Recently, Perficient digitally transformed for success by migrating to Oracle Cloud HCM. To share our story, we invited key stakeholders Andrea Lampert, Michael Zucker, Cathie Meyers, and Mike Grennier to join a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Massey, Principal of our Oracle ERP practice.  

As Vice President of People, Andrea is responsible for working across the company to support business goals by driving the implementation of strategic people objectives reflecting Perficient’s commitment to our people and our culture. Michael Zucker, Vice President of IT, is responsible for internally facing technology solutions and infrastructure. Cathie Meyers is Director of HR and Mike Grennier is Director of Talent Acquisition.   

In the first blog post of this four-part series, Andrea and Michael discussed the Challenges of Legacy Systems, Guiding Principles, and Roadmap. In the second blog post in the series, we learned about the wins for HR and IT. For the third blog post, we will hear about the deeper dives into our Oracle Cloud HCM journey. 

To view the entire panel discussion, click here.  

How did Oracle’s global solution help your team manage day-to-day operations as well as being able to scale in the future?

[Cathie Meyers] We connect employees globally and we do that well! Our leaders are working from the US to India, as well as Latin America related to HR actions and projects. In general, we have our standard HR processes along with some manual processes but the one thing that we were missing was the ‘system connection’.  

A prime example is global connections where we have many of our employees progressing in careers as well as moving from country to country. The one thing that we want to do is to be able to manage that seamlessly. Our goal is to get them from the transferring country into the receiving country without a blip. We want to make the experience great for our colleague.  Moreover, we went behind the scenes, to make sure that all those systems, connections and data points are efficiently happening since it was previously a very manual process. As we move into this system, what is going to be helpful for us is that it is going to be seamless and unified in the cloud, not different systems.   

One additional advantage is that the history of the employee is going to follow. Prior to that, we would term them out of one system. We would then have to rehire them in another system, and we lost a lot of valuable data on that employee. Now we’re picking up that record and the journey continues for that employee into the receiving country which is very valuable data when we’re moving them around between countries. Will it be more efficient for the team? With a click of a button, things are hitting all areas such as the teams for projects, operations and payroll, so this is very, very efficient.   

It allows us an opportunity, as Michael said, to develop our employees and give them time in different areas. Therefore, we are really looking forward to the efficiency that we’re going to see, such as from the previous example. There’s many more, but I do like to cite that one example as our global depth continues at Perficient. 

As you transitioned to a fully integrated solution like working in Cloud, how have you found the transition and what are some tips you would share with other clients? 

[Mike Grennier] ‘Trust’ is the first word that comes to my mind. We trusted Oracle as it is the best-in-class solution and can be configured to operate in different environments, depending on the work culture. We already had our on-premises system which was not quite updated. We made our processes work with band-aids and duct tape in which we butchered the process to make it work for us, which was fine, but we recognized that we were far from a standard recruiting process here at Perficient.  

And we had to spend a lot of time trusting what Oracle could provide to us as best-in-class solution. That’s why I said it was so important for us to hear from our consulting partners in terms of what is possible with Oracle, what it really can do. And once we got past the point of trying to make Oracle operate like our old on-prem, taped together, band–aided system, then the process of adoption really accelerated. We realized that we were trying to fight against this new Oracle system, which is a best-in-class solution and I say best-in-class, tested and used by hundreds of companies.   

Now each company must make configurations work for their culture and environment, but the reality is that the recruiting process in most companies should be similar. Therefore, we had to trust that this new cloud–based solution would work, and this resulted in a dramatic increase in adoption. And I think that the key moment for us is when we let our hands go up a little bit and say trust that Oracle is going to be doing the right thing for us, configured our way, of course. But it’s been a really eye-opening experience in that we’ve been able to move to a much more modern experience from a recruiting standpoint and it’s been fun to watch. 

From a user perspective, can you speak about how change management was executed on our project? 

[Andrea Lampert] So first, I will say that change management was executed early and often. We were very fortunate to have a change management resource internally who helped us really think this through from the start. We had to reflect on many questions such as “How do you help people identify with what they do today and what they’ll do tomorrow?”, “What’s different about that and why it makes sense to take that journey?”. We spent a lot of time thinking about how we communicate and train people about organization changes. We were very active in developing personas and taking people really through a day in life and understanding what it meant for them to walk through the change and that was meaningful for us from a change management perspective. 

[Michael Zucker] In our weekly conversations as a steering committee, we also had change as one of our key topics. So not only was it early and often, but we were also discussing it as a leadership team. Specifically, we talked about the upcoming changes by investing in an internal page on our internet site and made sure that it was constantly updated. As we promoted different activities, we were directing applicable people to that activity and the change management became more intuitive. We didn’t have to focus on training as much, but we still had all the communication vehicles available for connecting with the business sponsors. And this leadership group put a lot of thought into it early and often and it paid dividends. 

[Cathie Meyers] Just to add! It was very important to train our teams in becoming the SMEs, so we banded together. That gave us enough bandwidth to provide help not only from the backend, but also from the frontend as a user. In turn, they were also SMEs to all of our employees, which was a huge help when we implemented Oracle Cloud HCM. 

Want to know more about the deep dive we mentioned and how we executed it? We will soon publish the fourth blog post of our four-part blog series ‘Our Digital Transformation to Oracle Cloud HCM’ which will contain a lesson learned viewpoint. 

Recently, Perficient digitally transformed for success by migrating to Oracle Cloud HCM. To share our story, we invited key stakeholders Andrea Lampert, Michael Zucker, Cathie Meyers, and Mike Grennier to join a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Massey, principal of our Oracle ERP practice.

As Vice President of People, Andrea is responsible for working across the company to support business goals by driving the implementation of strategic people objectives reflecting Perficient’s commitment to our people and our culture. Michael Zucker, Vice President of IT, is responsible for internally facing technology solutions and infrastructure. Cathie Meyers is Director of HR and Mike Grennier is Director of Talent Acquisition. 

In the first blog post of this four-part series, Andrea and Michael discuss Challenges of Legacy Systems, Guiding Principles, and Roadmap. In this second blog post in the series, learn about the wins for HR and IT.

