Free Oracle Magazine Profit:The Executive's Guide to Oracle Applications

Enter your e-mail address to receive notifications when there are new posts

Profit Magazine: The Executive's Guide to Oracle Applications

Supply Chain Management (SCM) :Techno-functional Guide

Posted on July 25th, 2008 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

Read this:

This article is an easy guide for Techno-functional consultant to understand SCM from Implementation as well as Oracle Application product Prospective.Lets start the topic with some of high points of earlier post .

  • As mention in earlier post a Supply Chain is a network of retailers, distributors, transporters, storage facilities and suppliers that participate in the sale, delivery and production of a particular product.
    • Make a note a supply chain is product specific, not company specific
  • Supply chain management (SCM) is a systematic approach to manage the entire flow of information, materials, and services from raw material suppliers through factories and warehouses to the end customer.
  • Moreover , SCM involves the flows of material, information and finance in a network consisting of customers,suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors.
  • You should be clear with Flow that SCM can manage :supply Chain Flow
    • The flow of actual materials, the top middle bars
      • From suppliers : flows of raw materials, intermediate products, finished goods
      • Reverse material flows : returns, repairs, servicing, recycling, disposal
    • and the information flows
      • From suppliers : manufacturing capacity, delivery schedules, promotions they have going
      • Reverse flows : sales, orders, inventory, quality, promotions
    • And finally, there are financial flows:
      • From suppliers: Credits, consignment, payment terms, invoice
      • Reverse Flows : payments, consignment
  • Supply Chain Management is the management of the entire value-added chain, from the supplier to manufacturer right through to the retailer and the final customer.
  • SCM has three primary goals: Reduce inventory, increase the transaction speed by exchanging data in real-time, and increase sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently
  • The need for SCM is because effective Supply Chain Mgt. is the next logical step towards increased profits and market share.
  • Supply Chain Management (SCM) in line manager prospective is “let’s-keep-things-moving-efficiently”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Functional, Oracle Manufacturing | 1 Comment »

OPM API’s

Posted on February 14th, 2008 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

As usual APIs facilitate integration with complementary third party , in-house developed, or legacy applications. These APIs are standard in Oracle Process Manufacturing in various releases.

The benefits of OPM APIs are same usual:

  • Automate data collection from plant devices
  • Reduce custom interface code
  • Provide easier software upgrades
  • Allow connection to legacy systems
  • Eliminate manual data entry and errors

So here are the List of APIs for Integration in OPM (Adopted)

  • Production / POC
    • Start Resource Usage
    • End Resource Usage
    • Close Batch
    • Cancel Batch
    • Release, Certify, and Close Step
    • Post Resource Transaction
    • Incremental Resource Transaction
    • Timed Resource Transaction
  • Costing
    • Item Cost
    • Resource Cost
    • Allocation Definition
    • Burden Details
  • Formula
    • Create Formula
    • Insert Ingredients, (By)Products
    • Create Formula Usage Rules
  • Inventory
    • Create Item
    • Create Lot
    • Create Item/Lot UOM Conversion
    • Create, Adjust, or Move Inventory
    • Change Lot Status or QC Grade
  • Quality
    • Assays
    • Specifications
    • Samples
    • Sample Labels
    • Results

You can see the more details for API’s and underline API name either document Part No# A83748-01 or you can check in the responsibility IREP

Posted in OPM | No Comments »

What are OPM Products ..

Posted on February 14th, 2008 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

Obvious question was asked by yet another reader after this post?

“What are the modules that come under the umbrella of OPM ? “

Th answer is OPM includes OPM Process Planning, Product Development(which includes Formula,Recipe,Quality), Production, Financials(Costing,MAC), Logistics, Regulatory Management etc. These are products which come under this umbrella..

  • OPM Cost Management
  • OPM Formula Management
  • OPM Intelligence
  • OPM Inventory Management
  • OPM Laboratory Management
  • OPM Master Production Scheduling
  • OPM Material Requirements Planning
  • OPM Production Management
  • OPM Purchasing Management
  • OPM Quality Management
  • OPM Capacity
  • OPM Sales Management
  • Oracle Financial

Is there any difference from Oracle Discrete Manufacturing?

