Case Study – Vehicle Body Manufacturer
Industry: Manufacturing — vehicle body fabrication and assembly
Region: Australia, operating across two production sites
Scale: Approximately 30 factory floor staff plus administration, engineering and procurement teams
The Challenge
This manufacturer was running three disconnected systems — one for finance and payroll, one for purchasing and bills of material, and a separate tool for time and attendance — with no integration between them. Bills of material existed but were disconnected from costing and inventory consumption, so management had no real-time visibility into what it actually cost to build each vehicle. Inventory across two sites was tracked manually, and contract billing — which involved staggered delivery schedules, milestone payments and retention clauses — couldn’t be managed systematically in the existing tools.
The Solution
Following a formal vendor evaluation process, Austral Dynamics was selected based on hands-on manufacturing expertise and a proposed solution built around the client’s actual production workflows rather than a generic demo. The team began with on-site visits to both production facilities to understand the fabrication and assembly process before configuring the platform. The resulting solution centred on Dynamics 365 Business Central, configured with multi-level bills of material, production routings and work centres, automatic backflushing of materials, and subcontracting support within production orders. Finance, procurement, inventory and payroll were unified under the same platform, alongside milestone-based progress billing for contract work.
The Results
Three disconnected systems have been replaced with one integrated platform. Production orders now capture material, labour and subcontractor costs in real time, giving management accurate, per-vehicle profitability for the first time. Inventory is tracked with location-level accuracy across both sites, and contract billing — including milestone payments and retention — is now handled systematically rather than manually. The platform is built to scale as order volume and headcount grow.