Business Lean

Omnichannel and Supply Chain Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 22:59:00 +0000

Omnichannel has become the buzzword of the moment for retail supply chains.

Recently, four hundred retail CEOs were surveyed by PwC, for a study commissioned by JDA Software. The survey is titled “Retail’s New Imperative: Supply Chain Optimization as a Growth Strategy.” The study revealed a large number of these retail CEOs reporting that their supply chains were not optimized to support the new omnichannel.

When Ultriva was at the Netsuite SuiteWorld convention in May this year, NetSuite rolled out seamless omnichannel software, with frequent suggestions and hints that if without such technology adoption in the business model, competitors would soar past the laggards.

Omnichannel can be loosely described as multiple shopping avenues for consumers. No longer will a simple brick and mortar store do. This customer driven demand puts heightened pressure on a supply chain.

This retail report made headlines in the supply chain blogosphere for the number of companies not optimized for online shopping. Eighty-three percent of CEOs believe their supply chains are not optimized to meet omnichannel demands. Further analysis of the CEO remarks said that plans for growing revenue included expansion into new markets, opening more stores, and growth through mergers and acquisitions. This traditional, way of thinking suggests that these CEOs fail to put omnichannel in the future strategy putting the long-term health of their business enterprise in peril, echoing NetSuite’s sentiments.

The percentage of respondents who believed their supply chain was optimized for omnichannel improved among the top 250 companies. Those larger organizations, geared for multi-faceted retailing to the end-user customer have already made changes to the supply chain; they are active, reactive, and reaping the benefits.

One company quoted in the study was Footlocker. Ken Hicks, President and CEO of Foot Locker, said “We’re making it (supply chain) more responsive and faster. We are looking at new ideas and new ways to distribute goods, not just to get them to the store, but also to the customer.”

Further data analysis reveals a disconnection between retailers’ plans to expand into new markets to drive opportunities and failure to realize the importance of supply chain optimization in helping to drive profitable growth. Two-thirds of respondents did not see a connection between the two, noted Hicks.

With margins growing razor thin, supply chain professionals must take a comprehensive, omnichannel look at their supply chain to reduce inventory, costs, and streamline productivity. The best way to do that is with supply chain management software that enables execution on actionable items. It may start with a demand driving portal or a supplier portal. It must be real-time, online 24/7, and take all inventory issues into consideration whether purchase in-person at a brick and mortar location or online at 3am. In the words of Thomas “Fats” Waller, “Find out what they like, and how they like it, and let ‘em have it just their way.”

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website. Contact us if you would like to learn more about Ultriva's supply chain solutions.

Reducing Supply Chain Costs Starts With Supply Chain Visibility

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 17:12:00 +0000

Everyone in the manufacturing industry wants to reduce inventory costs; easier said than done and there is no magic bullet. Simultaneously there is little appetite for inventory reduction solutions with a big price tag. The closest any manufacturer can get to the magic is supply chain visibility.

Recently, the Social Supply Chain website published “12 Ways Visibility Can Reduce Your Supply Chain Costs.” The article focused on the most common ways visibility can reduce supply chain costs. Before launching into the dozen methods suggested, definition of terms were required: specifically supply chain visibility. The authors suggested having accurate and timely data about the status and location of materials in the supply chain” was the central definition and to reduce supply chain costs using visibility, it recommended that visibility of parts “in-production, in-transit, or on-hand” was essential.

Supply chain visibility is needed to achieve manufacturers’ goal of saving money quickly and inexpensively.

Ultriva’s take on supply chain visibility

Provide a single version of truth: All partners get access to data in real time. This does not mean supply chain partners get access to a manufacturer’s ERP or MRP systems. Instead, partners are permitted to view their piece of the supply chain puzzle; the company sees the whole completed picture. Visibility to all orders allows suppliers to proactively respond to abnormal fluctuations in demand, which will…

End Stock outs: Poor visibility often results in parts shortages. Frustrated manufacturers report having no idea they were down to the last box of parts. The result is expensive, using faster shipping methods to get the part back on the shop floor. A real time view of parts on hand allows a supply chain manager to take action before there is a stock out, eliminating expedited fees.

Reduce Inventory. Most supply chain professionals would say inventory reduction is a “no-brainer” to save money. They would also say reduce at your own peril. To stock out of a part, no matter how small, causes production to grind to a halt and resuming production a steep price. This fear-based reaction to the possibility of stocking out, causes many manufacturing companies to carry “safety stock.” Even the name implies safety from stock outs. Most companies have no idea how much of a buffer is in the warehouse and how much it costs in stock and expensive carrying costs. Utilizing an accurate inventory reports how quickly a manufacturer can resupply and reduce on hand stock.

Reduce unnecessary labor. When supply chain planners rely on forecasts from a MRP system, the forecast often gets out of alignment, requiring augmented spreadsheets. The updated information must be communicated and verified with supply chain partners. All these unnecessary work processes are eliminated with a cloud-based portal that allows all partners to view in real time what shipments are needed, if they were shipped, and when they will arrive in the warehouse.

Real time visibility corroborates when orders are sent, received, and shipped, allowing a supply chain planner to see which suppliers are doing a good job, and which are not. Reports are easily run to measure supplier ship dates viewed and shared buyer and supplier. There is no reason to wait for a supplier review, both parties can see how a supplier is doing, and identify areas of improvement.

Companies can also reduce labor meeting compliance issues, as visibility allows for data to be collected and reported accurately.

Bottom-line: visibility into the supply chain is the magic bullet and when shared with supply chain partners, will result in cost savings.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

Eliminating Excess Warehouse Inventory Through Right Sizing Demand Driven Production

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 18:27:00 +0000

Warehouse’s inventory at an all-time high, choosing a location for storage is tougher than ever. Demand for space is causing prices to go up, and manufacturers want to make sure they are still getting top notch service, especially when expenditures are higher than previous levels. DC Velocity reported U.S. warehousing costs spiked in 2013 as retailers, enticed by low interest rates and inventory carrying

The report said 2013 warehousing costs increased 5.6 percent over 2012 levels as rising inventories filled all available capacity. Demand for peak-season space in last year's fourth quarter reached the highest level on record, according to the report. The U.S. industrial vacancy rate ended the year at 8 percent, down from 8.9 percent in 2012, the report said. The report found that warehouse demand was triggered by manufacturers' and retailers' forecasts that economic activity would be more robust than it turned out to be. As hopes for a strong holiday buying season failed to materialize, the supply chain was left with excess inventories and an over-investment in warehouse space.

Asset-based warehousing argues that backed by an LTL infrastructure, all distribution solutions are available without having to bring in a third party, offering a quality warehousing solution backed by great customer service and millions of square footage of space. While it may be a solution after-the-fact, the better solution is to carry inventory based a demand pull avoiding the need to carry expensive unsold inventory. While there warehouse solutions even when the market is strained, end to end pull e-Kanban loops are a better predictive index.

For a decade Ultriva supply chain solutions have synchronized demand-driven manufacturing processes at lower costs and heighted productivity. This real-time SaaS manufacturing software prioritizes the entire order-to-delivery cycle via promoting continuous process improvement. Creating dynamic scheduling, workflow on the shop floor, maximizing throughput, on-time delivery, the ability to manage supply replenishment eliminates excess inventory.

Production priorities are arranged based on changes in demand, without supply chain professionals having to use supplementary emails or telephone calls to alert production modifications. These adaptive demand-driven solutions are automatic, enterprise-wide, and seamless. There is no need to build and update production schedules because orders in the system calculate materials and production availability and constraints. Visibility ensures accurate order and the production team, supply management, customer service, sales and leadership work from one version of the truth.

Production reporting offers analytical tools and real-time data to track, predict, and improve the performance of all operational functions. The cost of maintaining excess inventory will grow more expensive, especially for the small or mid-sized manufacturer competing for the same finite space as larger companies. The only sure way to maintain the margin of products delivered is to minimize and mitigate excess inventory.

Request an Inventory Optimization Assessment and use our free Inventory Optimization Tool to see how much excess inventory you are carrying, and how to “right-size” your inventory.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

Adopting Cloud-Based Supply Chain Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 19:35:00 +0000

Recently, Supply Chain Brain (SCB) published, “A Forecast for the Cloud in Supply Chain and Logistics.” Tom Boike, VP of supplier management with UPS, offered his perspective regarding the impact of cloud technology on the supply chain and logistics industry.

We can all agree cloud technology is affecting today’s supply chain. Web-based supply chain software allows for real-time collaboration among supply partners, greatly trumping static MRP and ERP forecasts. Like Boike, my team and I at Ultriva often wonder why companies have yet to fully embrace the cloud. Boike maintains that many remain unconvinced that cloud-based software is secure and reliable. That cautionary hesitancy seems peculiar when so many people, supply chain professional included, think nothing of using the internet for online banking or rely on the phones to conduct business emails.

The SBC article states that “change” is the biggest barrier to adoption of supply chain cloud technology. A secondary concern is getting “all partners in the chain to participate.”

