ED HAYES

Many of my potential clients are looking for consultants that have experience implementing Oracle r12, and therefore I decided to install Oracle r12 to learn all of its new features.  I will have to buy a PC, download Oracle and Windows Server 2003, and install them both.  Then, who knows what I will need to learn to start using Oracle r12.  This task is daunting, but I know I will learn a lot!

I will be using this website as my guide.

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I was sent a message on LinkedIn from a gentleman requesting my input on their planning methods. As I was writing my response, I thought that it would be of benefit to other people, so I am posting the question and response here. Click “read more” below to read the entire question and response.

Question:

We both share the Supply Chain group on linkedin.I understand you have experience in Demand Planning & Forecasting. We at the IBF – Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning are currently researching what companies are doing to manage their inventory, reduce operating costs, improve customer retention & fulfillment in this volatile market? Especially, when history can no longer be an indication of future outcome. It would be great if you could share some thoughts on what your company is doing to remain competitive and preserve cash. Furthermore, do you feel executives are recognizing the important of demand planning & forecasting, more so now than ever before? And if so, are they only looking for technology as the quick fix, or improving processes from your viewpoint? Of course, we see pursuing technology without having proper processes in place to be dangerous.

So far, we’re seeing companies paying more attention to forecasting for items with higher value only, and doing it at shorter interval. We’re also seeing companies truly leveraging their S&OP processes, as well as their POS and Syndicated data to make better planning decisions from having a clearer picture of consumer behavior at any given time.

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I am on a slightly new project at work now. I have been working heavily on my old project getting labels applied to units of board by hand and all that goes with that in our ERP system. Now I am working with plants that have a lot of robotics get these labels applied and ERP transactions performed automatically. The plant I am at now in Norfolk Virginia is one of USG’s newest plants, well, newest board lines. Since it is so new, it has pretty much the most robotics of any of our plants, so that is really neat. We are scheduled to turn the board line on within a month, and we need to have our labeler all set by then. I am the one that is responsible to get the labeler online and transacting by the time the board line gets started.

The picture above is the printer (Zebra 170PAX4) that is part of the whole labeling system. I don’t have a picture of the entire machine, but it is really quite amazing.