Okidata's problem was one that most businesses crave — stronger-than-expected sales and rapidly increasing product volumes. The company foresaw numerous receiving, shipping, and internal logistics difficulties at its Mount Laurel, New Jersey, headquarters facility. Without improvements to complement its existing SCM system, Okidata ran the risk of disappointing its customers or, even worse, turning business away.

Having sold more than 12 million printers since its founding, Okidata is a leader among PC peripheral companies in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. With annual revenues of approximately $500 million, the division ranks first among impact printer manufacturers in North America with a 37% market share, and second among vendors in the 1-to-10 ppm laser category with a 6.5% market share. "Naturally, focusing on the customer is our top priority," says Bill Fabian, Okidata's Vice President of Information Services.

Okidata's internal SCM system provides a unified view of operations from sales through shipment and invoicing. In view of rapidly growing demand, the company chose Apriso because its "quick start" methodology meant that CIM+ Materials Manager, Warehouse Manager, and Shipping Manager Bar Code Middleware applications could be up and running quickly, before sales volumes got ahead of Okidata's ability to execute.

"And, unlike solutions presented by four other vendors," says Bill Fabian, Okidata's Vice President of Information Services, "palletization is a standard CIM+ capability."

A key Okidata requirement is product tracking and shipment documentation by pallet ID label, using multiple unique serial numbers. So is label generation, monitoring of pallet quantities by serial number, and transaction backflushing when receiving items from production. To support its high-volume operations, Okidata needs to accommodate real-time data transfers from up to 50 radio frequency (RF) devices, simultaneously.

Combining its "quick start" methodology with SAP's ASAP, Apriso got Okidata's new supply chain execution system up and running right on schedule, within four months. Almost immediately, Okidata began to reap tangible benefits and return on its investment.

"For starters," reports Fabian, "we saw a record high sales volume increase of approximately $6 million within a month of implementation."

Error reduction and process simplification are two upside surprises. "With CIM+," according to Fabian, "we can minimize the number of transactions, which makes our SCM system perform better. On top of this, Apriso's software empowers our employees with knowledge of how to properly utilize data collection equipment. As a result, we now manage our picking and putaway processes more effectively, reject errors on the spot, and provide management with an up-to-the-minute picture of what's really happening in the warehouse."

Error-Proofing Inventories and Improving Customer Satisfaction at Productos de Consumo Resistol

In 1997, Mario Corte, Director of Systems for Mexican chemical manufacturer Productos de Consumo Resistol (PCR), put some compelling initiatives before the company's senior management team. Recalls Corte, "my primary goal was to implement an effective business strategy that would improve customer satisfaction, increase profitability, and respond more accurately to market demands."

PCR, which in English stands for "Resistol Consumer Products," makes adhesives, waterproofing, and concrete additives, paints, liners, sealers, and specialty chemicals. It is a unit of Mexico's GIRSA industrial chemical group, and operates 20 plants throughout Mexico that employ more than 4,500 people and generate net sales of $700 million per year. Under the prestigious brand name "Resistol," the firm distributes many of its products to the craft, domestic, and school markets, as well as the construction, footwear, paper, furniture, and automotive industries. Other brands include "Fester," "Resikón" and "Acritón" chemicals and additives for waterproofing. These brands account for more than 600 end products and 900 raw material components.

Throwing its weight behind Corte's proposal, PCR's senior management team undertook a thorough evaluation of new business systems by sponsoring a core interdisciplinary team in December 1997. The benefits of bar code data collection technology became obvious during the process of defining their new SCM system's architecture, according to Corte.

Both Corte and Eric Moreno, PCR's Logistics Manager, had a vision of how to improve customer satisfaction by implementing the tools necessary to control inventory and more effectively pick, sort, and ship their products. These include managing receipts, shipments, and stock movements with bar code labeling and tracking of products by serial number, while eliminating manual data entry, validating entries in real time, and generating automatic picking and putaway instructions to eliminate endless warehouse searches. PCR chose Apriso as its middleware and complementary solution partner.

