Oracle Corp. has released version 9.2 of its suite of PeopleSoft applications, including PeopleSoft Human Capital Management, Financials and Supply Chain Management.
Larry Schwenk, global supply-chain breakthrough leader with Dow Chemical Co, guides us through the company's application of sales and operations planning to its logistics demand-planning process. A finalist in the Supply Chain Innovation of the Year competition.
Graybar, a distributor of electrical, communications and data-networking products, as well as a provider of related supply-chain management and logistics services, is expanding operations to three additional locations in the U.S.
Analyst Insight: Based on a survey of 160 supply chain leaders in a recent webinar conducted by Steelwedge, we found that companies captured a whopping 70 percent more data (product, supply, demand and finance) to manage their organizations in 2012. Yet, 77 percent of these businesses are not actually leveraging this data in their S&OP processes, thereby leaving "blind spots" in their decision making processes around critical supply/demand trade-offs.
- Nari Viswanathan, Vice President of Product Management, Steelwedge
Analyst Insight: For the past 30 years, sales and operations planning (S&OP) has been espoused by the Oliver Wight organization based on its founder's concepts. It has manifested itself to include inventory (SIOP) and has morphed into integrated business planning (IBP). However, only within the last five years, has it been heralded and crossed the chasm to mainstream business practice. We think it may only be the tip of the iceberg though, not the core solution to step-change improved performance. - Rich Sherman, Supply Chain Discipline Expert at Trissential
There are several overarching themes driving the push for more automation inside the four walls. Some relate to changing demographics in the labor force, others to how consumers are shopping today, and let's not overlook the constant striving for more efficiency, productivity and cost reduction.
