Digitalization is changing our world in profound ways. Product development cycles are decreasing and delivery models are dramatically evolving. Software-enabled innovations are creating new service-based business models that are replacing existing products and re-ordering industry dynamics seemingly overnight. All kinds of industrial manufacturers have a common characteristic of globally distributed supply networks which is very complex. Process manufacturers these days are facing problems related to high fixed costs and a relatively inflexible manufacturing footprint. Discrete manufacturers also face challenges typically of high demand volatility and short product lifecycles. Therefore, all types of industrial manufacturers are feeling the heat and its imperative that they undergo a transformation to meet the requirements of the digital age.
Existing supply chain planning process of large industrial manufacturers is characterized by rudimentary applications that involve lot of manual data entry and number crunching is an even more tedious task. There is lack of transparency which leads to inconsistencies in data analysis and reporting. As a result, planners and users waste a lot of their time in trying to organize data in the format that's readable and actionable. This leads to increasing costs.
From the earlier disjointed planning systems which had Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Inventory Planning and Sales & Operation Planning operating separately, the need of the hour is to have all the planning systems on a single platform. The day in the life of a planner currently involves analyzing loads of data, modeling multiple scenarios and then acting on recommendations based on their analysis. This is a time consuming process and needs to be run on a single engine so as to assist the planner and make him more responsive. He should be able to simulate and run analytical models with a single click so that decisions can be made efficiently and faster.
Infosys over the years has worked with several Industrial manufacturers and currently many projects are still under way. Infosys consultants have years of experience across multiple client engagements. Infosys has the foundation in place and is ready to help clients navigate to their next. For industrial manufacturers the next step is to have an integrated suite of products with smart dashboards, Intuitive UI's so as to help the planner perform their day to day job efficiently and with minimum hassle of navigating across multiple ERP screens and applications.
|
The Infosys Industrial Manufacturing Solution is the first of its kind, fully integrated and configurable on Cloud which optimizes the day to day tasks and processes for a planner. It assists the planner to accurately do Demand forecasting and schedule the production plans effectively. The Demand & Supply Planning solution is fully configurable for Make-To-Stock, Configure-To-Order, Make-To-Order and OSP related workflows. This solution allows planners to quickly adapt and modify their production plans, sourcing details according to changing demand patterns. The In-built smart dashboards and analytical models help the planner to identify process-related bottlenecks, eliminate waste and optimize production. It operates on the lean principle of supply chain planning of minimizing waste. The Supply Chain planning on Cloud enables the planner to efficiently plan, simulate multiple scenarios with a single click and make decisions at a much much faster pace. Constraint based, capacity based planning can be easily modeled with the help of this solution thereby making other rudimentary applications redundant. For an Industrial manufacturer, the complex one to many bill of materials that is currently being configured across multiple warehouses can be easily modeled in Supply Chain Planning Cloud in the form of a Supply Network wherein multiple 'Make At', 'Buy From' and 'Transfer from' sourcing rules can be configured and assigned to the supply plan with the help of an Assignment set. Thus the configuration of the supply network and supply plan is also an easy task with the step-by-step task pane available. Demand Fulfillment dashboards, Demands-At-Risk and other custom exception messages can be easily configured in this Cloud solution, based on which planner will be able to make decisions faster and more efficiently. Supply Planning can help you simulate multiple business scenarios, be it capacity constraints or demand volatility or even shorter product lifecycles by making the plan flexible and agile..
The Kanban Planning, Min-Max based planning, Service parts planning are already planned to be rolled out in future releases of Oracle Cloud which will further enhance the flexibility of planning central cloud to other process and discrete manufacturers.