Apriso "didn't hide things from us" says Corte. "This is something that I felt was very important for the partnership and the project's success. Apriso was there to get things done — and not to learn," he says.

PCR now uses CIM+ Warehouse Manager, Material Manager, and Bar Code Middleware at both of its production facilities and four of its distribution centers. Its CIM+ solution eliminates manual data entry errors and reduces the need for paper trails as well as traveler documents. Users now have a simple tool that guides them through receiving, putaway, picking, and shipping processes. Supervisors manage pick loads better by distributing picklists to multiple employee pools, improving customer satisfaction. CIM+ also provides paperless inventory updates on-line and in real time to PCR's SCM system, improving inventory accuracy and heightening customer satisfaction. And it's easy to train new users, who quickly learn the CIM+ solution without having to know anything about the SCM system.

Corte repeatedly mentions "Apriso's commitment to our project" as a key component of its success. Apriso brought in key technology consultants on several occasions to help the PCR team. "Apriso was committed to helping us throughout the project," says Corte. "The product has always worked and continued to work," he adds, explaining that PCR has a "high level of operation and satisfaction with the CIM+ system."

Corte points out that after the new CIM+ system went live, the company achieved 99.9 percent inventory accuracy for the first time in its history. As a result, time spent on cycle counts and physical inventory fell from days to just hours. The system's pool logic helps people prioritize their customer order picking and shipping work better. Users are happy, supervisors are happy, and "we are all happy with our decision," reports Corte, who is now free to invest his time in further initiatives for boosting PCR's bottom-line performance.

Improving Productivity and Customer Service at a Major Wood Products Manufacturer

After thoroughly evaluating its alternatives, one of the world's largest manufacturers of wood products chose CIM+ Warehouse Management, Manufacturing Management, and Bar Code Middleware applications from Apriso, including Materials Manager, Order Manager, Warehouse Manager, Shipping Manager, Factory Manager, and Label Designer. Apriso's solution also integrates with an SCM host some 300 miles away.

Reliability and performance were major reasons for choosing Apriso. "Automating our production means that our command and control systems must be up and running at all times," reports a plant manager. With CIM+, response times and SCM system availability aren't an issue because Apriso's solutions are always up and running right at the plant."

The new CIM+ system, operating since October 1999, uses fixed and radio-frequency (RF) devices to track wet and molded production processes at each stage of production — pressing, cutting, grovering, coating, splining, and unitizing — using bar-coded labels with unique license plate numbers. The new system verifies and reports production quantities to the SCM backbone in real-time, and also tracks finished goods inventory by recording all goods receipts, issues, and transfers in the warehouse.

Apriso's solutions promote lean manufacturing initiatives, while maximizing customer responsiveness, by keeping up-to-the-minute track of work-in-process inventory at all stages of production. It assists in monitoring the status of production orders, and monitors downtime, scrap, and material usage. It also allocates finished goods to sales orders, schedules delivery orders for picking and shipping, and receives customer returns. Packing, shipment, and return details are uploaded to the SCM system in real time.

Previously, all data entry was done manually. "On top of its expense, this procedure gave our supervisors very poor visibility of what was actually happening in our plant," says the plant manager. "We reckon that CIM+ saves us over $170,000 per year in direct data entry, cycle counting, labeling, missed shipment, and product staging costs — and that's just the tip of the iceberg. We're seeing numerous other benefits that aren't as easy to measure, but add up to big productivity and customer service gains at minimum cost."

For example, this manufacturer reports a 97% label inventory reduction through consistent product labeling, plus a 50% reduction in inventory adjustments, and now gives its e-commerce customers direct visibility of order status as well its available-to-promise (ATP) inventories — something it couldn't do very well when information was input by hand. As a result, shipping accuracy is consistently 100%.