Your skin is your body’s largest organ and so it deserves your utmost attention when it comes to using the best care products and for skin cleansing generally.Many people ignore the fact that the it is your body’s largest organ and do so to their detriment. This is similar to their ignoring dental health when the mouth is so important to avoid the introduction of infection and the like through the mouth. There are a whole variety of skincare products in the massively booming skin care market – and we’re talking men as well as women here.The skin is a vital part of your body’s defense system just as the mouth is (and is therefore so important to maintain dental hygiene too). A healthy and clean skin means a healthy body and can avoid other, much more significant issues both immediately and in the long term.The skin is on 24 hour duty. It keeps infections at bay. It is the first line of defense for bodily attack. It can protect you effectively and when it is looked after properly it can also look good.So why would you not ensure you get the best skin care products to ensure you’re skin is properly placed to look after you and your health?Good skin cleansing and skin care goes beyond the simple task of making sure you don’t smell bad or look dirty when you go out.. Here are some of the things you need to do for proper cleansing to avoid not just acne and other issues, but for overall good skin health:o Take a look at what natural and simple (and inexpensive) skincare products are out there. These will often be on your kitchen shelves! You don’t need to go spending a whole lot of money, which is something you can very easily do in this area, believe me.o Get started! You need to get cracking with your skin cleansing efforts. Don’t put it off like you might with other things because procrastination can lead to contamination (in the case of your skin). Believe me, your skin and body will thank you for getting an early start in this process.o Start looking after your skin every day, just as you would clean your teeth every day. If you adopt a good skin cleansing routine you will make it far easier and more natural and you will also develop great skin.o Be careful of those chemical-laden, harsh skin cleansers that can add more to your body than they take away. And you simply don’t want to have a cleanser that’s putting chemicals into your body if you can avoid it (and some can’t, but not many in my view). You should not use deodorant soaps on your face! They are made of strong chemicals and also leave a detergent film behind and can irritate the skin and even block your pores.o The water used on your face should always be lukewarm and not hot. You want to avoid dehydrating your skin, making it more prone to damage. You may also scald or even burn your skin. If it’s too cold, the water will dry your skin out, although cold water does have its place in natural skin care.o Be gentle in cleaning. Some people think they ought to scrub their skin raw, but this is one of the things to avoid in skin care. You should instead be careful not to damage or tear your skin. Exfoliation is good because it will help remove dead skin cells, but be careful and so you will not hurt yourself.o Moisturize your skin. Moisturizers work by preventing the loss of water and keep yourself hydrated. They can help to coat the skin’s surface with a film of substance, thus sealing moisture into the skin.
Blood Nutrition – Understanding Your Current Health and Nutritional Needs
No general screening test is more efficient, effective and affordable than a comprehensive blood chemistry panel. It allows the healthcare provider to establish a baseline of biomarkers to track the patient’s health and nutritional needs. Getting a blood test is essential to understanding your current health and your nutritional needs.What is Blood Nutrition? Blood NutritionTM, is an innovative, science-guided look at nutritional strengths and weaknesses through an individual’s blood test. This new scientific approach can offer a clear plan for your optimum health. As a result, a new generation of healthcare professionals is emerging with the tools and keys that can reveal the more subtle imbalances and assist in correcting them. Blood NutritionTM is a comprehensive approach to health. To address the true cause of symptoms, one should look for their origin from a science-generated perspective by considering:Physiological distress or disease conditionsNutritional distress or imbalancesMental/emotional distressAny of these factors may be the source or a contributing factor for the symptoms of imbalance. The cornerstone of an effective health strategy is a nutritional and lifestyle plan that is based on your biochemistry. Success here is dependent on the establishment of an accurate nutritional profile guided by scientific approaches such as a comprehensive blood test. Blood Nutrition and Science This advanced scientific approach identifies nutritionally significant information through the careful analysis of the various blood values. Certain indicators can reveal electrolyte, mineral and other nutritional imbalances. Once addressed, one can optimize the metabolic processes and help maintain the healthy performance of the body. A balanced nutritional state is essential for achieving and maintaining health. Nutritional analysis of your Blood Test may indicate the need for:Key nutrients such as vitamin A, B6, B12, DFluid and electrolyte balanceMinerals such as magnesium, calcium and ironTissue hydrationAntioxidantsEnzymesNutritional support of key organsNutritional support of metabolic pathwaysThe need for lifestyle changesNutritional Imbalances If you have nutritional imbalances, you may be experiencing the following:Mental/emotional