Change resistance is a powerful force even in large manufacturing corporations, even when faced with severe supply chain pains. Without evaluating the nuances of corporate culture, organizations get caught up in status quo thinking justifying such archaic practice fearing that any change to current business practices will cause a disruption, resulting in lost time and money. This fear-based approach is totally antithetical to lean best practices and counter-intuitive, since cloud-based software can be implemented quickly, without needing physical plant changes. Since Ultriva’s supply chain execution software easily integrates with existing ERP solutions, disruptions are minimized. Elements of Ultriva’s closed-loop system can be added gradually, lessening the reliance on MRP forecasts.

Secondly, getting outside suppliers to adopt cloud-based technologies. The very nature of Ultriva’s web-based software does not require that all suppliers buy new hardware or install any new programs. In fact, the IT department does not have to get involved. Suppliers simply need a computer with an internet connection. As they log into the Supplier Portal and acknowledge purchase orders or shipment of goods, all parties can see the data in real time via the web. Ultriva software also allows printing of shipping labels with standard existing printers (further optimizing supply chain processes without investing in hardware.) With these cloud-based solutions, improved buyer and supplier visibility is achieved, and processes can be automated. Managing the supply chain through email, spreadsheets, and faxes is thing of the past.

Boike stresses that organizations adopting cloud-based technologies realize substantial benefits. Many of today’s supply chains are global; almost all manufacturing companies are extending beyond the four walls of the factory. This added complexity to the supply chain is well-suited to cloud technology which provides “a higher level of connectivity and visibility" – essential qualities for complex global operations. Disciples of lean manufacturing and continuous process improvement practices use real-time data to further advance these best practice principles.

Cloud-based supply chain software main benefit is real time visibility; the result is a reduction in bloated inventory while ensuring inventories do not create a stock-out. Real time visibility with the ability to act on the data ensures companies are well on the way to using cloud-based technologies beneficially.

To read more, get our free whitepaper "The Case for Cloud-based Supply Chain Management Today.”

Posted by Narayan Laksham Founder and CEO of Ultriva. This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website,

How to Manage 3PLs

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 17:52:00 +0000

Third party logistics providers (3PL) offer a variety of services, but the primary function of these organizations can be summarized as providing transportation, warehousing, and management of inventory for another company. Some companies handle inventory on consignment. Consignment stock is often defined as inventory owned by one party (in this case the “Supplier”), but held by another (the “3PL”). This risk rests with the first party, and do not get paid until the goods are sold (in this case the third player, the manufacturing “Company”).

Nandu Gopalun, a Project Manager at Ultriva since 2000 has visited more than a hundred plants around the world and implemented Ultriva software in more than sixty plants. Gopalun is actively involved in Lean Factory Management and Collaborative Supplier Portal system design, development and deployment and recently shared the three most common problems in managing 3PL warehouses:

inventory accuracy
supplier visibility on the consigned material
managing excess inventory returned from the plants

Major complexity arises for the company when the 3PL transfers a full lot to the assembly line and the company only needs one piece. Who pays the Supplier? Who is keeping track? Most of the time consumption of a whole inventory lot by the Company might take several days depending on how it is packaged. Who owns the inventory at this point? It is a daunting task for the 3PLs to keep track of company-owned inventories and supplier-owned inventories.

Ultriva software solves this problem of visibility. Ultriva architecture establishes a series of interconnected loops, standardizes receiving processes, standardizes material pick process, and standardizes shipping process for the 3PL material handler and receivers. Typically Ultriva recommends a closed-loop between the external Supplier and 3PL warehouse and multiple loops between the assembly lines and 3PL warehouse. A closed-loop system guarantees no part gets lost; a direct, traceable line is created that can be seen by anyone at any point of the parts’ lifetime. Multiple loops have the same closed-loop visibility, yet allows anyone to adjust the amount of parts being used depending on need.

For handling the traceability of consigned parts, Ultriva software pulls a list called “The Gross Requirement” from the company’s MRP, and then publishes this list to the supplier. Suppliers can log in to the cloud-based Ultriva Portal and get the Gross Requirement list and ship the goods based on the list to the 3PL warehouse.

At the warehouse, 3PLs receive the inventory and navigate to the RTS (Receive To Stock) screen; this is a simple data entry screen to input the data. The data the 3PL receiver inputs includes the packing slip (Mandatory) and the tracking number. Next the 3PL receivers create and print individual labels per pallet/box/skid or container and place the label appropriately.

As the containers are put away in the warehouse, the label is scanned to log where the inventory is stored. The supplier now has visibility when that shipment was received, who received it, and who put it away. The supplier knows whether the part has been received or is still waiting in the receiving dock, what quantity the 3PL received, how much inventory the 3PL has on-hand, and where the parts are located. There is no need for the supplier to visit the warehouse to check for the parts.

Accuracy for inventory in assured; when the 3PL delivers the inventory to the company’s assembly line, the label is again scanned. The receipt and correct packing slip is automatically transmitted to the Ultriva software and to the company’s ERP. The packing slip number will match the supplier’s packing slip number and the loop is closed. This standard process brings accuracy to the inventory.

The last problem 3PLs experience is handling returned inventory. Ultriva solves this problem by allowing the company or the 3PL receiver to create and print a unique label for every return tagged as “POL” (Plant owned Inventory). The inventory is returned and the label scanned. This allows the supplier to see how much inventory is owned by the company in the 3PL warehouse.

There is secondary loop between multiple assembly lines/sub assembly lines/kitting or repacking area. This can either be a Kanban (pull signal) or schedule based replenishment (which is based on assembly line lay in process.)

One of Ultriva’s customers gets orders based on assembly line lay in, they schedule it for every two to four hours. This makes assembly lines run smoothly with no extra inventory on the line. As soon as the line changes to the next finished goods SKU, any unused inventory is returned to the 3PL warehouse.

The three major problems in managing inventory between 3PL, suppliers and manufacturing companies are solved with a collaborative software portal that all parties use. This real time inventory visibility allows complete accuracy, whether the inventory is at the warehouse, on a dock being used in the assembly line, or sent back to the supplier.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website. Contact us if you would like to learn more about Ultriva's supply chain solutions.

Global Manufacturing Report Highlights Supply Chain Visibility Challenges

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:19:00 +0000

Recently, Forbes and KPMG International released a survey on manufacturing entitled ‘The 2014 Global Manufacturing Outlook: Performance in the Crosshairs.” The report is based on interviews with 460 senior manufacturing executives around the world.

The report contained four key findings:

Manufacturers plan to invest in enhancing processes which increase profits
Organizations will increase R&D spending, including outside collaborations and leveraging technology
Supply Chain visibility remains a challenge.
Manufacturers want to achieve a globally integrated supply chain and share real-time information with suppliers

The last two points of the report regarding supply chain visibility and sharing real-time data are the challenges that Ultriva is uniquely positioned to address. To quote the survey, “Supply chain transparency and visibility remain a key challenge for manufacturers.” The report notes that forty percent (40%) of manufacturers lack visibility across the extended supply chain; double from last year. Visibility it is imperative and manufacturing company executives need to make visibility their number one mandate. These data demonstrate an awareness that visibility is needed to optimize the supply chain and that the lack of real-time, shared data is hurting the bottom-line.

The survey also points out that a third of the respondents believe that lack of supply chain visibility was a direct result of inadequate IT systems. KMPG analysts suggested this lack of visibility stems from the “inside the four walls of the factory” focus. With the increase of global supply chains, manufacturing companies must break outside the four walls mentality; otherwise this lack of visibility will continue to drive less impressive stakeholder bottom-line results. The solution is a cloud-based software that gives all parties (suppliers and buyers) real-time actionable data.

The Forbes KPMG report suggest that manufacturers willing to share real-time data with suppliers made significant gains in supply chain visibility and actionable business data. This represents an important paradigm shift. Understandably manufacturing companies did not want to give access to MRP system information and data to those outside the four walls, there was no need and it was confidential. Outside the four walls and with cloud-based supply chain management software can show only the data supply chain partners need to see to produce best-practices, lean mandates, and partner well with the manufacturing company.

There is good news in the report noting that supply chain visibility in the manufacturing sector has increased in the last twelve months alone. The data suggests that about twenty percent (20%) today claim to have full visibility compared to just nine percent in 2013. This trend will continue, yet offers little consolation to those manufacturing enterprises not currently collaborating in real-time and experiencing shrinking profitability.

A globally integrated supply chain will be achieved within the next three to five years represent the opinion of the majority of respondents. These optimistic perceptions correspond to those who report using global demand planning and other technologies in their supply chain currently. More than three-quarters suggested that relationships with top tier suppliers, is now strong enough for them to share real-time capacity and demand data. It is in the beast interests of all that data be shared across the supply chain, all suppliers all the time.

Smart manufacturing companies are starting to realize that the supply chain can be optimized by sharing data and moving beyond the walls of the proverbial factory. I will leave you with one last thought. Organizations that continue “to optimize their processes in near real-time will reap significant rewards, such as dramatically reduced working capital and lower exposure to risk. Those that are not able to harness their data in this way will be at a major competitive disadvantage,” stated Mark Toon, CEO of KMPG, a report sponsor.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

Accessing Inventory Savings via Simulation

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 19:14:00 +0000

Manufacturing companies must uncover opportunities to reduce inventory to stay competitive. One way to reduce excess inventory (without the risk of stocking-out of important parts) is to determine an optimal replenishment cycle. This can be done by identifying which parts would benefit from an eKanban loop replenishment system.

