Managing Automation - April 2008 - (Page 32)

[ TRANSFORMATION ] Transformation Integration TechWatch ment tools from ERP vendors.” One of the reasons for that resurgence, Tohamy says, is that demand planning tools such as SAP’s APO, though continuing to add functionality, still come up short when it comes to supporting the kind of advanced, industry-specific capabilities that manufacturers facing increased supply chain complexity require. Best-of-breed vendor Terra Technology, for example, has attracted large manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup, to its realtime demand sensing and inventor y planning tools, which process lots of point-of-sale data and analyze changing demand trends in near real time. That capability, Tohamy says, is proving particularly popular with consumer product manufacturers that increasingly are able to access POS data from large retailers such as Wal-Mart. Other best-of-breed tool vendors are specializing in different types of advanced functionality. Like Terra, Prescient Applied Intelligence’s tools allow CPG manufacturers to quickly analyze POS data for demand trends. Prescient’s tools also let manufacturers analyze and predict the impact of store promotions on demand. Smart Software Inc.’s SmartForecasts tool includes algorithms that enable manufacturers to understand intermittent demand managingautomation.com for products such as high value, low-demand parts. And vendors RELATED ARTICLES: Beating the Odds in Global Supply such as Kinaxis and Logility spewww.managingautomation.com/globalsupply cialize in helping manufacturers Cultivating Supply Chains and their supply chain partners www.managingautomation.com/cultivating to collaborate on the creation Terra Technology: Removing Supply and execution of demand and Chain Guesswork supply plans. www.managingautomation.com/guesswork “Many of the tools from ERP vendors still don’t quite match COMPANIES MENTIONED: up with this kind of functionality,” i2 AMR’s Tohamy says. www.managingautomation.com/i2 Industries maonline Kinaxis www.managingautomation.com/Kinaxis Logility www.managingautomation.com/Logility Oracle www.managingautomation.com/Oracle3 Prescient Applied Intelligence www.managingautomation.com/Prescient SAP www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 Smart Software Inc. www.managingautomation.com/SmartSoftware Supply Chain Consultants www.managingautomation.com/SCC Terra Technology www.managingautomation.com/Terra PLAYS WELL WITH ERP At the same time, analysts say, manufacturers selecting best-ofbreed tools around which to revamp demand management processes don’t give up much when it comes to integration with ERP. Demand Planner from i2, for example, has long integrated with a wide range of ERP order management and other modules, as well as supply chain planning tools used to generate constrained forecasts and plans. This is not to suggest that ERP vendors such as SAP and Oracle have stood still on demand planning tool functionality. SAP, for example, recently added algorithms to APO that help with creating forecasts based on POS data. And APO now integrates with SAP’s Business Warehouse, making it easier for users to tap into a wide range of transactional data generated by SAP’s ERP and other systems, says Stefan Theis, SAP’s vice president for solution management. SAP now claims 2,000 customers for APO. Many of them, Theis says, are large, global manufacturing enterprises that are using the tool as a platform to drive common, enterprise-wide demand and supply management processes. Oracle, meanwhile, has taken a different approach to beefing up its demand management functionality. The company in 2006 acquired best-of-breed demand management tool vendor Demantra and has been gradually integrating the tool with its E-Business Suite, JD Edwards Enterprise One, and PeopleSoft ERP suites. In November 2007, for example, the company rolled out a sales and operations planning module that draws information from Demantra and EBS to help manufacturers understand demand and create optimized plans for meeting demand. At the same time, however, Oracle has continued to aggressively market Demantra as a standalone, best-of-breed product, independent of Oracle’s ERP suites. In so doing, says John Bermudez, senior director for supply chain planning product strategy, Oracle has been able to cash in on the resurgent interest in best-of-breed demand planning tools. “Stand-alone sales have exceeded many times what we were able to do before,” Bermudez says. “Customers are no longer concerned with the viability of a product from a small company.” And best-of-breed demand management tools have one other big advantage over tools from ERP vendors, manufacturers say: They are often far less expensive. That’s what Printronix’s Inscore found out when he went to look for a tool to automate the largely manual processes, particularly around the company’s spare parts and consumable products. Deploying Smart Software’s SmartForecasts allowed Printronix to apply a variety of forecasting techniques to better understand and predict demand. That has resulted in better master schedules and a $1.5 million reduction in inventory last year. Plus, Inscore says, the Smart Software tools were significantly less expensive than SAP APO. Printronix, an SAP ERP user, estimated that APO would have cost “in the low six figures” to deploy. “Cost was definitely part of our decision to go best-of-breed,” Inscore says. s ma April 32 2008 http://managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/globalsupply http://www.managingautomation.com/cultivating http://www.managingautomation.com/guesswork http://www.managingautomation.com/i2 http://www.managingautomation.com/Kinaxis http://www.managingautomation.com/Logility http://www.managingautomation.com/Oracle3 http://www.managingautomation.com/Prescient http://www.managingautomation.com/SAP3 http://www.managingautomation.com/SmartSoftware http://www.managingautomation.com/SCC http://www.managingautomation.com/Terra

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - April 2008

Managing Automation - April 2008 Contents Take 1 Camstar to Introduce Software that Combines Quality, MES, and Intelligence SAP Revamps Maintenance, Raises Fees 29% New TAGSYS Chief Sees Opportunity in Broader Approach Siemens Turns to Security Weaver for Compliance Supply Chain Company Takes Next Step in U.S. Notes Cover Story: The Long Climb Special Report - Undertanding Enterprise Performance Management Caught Between Supply and Demand Taking Off the Blindfold No Room for Error Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.