symptoms including mood swings and anxietyStructural/musculoskeletal symptoms such as pain or stiffnessDigestive issues such as bloating, indigestion and elimination problemsOptical symptoms such as difficulty in night vision or blurry visionSymptoms such as weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, food cravingsCardiovascular health issuesDry skin, brittle nails, hair dryness or lossOthersAre you suffering from the effects of nutritional deficiencies or imbalances? Nutrients such as amino acids, enzymes, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes are the building blocks of the body. They provide energy, support metabolism and are needed for many biochemical reactions to sustain health. Key nutrients may become deficient for various reasons. These may include:Disease processes, which may block metabolismPoor dietary habitsPhysical, mental and emotional stressOne of the most scientific ways to identify nutritional imbalances is to have your blood test evaluated by a nutritionally trained doctor or healthcare practitioner who is experienced in Blood NutritionTM assessment. A comprehensive blood test is affordable and results are normally received within a few days. When key nutrients become deficient, many metabolic processes are affected.The body may initially try to compensate for such imbalances. However, if they are prolonged, they may contribute to hormonal issues, metabolic disorders, increase in toxic load, oxidative stress, organ weaknesses and many other health issues. Many symptoms such as tiredness, fatigue and irritability may be effectively addressed with proper nutritional considerations.A blood test is one of the most efficient tests you can get to determine the quality of your overall health. Once you have received your test results, working with a specialist who is experienced in Blood NutritionTM will enable you to achieve the optimum health that is essential to a long life full of vitality.
Microsoft Dynamics Business Central for Manufacturing – A Viable ERP System?
Why Should we care if we can use Dynamics Business Central for Manufacturing?Given the disruption of the past year, a lot of businesses are investigating ways to work remotely and in a hybrid work environment. There are a few technologies that manufacturing companies need to use that don’t work well remotely. One of them is ERP systems. That’s why we should care about Dynamics Business Central for Manufacturing.If you are looking to replace an ERP system because you want to ensure it facilitates remote work, cloud ERP is where you need to look. My experience is almost entirely with what is often called “SMB” or Small and Medium Business manufacturers.There are not a lot of good, modern cloud based ERP systems in the mid-market / SMB space. There are even less that really support manufacturing. That means that the best cloud systems are priced out of most manufacturers budget.Oh, In case you are wondering, Microsoft defines SMB as businesses with less than 250 computers. That’s a pretty large manufacturer.What is Business Central?In the simplest terms, Business Central is the new brand name for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. In all the ways that count this cutting edge new cloud based ERP is the old Dynamics NAV reimagined in the cloud.Microsoft did not shirk on the technology either! They have a boat load of money, and they were willing to spend a lot of it on Business Central.The full name of the product is Dynamics 365 Business Central. That 365 should look familiar, because it appears on Office 365, Microsoft 365 etc…This does mean that Business Central is part of the same suite of products you might already be using for your Outlook email, Teams communication, Microsoft Word or Excel productivity tools. And yes, that is a big advantage to Microsoft. It doesn’t mean that it will work in Manufacturing however – so that remains to be seen.How does it compare with more traditional manufacturing ERP?I recently wrote a blog comparing Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing with a pretty well respected mid-market pure manufacturing ERP called Infor Visual ERP.I worked extensively with Visual ERP for almost 20 years (ironically I never sold a copy in all that time). I ran the firm that people who had trouble with the system came to for help.When I migrated my business away from Infor Visual, I investigated a lot of products. I settled on Dynamics NAV (which later became Business Central) after significant research.By 2014 we had started switching Visual ERP customers Microsoft Dynamics NAV manufacturing. There are a few small areas that Visual might do a bit better in. That is more than overcome by two main factors that make Microsoft Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing really shine.CustomizabilityDynamics NAV and now Business Central are extremely easy to program, which let us enhance it in ways you absolutely could not with Visual. It’s so easy to program that we are essentially giving away “Missing” Visual features when we sell the product.This customization let us plug any holes we found. It also allowed us to do the one thing Visual customers always cried about. We could make small, easily maintained, incremental changes. We could adjust the system to make it work better for the customer.We avoided any kind of massive programming (although in my time I’ve seen other partners who didn’t avoid the same). We focused on making really useful changes that allowed the customer to get rapid benefits. This made a huge difference to customers. It can be a game changer when a very small change saves staff hours every week.Dynamics 365 AppSource AddonsMore or less related is the existence of addons for Microsoft Dynamics products.When we first started selling Dynamics NAV for manufacturing, there was no AppSource. AppSource is like the Google Play store or Apple Apps store. It’s a place to go and rapidly (in seconds really) install addons.In the early days these addons existed, were certified by Microsoft, but did not exist in any central location. Today things are even better. With Appsource we can really enhance Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing. I mention a couple of those modules below.Wait! I have to get Addons