An effective way to determine optimal replenishment for inventory is by a computer simulation of historical inventory data. First, assessing inventory savings (via simulation or any other method) requires that the definitions of all measures are presented in a mutually understood Supply Chain Analyst Dashboard.

What to Measure

Accurate inventory analysis requires measurements including consumption volume, actual on-hand inventory for each day based on current replenishment methodology, and projected on-hand inventory for each day. This last element is a scenario process as if an eKanban replenishment methodology were already utilized. Using historical data, the simulation identifies realized and foregone inventory savings, while simultaneously predicting future part shortages based on anticipated manufacturing activity. The simulation highlights the potential weakness in current replenishment methodologies. A good simulation tool should also measure the effect of changes in supplier lead time, lot size, and safety stock.

The simulation should include an easy to read dashboard, preferably with clear visuals. The visuals should quantify the variability of actual consumption, provide visual clues on the amount of inventory being carried on-hand, and the amount of safety stock held. Only through this approach can manufacturers quickly determine which parts are good candidates for eKanban replenishment based on potential savings and (S/X, Std Deviation/Mean) variability of consumption.

A last measure impacted from simulation includes impacts on supplier performance. Changes in supplier lead-time, lot size, and safety stock and the corresponding warehouse capacity constraints can be correlated to each supplier and performance metrics compared and contrasted. These simulated reports can then be shared with other managers as well as categorized for planning and archival purposes.

Why Measure

Simulating changes in supplier lead time, lot size, and safety stock are extraordinarily valuable data. The ability to simulate consumption and compute on-hand inventory for each day addresses consumption volume for each day of the interval as well as actual on-hand inventory for each day based on current replenishment methodology. Such simulation allows manufacturers across a wide variety of industries to project on-hand inventory for each day based on if used Kanban replenishment methodology.

The simulation highlights the potential weakness in current replenishment methodologies; the Min-Max methodologies typically used by ERP systems with reorder points are the primary cause of excess inventory and material shortages. Since reorder points are not maintained, they go out of sync resulting in greater on-hand inventory.

The use of simulation drives provides a high-level summary of the health of the supply chain plan. It displays primary measures for supply and demand, resources, and exceptions. It also enables the supply chain analyst to compare an archived version of a plan against a current version, or compare two or more plans.

The simulation quickly and clearly provides a logical path to supply-chain effectiveness. Determining which parts are good candidates for eKanban replenishment, thus reducing inventory, can have a major impact to a company’s bottom-line. The simulation estimates these potential inventory savings at an aggregate level and then drills down to savings by part or by supplier for real analytics that can be shared with suppliers.

Ultriva’s Inventory Optimization Simulation Tool integrates with many existing ERPs such as Oracle’s E-Business Suite and NetSuite Cloud ERP. Historical data from the ERP can be easily transmitted to the Ultriva Inventory Optimization Tool, and easy to read reports with actionable business intelligence can be generated to include recommendations that will improve inventory management and supply chain performance, while freeing-up operating capital to redeploy into the manufacturing business.

Request a free Inventory Optimization Assessment.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

MRP/ERP Systems Failing Supply Chain Planners

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:58:00 +0000

Integrating Supply Chain Execution Solutions for Real-Time Visibility to Leverage MRP/ERP Investments

During the last decade, I have personally visited over 150 manufacturing facilities worldwide to help manufacturing companies collaborate with suppliers and gain true supply chain visibility. Due to all this first-hand knowledge, it was a surprise to read Lora Cecere’s recent Forbes magazine article titled Bumps, Cracks and Opportunities reporting that large manufacturing companies, having spent a fortune on MRP systems (in this case SAP and JDA), still use spread sheets and other patches to get through the day. Cecere reports she has dealt with nine companies in one week alone who had to augment MRP forecasts. She shares how companies explained that they start using spread sheets after the forecast goes awry, and that many of the companies with whom she is working are not even using the costly MRP systems for supply chain planning.

Forbes Article Suggests Planning Limitations of SAP and JDA

Cecere reports that for SAP users, the system integrates well, as expected, but for planners, the system does not work well at all. I have seen it many times over the years, a manufacturing company has an MRP in place, and can easily do a forecast. But like the weather, forecasts are hard to predict and can change. When changes occur, such as a scheduled production taking longer, or parts not being shipped on time, the MRP is not able to see these changes, nor take them into consideration. For JDA users, Cecere suggested users have been so frustrated they have migrated to SAP.

The takeaway from this article is that the big MRPs do not allow visibility into the supply chain.

Sure, they can do supply chain planning well, but supply chain execution is required. To execute, a supply chain planner, along with suppliers and customers, must see what is happening. A software platform that allows them to see a single version of truth, in real time, is the only way to optimize a supply chain. Many moving data points must be taken into account before intelligent action can be taken. If supply chain professionals cannot see the data, then how can action be taken? Recently I asked a supply chain professional, who was frustrated with her incorrect MRP forecasts, how she knows how much inventory she is carrying? She answered by telling me she leaves her office and goes to the shop floor to count. Lack of real-time inventory visibility is still pervasive today.

This lack of visibility is seen regularly at larger companies which purchase an enterprise “one-size-fits-all” system. The ERP or MRP vendors promise to tie together disparate systems. And it to some degree it accomplishes that task. Where most MRP systems fall down is extending outside the four walls of a factory. Today’s supply chains are complex, with thousands of SKUs (parts) and suppliers physically far away. Increasingly, suppliers are located in various countries, resulting in less predictable transit times. Supply chain professionals lack real-time information about the location and status of shipments; perhaps the parts are stuck in customs, sitting in a warehouse, on a truck, or at the dock.

A final point Cecere argues is that big MRP systems like SAP and JDA are “hampered by maintenance upgrades and legacy board issues.” Her inference is that cloud-based supply chain management systems do not need a lot of maintenance or even IT support as is required by on-premises, installed solutions. Software that can be utilized in a web-based browser makes it easier for supply chain partners to collaborate, since there is no need to install software or future upgrades.

Ultimately the role of Supply Chain Execution solutions is not mutually exclusive of ERP or MRP systems. Great investments have been made in these technologies and the key is to leverage those data and information to achieve supply chain visibility.

The answer is ERP/MRP AND Supply Chain Execution solutions.

Narayan Laksham, Founder of Ultriva

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

Kanban Labels Printed On-Demand Increase Supply Chain Accuracy

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 20:01:00 +0000

Recently, Modern Materials Handling magazine published a case study of a pet supply company struggling with inventory. Warehouse workers had to physically bring the inventory to a computer to scan it, then send it on to the destination. The process was “cumbersome and inefficient.” The problem was solved by adding mobile workstations with scanning capabilities. There was a definite, measureable ROI, productivity increased by 40%, with the added benefit of freeing up workers. Warehouse employees now dedicate less time to product movement. Workers also use the mobile carts as label makers for pallets to save time instead of walking across the warehouse to the workstation to print.

Let’s take this one step further. Rather than printing a shipping label, Ultriva supply chain execution software can allow a Kanban label to be printed. This Kanban label acts as an electronic signal to an internal or external point of resupply and can easily communicate with business management software such as ERPs and MRPs.

For example, say a manufacturing company is using Oracle E-Business Suite ERP. Oracle E-Business Suite is the system of records, and Ultriva manages the material flow transactions, using Kanban signals. Consumption on the floor triggers an electronic Kanban signal that can interface with Oracle E-Business Suite to get a discrete purchase order (PO) or a release line against a blanket PO. Suppliers can receive this signal along with the PO and can execute the replenishment by remotely printing a Kanban label while shipping the goods, using Ultriva’s Collaborative Electronic Kanban (CEK). When the goods are received at the dock, they are scanned for auto generation of a PO receipt in Oracle E-Business Suite.

Oracle users can use the Ultriva software and their own printers to print labels for the Kanban loops; no special equipment or printers needed. The Kanban label includes prep code, number of dual Kanban cards, item number, quantity, and barcode. The label might also include traceability and serialization requirements. Any messages that set up in the DFM Kanban Label Message program will also be printed on the Kanban label.

Ultriva’s Electronic Kanban offers the following benefits:

PO creation for Kanban signals triggered from the point of use
PO receipts for the goods being transacted
Synchronizing item master
Synchronizing supplier master
Data extraction for inventory analysis
All interfaces are monitored by a transactional workflow system.

Oracle is just one of the leading technology solutions with which Ultriva interfaces to deliver the best Demand-Driven Supply Chain. Ultriva is an Oracle Validated Integration solution cloud-based platform that leverages and seamlessly integrates for Oracle users who turn to Ultriva’s Supply Chain Cloud solution. Ultriva solutions also integrate with over 20 different ERP and MRP systems quickly and cost effectively. This effectively leverages and extends the investments manufacturing firms have made in their primary ERP systems.

Standardized labels on incoming materials have driven dramatic benefits. Almost 100% inventory accuracy in ERP and elimination of inventory cycle counts are critical metrics that are achieved along with visibility to inventory at multiple storage locations. Increased accuracy from Kanban labels printed on-demand is statistically significant and has quantifiable impacts on the bottom-line.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website.

