Operation: A regional distributor and service provider of commercial refrigeration and food service equipment, running a single location with a parts counter, central warehouse, and a field service team of technicians. Industry: Commercial refrigeration and food service equipment distribution and service. Prior environment: An aging on-premise accounting system with no real inventory or service management functionality. Engagement scope: New Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation, item master governance, demand-driven purchasing, and van-level inventory tied to service dispatch. Timeline: Delivered ahead of the company’s combined peak sales and service season.
The challenge
The company’s accounting system tracked the general ledger and little else. Parts existed as line items on a price list, described differently depending on who had typed the invoice over the years, with no consistent categorization. Purchasing ran on staff judgment and a walk of the warehouse floor, so the business either ran short on core parts during a busy stretch or carried excess of items that sat for months. Parts loaded onto a service van for the day left the business’s records entirely: van stock was tracked on paper if at all, dispatch couldn’t see what a technician actually had, and a truck regularly rolled to a call missing the one part needed to finish the job.
The approach
TruNova’s assessment confirmed a standard Business Central implementation, item governance, warehouse setup, requisition worksheets, and service module functionality, could carry all three problems. The item master was built correctly from day one: a standard template with required attributes, a consistent category structure, and an approval step so a new part couldn’t go live incomplete. A Power BI reporting layer went in from the start, giving leadership a live view of fill rate, turns, and slow-moving stock. Reorder points and safety stock were configured by item, with requisition worksheets generating suggested purchase orders based on real usage and vendor lead time. Each technician’s van became its own inventory location, with common repair jobs kitted automatically and parts consumption tied directly to the service work order. Rollout was phased: financials, item master, and warehouse inventory first, then demand-driven purchasing, then van-level tracking, piloted with a handful of technicians before extending to the full field team.
Results
- A single Business Central environment running financials, warehouse inventory, and field service together for the first time.
- Real-time reporting on fill rate, turns, and slow-moving stock where no structured reporting had existed before.
- Stockouts on core parts reduced as reorder points and safety stock replaced ordering by judgment.
- First-trip completion rate on service calls improved as dispatch could route jobs based on actual van inventory.
- One item data standard feeding reporting, purchasing, and van stock, replacing three disconnected manual processes.
Next step
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