Agile Manufacturing
Version Management
Inventory Planning
Demand Forecasting
Machine Centre Management
Capacity Planning
Finite Loading
Production Bill of Materials
Production Scheduling
Supply Planning
Modes of Manufacturing for Business CentralI tend to think of manufacturing ERP projects in terms of the mode of manufacturing being used. There are different definitions from different organizations (mainly APICS) but these are the ones I tend to see and my take on how good Business Central for manufacturing is for these modes.Engineer to Order – ETOThis is my favorite. I worked at an ETO for a few years before starting my own business. Dynamics Business Central for Manufacturing includes a really powerful project accounting module called Jobs. Since ETO manufacturers are really project manufacturers, this jobs module is a solid foundation. There are a few additional addons that I strongly recommend (including one that we created) to make the fit even better.Overall – Business Central for ETO is really good.Make to Order and Make to Stock – Production ManufacturingMake to Order and Make to Stock are usually two separate modes of manufacturing (and they are) but I combine them into one mode I call Production Manufacturing. The out of the box manufacturing modules that are part of Business Central Premium work great for these businesses. Many of them also want the addins that I list below – which are great extra features.Job ShopsJob shops tend to come in the biggest variety and tend to actually not fit that well into either ETO or Production Manufacturing. I’d want to see the Job Shop to see whether it’s more of a micro-production shop (very common – I call these “repetitive job shops”) or whether it’s more of a custom mini-project manufacturer like a light ETO.These businesses vary a lot in what they make. A food co-packer is technically a job shop. So is a welding service business, a small machine shop etc…Whatever the case, it is a good fit for Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing.Process ManufacturingProcess Manufacturing is usually related to making one of the following:
Cosmetics
Chemicals
Nutraceuticals
Pharmaceuticals
Food manufacturing
Process manufacturing needs some heavy duty addons for Business Central to work properly. This is outside my comfort zone to be honest. The regulations and batch manufacturing processes are really unique. I have a few colleagues that I send these kinds of prospects to. Those addons for Business Central are extremely good, and handle this industry very, very well.Graphics Arts ManufacturingPrint Manufacturing is it’s own sub-type, really a form of either Job Shop or Production Manufacturing depending on what they make. These businesses don’t work as well out of the box with Dynamics Business Central for Manufacturing. They usually fall into these categories.
Commercial Print (magazines, business carts, posters, flyers etc. – a real Job Shop)
Folding Cartons (think a toothpaste box, or cereal box. Can be production or Job Shop)
Flexible Packaging (these companies make the plastic bags you get consumer goods in)
Labels (could be a wine bottle label, or a shampoo bottle, or your aspirin).
Wide Format (think huge banners, giant photographs on walls in a mall etc.)
This mode of manufacturing has a really great addon for Business Central called PrintVis. PrintVis is a Print manufacturing MIS software addon that turns Business Central into arguably the best Print MIS in the market.Add-ins Recommended by MeMy team has reviewed many addon solutions since we started working with Business Central for manufacturing. Here are our top choices:InsightWorks Shop Floor Insights (SFI)This is a manufacturing execution system for collecting job costing data (time), production reporting and materials use in real time. Comes with a nifty scheduling tool also.InsightWorks Warehouse Insights (WHI)This product is my favorite wireless barcoding solution for warehouse management. It runs on most of major brands of wireless devices used in warehouses today. I think it’s a great mid-level warehouse management solution.Netronic Visual Production SchedulerFor those who need a a graphical drag and drop scheduler, Netronic is the industry standard for Business Central. Their Visual Production Scheduler is more or less for visualizing and manually editing the schedule. The Advanced Production Scheduler is more robust and will do best fit scheduling.ConclusionWe’ve taken a look at using Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing in this article. I’ve had the opportunity to oversee the implementation of this system in more than 50 companies, and so far, so good. For that SMB manufacturer with 20 employees who work in the office and 60 that work in the shop – this is a great system. We’ve got a few customers with 500+ total employees using it very successfully. We also have a few with 10 total employees, and they are able to make it work.If you are a manufacturing company that is in the small or medium market (again – less than 250 computers) looking for ERP I strongly suggest you look at Microsoft Dynamics. I can confidently say that as an ERP Dynamics Business Central for manufacturing is a great fit.