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Oracle Corp. plans to announce on Thursday several major enhancements to its Supply Chain Management module, which will be part of the Oracle E-Business Suite 11i Release 8 due next month.
There are more than 1,000 new capabilities in the supply chain area, as well as upgrades to the E-Business Suites customer relationship management, finance and human resources software, according to Oracle officials, in Redwood Shores, Calif.
The Supply Chain Module upgrade
Built on a configurable, rules-driven architecture that can adapt to a companys business processes, the new Warehouse Management module supports directed picking and putting away, automated task management, license plates, task interleaving, cartonization and mobile/RF devices for better accuracy.
Version 11i 8s Transportation module helps companies prepare and monitor shipments using a rules-based carrier selection feature, track and trace capabilities and integrated freight rating, according to Oracle officials, in Redwood Shores, Calif.
Upgrades to the Service Management module include two field engineer optimization products: Advanced Scheduler and Mobile & Wireless Field Service. The former automatically optimizes field service engineer assignments based on skills, geographic location and parts availability; while the latter enables service engineers to send and receive information and handle exceptions using wireless devices.
At the same time Oracles Service Management software includes service parts logistics capabilities that schedules the movement of parts between field engineers and a warehouse.
In the area of supply chain collaboration, new software capabilities are included in Oracles Collaborative Planning, Collaborative Sourcing and Collaborative Manufacturing modules.
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Collaborative Planning enables companies to share inventory levels, identify supply and demand mismatches and see supply constraints through a common portal thats integrated with Oracles Advanced Planning software. Now fully integrated with the E-Business Suite, Collaborative Planning links sourcing, procurement and intelligence and provides negotiating tools the likes of Internet auctions, RFX support and supplier score carding.
The Collaborative Manufacturing module is enhanced to include collaboration capabilities between suppliers and contract manufacturers in the production of configurable products. With the upgrade manufacturing partners can exchange schedules, material availability, capacity, quality results, shipments and invoices from a common portal.
The SCM upgrade also includes Oracles Daily Business Intelligence module. In the past Oracle has had transaction reporting and analytical applications that run off separate databases. Daily Business Intelligence is based on the same technology as is Oracles 9iR2 database. This provides role-based management reporting and portals which can be built, automated and installed in the same database as the transaction management system. In the past, separate data warehouses had to be implemented, Oracle officials said.
With Daily Business Intelligence, Oracle is delivering out-of-the-box roles-based reporting and management tools in 12 separate business areas: executive, profit center management, cost center management, procurement, manufacturing, order management, shipping and receiving, inventory, contracts, project management, marketing and sales.