To view the entire panel discussion, click here.

What have been the greatest wins achieved via migration to Oracle Cloud HCM from HR perspective?

[Andrea Lampert] I am pretty passionate about the user experience. Back to our guiding principles, if it’s simple, if it’s intuitive, if it helps our colleagues get the things done that they need to get done and focus on the real work that they’re doing every day, it’s a win. And Oracle Cloud was definitely a win for user experience.

It’s a more modern experience for our users, whether that’s our candidates, our employees, our managers, it’s intuitive and clean. You almost don’t need training. Having come from multiple systems to one from recruiting to hiring to onboarding and managing daily tasks, it’s light years ahead of where we were. It’s fabulous, but to do that globally becomes outstanding. We are taking some of our countries from using Excel and Word to a connected system that’s not only connected within their own country and organizational unit, but also around the globe all throughout Perficient. It’s a huge win for our users.

[Mike Grennier] My primary focus is the external candidate experience. When a candidate applies for a job, the system itself should be out of the way. It should feel very normal to a candidate to apply. Let your employment brand, your candidate experience, your marketing materials sell the candidate on the experience and don’t let the application process and the interview process get in the way of a good experience.

Perficient’s HCM experts really helped us to understand what’s possible with Oracle. A lot of our recruiters didn’t necessarily believe it at first. It’s hard to understand going from a legacy system to a very modern cloud-based solution. The experience is dramatically different. Using a system like Oracle, which is by definition best in class, always updated, very current, very modern interface was surprising. We were surprised at how easy it was to use. We were surprised the candidate experience was that much better. We were surprised a hiring manager could post a job without having to call us first and ask us for advice. It’s very intuitive. And I think the fact that we were able to learn from our in-house Oracle HCM experts to get exposed to the system and then start using it early on really made a big difference from a user experience standpoint.

What have been the greatest wins achieved via migration to Oracle Cloud HCM from IT perspective?

[Michael Zucker] My team picked up and learned the cloud platform much faster than I ever thought they would. This encouraged them to grow their careers in a new direction.

From a technical perspective, we gained the scalability and performance of being on a cloud platform. Spinning up new training environments and spinning them down when needed was way simpler than trying to conduct the same on the on-premises environments. We also carried out a large-scale system training plan which was quite successful. Featuring the right materials for the right users, was simpler via cloud during the training period. The users were able to leverage the system in an intuitive way, streamlining the different components and making our jobs easier.

We’ve had several upgrades already that have been relatively straightforward and seamless. It’s been great working with the cloud platform to date and we’re excited to keep that moving on a go-forward basis.

Want to know more about the wins we mentioned and how we executed them? Look for the third blog post of our four-part blog series ‘Our Digital Transformation to Oracle Cloud HCM’ which will contain a deeper viewpoint.

Recently, Perficient digitally transformed for success by migrating to Oracle Cloud HCM. To share our story, we invited key stakeholders Andrea Lampert, Michael Zucker, Cathie Meyers, and Mike Grennier to join a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Massey, principal of our Oracle ERP practice.

As Vice President of People, Andrea is responsible for working across the company to support business goals by driving the implementation of strategic people objectives reflecting Perficient’s commitment to our people and our culture. Michael Zucker, Vice President of IT, is responsible for internally facing technology solutions and infrastructure. Cathie Meyers is Director of HR and Mike Grennier is Director of Talent Acquisition.

In this first blog post of a four-part series, Andrea and Michael discuss the Oracle Cloud HCM migration – the Challenges of Legacy Systems, Guiding Principles, and Roadmap.

To view the entire panel discussion, click here.

What were some of the key challenges you experienced working with multiple on-premises legacy systems?

[Andrea Lampert] Our systems were antiquated. When we analyzed the downstream impact, it was huge. We didn’t have global process standards. Our user experience suffered. The multiple disconnected on-premises systems required enormous manual effort to bridge the gaps to ensure the smooth running of the business.

[Michael Zucker] Licensing was a big issue for us leading to our cloud platform decision for a high-growth company like Perficient growing via acquisitions over the past 10 years. We were paying for licensed growth in two metrics from Oracle, revenue as well as people. The opportunity to move to Oracle Cloud allowed us to consolidate into one metric which was very favorable.

We had multiple systems from a legacy perspective. We were pulling information trying to connect to other cloud-based products as our acquired companies were leveraging cloud-based platforms. That created a lot of challenges for us in keeping the data consistent and well-integrated.

Where did you begin? How did you get HR and IT on the same page in terms of goals and objectives?

[Andrea Lampert] I spent a lot of time thinking about beginning with the end in mind. We needed to align on what’s most important. What are we trying to achieve? What are our expectations along the way?

We developed a set of guiding principles that would help us lead the way in decision-making and how we were going to take on this project. We refer to those four guiding principles all the time, really throughout the project.

The first was to be intentional.  Have we optimized out-of-the-box functionality? Are we really thinking about not just the way we do things today, but about what we want our future to look like? And the expectations that we have that a system will help enable a great process for us.

Another was to be simple and intuitive. Is it easy for people to use? Can we really think about being simple and minimizing complexity for every user?

The third was to focus on the future in everything we do. Will this help us scale?

And then using a global mindset. We had disparate systems around the globe with people on different systems and now we want to follow a similar process, but it also means that our best practices could come from anywhere. How do we involve all our folks from around the globe to ensure that what we’re building is going to work for all of us?

Roadmap

Perficient’s digital transformation journey from Oracle E-Business Suite for our accounting and human capital management processes started with a global design phase. Our team of Oracle experts proposed a four-phased approach. This would allow us to get to ROI faster while reducing disruption and risk.

We built a global template for deployment considering not only what we were going to deploy first, but also the subsequent phases of the implementation. This entire phase ran for two to three months.  A concrete foundation to support all business units, countries, and processes was taken into account. We orchestrated everything with the help of key subject matter experts across the 10 countries involved. We adhered to our guiding principles and focused on taking advantage of out-of-the-box solutions where possible.

