Oracle Value Chain Planning

1)                                    Introduction

Context: To deal with the changes of new age economy and global competition, one of the topmost priorities for every organization is to transform their supply chain, transform their supply chains in such a manner that any waste in the entire process can be reduced to minimum and the value derived out of the chain is optimized. The supply chain management strategy is moving towards the evolution from supply chain to “Value Chains”. Each and every logical, functional and operational point in the supply chain should add value, support the larger organizational goal and the end result should be passed on to the customer. Organizations are looking for their flexible, holistic and integrated Supply chain's and these chains should not only address the operational aspects of order fulfillment, order management and inventory management but should align with all the three key operational pillars; Demand, Supply and Product.

In our regular discussions with customers we have found the following as some of the core areas of concern in their supply chains:

Ø  Extremely large number of many manufacturing units separated geographically and information divided in Silo systems.

Ø   Multi tier distribution network

Ø   Which model is better, Built to stock or direct ship?

Ø   Extremely high Time to market.

Ø   supply chain risk

Ø  Lack of flexibility to demand volatility

Definition: Value Chain Planning (VCP) is Comprehensive solution bringing together planning, optimization and analytics into a single framework. VCP helps organizations to create flexible supply chains which can work proactively and cushion organizations from variations in demand. Value chain solutions follow a modular approach and can be implemented in an incremental fashion enabling organizations to resolve their key problems first, all the products in the VCP domain built upon on the foundation established by a prior companion product. This relay approach actually helps organizations built over the work already done, avoiding any throw away and providing highest Return on investments. Value Chain Planning consists of the following products:

Suite	Description
Advanced Planning Command Center
Advanced Supply Chain Planning
Collaborative Planning
Rapid Planning
Global Order Promising
Inventory Optimization
Manufacturing Operations Center
Production Scheduling
Rapid Planning
Service Parts Planning
Strategic Network Optimization

Key Features

Oracle has done a pretty decent job in addressing the needs of a modern day Supply chain management customer and creating innovative peripheral solutions which actually align with their strategic goals and fulfill key requirements. Oracle's Value chain planning (VCP) suite of products enables companies to efficiently design, plan, and service their value chains from factory to shelf, these solutions for Supply chain management are built on a common foundation and leverages pre-built integration with leading ERP solutions including (Oracle eBusiness Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Lawson or even SAP) and non ERP systems and work as engines of growth for the organization. VCP supports both Oracle and Non-Oracle systems and can be deployed across an organization in an incremental manner, this phased approach and the ability to deliver in a short period of time actually reduces the time to value and maximizes Return on investment.

One of the key features of VCP is that customers can deploy it gradually without the need to build integrations or without the fear of getting stuck in a chosen model. for example Customers can start with Collaborative Planning at any point and not lose out at the end as all planning components work seamlessly together, they will gain biggest benefits when deploying all modules but can be assured that when that is not feasible (from a scope or investment) right away, it will all work in an integrated fashion at the end.  Once any of Oracle Value Chain Planning products is implemented, each additional implementation leverages what has been done before, so that the future implementations can often be faster and at a lower deployment cost.

VCP supports the following planning functions inside an organization. 

 

Architecture: The following figure show Value Chain Planning Architecture

 

The key components of VCP are as follows:

Operational Data Store

Planning data from Source systems such as ERP, Legacy systems can be collected and stored in an plan centric Operational data store. As plans are created, modified and executed each plan and its data is stored as planning data. This data can be accessed directly using OBIEE which is deployed directly against the VCP data model source.

Planner Workbenches

Planner workbenches are used for specific planning purposes; various planning scenarios can be developed and executed using the planner workbenches.

OBIEE

OBIEE provides hundreds of dashboards and related scenario management for a 360 degree analysis across various plans. These dashboards are also available via APCC.

Web Portal

The overarching Web Portal, provided by APCC, adds components to capture information otherwise not available by planning runs but are key to planning decisions (various reports such a suppliers info, procurement details, inventory stock and financials reports). This web portal provides features such as workspaces, wiki forums, scenario portals and universal work list.