Dec UKOUG 23 Nov 2000 Douglas Volz & Robert Lawton 1 Is Release 11i Ready for Production? Two...

Dec UKOUG 23 Nov 2000Douglas Volz & Robert Lawton

1

Is Release 11i Ready for Production?

Two Manufacturing Case Studies

Douglas Volz & Robert Lawton

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of KPMG Consulting UK or KPMG Consulting LLC – however, this paper reflects the experiences at two active Oracle

implementations as of 23 November 2000


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Release 11i Stability

Matsushita Implementation

Robert Lawton


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Background

• IBM AIX (first client in the world)

• Release 11.5.1

• Project started in June 2000

• CRP1 completed early November for Finance, Operations and Sales

• CRP1 for Planning to start December 2000


4Release 11i

Scope of ProjectOracle Applications

Financials– General Ledger and OFSG– Accounts Payable– Accounts Receivable– Cash Management– Fixed Assets

Operations– Bills Of Material/Engineering– WIP– Purchasing– Cost Management– Inventory– Flow Manufacturing

Sales and Distribution– Order Management– Shipping

Planning– APS– MPS/MRP

Deployments to the UK and Eastern Europe

Matsushita manufactures TVs, set-top boxes, microwave ovens, laser printers and PCBs at these implementation sites


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CRP Overview

Track Tests Planned Tests Completed

Finance 90 76

Operations 229 212

Sales & Distribution

40 7


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Neat New Features• Architecture easier to deploy to wider groups• Increased use of Workflow (Order Management)• Screens / Forms easier to use• Cost management, more ways to do inventory

valuations, e.g. Periodic• Production and move order Kanbans introduced• Discrete workstation in WIP (GUI)• Phantom BOM’s can have their own operations• Planning constraints for suppliers, e.g. Delivery

calendars


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Sample Bugs

• Period End Closing

• Inventory stock counts

• Cost Management

• Raising internal orders

• Drop shipments and deliveries


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Overall Stability / Usability

• Finance – med/high

• Operations – med/high

• Sales / Distribution - low


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Things to watch out for

• Scripts in install for AIX required modification by Oracle

• Oracle still getting up to speed with new modules, slow to resolve issues / fix bugs

• New modules, such as Order Management, not ready for production in 11.5.1


10

Release 11i Stability

Precision Cast Parts Corporation

Wyman Gordon Division Implementation

Douglas Volz (courtesy of Behzad Shakibal)


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Background

• HP UX, L and N class machines

• Release 11.5.1, incrementally patched up to 11.5.2

• Project started in late August

• CRP1 completed 25 Oct 2000 for Finance, Operations and Order Management

• CRP2 starts on November 27th


12Release 11i

Scope of ProjectOracle Applications

Financials– General Ledger and OFSG– Accounts Payable– Accounts Receivable– Cash Management

– Operations– Bills Of Material/Engineering– WIP (Discrete Manufacturing)– Purchasing– Cost Management– Inventory– MPS/MRP– Quality– Capacity

Sales and Distribution– Order Management– Shipping

Deployments to multiple sites on the same database instance

First division for go-live is Wyman Gordon, located in the Western United States

Wyman makes forged parts for high precision aircraft engines, and metal extrusions for pumps, petroleum lines, and other applications


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CRP Overview

Track Approx. Tests Planned

Approx. Tests Completed 95%

Finance 110 105

Operations 130 122

Sales & Distribution

120 114


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Neat New Features• Architecture easier to install than prior versions (11.03,

10.7, etc.)

• Increased use of Workflow (Order Management, Purchasing, Quality, Engineering)

• Screens more similar to Microsoft look and feel

• Discrete workstation in WIP (GUI), drop and drag transactions

• Planner workbench enhancements

• Better integration of Quality collection plans with Purchasing receipts and inspection


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Neat New Features (Continued)

• Phantom BOM’s can have their own operations and labour

• No documentation in 11.5.1, but 11.5.1 has alternate resources on a routing (used for downtime, etc.)

• Inventory item category codes are more flexible, items can share multiple category names across category sets

• Supplier scheduling and supplier management portal: view purchase orders, expected delivery schedules, etc online by your suppliers


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Sample Bugs

• Order Management, pick and reserve by lot

• Inventory stock counts, cycle counting

• AP matching

• AR reconciliation


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Overall Stability / Usability

• Finance – med/high• Operations – low/med (lots of bugs with MRP and

Capacity)• Sales / Distribution – low

• Note, these ratings are after patches that bring you up to a level similar to 11.5.2

• 11.5.3 is expected to be more stable and include patches for the above


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Things to watch out for• Scripts in install for HP UX required modification

by Oracle (first install, 11.5.1, now fixed 11.5.3)• Oracle still getting up to speed with new modules,

slow to resolve issues / fix bugs (such as lot control bugs)

• New modules, such as Order Management, not ready for production in 11.5.1, better after patches expect continued improvement in 11.5.3

• 11.5.1 Oracle Vision not stable until you apply further patches


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Overall Recommendations


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Overall Recommendations• Unless you only use Financials, 11.5.1 is only

suitable for prototyping, and only after many bug patches

• If you can wait, skip 11.5.2, start with Release 11.5.3 (As of 22 November 2000, 11.5.3 was not shipping to the Oracle public)

• If you can wait even longer, start with Release 11.5.4 (but the Euro deadline is coming….)


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Overall Recommendations• Be prepared to add in “slack” or extra time into

your project schedule for quality issues, especially if you are using Order Management or the new CRM modules

• Financials appears to be relatively stable, out since March 2000

• Manage the expectations of your user community; Oracle Release 11i can enable new processes, but will not fix your broken business processes unless the business is willing to fix them


22

Questions and Answers

• Thank you for your time and participation!

Dec UKOUG 23 Nov 2000 Douglas Volz & Robert Lawton 1 Is Release 11i Ready for Production? Two...

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