[MUSIC].
>> I'm Gordon Macdonald
from Microsoft.
Today, we're heading out into
the American heartland,
South Bend, Indiana,
home of Lippert Components,
the world's leading supplier of
recreational vehicle products.
With over 85 facilities located
throughout the United States,
Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Italy,
the Netherlands, and
the United Kingdom
and more than 9,000 team members,
they work together to bring
innovative product solutions
to market every day.
Their team, led by CIO Jamie
Schnur are in the middle of
making the move from Dynamics AX
to Dynamics 365 in the cloud,
and we wanted to see what that
journey is actually like.
A lot has changed since
they began back in 1956.
>> A funny story
is I was the first intern here
at Lippert Components.
I started here back in 1996.
>> What was your first
job that you did?
>> Installing Microsoft Office.
>> Okay. On CDs?
>> On CDs.
>> Excellent.
>> We went all in the mid
1990s into technology.
I really wanted to use the Cloud
as the catalyst for how we
transform and change your typical
manufacturing environment.
When you have over a
million different SKUs,
you've got to have
something that is not
only robust but very nimble.
That mobility to me was one
thing that put it over the edge.
>> Which parts of Dynamics
365 do you guys use today?
>> We use all the
modules that are wrapped
around your manufacturing
and warehousing environment.
We're heavy strong into all
your accounting and finance.
>> Yeah.
>> Right now we make products
that are just in time.
>> Yeah.
>> I've got thousands of teammates
every single day that have to
come to work that rely on
D365 to be up. [MUSIC]
>> How did you actually get to
that point in time
where you said, "Okay.
Hey, we're going to do open-heart
surgery to our company?
>> Yeah.
>> It's a big decision.
>> It's a big decision. There
was a lot of fear and anxiety.
>> Yes.
>> Honestly.
>> But when we sat down with
the leadership from Microsoft,
there was a calming effect the
first time we sat with them and
then they did a good job of
learning not only our
industry, but our team.
This was a big thing,
like we went live with
almost 35 divisions at once.
>> That was rolling the dice.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. It was
the largest implementation we've ever
did as a company and
it was a success.
[MUSIC]
>> ERP project director,
Ben Shockey has been working on
pioneering this implementation by
using a change management approach
within the manufacturing facilities.
Tell me what we're looking at here.
>> Our customers of RV-towable OEMs.
>> Okay.
>> Just manufacturers that are
assembly plants and they're pretty
much starting with our chassis,
they'll lay a floor on it, mount
the axles and send it down the line.
Somewhere along the
way, the furniture goes
in along with the rest
of the RV assembly.
>> Tell me about the decision
to move from Dynamics
AX 2012 all the way to
Dynamics 365 in the cloud.
>> Already first of all we
know that's where Microsoft
is investing their
time and resources.
>> Okay.
>> So every release
comes new functionality,
and we know that we can
take advantage of that.
We know that the upgrade
paths are much faster.
So today when we're getting
ready to take an update,
we have to go through
a build environment and lots
of development and testing.
Maybe even a data migration.
>> So what would your advice be
to other folks like yourself and
manufacturing firms that are
considering a move to the cloud?
>> Well, I mean, depending on
the size of your organization.
It was really important for us to
use a change management process.
We've always underestimated
that in the past, but.
>> I think everyone does for
instance, very difficult.
>> Over-communicating to
every single team and trying
to be very empathetic to the changes,
however minor that there will be
dealing with on day
one of the cut over.
>> Okay.
>> We've got close to 2,500 users.
So just a simple change in
the user interface is
a really big deal.
>> When you think about
your implementation of
Dynamic 365, what are
you most proud of?
>> Well I mean the way that all
of our teams came together?
>> Yeah.
>> We've got 50 or so sites
that went live all at one time.
I think we logged
close to 1300 issues.
>> Wow.
>> So every one of those
issues needed to be
met with development solutions,
maybe workarounds,
maybe process changes.
>> Right.
>> So to flip that
switch to so many sites,
it was quite an accomplishment.
[MUSIC]
>> As if scaling at this level
wasn't reason enough to be proud.
It turns out there's even more to
their success than meets the eye.
>> It sounds like a lot of what makes
Lippert successful
is the people side.
Tell me about the culture
you have as an organization.
We've got an unbelievable
company that is committed to
not only its 10,000 teammates
but helping our communities.
You know, over the last few years,
we've really focused on who do we
want to be as a place that provides
a safe place to work
for our teammates
purpose and passion greater
than just their job.
So we've committed over the
last couple of years to
really investing in what we
call our acts of service.
So we're over 350,000
hours of community service
in the last three years.
>> That's amazing.
>> We really believe that
business can be used
as a force for good.
[MUSIC]