The global template led us to validate the deployment roadmap, leading with Oracle Cloud GL and financial reporting, followed by Oracle Cloud HCM in the US and then Oracle Cloud Financials and HCM for the rest of the world.

Part 2 of the blog series places emphasis on the wins of IT and HR during the migration process and how they were achieved.

View the on-demand recording to learn how Perficient, a global digital consultancy with 7,500+ employees, is modernizing HR functions and enhancing the employee experience while better supporting our business by migrating from Oracle E-Business Suite to Oracle Cloud HCM.

Andrea Lampert, VP of People, and Michael Zucker, VP of IT join key stakeholders from our HR team to discuss how the move to Oracle Cloud is helping Perficient scale and grow.

Our panel will discuss:

• Perficient’s Oracle Cloud HCM implementation strategy and approach to Core HR, Recruiting/Onboarding, Benefits and Compensation
• How HR and IT can partner together
• Future plans for Time and Labor and Absence Management
• Lessons learned and best practices

View the on-demand recording.

Proactively monitoring and addressing upcoming supply chain bottlenecks can have a direct impact on realizing revenue targets and meeting customer expectations. Leveraging Incorta Analytics, Perficient’s supply chain management solution for Oracle E-Business Suite provides a forward-looking view of inventory projections with increased visibility into SCM, order management, purchasing, and manufacturing.  

Watch the on-demand recording for a live demo of the supply chain dashboard and learn how this solution for Oracle EBS can help you: 

• Predict inventory shortages before they happen 
• Identify items with low projected days on hand and upcoming fill rates 
• Facilitate “make or buy” decisions and keep up with demand 

Learn how Perficient’s Oracle ERP and HCM practice is transforming our own back office from Oracle E-Business Suite to Oracle Cloud. Perficient’s Vice President of People, Andrea Lampert, Chief Financial Officer, Paul Martin, Vice President and Controller, Susan Adomite, and our Oracle ERP Directors, Matt Makowsky (Finance) and Holly Higgins-Smith (HCM) discuss how we’re modernizing core business functions with Oracle Cloud to scale and grow.

• Cloud ERP: From a new chart of accounts and detailed analytics all the way up to boardroom-ready financial statements – live in just nine months!
• Cloud HCM: As a global firm with 6,500+ employees, we’re modernizing HR functions and improving the employee experience while better

Join us for a discussion that will include:

• Cloud ERP and HCM implementation strategy and approach
• Leveraging Accounting Hub to access transactions in legacy systems
• Long-term global footprint which includes Oracle Projects, Accounts Receivable, Procurement, and Cloud Expenses for a fully integrated solution in the cloud
• Combining Absence Management, and Time and Labor with Projects
• Integrating Kyriba for treasury management and ONESOURCE for tax
• Lessons learned and building your own business case for transformation

Come prepared with your questions for Perficient’s team. If you’re unable to attend the live event, all registrants will receive links to the presentation materials and a recording of the on-demand webinar post-event. Register today!

Proactively monitoring and addressing upcoming supply chain bottlenecks can have a direct impact on realizing revenue targets and meeting customer expectations. Leveraging Incorta Analytics, Perficient’s supply chain management solution for Oracle E-Business Suite provides a forward-looking view of inventory projections with increased visibility into SCM, order management, purchasing, and manufacturing.  

Join us for a live demo of the supply chain dashboard and learn how this solution for Oracle EBS can help you: 

• Predict inventory shortages before they happen 
• Identify items with low projected days on hand and upcoming fill rates 
• Facilitate “make or buy” decisions and keep up with demand 

Come prepared with your questions for Perficient’s team. If you’re unable to attend the live event, all registrants will receive links to the presentation materials and a recording of the on-demand webinar post-event. Register today!

How do Ingredient Changes occur in Oracle OPM? Oracle Process Manufacturing (OPM) jobs have 3 parts; batch jobs, process operations, and recipe. The Recipe is a list of ingredients for the batch job(s).  The warehouse compiles the ingredient materials on the recipe to complete the batch job. The quantities cannot be easily revised once they are physically issued to the batch. However, each step of the process has its own process for handling material changes in the recipe. So, what do you do if there are material changes? In this post, we explore potential scenarios where the process manufacturing recipe needs to be revised.

Understanding Ingredient Release in EBS R12 with WMS enabled

There are several types of Manufacturing in Oracle EBS R12. We are going to focus on Batch/Process (OPM) Manufacturing. To better understand process manufacturing, think of making a batch of cookies. If you need additional examples, please see the blog post “Which Manufacturing type your ERP solution is using.”

Planned vs. Ad-Hoc Material requirements

Oracle’s process manufacturing has two processes to add ingredients to a batch; planned and ad-hoc. Planned ingredients are on the recipe. Ingredients issued to the batch “on the fly” are ad-hoc. Usually, this is a result of corrective action to a quality issue.

An example would be adding more flour to the cookie dough because the consistency is not right. Another example would be an on-the-spot substitution. You’ve run out of olive oil and chose to substitute canola oil for the batch.

Changes made before the release of the batch job need to be on the recipe. Ingredient changes after you release a batch job tend to be ad-hoc. A recipe revision is also an option. If this simplest and quickest way to fulfill the material needs is to grab and immediately issued the ingredients to the batch job; then use the ad-hoc method.

The scenarios that we are going to cover are not going to consider Ad-hoc materials.

Outside Processing vs. Make to Order

Outside processing (OSP) is where an external group is working on a piece of the manufacturing process. These processes are not in direct control of the manufacturer. An OSP process is sending out a batch of cookies to be packaged. To be internal, you would have a packaging station in-house. For this post, we are not talking about any material changes to an OSP manufacturing step.

Ingredient changes in Process Picking/OPM Tasks in Oracle WMS

Similar to the Sales Order Fulfillment process, Ingredient picking is a two-step process. Staging the ingredients and issuing the ingredients. In Oracle EBS R12, component picking for the discrete job is a one-step process. Components are picked and issued to the job in one process.

