MEC Dynamics 365 Case Study

Business Situation

Metal Exchange Corporation (MEC) started in 1974 as a regional scrap trading company and has since grown to be a global leader in the trading and manufacturing of non-ferrous metals, including aluminum, copper and magnesium. The company has focused on developing its precision manufacturing capabilities, including the specialized production of precision parts for the automotive and aerospace industries.

Like many industries over the past few years, the pace of change in manufacturing has been dramatic. Additionally, the emergence of new customers in the electric vehicle (EV) market was a result of an increasing focus on sustainability and combating climate change. To become a partner of choice in this market, MEC needed to drive agility with digital solutions that can deliver high-quality parts at speed and scale.

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“Avanade's agile, templated methodology driving that implementation has enabled us to quickly adapt to the changing needs of our customers and deliver value faster.”

Tom Marklin Vice President of IT, Metal Exchange Corporation

Solution

Working together with Avanade, MEC deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365 to set up a greenfield manufacturing operation to handle and fulfill orders from its newest customers. The company relied on Avanade’s agile methodology to drive the implementation, which enabled it to adapt and deploy quickly.

Results

With its modernized business applications platform, MEC is realizing business benefits, including:

Agility and flexibility: Thanks to the Dynamics 365 architecture and opportunities created by Microsoft Power Platform, MEC’s own IT staff can extend and expand the capabilities of its new solution without costly or risky customizations.
Sustainability: MEC can now accurately capture scrap throughout the manufacturing process, and recycling more aluminum saves more than 90% of the energy that would be needed to create a comparable amount of the metal from raw materials.
Speed-to-market: Using a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept within an agile methodology, the company was able to focus on limiting the scope to do what was necessary first, then build out capabilities based on its goals, observations and experiences.