Yes, there is ..If you came from Discrete manufacturing background, these are one -to-one mapping between modules.

difference OPM and Discrete

.. OPM history

The history of Oracle OPM is one decade old, This is worth to know about OPM Life Cycle.

OPMHistory

Next would like to provide some more information for OPM API’s availability….

Posted in OPM | No Comments »

ERP Options for “Process Related Industries” -Aberdeen Report

Posted on February 13th, 2008 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

Aberdeen Group, has recently published one report for “ERP Options for Process Related Industries “, Here is the link for free report.

double-arrow What you should know about Oracle OPM products

Oracle OPM designed exclusively for catering the business need for process manufacturers industry like:

  • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • Food, Beverage, Health and Beauty, Household Products
  • Industrial Products
    • Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Petroleum, Metals, Mining, Paper and Glass

The difference between Discrete and Process manufacturing can be best understood in my previous post.

double-arrowOracle OPM product Strengths

For those who are very new or not aware to Oracle OPM product, here are some of high points of Operational Functionality that product offered.Moreover there is significant changes has been seen in age of internet that has re-defined the operation of the supply chain(SCM) thus Oracle OPM Products too.

Please Check with Oracle OPM Page, to see what are the recent changes has been incorporated. based out of my exposure very long time back, these are the functionlity that product had.

  • Lot Traceability :In this some features like Lot/Sub lot,Forward/Backward Genealogy,Status Control
    ,Grade Control,Lot Expiration,Allocation for Shelf Days
  • Multiple Formulas (Bills) :These are typically used for formulas for production, costing planning, MSDS,Effectivities By Date for Seasonality,Effectivities by Quantity,Scaling,Alternate Routings,
    Scrap factors and theoretical yield
  • Support for A and V type Formulas : All three kind of formula like well suited here:
    • V Bills are constructive- Multiple ingredients one product
    • A Bills are destructive- One ingredient, multiple products
    • A Bills support co-products and- by-products
  • Ingredient Substitutions
    • The features like mass ingredient substitutions for formulas
    • Designed for ingredient substitutions in manufacturing orders (batches)
    • Manufacturing variances for substitutions tracked and reported.
  • Dual UOMs functionlity
    • Item specific UOMs
      • Count to Mass
      • Count to Volume
      • Mass to Volume
      • User defined UOM types
    • Lot specific UOMs
    • Dual UOM Types
      • Fixed
      • Defaulted with tolerance
      • No relation
    • Uses
      • Sell by count, invoice by weight
      • Dry pounds, wet pounds
      • % solids, % moisture
  • Specification Matching Functionlity
  • Some of the great features like
    • QC Specs and Results : This may be based out of vendor,customer,plant or by lot
    • There was yet another feature for customer spec matching.
  • Regulatory Compliance
    • Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are configurable, also formulas for MSDS
  • Other features are flexible Costing, which can be either processIf Costing (Standard,Actual) or Organization Level basis (Warehouse,Item)

double-arrowRelated article

Posted in OPM | 1 Comment »

SCM Subsystem

Posted on November 15th, 2007 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

In last post we have understood SCM flow. Let’s talk in term of SCM IT requirement. SCM subsystems are important because this is required to support manufacturing managers in making their decisions so that they can optimize the trade off between capital tied up in stocks and inventories, versus the ability to deliver goods at prices and delivery dates agreed with customers.

A typical flow and SCM cycle can be understood as fig below:SCMFlowinERP

Typically A SCM consists of these sub-systems can be categorize and consist of:

f1Demand Management

This is basically co-ordination sales forecasts from all the players, including sales representatives at the point of sale through production to raw material suppliers, so that everyone is working to the same plan, rather than creating unnecessary safety stocks.

f2Distribution Resources Planning (DRP)

This will Keep track of the status of production and procurement of materials for each order, where the goods are located, what transport and warehousing is in use, what stock to keep and when to re-order.

f3Transport Management Systems (TMS)

This kind of subsystem normally keep the information such as :what modes of transport at what cost are available to the shipper; what costs and timings are associated with each route; the order in which to load transport; optimization of multi-segment deliveries; compliance with documentation required for customs and shippers.

f4Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

These are the systems which are used to optimize the storage and picking of goods in a warehouse, also includes compliance with carrier and customer documentation standards.

f5 Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

This kind of subsystem keeps the information about suppliers of direct and indirect materials, such as agreed terms of trade, records of status, records of contacts between the enterprise and the various points of contact in suppliers.

f6 Component Supplier Management (CSM)

Management of lists of preferred suppliers and preferred parts; terms of trade such as delivery and price associated with them; rationalization of existing parts to minimize costs by substituting equivalent parts.

