The FINANCIAL — Companies around the world are using Oracle Value Chain Planning applications, part of Oracle’s “Information-Driven Value Chain” strategy for supply chain management, to gain a competitive advantage by predicting demand, shaping demand to maximize revenue and profits and aligning their operations with financial goals.
"Companies including Alkan, ArvinMeritor, Auto Windscreens, C&S Wholesale, Inc., Hatfield Quality Meats, Hormel, JDSU, Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oxiteno, Spühl AG and USANA Health Sciences have chosen Oracle Value Chain Planning applications to help lower operating costs and increase performance," Oracle reports.
Across industries, Oracle Value Chain Planning applications are allowing companies to achieve real economic benefits and a fast return on their investment. With these best-in-class solutions, customers are equipped to improve cash flow, profitably balance capacity and supply to drive profitability and transform cost centers to profit centers.
Modern Demand Planning and Forecasting Drive Growth and Profitability
C&S Wholesale, Inc. a nearly $20-billion US-based grocery wholesaler, invested in Oracle’s Demantra Real-Time Sales and Operations Planning to benefit from adaptive, demand-driven planning capabilities and to create a balance between supply and demand.
Previously, this fast-growing wholesaler relied on a largely manual process using simple spreadsheets to create and manage complex daily forecasts.
Relying on Demantra, C&S is able to aggregate sales data and thousands of SKUs twice daily across its 20 different retail chains – more than 5,000 individual stores.
The system incorporates data on holiday demand and seasonal promotions – which drive 50% of the company’s business – as well as price points, store display data, and even the size and placement of advertisements in retailers’ weekly promotional circulars.
“Store-level differences in order patterns are relevant and useful from an analytical perspective only if you know what is driving those variations. Generally speaking, that level of data noise is nearly impossible to rationalize and leverage,” said C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. Senior Director of Procurement Operations, Eric Winn. “Instead, using total shipments by store group – where we have relevant market data – is much more useful and reliable.”
Improving Inventory and Demand Management with Oracle’s Demantra
USANA Health Sciences, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based developer and manufacturer of high-quality nutritionals, personal care and weight management products has implemented Oracle’s Demantra to better manage inventory and respond to demand.
Previously, USANA reviewed and adjusted its inventory forecasts once or twice a year depending on the availability of time and resources. The company lacked inventory visibility and as a result, lost potential revenue, maintained excess inventory and the wrong product mix and faced high obsolescence costs.
Weekly forecast reviews with marketing and operations teams were cumbersome and inconsistent. And, by the time forecasts were ready for approval, the data was outdated and irrelevant.
The company invested in Oracle’s Demantra to enable multiple users across various markets to access, create, manipulate, share, approve and document forecasts.
“With Demantra, we have accurate forecasts and up-to-date information on promotions, pricing and exchange rates, product costs, and customer requests. This helps us effectively manage and maximize our inventory and keep customer satisfaction levels high,” said Gary Carter, Director, Enterprise Resource Planning, USANA Health Sciences.
Automating Production Planning and Execution to Boost Accuracy
Oxiteno is the largest producer of ethylene oxide and derivatives in Latin America. Oxiteno invested in Oracle’s Demantra, Oracle Production Scheduling and Oracle Strategic Network Optimization to complement its company-wide supply chain upgrade which included revamping IT applications to better balance supply with demand and achieve optimized demand forecasting and planning.
Previously, many processes were dispersed in various spreadsheets and internal applications.
After a competitive review of solutions, Oxiteno chose Oracle for the ability to gain greater accuracy and a holistic view into sales demand management and achieve automation in production planning and execution.
“Our distributors and customers are in diverse industries throughout the world and rely on us for their intermediary products. As a result, accurate and automated demand forecasting and planning is critical to our success,” said Oxiteno CIO Antonio Carlos Pereira. “In our business, it is essential to have the infrastructure necessary to adopt best practices for successful supply chain management.”
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