How eKanban Simplifies Supply Chain Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:25:00 +0000

A cost-effective supply chain collaboration between manufacturer and suppliers is paramount. Without that constraint addressed, all other benefits are pointless. Let us stipulate that cost-effective collaboration starts with electronic Kanban, or eKanban.

Building trust in supply chain through collaboration is essential. The lack of collaboration is often the cornerstone of conflicts between a manufacturer and suppliers. These conflicts are substantially communication breakdowns. There is a great deal of finger-pointing that takes place when these disputes arise. The manufacturer often contends the supplier did not acknowledge the material purchase orders or ship on-time as promised. The supplier argues that the purchase order was not received or duplicated or rejected or went missing-in-action. While seemingly childish in tonality, such accusations result in ill-will, lost productivity, resentment, poor relationships, and bad customer service.

Improved communication between manufacturer and suppliers drives trusting best-practice behavior and collaboration. The limits of physical Kanban cards (often lost, misplaced, or replaced) quickly exacerbate the aforementioned disputes; ironic, because Kanban was developed as a central practice of lean manufacturing and the elimination of waste. The distinction with effective eKanban solutions is a closed-loop process versus an open looped process.

Open-loop processes are inherently subject to communication breakdown and failure. Examples of open loop processes still in use today are prone to lost or duplicate Kanban cards. Additionally forecasts, which are inaccurate at best, are usually buffered with a spread sheet. That additional spread sheet is then used to augment the manufacturer’s argument that the supplier is to blame. These error-prone open-loops lack the ability to track and trace when an order is sent or for the supplier to immediate acknowledge receipt of the order. It creates order purgatory. Neither manufacturers nor suppliers know where orders stand provoking mistrust and more finger-pointing.

Effective eKanban systems use a closed-loop process where every material replenishment transaction is tracked in real-time from the time the signal is released to a supplier until the time the materials are received. No signal can “be lost.” The result is an instantaneous, mutually corroborated version of the truth; the result is a level of trust because the accusatory tone which has destroyed thousands of manufacturer/supplier relationships is resolved technologically. Both manufacturer and supplier are working from the same data.

Beyond the improved trust, there is a simplified supply chain collaboration which drives improved data visibility, better collaboration (lean best-practices), improved order fill rates, better on-time delivery performance, and lower overhead costs. All of these factors substantiate the stipulation that eKanban is cost-effective.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog website. Let us know if you would like a demo of Ultriva eKanban.

Lean Manufacturing Requires Supplier Replenishment

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:26:00 +0000

Often overlooked in lean manufacturing initiatives is the supply chain; in particular supplier replenishment. Global multi-national manufacturers can use supplier replenishment as the ultimate tool in lean manufacturing best-practices.

Supplier Replenishment is lean because it:

Improves supplier on-time delivery performance by enabling better collaboration and data sharing between buyers and suppliers.
Improves buyer and planner productivity by automatically flagging and communicating new and changed orders to suppliers, eliminating unreliable communication modalities.
Eliminates stock-outs by tracking order status and proactively alerting buyers to high risk situations.
Reduces Inventory levels by providing better inventory on-hand data and continuous improvement analytics.

Lean manufacturing principles require a variety of inventory replenishment methods, including: schedule-based replenishment, discrete POs, min/max, consignment and VMI (vendor-managed inventory) replenishment methods. With supplier replenishment, manufacturers can drive replenishment from production schedules, publish forecasts to suppliers, and automate purchase order releases and receipts through a collaborative Internet portal.

A Collaborative Internet Portal is designed to help manufacturers digitally manage all forms of material replenishment with suppliers. This internet portal will allow manufacturers and suppliers to view forecasts and Kanban signals, release purchase orders, track orders, and manage receipts.

Supplier replenishment is designed to eliminate stock-outs and resulting expedited deliveries while reducing inventory levels, all while streamlining processes and dramatically increasing buyer and planner productivity.

In today’s fast-paced economy, manufacturers must constantly find ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency. A collaborative supplier replenishment system is a great way to accomplish your lean goals.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Medical Device Manufacturing: Keeping the Supply Chain as Healthy as the Patients

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:26:00 +0000

The medical technology industry employs over 500,000 workers according to the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA.) The industry supports approximately 1.4 million additional jobs, for 1.9 million high-paying positions, and generated $113 billion in payroll, with an average salary over $84,000. According to Ernst and Young, the average earning for public med-tech companies is 6%.

Clearly patients benefit with life expectancies having increased by 3.2 years (4%), and death rates dropped by 16%; the number of days in the hospital dropped by 56%, and the number of people over age 65 with disabilities dropped by 25%. The rate of spending on medical technologies has increased below the rate of inflation. In fact, spending on medical technologies increased at only a rate of 1%, below CPI and the Medical CPI reports the MDMA.

Keeping medical device manufacturing firms healthy is as vital as the patients served by the products manufactured. End to End Pull or Kanban is often the first order of best-practice business process improvement for this industry sector. Kanban is a type of scheduling system that can be used to help a manufacturer determine what to produce, when to produce it, and how much to produce for customers and supply chain partners. Medical device manufacturers operate in a highly regulated, margin-intensive business model. Most businesses in the sector have transitioned from a traditional paper-based manual kanban system to a cloud-based ekanban system as part of lean manufacturing initiatives ensuring high quality, defect free products ranging from low cost intravenous (IV) infusion, medication and supply dispensing to respiratory care, infection prevention, and surgical instruments.

As global major medical device manufacturers look for enterprise-wide methods to improve safety and lower the cost of operations, now more than ever, lean manufacturing principles and practices are being leveraged to produce high quality products on-demand with zero-defects at the lowest possible cost.

Medical device manufacturers are realizing specific benefits starting with improved responsiveness to customer demand by transitioning from push or forecast-based production to pull-based replenishment. Other direct operating and bottom-line impacts also include improved on-time-delivery (OTD) performance, elimination of stock-outs by transitioning from MIN|MAX|Reorder Point material replenishment methods to consumption-based material replenishment.

Because of strict regulatory compliance laws and oversight processes, there is an enhanced effort to achieve true collaboration between buyers and suppliers by providing a single version of the truth on all material replenishment transactions for medical device manufacturers. This cooperation results in increased productivity and process agility by transitioning from open-looped to closed-loop supply chain processes. The real cost-savings are realized via reductions in raw, WIP (work-in-progress) and FG (finished goods) inventories.

Often deployed in just 90 days, Ultriva’s Collaborative Supply Portal (CSP) solution provides the medical device manufacturer and supply chain partners complete visibility into material demand and supply, while improving supply chain collaboration and execution.

Ultriva’s CSP solution is used by medical device manufacturers to execute 85- 100% of the material spend with their supply chain partners. All supply transactions are conducted over the web and all processes are closed-loop. It provides real-time visibility to both buyers and suppliers on the status of all material transactions throughout the replenishment cycle.

Medical device manufacturers utilizing this CSP realize significant productivity improvements on all core buyer and inventory control business processes due to innovative application of workflow, business rules, alerting engine, and barcode functionality. In less than a year, medical device manufacturers achieve a strong ROI (return on investment) and many expand the deployment to include Ultriva’s Lean factory Management (LFM) solution for internal pull from manufacturing lines to the material warehouse.

Medical technology innovators are committed to providing physicians the best tools to diagnose and treat patients. This commitment drives over 7,000 companies in the U.S. to create medical miracles everyday – leading to an 80% increase in patents for breakthrough medical technologies in the last decade. According to the Advanced Medical Technology Association their members are in a highly competitive business of creating constant progress through constant innovation. This competitive environment helps keep prices low and operating ingenuity critical. Ultriva is proud to be part of the solution to keep these medical device and technology companies as healthy as the patients who benefit from these remarkable innovations.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Proof of Concept: Multi-National Companies Tiptoe into Demand Driven Supply Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:20:00 +0000

Once a technology solution has been tested and vetted by a multi-national, multi-plant operation, it is rolled out enterprise-wide. There are many reasons why this approach, tiptoeing into solutions with obvious bottom-line improvements, takes time.

Lean manufacturing champions, who are often operations managers, or plant managers at a single location, have budget caps (a top line amount on which they are not allowed to spend without requiring further budgetary approval, authorization, and permission.)

This often results in a single location plant performing a “proof of concept” (POC) experiment to test the efficacy of a solution. Even in the world of low-cost, rapid implementation, SaaS (software as a service) cloud-based technologies, large multi-nationals often lack the agility to quickly extrapolate a good idea across the enterprise.

Multiple decision-makers, change resistance, alternative points of view, budget constraints, further complicate a global adoption of technologies. So tiptoeing into new technology solutions is how the POC starts.

Ultriva, the leader in collaborative supply chain solutions, is quickly becoming the enterprise-wide solution for many multi-national corporations. Actual consumption, rather than forecasts, drives the supply chain processes.

POC often works at a single plant, demonstrating the efficacy of the solution, showcasing sustainable benefits and gaining an internal champion for demonstrated use and benefits for the product. In manufacturing, keeping production lines optimally stocked with necessary parts and components, when they are needed and in the right quantity, is essential. As a product is consumed in the production process, an order for depleted inventory must be placed immediately through an electronic cloud-based Kanban system. Consumption-driven replenishment proves its applicability across tiers of distribution and supplier networks and has become the compelling alternative to more traditional Material Requirements Planning (MRP) or “push” style systems, which primarily rely on forecasts to determine what and how much to produce.