Within this process, there are five phases in the OPM Batch Job lifecycle with Material requirements. They are Job Release, Ingredient request, Ingredient move, Ingredient Issue, and Job completion. The process of making a revision or a cancelation depends on which phase you are in. Ingredient changes can only be made if there are no active move tasks or issued ingredients. So, if you are to look at where you are at. You can then decide which steps are the most efficient way to handle to job.

The Phases of Ingredient needs for an OPM Batch Job are as follows:

Scenarios in OPM & WMS with Material Changes:

1. Ingredient changes after the Batch Job(s) are approved (Ingredient Pick Release has not occurred)
2. The Warehouse receives the Batch Job and then ingredient changes to the Task/Job occur
3. Ingredient changes occur during the Picking of the ingredients for the Batch
4. Ingredient changes after materials are staged
5. Ingredients have been issued to the Batch when a change occurs

Scenario #1 – Ingredient changes before the batch job is released to the warehouse for picking

Scenario details:

The Process Manufacturing Batch Job is in a “released” status. However, the Warehouse has not received instructions to perform the ingredient picking allocation. Production scheduling requests a change to the Batch Job or cancellation of the batch in its entirety.

Solution Action Plan:

There are no active tasks in the warehouse.  Manufacturing operations can easily revise the Recipe. So, the first action is to make sure that the warehouse doesn’t release the batch job for ingredient picking. To do this, Manufacturing operations must inform the Raw Material Warehouse to not release the materials until the Recipe is updated. Once updated, the raw material warehouse can release the job.

Scenario #2 – Warehouse receives the Batch Job and then ingredient changes occur

Scenario details (Assuming a Make-to-Order environment):

In this case, the Batch Job is in a “released” status. The Warehouse has reviewed the ingredients for the job. Warehouse picking tasks exist. In this scenario, the recipe has changed due to an issue discovered with an earlier batch. The ingredient amounts have to change. The corrective action may require the removal of the ingredient in its totality.  Manufacturing operations request a cancellation of the entire batch. The batch will be released again after the recipe is updated.  Manufacturing Operations and the Raw Material Warehouse leadership talk. The result is the cancellation of the task(s) for the ingredient picking. The Raw Material Warehouse Manager/Supervisor (or Lead) has not assigned this order to be actively picked.

Solution Action Plan:

Expediency is key in this situation. As ingredient picking is not occurring, we want to keep it that way. Revisions and cancelations must happen before the warehouse actively starts picking the batch job. To do this, the Manufacturing Production team will need to communicate and work with the Warehouse leadership.

Warehouse leadership will need to perform two actions:

1. Ensure ingredient picking doesn’t start
2. Cancel the open picking tasks in the system

For the first part, they will need to pull the batch job from the queue of active orders. You can do this by removing the pick-slip from the stack of orders. The next step is to cancel the open tasks in EBS. If you reverse these steps you run the risk of having a warehouse worker trying to pick that work order. They will be unable to access the order to pick in EBS but will have a pick-slip instructing them to pick it. This will cause confusion and delay. If the warehouse is running in a paperless mode, simply proceed to the step of task cancellation in EBS. The raw material warehouse will need to let production operations know when the tasks have been canceled.

To actively cancel these tasks, query up the corresponding task in the “Transact Move Order” form. From there you can cancel the move order by selecting the function of “Back Order Line” from the Tools option.

If the Warehouse Manager/Supervisor (or Lead) has assigned the work order to be actively picked, please see the next scenario.

Batch Job Revisions

For Recipe Revisions at this phase in the process, you would follow the same steps. However, instead of canceling the Batch job, the job would be re-released once the revisions have been made.

Scenario #3 – Batch Job is Released and then Cancelled while ingredients are Picked

Scenario details:

The Warehouse is actively picking the ingredients for the batch job. For some reason, the job needs to be changed. Either the equipment is down or a change in the recipe. Production operations call the Warehouse Supervisor/Manager to request that they stop picking ingredients for the batch. The Warehouse Worker is in the middle of actively picking the raw materials. This means that some of the tasks are complete. However, several tasks are still in the process of picking.

Solution Action Plan

Active picking of the order is taking place at this phase. Operations will need to stop the active picking of the order. This will require coordination with the Raw Material Warehouse leadership team. Depending on how far into the fulfillment cycle, it may take several hours before the ingredients on the batch job can be revised. The Warehouse leadership will need to evaluate where the order is in the fulfillment process. Will it be easier for the Warehouse Worker to return the material to where they found it (and reverse the execution of those picking tasks) or finish the fulfillment tasks?  Once they have arrived at a decision, the leadership must communicate their intention with the warehouse staff.

Similar to Order Fulfillment; Ingredient fulfillment for batch jobs consists of two steps. They are material transfer and material issues. With batch jobs, you can revise the recipe if there are no open tasks or reservations.

The task is in one of four states of picking. These states are as follows:

1. Dispatched – Task is in the queue for action
2. Active – Actively picking material
3. Loaded – Transaction is in an interim state (in transit to Production)
4. Completed – Production receives the material. The material is no longer in inventory because it is now on the WIP Job.

Dispatched Task

For dispatched tasks, the worker needs to abort the action.  Once aborted, proceed with the steps taken in Scenario #2.

Active Task

For Active tasks, the warehouse worker needs to put the material back to where they were taking it from and abort the task in the system. Once aborted, proceed with the steps taken in Scenario #2.

Loaded Task

Loaded tasks can go one of two ways. Complete the task or abort the task. To abort the task, two events must occur in unison. First, the task needs to be undone in the system. Second, the ingredients need to be physically returned. Oracle’s Mobile Warehouse Application (MWA) refers to this action as a “Manual Unload” of the LPN. This function will tell the worker where to return the material to. Once completed, you can proceed with the steps outlined in Scenario #2.

If the revisions are not related to the picked ingredients, it might be easier to just finish the active tasks. This is done by dropping the Loaded LPN into the production area. If one or more of these items need to be returned, see the steps taken in Scenario #4.

Completed Task

For completed tasks, follow the steps outlined in scenario #4.