I guess, the next question in mind would what are applications which are going to enable if anyone is going to roll out SCM functionality in Oracle EBS. Keep watching this space.

Posted in EBS Suite, Functional, Oracle Manufacturing | No Comments »

KNOW WHAT IS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)? : An Overview

Posted on November 10th, 2007 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

This is one of the basic areas from management books. In fact lot of people have requested some more information on SCM, OPM and other manufacturing area. therefore,I take this opportunity, as this is one of my favorite topic, as I started my first job in PPC (Production Planning &Control) department of a big steel company a decades ago, so I hope I will surly help in giving a clear picture of SCM. Let’s start with basic and gradually will move into ERP arena:

SCM is defined as combination of art and science that goes into improving the way your company find the raw components that needs to make a product or services and deliver it to customer. In Business word this art and science become functions that an organization undertake.

If you are IT guys you can understood SCM as:

Systems that support manufacturing managers in making decisions that optimize the trade off between capital tied up in stocks and inventories, versus the ability to deliver goods at prices and delivery dates agreed with customers.

In principle and reality, both inwards logistics operations to acquire materials to make products and outwards logistics operations shipping finished goods to final customers are monitored.

bluWHAT EXACTLY IS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OR WHAT IS BASIC COMPONENT OF SCM?

As per Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR®) which has been developed by Supply-Chain Council. This model organized and focused on the five primary management

  1. PLAN
  2. SOURCE
  3. MAKE
  4. DELIVER
  5. RETURN

1. Plan: This is vital part of SCM philosophy, where the companies normally need to make strategy for managing all the resource that go towards fulfilling the customer demand for the product and services that they offers. A big piece of planning is developing a set of matrices to monitor the Supply chain so that it would be efficient, cost effective and deliver high quality and value to the customer.

2. Source: It means processes that procure goods and services to meet planned or actual demand. This part of SCM consists of selecting right suppliers that will deliver the good and services that need to create your product. Developing a set of pricing, delivery and payment process with supplier is important. Also this will also take care of managing the inventory of goods, and services you receive from your suppliers, including receiving shipping, verifying them, transferring them into various facilities and authorizing supplier payment.

3. Make: This is basically a step where your company starts fulfilling the request or BUILT for products into finished state to meet planned or actual demand. Schedule activity necessary for production, testing, packaging and preparation for delivery.

4. Deliver: This is also called Logistic Process. This is the processes that provide finished goods and services to meet planned or actual demand, typically including order management, transportation management, and distribution management.

5. Return - This is real pain of SCM model, which defined as processes associated with returning or receiving returned products for any reason.

Typical model can be best described as:

scmmodel

purpWHO IS THE STAKEHOLDER OF SUPPLY CHAIN

These are considered as stake holder of SCM:

  • Customers
  • Your Company
  • Design Partners
  • Material Suppliers
  • Contract Manufacturers
  • Logistic Providers

red1WHAT ARE DRIVERS OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN?

These are the main drivers :

  • Production
  • Inventory
  • Location
  • Transportation
  • Information

1. Production
This driver addressing these questions: what products does the market want? How much of which products should be produced and by when?
This activity includes the creation of master production schedules that take into account plant capacities, workload balancing, quality control, and equipment maintenance.

2. Inventory
This driver addressing these questions: What inventory should be stocked at each stage in a supply chain? How much inventory should be held as raw materials, semi finished, or finished goods?
The primary purpose of inventory is to act as a buffer against uncertainty in the supply chain.

3. Location
This driver addressing these questions: Where should facilities for production and inventory storage be located? Where are the most cost efficient locations for production and for storage of inventory? Should existing facilities be used or new ones built?
Once these decisions are made they determine the possible paths available for product to flow through for delivery to the final consumer.