The POC proves that keeping expensive inventory is a waste of resources, including working capital, storage space, and the manpower needed for additional handling. More predictable replenishment results in the elimination of intermediate tiers and their buffer stock in both the customer and manufacturer supply chains. Once the limited test of the proof of concept is completed the Ultriva cloud-based platform leverages and seamlessly integrates with leading ERP and MRP systems, to deliver an end to end pull based replenishment model across the global enterprise.

Ultriva recognizes this “testing the waters” approach is needed as it is non-intrusive and non-disruptive and yet demonstrates a global demand driven manufacturing model by providing full visibility, scheduling, and sequencing of production of customer orders. POC encourages the companies to recognize that E2E (End to End) Pull allows large multi-national manufacturers to actively collaborate with customers for actual demand and synchronize with suppliers for replenishment. Once these tests are vetted, there is a rapid acceptance that this E2E Pull is a better solution to balancing supply with customer demand through procurement strategies, materials and inventory policies tied to actual demand signals.

Proof of Concept has been successful for Ultriva as the company’s global footprint is increasing rapidly with implementations in wide variety of enterprises such as, CareFusion, Emerson, Ingersoll Rand, McKesson, Magellan, Regal Beloit, Thermo Fisher and more.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Proof of Concept to Enterprise-wide Adoption Creates Affordable End to End Pull Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 21:24:00 +0000

Multi-national management organizations usually turn to improved best-practice technology solutions when one of two circumstances occurs: rapid growth requiring improved throughput capacity or serious quality-control issues, often under the scrutiny of regulatory compliance or threat of litigation. Both these challenges produce lower customer satisfaction if the correct products are not received in a timely, safe, and accurate manner.

The inability to keep up with demand sounds an alarm. Multinational companies from the industries listed below have executive lean initiatives, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints (ToC), and other Baldridge Award-winning methodologies. Yet some of these organizations fail to execute a best-practice solution beyond Proof of Concept at a single plant or site.

Product growth combined with safety and quality concerns is often what moves a Proof of Concept (POC) to a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP.) Growth in geographic or product scope is both an opportunity and a challenge. Some of the fastest growing multi-national organizations have to face cultural challenges that supersede language variety and move into the mergers and acquisitions of organizations with distinct and quite different processes.

When companies use the forecast as a basis to do Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), MRP runs and supplier forecasting, struggles in the supply chain become apparent. Gartner Research Analysts recommend manufacturing companies to engage with customers and suppliers to establish a pull process from Finished Goods all the way to Raw Materials. This is what Gartner defines as End to End (E2E) pull replenishment.

These conflicts are often what drive a POC into an SOP; from one-time limited location testing to enterprise-wide adoption of new technologies. Exploding SKUs and vast supplier increases taxes the capacity to ship product accurately, promptly, and efficiently. Solutions such as End to End (E2E) pull replenishment, are well–tested and verified during the proof of concept phase, create a natural progression when volume grows and automation is needed; with rapid growth the choice increasing head count will no longer achieve fulfillment and quality standards and supplier management and real-time inventory must be automated.

According to research done by business consultants at Terra Technologies, forecasting at the SKU levels is 50% at best. The supply chain efficiency research in the last three years on the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry shows forecasting has not improved.

Ultriva has been helping customers to set these pull process for the last decade. The underlying methodology used to set up the pull process is “collaborative Kanban”. By engaging with the customers (Original Equipment Manufacturers, Distribution centers, retail channels or end customers) manufacturers can gain better control over their downstream demand. They can quickly sense the changes in demand and adjust their production schedules to minimize redundant Finished Goods (FG) inventory.

Ultriva manufacturing customers have proven that adopting E2E methodologies leads to many benefits:

Optimized inventories at FG, Work in Progress (WIP) and Raw Materials
Improved service levels to customers resulting in increased customer retention
Dramatic reduction in production disruptions (less changes and more part availability)
Superior supplier performance due to reduction in the “bull whip” effect

Completely Transparent Enterprise-Wide Operations

Handling all this rapid growth has not diminished the requirement of quality and accurate shipping. Data are critical to continued process improvement and a lean operation. Only through these metrics can the organization discover corrective action. Proof of concept ultimately must be leveraged throughout multinational global companies to allow for one version of the truth for all viewing these data regardless of language, time zone, divisional P&Ls, regional accountability, or job function. Some of the industry sectors served include:

Aerospace and Defense
Automotive
Consumer Electronics
Fitness Equipment
Industrial
Medical Devices
Oil and Gas

Leveraging E2E Pull Proof of Concept Leads to Affordability

When a proof of concept like End to End Pull is leveraged across multiple locations the ROI becomes very significant and it becomes quite affordable.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

E2E Pull Requirement 3: Supplier Integration

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:45:00 +0000

Continuing our blog posts on the End to End pull replenishment system, we will be tackling the most common of the eight requirements; the critical need for manufacturers to collaborate and integrate with their upstream supply chain.

Over the years there has been plenty of focus on how to manage the supply chain. The most obvious theory has been “how can I make my supplier do what I want”. This is an easy thinking because “I am paying the supplier and he needs to do what I say”. This approach by manufacturing companies put the entire onus on the suppliers to meet their demands in full.

These kinds of mandates have been very common with Automotive OEMs during the 70’s and have proliferated to other industries. The evolution of MRP didn’t help the matter much. Forecasts or estimated demand driven MRP would generate supplier forecasts, planned orders and exceptions on a regular frequency (weekly, twice a week or daily). The frequent generation of exceptions via MRP is the constant request to defer, expedite or cancel the outstanding orders.

In my meetings with manufacturing companies over the last decade, I have heard several purchasing and procurement organizations complain about their lack of control over the supply chain without realizing that the supplier behavior is the result of their actions. Suppliers who are subject to this constant bull-whipping will start shipping what they can when they can. So it is not uncommon for suppliers to ship partial quantities to meet the initial deadline and follow up with balance quantities over a period of time.

Procurement/purchasing team claim how they have been sending regular forecasts to their suppliers but their suppliers fail to perform effectively. When I ask them how much of their forecasts match the P.O.s sent by MRP the answer normally is “we don’t know”. However, if you dig up the numbers, it is clear that there is very little correlation. So the suppliers are playing defense by increasing the lead times and shipping partial quantities to meet the initial dock date.

How to change supplier behavior?

The easy way to change the supplier’s behavior is to provide consistency and visibility into the process. What I mean by consistency is to standardize the lot size, lead time and committed order. As most of you know, when the supplier provides a lead time, it is always proportional to certain lot size. For example, the supplier may be able to deliver 100 pieces of Part A in 15 days. However if MRP sends out an order for 500 pieces with 15 days lead time, it is not practical to expect the full shipment on time.

Ultriva provides a clear process for achieving consistency and visibility.

Manufacturers should still provide the forecasts to suppliers for planning purposes but also provide an execution signal in real time for standard lot size. We call this “Consumption Driven Replenishment”.

Achieve consistency by sizing the material flow loop between Manufacturer’s raw material warehouse and supplier, based on the standard lot size, lead time, transit time, usage, variability of consumption and safety stock. Provide visibility for suppliers to view customer’s on-hand inventory, usage pattern and frequency of orders. Together they allow development of a flexible supply network that can easily respond to change in customer demands. This is the stepping stone for building an End to End pull system.

If you are interested in knowing how end to end pull is being used by 8000+ suppliers across the world, please request a demo.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Collaborative Portal – Customer integration

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:04:00 +0000

Last blog we discussed the first requirement on why a collaborative transactional portal is a must have for establishing End to End (E2E) pull replenishment. Feel free to refer to the original blog that described E2E Pull and all the requirements.

In today’s blog we will move to the next requirement of “Customer Integration”.

Talk to any large manufacturing company and you will hear the similar storylines. My customers’ demand is very erratic, the orders do not match the forecast, and customer lead times are too short. When drilling down to the next level, it becomes obvious that the manufacturers are making several assumptions via their sales and operations planning (S&OP) process; these assumptions are made with very little input on actual demands or usage from the customers.

The Reason to Collaborate

Currently manufacturers are getting sporadic data from customers. Some customers provide monthly forecasts; there is also occasional usage data and some planning or promotion information. Manufacturing companies take this information, incorporate this data into an overall S&OP process (with a set of assumptions) and produce a production and inventory plan for the year.

These are inefficient techniques lead to part shortages, excess inventory, and disruptive production schedules. The primary reason for the disruption is lack of validated input from customers in the planning process. It gets worse for global brands that have more levels and multiple tiers that push them further from the end consumer.

“E2E Pull” by its very name suggests that customer demand should be driving the production in order to optimize inventory, reduce lead time, and improve service levels. There is an urgent need to engage customers through an E2E platform…it is the only way to accomplish these lean efficiency best-practice goals.

Best Way to Engage Customers

Customers are used to sending sales orders based on their MRP/ERP system; these orders result in input from their S&OP process. Sadly, and inaccurate customers’ orders are being driven largely by forecasts and assumptions made during their planning sessions.

Manufacturers MUST make it easy for their customers to provide this data. It should not be an IT exercise where data is pulled out of a data warehousing or a Business Intelligence (BI) system lacking real-time information.