Scenario #4 – Recipe is adjusted after Ingredients have been Picked

Scenario details:

Ingredients are in the production staging area. Ingredient changes to the batch occur. This is because of corrective action in the manufacturing process. Also, the batch could have been canceled or rescheduled to be produced at a later point in time. This event could be due to an equipment failure, or a production schedule change.

Solution Action Plan:

In all of these cases, raw materials need to return to the warehouse. To remain in the production staging area would take up valuable space and cause inefficiencies in the production process. The material reservations need to be removed. Once removed, the ingredients can be returned.

To remove the material reservations, go into the Batch Job transaction and remove the reservations on the ingredients. Once this is complete, perform a directed LPN putaway and move the LPN back into the warehouse to an appropriate locator. Also, after all of the reservations have been removed you can adjust the recipe and release the batch back to the floor as necessary.

Scenario #5 – Canceling the Batch after Ingredients are Issued

Scenario details:

Batch Job has consumed the raw materials. Ingredient changes to the Batch Job occur. This is because of an equipment failure or a quality corrective change.

Solution Action Plan:

In all of these cases, raw materials need to return to inventory. However, we need to review where the batch is in the process.  If ingredients have been physically issued to the batch, you’ll have to perform a scrap transaction. However, if the ingredients have not physically been issued, you can perform a return. In the scenarios where the ingredient change is to add material, an ad-hoc transaction would be the preferred action.

To perform a material return, go into the Batch Job transaction and perform a material return transaction. Receive the material back to the production staging area. The rationale behind this is to repack the materials onto an LPN. The LPN is then putaway back into the warehouse to an appropriate location.

In WMS, a Batch Return can also be performed in mobile applications using the Material Txn Return function.

The return function performs two necessary things. First, it reverses the issuing of raw material components to the work order. The reversal places the materials back into inventory. These materials are also no longer reserved for the Batch Job.  Ingredient changes are now possible for the work order. Second, it allows for the materials to be putaway back into stock for another job.

OPM Ingredient Changes – Conclusion

Work Order revisions for Batch Jobs will happen in a manufacturing environment. Efficiently managing these revisions is paramount. The key to achieving efficiency is to understand the process. The proper management of these changes comes with communication.

You can apply these principles to other fulfillment processes. If you are interested in learning about this process for order management, check out the Ways to easily solve Order revisions in the Oracle R12 Warehouse Management blog post. To explore applying these to discrete manufacturing check out the More ways to easily resolve material changes in Oracle R12 WIP and WMS post.

To learn more about this process or similar processes in further detail, please contact the Perficient team for more information.

Oracle Discrete Manufacturing jobs have 3 parts; jobs, operations, and bills of materials. The Bill of materials (BOM) is a list of components for the job(s).  The warehouse compiles the materials on the BOM to complete the job. The quantities cannot be easily revised when the warehouse is collecting the components. So, what do you do if there are material changes? In this post, we explore potential scenarios where discrete manufacturing components need to be revised.

Understanding Component Release in EBS R12 with WMS enabled

There are several types of Manufacturing in Oracle EBS R12. We are going to focus on Discrete (WIP) Manufacturing. To better understand discrete manufacturing, think of building a car. If you need additional examples, please see the blog post “which Manufacturing type your ERP solution is using.”

Planned vs. Ad-Hoc Material requirements

Oracle’s discrete manufacturing has two processes to add materials to a job; planned and ad-hoc. Planned materials are on the Bill of Materials (BOM). Materials issued to the job “on the fly” are ad-hoc. Usually, this is a result of corrective action to a quality issue.

An example would be adding more soil to a pot because the original amount wasn’t enough to properly cover the plant. Or the bill requires a black pot and you only have red pots. So, you use a red pot and paint it black. That would be the cancellation of the original item, the addition/substitution of the red pot(s), and then the adding on the fly of the black paint.

Changes made before the release of the job need to be on the BOM. Component changes after a job are released tend to be ad-hoc. A BOM revision is also an option. If this simplest and quickest way to fulfill the material needs is to grab and immediately issued the materials to the job; then use the ad-hoc method.

The scenarios that we are going to cover are not going to consider Ad-hoc materials.

Outside Processing vs. Make to Order

Outside processing (OSP) is where an external group is working on a piece of the manufacturing process. These processes are not in direct control of the manufacturer. An example of this would be sending a car to a paint shop instead of having your own painting station in your manufacturing plant. For this post, we are not talking about any material changes to an OSP manufacturing step.

Material changes in Discrete Picking/WIP Tasks in Oracle WMS

There are four phases in the WIP Job lifecycle with Material requirements. They are Job Release, Component Release, Component Issue, and Job completion. The process of making a revision or a cancelation depends on which phase you are in. Component changes can only be made if there are no issued components. Also, there have to be no active tasks. So, if you to look at where you are and decide which steps are the most efficient way to handle to job.

The Phases of a WIP Job are as follows:

Scenarios in WIP & WMS with Material Changes:

1. Material changes after the WIP Job is approved (Component Pick Release has not occurred)
2. The Warehouse receives the WIP Job and then material changes to the Task/Job occur
3. Material changes occur during the Picking of the components to the Job
4. Material Changes are required after the components have been issued to the Job

Scenario #1 – Material changes before the job is released for picking

Scenario details:

The Manufacturing Work Order (WIP Job) is in a “released” status. However, the Warehouse has not received instructions to perform the component picking allocation. Production scheduling requests a change to the WIP or a Cancellation of the Work Order in its entirety.

Solution Action Plan:

There are no active tasks in the warehouse.  Manufacturing operations can easily revise the BOM. So, the first action is to make sure that the warehouse doesn’t release the job for picking. To do this, Manufacturing operations must inform the Raw Material Warehouse to not release the materials until the BOM is updated. Once updated, the raw material warehouse can release the job.

