, and industrial equipment sectors. ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified.

Entity Size

Around 175 employees including production operatives, machinists, quality inspectors, planners, finance, and commercial staff.

Product/Solutions Implemented

Dynamics 365 Business Central with Power BI reporting, integrated with shop floor data collection terminals.

Duration of Project

8 months.

NovaCast Industries logo

NovaCast Industries runs two production disciplines, casting and CNC machining, across a single Sheffield site, producing components to customer specification for automotive, aerospace, and industrial equipment clients. Production planning, shop floor data, and financial reporting had grown up as three separate systems that were reconciled by hand each month, leaving management without a current view of production cost, capacity, or margin at any given point. By implementing Dynamics 365 Business Central with Power BI, NovaCast brought production, quality, and financial data into one connected environment.

NovaCast Industries runs casting and CNC machining operations from a Sheffield site, producing make-to-order and make-to-stock components for regulated industrial customers.

Manufacturing - ERP + Power BIDynamics 365 Business CentralPower BI
NovaCast Industries Dynamics 365 Business Central and Power BI case study

A precision manufacturing company specializing in metal casting and CNC machining for the automotive, aerospace, and industrial equipment sectors.

The Challenge

  • Production planning was managed in a standalone MRP tool that did not connect to the finance system.
  • Shop floor labour and machine time were recorded on paper job cards and entered into costing spreadsheets days later.
  • Quality inspection records, material certificates, and non-conformance records were stored in individual inspectors' folders.
  • Machine utilisation and downtime were not tracked in any system, leading to scheduling based on estimates rather than capacity data.
  • Standard costs used for quoting were reviewed only once a year despite frequent material price movement.
  • Month-end reporting required manual consolidation from MRP, costing spreadsheets, and accounting data.

Our Solution

Production Planning and Shop Floor Data Capture

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central was deployed as the single platform for sales orders, production orders, material requirements planning, and purchasing.
  • Material requirements calculate automatically from confirmed production orders and current stock.
  • Shop floor data collection terminals capture time, quantities, and scrap directly against production orders as work happens.
  • Machine utilisation and downtime are captured from the shop floor terminals, giving planners real capacity data.

Quality Traceability and Financial Reporting

  • Quality inspection records, material certificates, and non-conformance reports are attached directly to the relevant production order in Business Central.
  • Traceability packs are retrievable in minutes for any job, customer, or material batch.
  • Standard costs are reviewed and updated in Business Central on a rolling basis as material prices move.
  • Power BI dashboards provide live visibility into job margin, machine utilisation, quality performance, and cash position.
  • Month-end close now draws from the same live data used throughout the month.

The Impact

NovaCast brought production planning, shop floor data capture, material purchasing, quality traceability, costing, and financial reporting into one Business Central and Power BI environment.

$0K+

Annual Margin Recovery

More accurate and frequently reviewed standard costs improved quoting and job profitability.

9 to 3 days

Month-End Close Reduction

Live job and financial data replaced manual multi-system consolidation.

Minutes

Quality Traceability Retrieval

Full inspection and certification packs are now retrievable instantly by job or batch.


We were making good parts and losing money on some of them, and we did not find out until the job was long finished. That is the difference now. We see margin while the job is still on the machine.

Grace Okonkwo
Finance Director
NovaCast Industries

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