Collaborative Real Time portal discussed in the last blog makes this process easier. Customers can feed the data in real time through RFID or scanners or manual inputs or integration with business systems or a combination of these. The portal becomes a demand repository that can then be effectively used in the S&OP process. It provides accurate data needed to utilize customers’ consumption or usage patterns, variability of consumptions, demand spikes, inventory levels and delivery performance.

Using the Collaborative Portal Today

Ultriva has customers who segment their customers based on the combination of product lines and markets they segment.

One manufacturer has a dedicated warehouse close to their tier one customer. The warehouse carries inventory feeding their customer’s production lines through hourly or daily deliveries. Customer is carrying no inventory at their facility. As they move goods out of the warehouse, it sends signal to the manufacturing facilities to replenish. The big advantage for the customer is no inventory with almost 100% service levels. From the manufacturer perspective they have captive customer while they carry the right mix of inventory based on customer usage. Shop floor is scheduling production based on the actual usage of the customer with a maximum time lag of one day.

There are many ways to sense customers’ demands, regardless of the distribution channel, incorporate them in to your S&OP process, and begin the E2E pull replenishment process.

Start measuring the inventory in Days of Consumption (DOC) instead of Days on Hand (DOH).

Collaboration is the key to success; learn more about E2E Pull.

This blog was written by Narayan Laksham Ultriva CEO, and originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Manufacturing Companies Need Cloud-based Solution to Establish “End to End Pull”

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 17:22:00 +0000

The First Requirement for E2E Pull (END to End Pull)

Recently, I wrote a blog highlighting the clear need for a cloud-based SaaS solution to establish the “End to End Pull” process across manufacturing companies (or E2E pull process or just E2E). In that blog, eight basic requirements for developing an E2E pull model were listed.

Over the course of the next several weeks this blog will address one requirement at a time. Today’s blog will address the first requirement – the need for a collaborative transactional portal. End to End, as the name signifies, allows manufacturers to actively collaborate with customers for actual demand and synchronize with suppliers for replenishment. E2E offers a better solution to balancing supply with customer demand through procurement strategies, materials and inventory policies tied to actual demand signals. Many suppliers want to provide sufficient service levels to customers and turn supply replenishment and synchronization into a competitive advantage.

Managing the Disconnection

In today’s world manufacturers, suppliers, and customers are disconnected. Customers communicate via Sales Orders (EDI, email, fax etc.) while suppliers get forecasts, Purchase Orders and MRP exceptions. A change in demand is not easily communicated to the upstream supply chain. The data is resident in ERP/MRP systems, planning tools, S&OP spreadsheets and email templates. It is not uncommon to see a big team of demand and supply planners who are constantly gathering and accumulating data and generating more consolidated, cross-functional and cross-tabulated spreadsheets for company-wide distribution via emails.

Seeing the Data from a Single Source

Like the evolution of social media, it is important that manufacturers, customers, and suppliers view the data from a single source when they need it. Transactions are done in the respective time zone, by users who own a small piece. The data flows in real-time and is readily available for the next person to view, update, transact, or analyze. The data is no longer “living in isolation”, but it is available with clear context. That means changes in customers’ demand can lead to a rescheduling of production...which in turn impacts raw material replenishment. We all know this single vantage may be difficult to achieve, but the first criteria is the availability and access to the data.

The collaborative, real-time portals form the foundation for the E2E Pull design. The stronger and more comprehensive the foundation, the more flexibility can be built into the process. An application that is in the cloud, with the ability for users around the world to access using a simple browser, seamlessly interfaces to existing business systems, with transactions happening over secure network, interconnecting scanners, RFID, mobile devices, driven by actionable information, and exception based management, allows you to jump start the implementation of E2E pull replenishment.

The collaborative, real-time portals form the foundation for the E2E Pull design. The stronger and more comprehensive the foundation, the more flexibility can be built into the process. An application that is in the cloud, gives users world-wide access via a simple browser, seamlessly interfaces with existing business systems, allows transactions to happen over a secure network, is driven by actionable information and exception based management, and interconnects scanners, RFID, and mobile devices, allows you to jump-start the implementation of E2E pull replenishment.

It is Happening Now

One of our customers, a large diversified manufacturing company, has been using this model for the last seven years. Their division in Europe, which manufactures a range of compressors, is collaborating with their OEMs for large capacity compressors while integrating with their Middle Eastern dealers for small and medium capacity compressors. The pull process allows them to sense demand changes while synchronizing the same with their global supply base.

The Bottom Line

This company gained visibility in to the demand and supply side of their business. By right-sizing the inventory mix, they improved their inventory turns. However the most important benefit came from an unexpected area. The company was able to guarantee service levels (parts always available for their customers) and thereby charge a higher price. So this E2E process was a true win for them.

I want to personally encourage you to see what these collaborative portals look like; please contact Ultriva to learn more about E2E Pull.

This blog was written by Narayan Laksham Ultriva CEO, and originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Why a Cloud Solution is the Only Way to Implement an E2E Pull

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 17:40:00 +0000

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), (www.gartner.com), the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, has made a compelling case as to why manufacturers should integrate with the demand side to streamline their supply chain. They call this process as “End to End Pull (E2E)” replenishment. This is clearly a paradigm shift compared to the constant focus on improving the planning or forecasts using better and superior algorithms.

In its simplest form, Gartner is recommending the following model:

As shown above the pull loops are set up between the preceding and succeeding locations. This can be expanded to as many loops (tiers) as necessary depending on the business process of the manufacturers. For example, in the most extensive situation the tiers could be Retailer, Regional Warehouses, Central warehouses, Distribution centers, manufacturing plants, component manufactures, 3PLs, suppliers etc.

The primary goal of the E2E process is to schedule manufacturing production based on customer demand instead of forecasts while raw materials and components usage at the manufacturing facilities should drive replenishment to the upstream supply chain. This is also commonly known as “consumption driven replenishment” or “Electronic Kanban loops”.

Underlying the above process is an ability to have real time collaboration with the customers and suppliers. On-premise solutions, like MRP and ERP, do a fabulous job for inside the four walls of business. E2E on the other hand deals largely with outside the four walls of business.

What are the minimal requirements for a solution to establish the E2E process?

A collaborative transactional portal that allows a manufacturing company’s customers and suppliers to interact in real time.
Allow customers to send their demands, forecasts, plans and real time consumptions
Allow suppliers to receive their purchase orders, Kanban signals, forecasts and MRP releases electronically through a portal
Allow suppliers to print bar coded or RFID tagged labels for shipments
Allow customers and suppliers to view respective performance levels
Allow right sizing of inventory at each transaction points based on actual usage.
Provide guidance to improve inventory velocity at the finished goods and raw materials
Provide seamless interfaces to company’s ERP/MRP systems for keeping the data in sync.

How does E2E process improve the business?

Allows manufacturing companies to reduce the customer lead times while improving service levels
Carry the right mix of inventory to eliminate part shortages for the production
Gain multi-tier visibility across the supply chain
Improve inventory turns across Finished Goods, Work In Process and Raw Materials
Get actionable information to manage exceptions
Facilitate continuous improvement through real time metrics and analytics
Ability to resize the inventory levels based on change in demands and usage

Ultriva has deployed this type of solution across many large customers worldwide. If you are interested in understanding what is E2E process or wish to integrate your customers and suppliers, please contact Ultriva.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Why Supply Chain Needs to Embrace Lean Manufacturing Principles

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:03:00 +0000

Lean in its purest form is removal of waste. In today’s world, manufacturing is becoming more competitive than ever with shorter lead times, higher service levels, exploding number of finished goods SKUs, and thinning margins. Over the last twenty years, the focus of lean in manufacturing was concentrated on streamlining the factory floor, aligning of production lines, optimization of space, and standardizing of operating procedures.

Through continuous process improvement lean has filtered into all areas of manufacturing operations including the back office with accounting functionality. Ironically the area with the greatest opportunity for short-term lean impacts has remained untouched: supply chain material replenishment.

This omission is peculiar and egregious since purchase parts often amounts up to 60% of manufacturing costs. Kaizen events would quickly point lean initiative teams to apply lean methodologies to this critical process. Excess inventory devours margins. Part shortages reduce customer service levels and the result is lost revenues.

Looking toward 2014 this challenge will be exacerbated as Tier 1 suppliers demand cost containment from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers. Edicts are issued daily: Find 10% in price reduction or the manufacturer will no longer be included as an authorized vendor.

Until now the lean efforts have only been applied to areas where companies have full control, such as the shop floor. Lean is showing up as paramount in both supplier and customer collaboration.

Ultriva focuses on leaning the supply chain.

One of the fastest and most important factors to apply lean manufacturing principles to the material replenishment process is establishing a pull system. The underlying methodology for implementing a pull system is referred to as kanban, and historically kanban has always been used as a manual card-based system. Paper-based kanban was new and revolutionary 30 years ago; it worked well when manufacturing was vertically integrated and suppliers were located within a short radius.

