Manufacturing ERP by Industry

Manufacturing Expertise for Industries Where Material, Production, Quality, and Traceability Must Work Together.

Naviona helps plastics, specialty metals, and chemical manufacturers modernize operations with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, industry-specific COSMO CONSULT functionality, and practical manufacturing expertise. This pages is about Manufacturing ERP by Industry that we focus on.

Although every manufacturing operation is different, these industries share many of the same ERP challenges: complex materials, mixed production methods, demanding traceability, quality-controlled inventory, specialized costing, and the need to connect plant activity with financial performance.

Focused on Manufacturers With Complex Operational Requirements

Generic ERP implementations often address financial and transactional requirements without fully supporting the detail that manufacturing teams need to run production. Naviona focuses on industries where successful ERP design depends on understanding how materials are formulated or specified, how production changes those materials, how quality decisions affect availability, and how every transaction ultimately affects cost, margin, and customer commitments.

Find the manufacturing experience that fits your operation.

Three Industries. One Manufacturing-First Approach.

Plastic Manufacturing

Plastics manufacturers must coordinate resin, additives, recipes, bills of material, tools, molds, production rates, setup and changeovers, quality, lot traceability, scrap, and regrind. Many operations also combine process-oriented compounding or blending with discrete molding, extrusion, fabrication, assembly, and packaging. Naviona helps plastics manufacturers connect these requirements with Business Central and COSMO functionality for recipes, production structures, tool-dependent production rates, sequence planning, quality assurance, traceability, reclaim, costing, and hybrid manufacturing.

Explore Plastic Manufacturing

Specialty Metals Manufacturing

Specialty metals manufacturers operate around material identity, alloy specifications, heat and lot genealogy, chemical and physical testing, recovery, yield, certification, and metal-price exposure. Alloy producers and foundries may combine multiple source lots into a new heat while preserving the chemistry, quality, and traceability of the resulting material.

Naviona combines Business Central, COSMO process and quality functionality, COSMO Alloy Management, and Naviona’s alloy lot-balancing feature to connect source-lot chemistry, planned alloy composition, production consumption, reclaim, quality results, new heat identity, costing, and downstream traceability.

Explore Specialty Metals Manufacturing

Chemical Manufacturing

Chemical manufacturers must control formulations, ingredients, multi-stage batch production, product revisions, quality inspections, quarantine and release, lot traceability, compliance documentation, costing, and the transfer of products from research and development into commercial production.

Naviona helps chemical manufacturers use Business Central and COSMO functionality to connect formulation management, batch processing, production structures, quality assurance, traceability, Certificates of Analysis, hazardous-substance and regulatory processes, production planning, and financial control.

Explore Chemical Manufacturing

Why These Industries Require a Similar ERP Implementation Mindset

Plastics, specialty metals, and chemicals manufacture different products, but the ERP implementation challenges are closely related. Each industry requires more than a financial system with basic production orders. The implementation must connect material characteristics, process knowledge, quality status, production execution, traceability, costing, and financial reporting.

Materials Are More Than Item Numbers Resin grades, ingredients, alloy chemistry, reclaim, additives, intermediate products, and quality characteristics can determine whether material is suitable for a specific production requirement.

Process and Discrete Manufacturing Often Coexist Blending, compounding, melting, reacting, or batch processing may be followed by molding, casting, cutting, machining, filling, assembly, finishing, or packaging.

Lot and Batch Genealogy Is Business-Critical Manufacturers need to trace source materials into production and finished products, then trace shipped products back to the relevant ingredients, heats, lots, processes, and quality records.

Quality Determines Inventory Availability Material may need to remain quarantined until inspection is complete. Release, rejection, rework, downgrade, and nonconformity decisions must remain connected to inventory and production.

Reclaim, Scrap, and Additional Outputs Matter Regrind, revert, reusable scrap, co-products, and by-products should be distinguished from true process loss so the organization can understand yield, recovery, cost, and available inventory.

Formulas and Specifications Change Over Time Recipes, alloy specifications, manufacturing structures, instructions, and test plans require controlled versions and an intentional transition from development or engineering into production.

Planning Requires More Than Material Availability Production schedules may depend on machines, vessels, furnaces, tools, molds, setup, cleaning, maintenance, labor qualifications, quality status, and the sequence of previous and next jobs.

