Latest SCM applications help companies meet global demands

Developed with extensive input from Oracle customers spanning numerous industries and sizes, the new Oracle Supply Chain Management 11i.10 helps companies meet evolving supply chain management challenges, eliminate waste, comply with government regulations, improve standards-based collaboration and increase profitable growth.

"Our supply chain impacts every facet of our daily business operations and, ultimately, corporate goals, including providing unparalleled customer service, increasing revenue growth opportunities, and streamlining our major supply and demand processes," said Robert Moon, CIO and vice president of Information Services at ViewSonic Corporation. "We are very interested in the latest release of Oracle Supply Chain Management and believe it will play a critical role as we deploy advanced business initiatives, such as RFID-enabled inventory management, global order fulfillment processes, and new customer relationship and partner relationship management capabilities, to support our overall corporate objectives."

Global Growth

Facing increasing cost pressures and shrinking margins, companies continue to outsource supply chain operations to regions around the globe. In order to effectively coordinate key supply chain activities such as manufacturing and fulfillment across multiple geographies, key decision makers must have accurate visibility into regional customer forecasts, inventory levels, and resource utilisation, among other constraints. Failure to coordinate extended partners in the supply chain can lead to costly inventory gluts or shortfalls, missed shipments, poor resource utilisation and missed sales.

Oracle Supply Chain Management 11i.10 includes new global capabilities that help companies create truly open supply chains for better collaboration and data exchange, while supporting all currencies, languages and time zones. New functionality includes:

*International drop shipment capabilities for helping companies meet customer demands quickly and cost-effectively, regardless of physical location;

*Enhanced global forecasting capabilities that coordinate demand planning activities across extended supply chain partners and all geographic locations; and,

*Mobile supply chain functionality to bring wireless capabilities to the entire supply chain, connecting all departments, trading partners and geographies.

Managing Supply Chain Risk and Compliance

New government mandates focused on corporate accountability and financial transparency, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, influence every aspect of business operations, including the supply chain. Oracle Supply Chain Management 11i.10 helps companies manage risk and compliance in the supply chain by monitoring and managing complete business activity across the enterprise. New capabilities include:

*Expanded electronic signatures and records capabilities supporting compliance with 21 CFR Part 11. The new functionality provides better control, information and flexibility, while supporting over 80 business events across process and discrete manufacturing, bill of materials, inventory, purchasing, quality, recipe management, and shipping;

*RFID-enabled transactions to automatically track inventory movement throughout the supply chain for improved visibility, security and decision making capabilities;

*Integration with Oracle Internal Controls Manager to closely monitor and manage all transactions throughout the supply chain, helping ensure compliance with corporate governance policies;

*Quote management and version control to help companies increase flexibility in delivering against customer demand, while maintaining compliance with business practices;

*Liability analysis for generating an accurate up-to-date analysis of corporate exposure to inventory and work in process risk; and,

*Freight payment and auditing to help shippers accurately account for, and avoid overpaying, for third-party transportation services.

Enabling the Lean Enterprise

Because of its ability to eliminate waste and inefficiencies across the supply chain, companies continue to explore "lean" techniques for all facets of supply chain operations, including manufacturing, order fulfillment, procurement, and maintenance, among others. In a manufacturing environment, for example, Oracle Supply Chain Management helps companies control product production, cost and quality for minimised risks from overproduction. New lean capabilities include:

*Scarce inventory allocation for fulfilling orders to maximize corporate profitability;

*LPN and lot/serial receiving to help reduce labor costs by improving labor resource utilization in the warehouse;

*Catch weight support to help companies accurately measure and price variable order sizes and amounts; and,

*Lot specific costing to enable companies to accurately account for and measure cost variability in production output.

"The latest release of Oracle Supply Chain Management will help companies take advantage of the great ROI opportunities associated with creating collaborative global operations, enabling a lean enterprise and managing compliance and risk," said Don Klaiss, senior vice president of Oracle Supply Chain Management. "In addition, companies can take advantage of the thousands of new capabilities to solve challenges unique to their own industries, such as high tech, healthcare and industrial manufacturing."