The current global, 24/7 fast-paced environment where manufacturing is far less integrated and suppliers are located on every continent (except Antarctica) renders the manual kanban card system obsolete. Demonstrating agility and responsiveness to this new manufacturing alacrity was part of facing the changing realities of the supply chain. Ultriva pioneered the electronic kanban which turns the manual card system into a powerful closed-loop kanban through supplier collaboration and the real-time flow of order, shipment and receipt information. Ultriva maintains the visual nature of Kanban while guaranteeing “no lost cards” or “no duplicate cards”. The electronic Kanban is workflow-controlled to keep track of who did what, when and where. This allows several metrics to be automatically computed.

The result is facilitation of continuous improvement that is synchronized to the themes and purpose of lean manufacturing today.

To find out more about lean manufacturing, request Ultriva's Lean Factory Demo.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Collaborative Relationships to Mitigate Supply Chain Risk

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Sun, 11 May 2014 04:51:00 +0000

Material Handling Industry (MHI), the leading trade association for the material handling, logistics and supply chain industry, recently reported that when it comes to supply chain risk, firms need to peel the onion past their tier-one suppliers to get the complete picture. Referencing a recent study by Resilinc Corp., leading global supply chains have become dependent on the same small group of sub-tier suppliers – concentrating risk and increasing the potential for supply chain disruptions.

MHI members are the pioneers and leading manufacturers in the field of material handling, supply chain, and logistics, now an annual $156 billion material handling and logistics industry.

Because this sub-tier supplier concentration is occurring deeper into global supply chains, many large organizations are not aware of the risks involved. The Ultriva team concurs that most are not adequately prepared to mitigate those risks.

The findings of the Resilinc study are based on a subset of its unique global supply chain mapping data from hundreds of suppliers across thousands of supplier sites spread over 50 countries. A detailed analysis of the data was performed in order to identify specific industry trends to assist clients in improving supply chain resiliency planning and sourcing tactics. While the study focused on the high-tech and automotive industries, many of the sub-tier suppliers analyzed also support other global industries.

The analysis found that global supply chain risk does tend to be concentrated in certain sub-tier suppliers and localities, posing increased disruption risk potential to the companies exposed to those dependencies. More than 50% of all sites analyzed are located in just four countries: Taiwan, China, the USA and Japan. The study further found that a high degree of supplier factory aggregation in a relatively small sub-set of regions creates global supply chain hotspots, and many of these hotspots for high-tech and automotive suppliers are in areas known for susceptibility to natural disasters.

This study underlines the critical need for deeper sub-tier dependency visibility into suppliers’ global footprint and site locations, sub-contractor and sub-tier supplier dependencies, site activities, part’s origin, alternate sites, recovery times, emergency contacts and business continuity planning (BCP) information.

I believe that collaborative relationships are critical because for several decades the Customer–Supplier relationship largely followed the path of a boss–subordinate model. Customers continued to dictate and their suppliers responded to the best of their abilities. In certain industries this relationship became quite tenuous as customer continued to demand price reductions and superior service without offering anything in return. It has often resulted in a drop in quality or suppliers going out of business. In general there was a clear lack of trust. The fact that unrealistic forecasts coupled with MRP exceptions of constant expedite and deferring of orders made the situation worse. It was clear that unless the trust in the supply chain was re-established the relationship would end up deteriorating further.

A key mechanism to building trust guided by Ultriva, has been to move away from dictating and towards collaborating. Sharing of relevant information, building common metrics, providing real time visibility and working towards continuing improvement are the corner stones of collaboration.

Posted by Narayan Laksham Ultriva CEO

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Why Demand Driven Supply Chain Solutions are a Reality Today

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:56:00 +0000

Recently, Digital Supply Chain magazine reported that while new technologies are critical, they are not the only requirements for an advanced demand-driven supply chain, according to experts at The Boston Consulting Group.

Juggling the demand-driven supply chain (DDSC), reports Matthew Staff, a staff writer for various WDM publications, has always been the holy grail of operations managers around the world.

Pierre Mercier, Partner & Julian Morley, Knowledge Expert at The Boston Consulting Group suggest that even when forecasts are finely tuned, an unexpected spike, or drop, in demand can wreak havoc on production schedules, leading to problems such as stock-outs and lost sales; inventory pileups, markdowns, and write-offs; poor capacity utilization; and declining service.

The article continues, reporting these margin-sappers are increasingly avoidable thanks to recent advances in technology (such as cloud computing), which can finally make DDSC a reality.

These authors suggest that DDSC it is a system of coordinated technologies, processes and behaviors that sense and react to real-time demand signals across the network of customers, channels, employees, suppliers and supplier's suppliers that make up a supply chain.

Ultriva is the leader in demand drive supply chain cloud solutions. Often companies want to simply reduce working capital, improve supplier collaboration, and improve delivery performance across the supply chain. The result is always improved delivery performance, significantly reduced part shortages, as well as overall inventory reduction.

It is not just Kanban signals, but also firm or planned orders that can be communicated through this unified interface. Ultriva’s supplier replenishment modules—Supplier Kanban and SBR—are now integrated with Oracle E-Business Suite for real-time transaction flows. Suppliers can get real-time Kanban and non-Kanban signals though the Ultriva demand-driven supply network portal. Oracle customers get full supply chain visibility, key performance indicators through continuous improvement metrics, real-time inventory health for elimination of stock-outs, and inventory reduction. The suppliers get the same inventory health view, including the on-hand inventory for the parts they are supplying.

Oracle E-Business Suite is the system of records, and Ultriva manages the material flow transactions, using Kanban signals. Consumption on the floor triggers an electronic Kanban signal that can interface with Oracle E-Business Suite to get a discrete purchase order (PO) or a release line against a blanket PO. Suppliers can receive this signal along with the PO and can execute the replenishment by remotely printing a Kanban label while shipping the goods, using Ultriva’s Collaborative Electronic Kanban (CEK). When the goods are received at the dock, they are scanned for auto generation of a PO receipt in Oracle E-Business Suite. Ultriva’s CEK offers the following benefits:

• PO creation for Kanban signals triggered from the point of use

• PO receipts for the goods being transacted

• Synchronizing item master

• Synchronizing supplier master

• Data extraction for inventory analysis

• All interfaces are monitored by a transactional workflow system.

Oracle is just one of the leading technology solutions with which Ultriva interfaces to deliver the best DDSC. Ultriva Demand Driven Supply Chain cloud solutions are in use in over 175 locations, in 20 countries worldwide. Customers include AGCO, A.O. Smith, Brunswick, Carefusion, Emerson, GE Energy, HNI Corporation, Ingersoll-Rand, McKesson, Regal Beloit, and many others. Ultriva customers have saved over $500 million in inventory, transact over $2.5 billion in annual spend, with over 8,000 global suppliers.

The aforementioned article authors’ correctly note that in the past, matching supply and demand across the supply chain has been extremely difficult given the lengthy reaction times and the inherent challenges that arise from communicating across the various IT platforms in a company’s chain. Even more difficult given that those supply chains are increasingly extended and are supported by a complex web of interdependent partnerships.

Ultriva has changed the landscape and through the advances in cloud-based technology are able to support more mission-critical activities like supply chain operations, through increased levels of security, better communication standards, and solid 24x7x365 availability.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Explosion of SKUs and 3PLs Transform Demand Driven Supply Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 21:21:00 +0000

Every day I walk through the lobby of Ultriva and pass a table laden with the latest Supply Chain Magazines. When I open my inbox, I am swamped with many more email notifications for supply chain and manufacturing news from magazines online. So for an article to resonate with me, it must speak to an issue relevant to Ultriva, particularly one that we solve.

One recent article caught my eye. Patrick Burnson, executive editor for Logistics Management and Supply Chain Management Review magazines, recently reported that eighty-six percent of Domestic Fortune 500 companies use 3PLs for logistics and supply chain functions according to a new report just issued by Armstrong & Associates. That is a significant enough number to make me pause. The report entitled “Trends in 3PL/Customer Relationships - 2013” leverages Armstrong & Associates’ proprietary database of 6,398 3PL customer relationships to provide detailed information on the top outsourcers to 3PLs, trends in service demand, and 3PL market size by vertical industry segment from 2005 through 2013E.

According to the report, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, and Wal-Mart each use 50 or more 3PLs. The report also quantifies the Global Fortune 500 3PL market at $250.2 billion, a 67% increase since 2005. Within the Global 500, “Technological” industry 3PL customers spent $66.8 billion with 3PLs in 2012 and are on track to spend $71.1 billion in 2013. The compound annual growth rate for Technological 3PL revenues was 9.3% from 2005 to 2012. “Electronics, Electrical Equipment” companies led all Technological industry sub segments with over $25.7 billion in 2012 3PL spend.

The editor went on to share that the average customer is utilizing each 3PL for just under three different logistics services with Transportation Management being the most frequent service utilized. Of the total 6,398 3PL/Customer relationships, 1,184 or 18.5% are strategic with the 3PLs performing supply chain management and/or lead logistics provider services. While these strategic relationships were dominated by Automotive and Technological industries in the past, there are increasing numbers of strategic relationships within the Retailing and Industrial industries.

In the last few years alone, I have seen a huge increase of SKUs. Look at the Apple Ipod or now the Iphone with the abundance of colors. Ultriva believes that this 3PL is part of a transformational strategy. With several changes in the market – an explosion in the number of FG SKUs, more and more configurable options based on customer demands, shorter lead times - companies are moving towards a Demand Driven Manufacturing model with a need to build a Demand Responsive Supply Networks.