Costing Must Reflect Manufacturing Reality Material price, yield, batch size, labor, machine time, setup, overhead, packaging, outside processing, scrap, reclaim, and secondary outputs can all affect product cost and margin.Operations and Finance Need the Same Information Purchasing, inventory, production, quality, sales, costing, and financial reporting must share a governed data foundation so decisions do not depend on competing spreadsheets.

A Common Foundation With Industry-Specific Solution Design

The three industries can share a common Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central foundation, implementation methodology, reporting strategy, integration architecture, and financial controls. The industry fit comes from how that foundation is designed around the operation and extended with the right COSMO CONSULT capabilities, Naviona functionality, and integrations.

Start With the Manufacturing Process
Map how products are defined, how materials are selected and consumed, how production is planned and executed, how quality is recorded, how inventory status changes, and how finished products are shipped and invoiced.
Separate Common Requirements From Industry Requirements
Use COSMO and Naviona functionality where the operation requires recipes, batch processing, advanced quality, reclaim, specialized traceability, alloy balancing, regulatory documentation, or other industry capabilities.
Design Traceability and Quality Before Configuration
Define lot and batch identities, genealogy rules, quality statuses, inspection points, test plans, approvals, certificates, and recall or investigation questions before configuring transactions. This prevents traceability from becoming an afterthought.
Connect Operational and Financial Outcomes
The implementation should provide operational control while also improving inventory valuation, manufacturing costing, margin visibility, financial reporting, and management decision-making.

Industry Expertise Without Losing the Strength of a Modern ERP Platform

Naviona combines deep Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central expertise with practical manufacturing experience across plastics, specialty metals, and chemicals. Our approach is designed for manufacturers that need industry fit without becoming trapped in an isolated or difficult-to-maintain system.

Explore the Industry Most Relevant to Your Operation

Plastic Manufacturing Explore recipes, tools and molds, regrind, sequence planning, quality, lot traceability, production, inventory, and costing.

Specialty Metals Manufacturing Explore heat and lot genealogy, alloy chemistry, quality, reclaim, alloy lot balancing, yield, certification, production, and costing.

Chemical Manufacturing Explore formulas, ingredients, batch production, quality, traceability, Certificates of Analysis, compliance processes, planning, and costing

Choose an ERP partner that starts with manufacturing, not a generic software demonstration.

Questions Manufacturers Commonly Ask

Can Naviona help organizations already using Dynamics NAV or Business Central?

How does Naviona determine which functionality is needed?

Why is COSMO CONSULT functionality relevant?

Can the three industries use the same Business Central platform?

Does Naviona only work with these three industries?

“Working with Naviona has been more than a software implementation—it has been a true partnership. They took the time to understand our business and tailored Business Central to support our processes rather than forcing us to change them. The result is better visibility, greater confidence in our data, and a system that helps us make smarter decisions every day.”

Justin Davis, ERP System and Order Administrator, Indulor
“Naviona is an outstanding partner. Their collaborative approach makes every phase of our projects seamless, and their expertise consistently ensures we stay on track and meet our goals. From initial planning to ongoing support, their team is always responsive, proactive, and genuinely invested in our success. They are the closest thing to having an in-house implementation and support team. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a reliable and collaborative NAV/BC partner.”

Kent Strumski, Director of Information Technology, Colortech
“What set Naviona apart was their ability to understand our manufacturing operation and adapt the system to fit our business, rather than forcing us into a standard ERP model. Their combination of ERP expertise and manufacturing knowledge has delivered lasting value to our organization.”

Sam Martinez, Director of Operations, Burgess Pigment Company
“The commitment from the team at Naviona have been great. I recommend them to anyone looking for a Dynamics NAV partner that delivers quality services in a timely fashion.”

Tyler Patterson, Sales Support Director, Momar
“Naviona has proven to be an excellent resource, easy and responsive to work with and a key factor in our success with Dynamics NAV. I would highly recommend Naviona to anyone looking for a partner with extensive manufacturing experience.”

Gary Charlton, IT Director, Ametek PMC North America
“Naviona has the knowledge and expertise that makes them true leaders in the field of Dynamics Nav solutions. In a world with tons of Dynamics NAV partners, the personalized attention to our business needs is what makes Naviona a great fit. Naviona is the one partner you will ever need for all of your Dynamics NAV needs.”

Victor Lanza, IT Manager, Momar
“We use Naviona to support our day-to-day operations and to extend the functionality of our Dynamics NAV solutions. The quality of the work and quick response times makes them a perfect partner.”

Anders Carlsson, Research & Development Manager, Expander Systems