4. Transportation
This driver addressing these questions: How should inventory be moved from one supply chain location to another? Air freight and truck delivery are generally fast and reliable but they are expensive. Shipping by sea or rail is much less expensive but usually involves longer transit times and more uncertainty.

5. Information
This driver addressing these questions: How much data should be collected and how much information should be shared?

Timely and accurate information holds the promise of better coordination and better decision making. With good information, people can make effective decisions about what to produce and how much, about where to locate inventory and how best to transport it.

oraGET FAMILIAR WITH TOP 10 TERMS, DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY IN SCM

f1Master Demand Schedule - MDS

The MDS is a consolidation of demand by product and time bucket

f2 Master Production Schedule- MPS

The MPS is a statement of supply required to meet the demand for the items contained in the MDS. The master production schedule defines the anticipated build schedule for all products. The master production schedule also provides the basis for order promising (ATP) function

f3Material Requirements Plan-MRP

The Material requirements planning (MRP) calculates net requirements from gross requirements by evaluating:

  • The master schedule
  • Bills of material
  • Scheduled receipts
  • On-hand inventory balances
  • Lead times
  • Order modifiers

f4Advanced Supply Chain Plan- ASCP

Constrained Based and optimized version of MRP

f5Planned Order

Automatically suggested action from planning engine

f6Consumption

The process of “relieving” the forecast to prevent double counting of demand

f7Drop Ship

Having an order ship directly from the vendor to the customer without physically being in your inventory.

f8Vendor Managed Inventory- VMI

The process of giving the vendor the authority and visibility to determine what your inventory should be

f9Customer Owned Inventory- COI

Where you are managing the customers inventory on your premises and supply as required

f10Work Order/Sales Order

The request that you received from the customer for fulfilling there demand.

greSIMPLE PLANNING CYCLE WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION

A typical planning cycle would start by loading the sales orders, forecast and other demand such internal orders into the master demand schedule (MDS). That demand statement would then be used as the schedule that drives the Master Production Schedule (MPS) . Take a note in regular MRP implementations the MPS is used as the schedule for ATP. Once the MPS is reviewed and updated is used as the schedule to drive the MRP process. The result of the MRP process is planned orders and exception messages. When released from MRP the planned orders for “buy” items become requisitions or purchase orders in the purchasing module and the “make” items become discrete jobs in the Work In Process Module. Once the finished goods are received into inventory it is shipped to satisfy customer orders.

PlanningwithinOrgnization

Scenario I :Sales Order - Forecast Planning Cycle

Forecast Planning

This is the scenario where normally we are building to stock and satisfying sales order demand from stock. Here you will see the difference as planned orders are released to become purchase requisitions for components and work orders for sub assemblies and finished goods. The finished goods are then shipped to satisfy the sales orders.

 

 

 

 

 

Scenario II : Planning - Procurement Cycle

ProcurementCycleIn the Planning-Procurement cycle we normally start where the first part of the planning cycle is complete and we have a planned order for a buy item from MRP. The planned order is released and becomes a requisition or purchase order in the purchasing module. A purchase order is then created from the requisition and sent to the vendor. The vendor would supply the materials. The materials would be received into inventory and the purchase order would be closed.

 

 

 

Scenario III :Planning - Drop Ship Cycle

In the Drop Ship cycle the process is as follows:

  • A sales order is received from the customer.
  • After the sales order is entered a process is run that creates a purchase order that matches the sales orders
  • The item, quantity and required date information on purchase order matches that information on the sales order.
  • The ship to address on the purchase order is the ship to address of the customer.
  • The vendor ships the product directly to your customer. Once the vendor ships the product you receive” the purchase order and that creates the shipping transaction to satisfy the sales order.
  • Matching accounting transactions complete the process

DropShipmentCycle

You can also see technical details for drop ship cycle in my earlier post.

Scenario IV :Planning - WIP Cycle

In the Work In Process cycle after the planning cycle is complete a planned order is released to create a discrete job. Material/components is issued the job or back flushed from inventory. The job is completed from Work In Process to Inventory.

wipcycle

Scenario V : Planning - Outside Processing Cycle

With Outside Processing you could be buying a service, an item or capacity from an outside vendor. The setup for each of these scenarios will be described in the training sessions to follow, however they all follow a similar process. A routing with an outside processing operation is setup.

