Managing Automation - February 2009 - (Page 43) sage transformation/order automation capability as well as its hosted supply chain services. In deciding whether to trade with a partner/customer on the MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE Elemica platform or continue Here’s a list of capabilities manufacturers must with manual order management have in order to execute perfect orders. processes, Matarese and his 1. Through any channel at any time team evaluate the scope of each 2. Multiple types of stakeholders can project, making sure they un3. Engage in a consistent brand experience by derstand the business processes 4. Selecting the right product or service with in play to gauge whether any 5. The correct quantity and configuration that can be automated without ma6. Meets the acceptable levels of quality for jor modifications. Then the team 7. The stakeholder’s entitled pricing policy evaluates the value proposition 8. Supplied from the agreed-upon sources for DuPont and its partner. 9. Delivered to or installed with the right Once connected electronically customer within with DuPont via the order ex10. An agreed upon period of time to change, the customer submits 11. The correct locations in an order. DuPont validates 12. The most appropriate packaging that whether it can meet the quantity 13. Includes the right documentation over of the product with the re14. The right frequency with quested parameters and, if so, 15. An accurate invoice that can be proceeds with manufacturing 16. Collected and efficiently settled and/or and then the product picking, 17. Returned via any channel for packing, and shipping. The ad18. Warranty claims against defects and/or vance shipping notice is auto19. Scheduled for repair based on matically generated and sent via 20. Agreed upon service contracts. Elemica, followed by the invoice. Source: Forrester Research Still, a large percentage of orISLANDS OF NON-AUTOMATION ders are not automated. While order management software has “Some customers prefer a customer servhelped companies such as CF Industries, ice interaction, so we serve them that way,” some manufacturers are finding there are Matarese says. limitations to automation. For years, DuPont Orders for which there are a number of has worked to automate every aspect of its sourcing options are also processed the oldorder management to accelerate the order-tofashioned way. Sometimes, the customer’s order volume — fewer than 500 “Whenever there are manual touches to an orders per year — order, errors will be a factor and they cost may not justify the inmanagingautomation.com vestment required to money. By removing touches, we minimize connect electronically. RELATED ARTICLES: “Elemica is a play errors.” — DuPont’s Matthew Matarese The Quest for the Perfect Order for order and dollar www.managingautomation.com/perfectorder cash cycle time and eliminate errors caused volume,” Matarese says. E-Commerce: Taming the Beast by manual processing. DuPont has seen improvewww.managingautomation.com/ecommerce “Whenever there are manual touches to ments in its days’ sales outstandDelivering on Promises an order, errors will be a factor, and they cost ing (DSO) per formance. “We www.managingautomation.com/promises money,” says Matthew Matarese, corporate have historically had highly manFew Achieve Shop Floor to Top Floor eBusiness manager for DuPont. “By removing ual-intensive processes that were Integration (A Rare Breed) www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed touches, we minimize the occurrence of ererror-prone due to the volume. rors if we do not eliminate them entirely.” By automating those, we have Exploding the Supply Chain www.managingautomation.com/industries17 But the $29 billion chemical giant has not been able to document some reeliminated manual order management methductions in DSO. They are not COMPANIES MENTIONED: ods altogether — nor will it anytime soon. paying ahead; it’s getting them to Elemica DuPont was one of the founding investors pay according to terms,” he says. www.managingautomation.com/elemica in Elemica, an online order exchange that And cash in the corporate cofSterling Commerce originated in the chemical industry. Accordfers is what order management www.managingautomation.com/sterlingcommerce ing to Matarese, DuPont uses Elemica’s mesis all about. s get an auto-generated electronic notification stating the river location of that specific barge so that the company can get a better idea of when to expect delivery. Richer reporting and visibility have also helped CF Industries. “When we’re updating our sales forecast, we already know what kind of commitments we have on the books,” Dingman says. Users can create “committed tons” reports down to the source, model, and customer level. The Promise project afforded better hard ROI than initially expected. Dingman says, “We eliminated the mainframe. We improved our billing accuracy tremendously. We reduced our cost in specialized forms. We had some staff reductions in billing and order processing. There were some IT staff reductions. We have become more proactive with the utilization of our sales staff.” More than 375 internal staff and external CF Industries customers have been trained and are using Promise. More than 60% of all orders are processed electronically, with more than half of the balance being entered directly into Promise by CF’s customers. Dingman expects that percentage to increase this year with several e-connectivity projects already under way. list check maonline 43 February 2009 http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/perfectorder http://www.managingautomation.com/ecommerce http://www.managingautomation.com/promises http://www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed http://www.managingautomation.com/industries17 http://www.managingautomation.com/elemica http://www.managingautomation.com/sterlingcommerce
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