Scenario #2 – Warehouse receives the WIP Job and then material changes occur

Scenario details (Assuming a Make-to-Order environment):

In this case, the WIP Job is in a “released” status. The Warehouse has reviewed those material requirements for the job. Warehouse picking tasks exist. In this scenario, the WIP Job exists to fill an active sales order. The customer calls to cancel the order. This means that the need for this item isn’t there anymore. The WIP job is no longer necessary. Manufacturing operations request a cancellation of the Work Order in its entirety.  Manufacturing Operations and the Raw Material Warehouse leadership talk. The result is the cancellation of the task(s) for the component picking. The Work Order is terminated after the tasks are canceled. The Raw Material Warehouse Manager/Supervisor (or Lead) has not assigned this order to be actively picked.

Solution Action Plan:

Expediency is key in this situation. As component picking is not occurring, we want to keep it that way. Revisions and cancelations must happen before the warehouse actively starts picking the work order. To do this, the Customer Service and Manufacturing Production team will need to contact and work with the Warehouse leadership.

Warehouse leadership will need to perform two actions:

1. Ensure work order picking doesn’t start
2. Cancel the open picking tasks in the system

For the first part, they will need to pull the work order from the queue of active orders. You can do this by removing the pick-slip from the stack of orders. The next step is to cancel the open tasks in EBS. If you reverse these steps you run the risk of having a warehouse worker trying to pick that work order. They will be unable to access the order to pick in EBS but will have a pick-slip instructing them to pick it. This will cause confusion and delay. If the warehouse is running in a paperless mode, simply proceed to the step of task cancellation in EBS. The raw material warehouse will need to let production operations know when the tasks have been canceled.

To actively cancel these tasks, query up the corresponding task in the “Transact Move Order” form. From there you can cancel the move order by selecting the function of “Back Order Line” from the Tools option.

If the Warehouse Manager/Supervisor (or Lead) has assigned the work order to be actively picked, please see the next scenario.

Job Revisions

For BOM Revisions at this phase in the process, you would follow the same steps. However, instead of canceling the WIP job, the job would be re-released once the revisions have been made.

Scenario #3 – Work Order (WIP Job) is Released and then Cancelled while being Picked

Scenario details:

The Warehouse is actively picking the material components for the WIP job. For some reason, the job needs to be changed. Either the equipment is down or a change in the assembly details. Production operations call the Warehouse Supervisor/Manager to request that they stop picking materials for the job. The Warehouse Worker is in the middle of actively picking the raw materials. This means that some of the tasks are complete. However, several tasks are still in the process of picking.

Solution Action Plan

Active picking of the order is taking place at this phase. Operations will need to stop the active picking of the order. This will require coordination with the Raw Material Warehouse leadership team. Depending on how far into the fulfillment cycle, it may take several hours before the material on the job can be revised. The Warehouse leadership will need to evaluate where the order is in the fulfillment process. Will it be easier for the Warehouse Worker to return the material to where they found it (and reverse the execution of those picking tasks) or finish the fulfillment tasks?  Once they have arrived at a decision, the leadership must communicate their intention with the warehouse staff.

The task is in one of four states of picking. These states are as follows:

1. Dispatched – Task is in the queue for action
2. Active – Actively picking material
3. Loaded – Transaction is in an interim state (in transit to Production)
4. Completed – Production receives the material. The material is no longer in inventory because it is now on the WIP Job.

Dispatched Task

For dispatched tasks, the worker needs to abort the action.  Once aborted, proceed with the steps taken in Scenario #2.

Active Task

For Active tasks, the warehouse worker needs to put the material back to where they were taking it from and abort the task in the system. Once aborted, proceed with the steps taken in Scenario #2.

Loaded Task

Loaded tasks can go one of two ways. Complete the task or abort the task. The material has to be returned to the locator of origin to be aborted. Oracle’s Mobile Warehouse Application (MWA) refers to this action as a “Manual Unload” of the LPN. This function will tell the worker where to return the material to. Proceed with the steps taken in Scenario #2 after all of the material has been unloaded.

If the revisions are not related to the picked components, it might be easier to just finish the active tasks. This is done by dropping the Loaded LPN into the production area. This will also issue the components to the job. If one or more of these items need to be returned, see the steps taken in Scenario #4.

Completed Task

For completed tasks, follow the steps outlined in scenario #4.

Scenario #4 – Order is Released and then Cancelled while Order has been Picked

Scenario details:

WIP Job has consumed the raw materials. Material changes to the WIP Job occur. This could be due to an equipment failure or a schedule change.

Solution Action Plan:

In all of these cases, raw materials need to return to inventory. To do this, a material return transaction must occur.

To perform a material return, go into the Discrete Job transaction and perform a material return transaction. Receive the material to a WIP staging area. This is done so that they can be packed onto a new LPN and putaway back into the warehouse to an appropriate locator.

In WMS, a WIP Return can also be performed in mobile applications using the Material Txn Return function.

The return function performs two necessary things. First, it reverses the issuing of raw material components to the work order. The reversal places the materials back into inventory. These materials are also no longer reserved for the WIP Job.  Material changes are now possible for the work order. Second, it allows for the materials to be putaway back into stock for another job.

WIP Material Changes – Conclusion

Work Order revisions will happen in a manufacturing environment. Efficiently managing these revisions is paramount. The key to achieving efficiency is to understand the process. The proper management of these changes comes with communication.

You can apply these principles to other fulfillment processes. If you are interested in learning about this process for order management, check out the Ways to easily solve Order revisions in the Oracle R12 Warehouse Management blog post. We will explore applying these to process or batch manufacturing in ways to easily resolve material changes in Oracle R12 OPM and WMS post.

If you are interested in learning about this process or similar processes in further detail, please fill out the form below or contact the Perficient team for more information.

Manufacturing is the process of making an item to sell. Within manufacturing, there are several different manufacturing types and sub-types. So, how do you know what type of manufacturing environment your company is using? In this post, we will review the three main manufacturing types and the key terminology that goes with each one.