After the planning cycle is complete a planned order is released to create a discrete job. Once the Discrete job is moved to a outside processing operation, a purchase requisition is triggered. The requisition is imported to Purchasing and a purchase order is created. The details of the discrete job such as job number, assembly number and quantity is tied to the purchase order. The purchase order is sent to the vendor. When the purchase order is received its destination will be shop floor and the assembly will be returned to the next operation on the work order.

OutsideProcessing

This make an end of this discussion. In Next post we will see what are the different subsystem SCM will have and what are the modules which comes under SCM Implementation. Any comment is welcome :)

Posted in EBS Suite, Functional, Oracle Manufacturing | 10 Comments »

Flow ,Discrete & Process manufacturing in ERP ?

Posted on November 10th, 2007 by Sanjit Anand |Print This Post Print This Post |Email This Post Email This Post

This is a very basic question for ERP consultants , what is basic difference into two manufacturing operation : discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing . Lets redefined and understand in simple words:

As we know, in ERP prospective manufacturing operation can be broadly classified into two major category:

  • Flow manufacturing
  • Discrete manufacturing
  • Process manufacturing

arrow upDiscrete Manufacturing

discrateDiscrete manufacturing is distinguished by the production of distinct items that use bills of material and routings to determine costs and lead times.

Examples: Automobile manufacturing, computer manufacturing, dishwasher and washing machine manufacturing, etc .

Typically they follows either a Product, Process or a Combination Layout these layouts can be understood like:

  • Product Layout - Processes come to the product . typical example are Ship Building, Car Assembly Line, PC’s, etc.
  • Process Layout - Products go to Process areas Typical Example are Cabinets and Casings, Sub-assemblies, Rubber Mixing, etc.

Is normally a Product that is “Built Up” from components or sub-assemblies.

A note with Oracle Product
Discrete manufacturing is Oracle Applications method to handle the unique problems in manufacturing equipment, like electronics, medical devices or a complicated assembly like the space shuttle as indicated above.

Discrete manufacturing is based on piece parts that are assembled or machined to make larger assemblies.

Oracle Discrete Manufacturing has a great deal of functionality to manage the Bills of Materials, Routings and Engineering changes that are required to adequately track assembly and cost the finished product.

arrow upFlow Manufacturing
Flow manufacturing is also called Lean Manufacturing or JIT(Just-In-Time) and uses the principles of demand flow manufacturing to produce product is required, for customer orders, quickly and to meet the demand exactly on-time.

Usually, in order to use Flow a company needs to have production facilities that subscribe to the principals of Lean Manufacturing. It is necessary to design production facilities so that production lines, resources, machines, and labor are making only what is needed for immediate customer orders.

arrow up

Process Manufacturing

discrate2Process manufacturing is distinguished by a production approach that has minimal interruptions in actual processing in any one production run, or between production runs of similar products. This approach produces multiple unique products in relatively small batches flowing through different production operations throughout the factory.

They typically follows a Process Layout.

They are normally producing a Product that is “Homogeneous” and equally divided for the convenience of packaging.

Typical examples are Food, pharmaceutical and other batched-based manufacturers such as refineries, wineries, etc .

A Note with Oracle Process Manufacturing
The OPM capabilities allow for multiple units of measure because the flexibility in batch production is required in process industries.

Process manufacturing is used at companies that make products that use formulas, receipts and/or have co-products or by products. Typical users of OPM are manufactures of food products or chemicals that have complex internal processes and need a high level of control.

The OPM capabilities allow for multiple units of measure because the flexibility in batch production is required in process industries.

greWhat makes process manufacturing different from discrete?

Process manufacturing uses formulations or recipes. A discrete manufacturer uses Bills of Materials (BOMs). A discrete manufacturer assembles along a routing, whereas a process manufacturer blends in a batch.Apart from these other difference with other factors are summurized as:

difference

bluWhich come under which category ?

industries

 

 

 

Posted in Beginner, Oracle Manufacturing | 3 Comments »

Page 1 of 11