Both these models need a different way to respond to customer orders and replenish components and raw materials. So companies have to rethink their long term supply chain strategy on how to implement the end to end pull process. Customers will be forced to take a holistic view to transform their supply chain management whether in-house, on the manufacturing plant floor or interacting with 3PLs.

As global supply chains are becoming more complex, Ultriva's Collaborative Supply Portal works with buyers, suppliers and 3PLs to provide and improve collaboration as well as present a single version of truth. If you would to request a demonstration of our Collaborative Supply Portal software, please click here.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website.

Far Beyond Kanban

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:54:00 +0000

Kanban is at the core of many solutions, including Ultriva. That tells only a small part of the story which is about solutions that enhance the process and automates them across the value chain. Beyond Kanban is an execution platform which sets up the pull process from the point of consumption to point of production. It means scheduling the production based on actual demand, real orders or pull signals.

Ultimately lean technology solutions must optimize the production sequencing at the cells, based on customer want date, instead of just capacity and automating material flow within a plant (from the assembly lines to upstream work centers, supermarkets, and raw material warehouses.)

Loops not MRP

The result is a unique architecture that treats material flow as a series of interconnected loops instead of the MRP architecture of linear process. MRP starts with the finished goods planned demand and then extracts the bill of materials and sends schedules both to the plants and its suppliers. Any change in demand causes supplier to react which has an impact on the upstream value chain.

Loops are independent, yet interconnected with each other. One loop is between the supplier and warehouse. This may have a long lead time and lot size can be in pallets. The next loop could be between the warehouse and supermarket locations in the plant. The lead time could be one day and lot size could be boxes. The next loop may be between supermarket and assembly lines. The lead time could be hours and the lot size could be in small bin quantity.

Advantages of Loop Architecture

This loop architecture ensure that only actual consumption will trigger replenishment upstream and that the customer can implement lean at the most constrained loop first, instead of the whole plant. Each loop can be independently sizes based on consumption, lead time, safety stock, and lot size. Only this architecture makes it possible for users to gain visibility to whom did what, where, and when. A single scan can perform the consumption, issue, and receipt transactions.

Commercial Vehicle Group using technology

Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG), one of the world's top suppliers of cabs and cab-related parts for the commercial trucking industry, needed to automate its implementation a demand driven method of inventory replenishment, because the company's manual approach to the method was complex, time-consuming, and error-prone. CVG implemented Ultriva nearly eight years ago, yet within just a few months of deployment at two of its plants, CVG saw turns increased, inventory reduced, and associates at all levels, within CVG and suppliers, better collaborating and communicating toward company objectives of total quality production, lean manufacturing, and elimination of waste.

CVG needed a closed-loop solution that would support a continuous-flow process, a solution that suppliers could access easily. The benefits of the solution faster turns and reduced inventory thanks to a vastly more automated process and better visibility of inventory; a system that empowers employees at all levels; comprehensive tracking and analysis of supplier performance; and closer involvement of suppliers in the process.

Faster Turns, Reduced Inventory

The first job at CVG was to automate the scanning of parts coming in and to provide comprehensive real-time visibility of inventory to everyone involved. By scanning products on the dock that used to be keyed in manually, parts are accepted and stocked more quickly. The process is far less prone to errors than the manual approach used before. Because the solution seamlessly integrated with the company's existing ERP system, CVG was able provide any authorized user with an accurate and comprehensive real-time view of parts and inventory.

For more information on building your demand responsive supply chain network with eKanban please request a free Demo.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Product Lifecycle Reduces Supply Chain Costs

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 18:00:00 +0000

-Only when Combined with Driver Based Metrics, Information Sharing and Visibility

A new white paper offered through Supply Chain Management Review suggests that a product begins its life with maximum profit potential during the manufacturing process. But as that product moves through an increasingly complex, global supply chain, excess time and handling costs erode its profit. The author continues to point out that the average supply chain has become segmented, with different groups managing different phases of the product lifecycle in isolation. While this may add functional efficiency in specific areas, I feel the lack of a coordinated approach creates a less efficient supply chain overall. A more holistic, synchronized approach to managing logistics and related supply chain services throughout a product’s lifecycle is better suited to today’s companies.

What if I told you that you could reduce supply chain costs an average of 10-20%… of course it sounds wonderful, but you ask how? One way to help companies do this is to look at what we call driver-based metrics.

Some of the metrics being measured by the customers today do not provide a good base for continuous improvement. A simple example is suppliers can control their ship date but the customers measure them by receive date. The variability of the transportation, the delay in the customer entering the receipt in to their ERP and such factors makes the delivery performance provide very little value to improvement. Add to this the constant exceptions generated by MRPs (Defer, Expedite, Cancel) that make the receive date a moving target.

The lack of correlation between lead time and order size is another factor the makes this measurement less relevant. MRP has a supplier lead time of 10 days. When it issues order for 10 pieces it uses 10 days lead time while at later date when it order 500 pieces, it uses the same lead time. This is unrealistic as the supplier cannot increase capacity by 50 fold overnight.

So the goal is to start identifying metrics that can lead to improvements. Like providing a required ship date to supplier and measuring them against that metric. Setting standard lot sizes and standard lead times to measure the fill rates is best, rather than looking at average supplier performance.

Instead of information we should start using the term “actionable information.” If the users cannot take actions on the information provided to them, then the value of the information is dramatically reduced. The user should have an authority to do something with the information he/she is provided with.

For example, Ultriva provides a lead time validation report that measures the actual lead time and actual transit time over a time period and compare the same with the defined lead time on a part by part basis. The gap between what was actually delivered and what was defined will allow the supply chain personnel to take corrective actions which will result in inventory savings or elimination of part shortages or both.

The other aspect of the information is its relevance – timeframe and drill down ability. What I mean is, the information which is too much in the past or future has very little impact. So does the summary info with limited access to details. Lastly, providing the same information to an executive vs. hands on user may not be worth the same.

This actionable information is provided by Ultriva software to planners, buyers, shop floor users and suppliers to uncover potential part shortages, late or short shipments, expiration of blanket purchase orders, inspection delays and to provide traceability. Providing real time visibility to this pertinent information, based on the user’s role, can and will lead to making the supply chain vibrant and dynamic, as well as reduce costs.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website

Why ERP eKanban Modules Fall Short

noreply@blogger.com (Ultriva Inc) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 19:55:00 +0000

Introduction

Companies that use ERP and MRP systems are constantly looking for solutions to increase inventory turns, streamline the procurement process and improve supply chain agility. Many of these companies assume that the only way to reduce cost, lower risk or increase flexibility is to improve forecast accuracy. But various factors including customer demand variations, changing market conditions and questionable sales projections make it exponentially difficult to improve forecasting. One solution that most of these companies often don’t contemplate is moving away from a forecast based or MRP replenishment methodology to Electronic Kanban (eKanban) for high consumption items.

Why eKanban?

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is based on forecasted demand and a time phased ordering process, which is well suited for make to stock, batch oriented production. However with the evolution of demand driven manufacturing models, more companies are eager to implement pull systems across their material flows. The most effective and well known methodology for establishing a pull system is Kanban. Manual Kanban has been an integral part of the famous Toyota Production System (TPS) for several decades. This manual Kanban system worked well on the shop floor. However, when manufacturers tried to implement the same manual Kanban system with suppliers for thousands of parts, the weaknesses of manual Kanban quickly became apparent. The inability to scale manual Kanban could be solved by converting to an electronic version of Kanban, popularly known as eKanban. eKanban is quickly becoming the norm for those companies intending to establish pull replenishment across their extended supply chains.

MRP and eKanban

Several ERP software vendors have appended rudimentary Kanban modules into their MRP systems. However, these Kanban modules fall short in several areas, primarily because they work at cross purposes against the core functionality of MRP software. MRP software operates on planned demand and batch releases rather than consumption driven replenishment. As such, ERP systems typically only provide the tools for very basic Kanban processes including:

Setting up a Kanban formula

Sizing the number of Kanban cards based on the formula

Triggering a signal when a bin is empty

Marking the bin as “full” once the goods are received

But the real problems come with the management of Kanban cards. These problems are amplified when dealing with a global supply chain. Solutions absent from ERP Kanban systems include:

Card Management across the Full Cycle of Consumption and Replenishment

Remote printing of Kanban cards by the supplier to simplify and standardize the receiving process

An integrated scanning option that guarantees a closed-loop Kanban system, with no lost cards and no duplicate cards

Full Kanban card audit functionality to improve inventory accuracy and eliminate the need for cycle counting

Elimination of the time lags for card collection and release

Actionable Visibility & Insight for Seamless Collaboration

Validation of defined parameters for Kanban sizing

Resizing Kanban loops as demand and supplier performance changes

Providing full visibility of all on-hand, on order, in transit, at dock and at inspection goods

Real-time dashboards for reporting and continuous improvement efforts

Ultriva vs. ERP eKanban Modules

If you are interested in investigating the functionality of Ultriva’s comprehensive closed-loop eKanban solution relative to the eKanban add-on modules offered by ERP software vendors, please click here to download a functionality comparison document.

This blog originally appeared on the Ultriva Blog Website