The three main manufacturing types are:

1. Discrete
2. Process
3. Project

Manufacturing Type: Discrete (WIP)

Discrete Manufacturing is like buying furniture from IKEA. Several independent pieces come together to make the final item. These pieces are made at the same time. This optimizes the overall manufacturing time.  Using a simple table as an example. There are three main components; the tabletop, the table legs, and the fastening hardware. The process to make each piece can start at any moment in time. You could start making the legs days or hours before you start making the tabletop. At the end of the manufacturing process, all of these parts come together. From there, there are two choices. Bundle the parts into a box or assemble the parts into a fully-built unit.

Flow Manufacturing

Flow Manufacturing is an advanced form of discrete manufacturing. The process is the same, but instead of building to a forecast, you are building to demand. The process has lower overall costs. The dedicated production lines and mass production means that optimal costs have been achieved. Think of flow manufacturing as something similar to the building of a car on the manufacturing line.

Discrete Manufacturing Terminology

Terms most commonly heard in a Discrete Manufacturing Environment. I have broken them down into two categories. The Process (terms associated with the job structure) and the Output (terms associated with the physical material).

Process Terminology

Bill of Material (BOM) – The list of materials needed for a WIP Job to build an assembly. Many cloud ERPs prefer to utilize the term “structure” instead of BOM. This is for safety and to reduce people mistakenly thinking the person is referring to an actual Bomb.

Component – The listed material in a Structure/BOM.

Exploding BOM – The act of viewing all levels of an Indented BOM. A complete view of all materials needed to make an assembly.

Indented BOM – A Multi-level or Master bill of materials. The bill includes all of the materials needed to build the sub-assemblies as well as the main item. Also known as a Multi-level BOM.

Operation Step- A singular step in the WIP Job to create the Assembly. Attaching legs to a table is an operation step.

Routing – The ordering of Operation Steps to be followed to complete the assembly.

WIP Job – The process of building one assembly in discrete manufacturing is a WIP Job. WIP is short for Work In Process.

Output Terminology

Assembly – The desired completed product of a Work in Process (WIP) Job.

By-product – An unplanned secondary end unit from a WIP Job. The manufacturing cost of the second item is minimal (close to zero). An example would be coconut water. Chopped up fresh coconuts are the main product. Also, the water found in the coconut is sold.

Co-product – A planned secondary end-unit from an assembly. This unit carries its own cost as part of the production. An example of this would be processing a pig to make a ham. The Ham may be the main item, but the other items are also planned as part of the process.

Sub-Assembly – A WIP Job to build a component for the main assembly. Making the table legs for a table is a sub-assembly.

Manufacturing Type: Process (Batch Manufacturing)

Process Manufacturing is like baking cookies. Several ingredients, but there’s only one true way to make the cookies and you can’t go out of order or make parts of the cookie in parallel. The mix is forever impacted once an ingredient has been added. Optimal batch production is the goal. This is where the formula, size, and cost result in the greatest revenue. A process batch is a name for this type of manufacturing job. Going back to the cookie analogy, it’s because we are making a batch of cookies.

Process Manufacturing Terminology

The terms most commonly found in a Process Manufacturing environment:

Batch – The name for a Process Manufacturing job to create one lot of an item in Process Manufacturing.

By-product – An unplanned secondary item created in the production process. The manufacturing cost of the second item is minimal (close to zero). For example, Molasses is a byproduct of refining sugar.

Co-product – A planned secondary item from a batch. This item carries its own cost as part of the production.  A classic example of this would be doughnut holes. The traditional doughnut is the main item. However, the excess dough at the end of the production run makes the doughnut holes.

Formula – The list of ingredients needed for a specific Recipe.

Ingredients – The list of raw and intermediate materials needed to produce a batch.

Lot – A grouping of items that were completed in the same batch. A dozen cookies baking on the same cooking tray would be one lot. Quality tracking is the main reason for lot assignment.

Recipe – The list of steps and formulas and ingredients to produce a batch of product.

Manufacturing Type: Project

Project Manufacturing is a blend of project management and manufacturing. It is like remodeling your home. 100% custom and the plans, measurements, and materials won’t likely be used for another home remodeling project. Every project is unique to itself. The only repeatable deliverable here is the process.

Contract Manufacturing

The creation of the component by subcontracting a portion of the process to another manufacturer is Contract Manufacturing. The subcontractor is not directly tied to the outcome of the project. Contract manufacturing occurs with any of the three types of manufacturing. It is more prevalent in project manufacturing. Outside Processing is a form of contract manufacturing. Think of this as NASA commissioning Tesla to build solar batteries for their next rover vehicle. The battery is a key component, but the success of the rover project meeting its timeline and budget will not impact Tesla’s overall business.

Project Manufacturing Terminology

The terms most commonly found in a Project Manufacturing environment are:

Engineering Change Notice (ECN) – An official notice of an approved change. These notifications are used along with an ECO when communicating with Contract Manufacturers. This is to ensure that the contract manufacturer is aware of the required change.

Engineering Change Order (ECO) – A document that outlines a change in the overall design of the project. Changes within a specific manufacturing task also require an ECO.

Manufacturing Work Instructions (MWI) – Directions and additional information on how to perform a manufacturing task.

Milestones – An action or event marking a significant change or stage in development. In some projects, billing and payment occur with the successful achievement of a milestone. Milestones are events like completion of product design, the product is made, the product is delivered, and the product is approved by the customer.

Phase – The grouping of tasks to accomplish a subset of the project.

Work Package – A grouping of Work Instructions that are to be completed during the current phase of the project.

Conclusion – What Manufacturing Type is your company using?

Understanding what type of manufacturing that your company is using is important. Knowing the terminology will help you find common ground. Once you can speak the language, you can quickly understand what processes are being utilized. This will also help you with what additional tools are available for improvement.

Order revisions occur regularly in order fulfillment. Once a Sales Order has been “Released” to the Warehouse to fulfill and ship, the order can not be changed unless the desired line(s) on the order are in a revisable status. For this post, we’re going to cover potential scenarios where a Sales Order may be canceled or changed. These changes will result in the need to move part or all of the Sales Orders into a revisable status.

Understanding Order Release in Oracle EBS R12

There are six actionable phases with a Sales Order. There are seven phases in total, but we will only consider the following five:

Starting with a booked order, any change will need to be documented. These are revisions. The order management/customer service team is the one that makes revisions. As the order travels down to each subsequent phase, their ability to easily make revisions decreases. Active involvement from the warehouse increases with each progression.

Changes are only possible when the Order is in the “booked” phase. You can also reset the order to the “Booked” phase once it has been Picked or Staged. This is the act of actively back-ordering the Sales Order. Back-ordering cancels the picking and staging of the order. This moves the order or order line back into a revisable state. This also removes the allocated material from the picked goods. The Sales Order no longer has these goods on it. You will have to pick these goods again to get them on the order.

When a change request occurs, you will need to evaluate your approach. The overarching question for the approach is based on operational efficiency. Which is easier, backing out of the order or finish picking it?

Order Revision Scenarios Covered:

We will walk through how to cancel or revise an order in Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) at each phase. These phases are as follows:

1. Sales Order revisions after the orders are booked (Warehouse hasn’t received the Order)
2. The Warehouse receives the Order and then it needs to be revised
3. Order is actively being Picked when it needs to be revised
4. Order/Line is canceled after the Sales Order/Line has been picked & Staged
5. The order has been Shipped and needs to be revised

Scenario #1 – Order is Revised/Cancelled before being Released

Scenario details:

Sales Order is in a booked status. The Warehouse has not received the order.  The customer calls and requests a change or a cancellation of the order in its entirety.

Order Revision Action Plan:

Customer Service (Order Management Group) cancels the Sales Order/Line or makes a change to a specific line. Upon completion, the Warehouse receives the revised order. The canceled order has no additional steps.

Scenario #2 – Warehouse receives the order before order revisions are needed

Scenario details:

The Warehouse has received the Sales Order. The Customer calls and requests a change to the Order or a Cancellation to the Order in its entirety.

Order Revision Action Plan:

Expediency is key in this situation. As order picking is not occurring, we want to keep it that way. Revisions must happen before the warehouse actively starts picking the order. To do this, the Customer Service team will need to contact the Warehouse leadership.

Warehouse leadership will need to perform two actions:

1. Ensure order picking doesn’t start
2. Cancel the open picking tasks in the system.

For the first part, they will need to pull the order from the queue of active orders. You can do this by removing the pick-slip from the stack of orders. The next step is to cancel the open tasks in EBS. If you reverse these steps you run the risk of having a warehouse worker trying to pick the order. They will be unable to access the order to pick in EBS but will have a pick-slip instructing them to pick it. This will cause confusion and delay. If the warehouse is running in a paperless mode, simply proceed to the step of task cancellation in EBS. Sales Order or Order Line revisions can occur after the tasks have been canceled.

If the Warehouse Manager/Supervisor (or Lead) has assigned the order to be actively picked, please see the next scenario.

Scenario #3 – Order revisions occur during active Picking

Scenario details:

The Warehouse is actively picking an order to fulfill.  Customer calls and requests a change to the Order or a Cancellation to the Order in its entirety.

Order Revision Action Plan:

Active picking of the order is taking place at this phase. Customer Service will need to stop the active picking of the order. This will require coordination with the Warehouse leadership team. Depending on where the order is in the fulfillment cycle, it may take several hours before the order can be revised. The Warehouse leadership will need to evaluate where the order is in the fulfillment process. Will it be easier for the Warehouse Worker to return the material to where they found it (and reverse the execution of those picking tasks) or finish the fulfillment tasks?  Once they have arrived at a decision, the leadership must communicate their intention with the warehouse staff.

Once the tasks have been completed (by returning the goods or completing the pick), the Warehouse leadership can return the order to an editable state. In the case of reversing the picking tasks, they will perform the same steps that were taken in scenario #2. If they chose to complete the picking and then backorder, they will need to follow the steps outlined in scenario #4.

Scenario #4 – Order is Revised or Cancelled after Order has been Picked, but not Shipped

Scenario details:

The order fulfillment phase is complete. The next step is to ship the order out of the warehouse. Customer calls and requests a change to the Order or a Cancellation to the Order in its entirety.

Order Revision Action Plan:

To make changes to the sales order, there can’t be any confirmed reservations. The easiest way to perform this to a sales order at this point is to cancel the confirmed shipment. You can perform this action for one line or the entire order. In Oracle EBS, this action is a backordered ship confirmation. Instead of confirming the shipment of goods, you instruct the system to cancel the entire picking confirmation process. This will place the order back into a revisable state.

Follow this same methodology for damaged goods in the staging area. You will need to split the damaged goods onto a delivery that is separate from the rest of the order. Backorder the delivery for the damaged goods. This will allow for the damaged goods to be moved to QC to be repackaged or properly disposed of. Then re-release the order to the warehouse to pick the next available good supply to be shipped to the customer.

Unfortunately for the warehouse, additional steps will need to be performed. These additional tasks are to deconstruct the pallets and return the goods back to the warehouse. Once the revisions are complete, customer service will re-release the order to the warehouse. The entire process will start over. The entire picking of the order starts anew.

Scenario #5 – Order revisions after shipping the sales order

Scenario details:

Sales Order has shipped out of the Warehouse.  Customer calls and requests a change to the Order or a Cancellation to the Order in its entirety.

Order Revision Action Plan:

The point of shipment confirmation is the point of no return. The goods have left the warehouse and are on their way to the customer. At this point, Customer Service will need to authorize a return shipment. Crediting the customer for the goods is also necessary. However, the point of credit issuance will depend on company policy.

Conclusion

Sales Order revisions will happen in an order fulfillment environment. Efficiently managing these revisions is paramount. The key is achieving efficiency is to understand the process. The proper management of these changes comes with communication.

You can apply these principles to other fulfillment processes. We will explore applying them to manufacturing in additional posts. For discrete manufacturing, see the More ways to easily resolve material changes in Oracle R12 WIP and WMS post. If you are interested in seeing this applied in a process or batch manufacturing environment, please check out the More ways to easily resolve material changes in Oracle R12 OPM and WMS posts.

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