VCP Cloud - Planning Central

Oracle Supply Chain Planning Cloud - "Planning Central" surely seems impressive with the new simpler GUI, in-memory planning engine and pre-integrated cloud. Release 11 is first release for Fusion Planning Central. 

Planning Central provides demand planning, inventory planning and supply planning capabilities all in one application with linkage to execution systems. 

• Demand Management: Forecast based of shipment/booking history with sales orders consuming forecast. Stat engine supporting causal factors with NPI capabilities inbuild
• Inventory Planning: Stat safety stock derivation based of demand volatility & stocking goals. 
• Supply Planning:  Material and Resource requirement calculation based of SS and customer demand with lead times, calendars, availability etc. in consideration.

Planning Central key features:

• Unified Data model with common set of dimensions for supply & demand plans
• 200+ Seeded measures
• End to End business process flow support (CollectData>PlanDemand>PlanInventory>PlanSupplies>Execute)
• Integrated with OrderMgmt, MaterialsMgmt, InventoryMgmt, Mfg & Purchasing Cloud Services
• Integrated with Fusion ERP for collections & planning output releases
• OOTB Plan Summary dashboard
• Planner Workbench (Configurable)
• Seeded Data views (Configurable)
• Seeded Analytics (Configurable)
• Embedded Analytics (Configurable)
• Excel Export/Import option

Here is a demo from Oracle on Planning Central's first release. 

Remember all the configurations/setups for Planning Central very much like other Cloud applications is required to be done using Functional Setup Manager(FSM). Offering is Value Chain Planning and functional area is Planning Central. FSM should be used for setting up source systems definition, profiles, loading data and configuring planning analytics. 

ASCP 12.2.5.X Release Key Features

ASCP 12.2.5 Release Features

Oracle has provided handful of enhancements in ASCP module with the latest release. Here is a summary of some key features which are now available.

• Collection filtered by Category Sets
• Ability to setup category sets and then use as filter to collect/refresh only subset of product data into ASCP
• Improves performance of collection process
• Demand Schedule Specific Forecast processing:
• Forecast processing options/consumption criteria definition can be done at demand schedule level with this enhancement. This allows one to submit for different region/Product LOBs separate schedules. 
• Following options can be enabled at demand schedule level now
• Backward days
• Forwards days
• Spread forecast
• Consume by Forecast bucket
• Explode Forecast
• Plan level options are used if no demand schedule level values are set
• Improved plan accuracy and allows more flexibility 
• Plan Options> organization tab has these additional options.

• Maximize Resource Utilization
• Works with Constrained plan without detailed scheduling plan type only 
• Allows better use by front loading production and minimize resource downtime
• ASCP will also use alternate sources of supplies (e.g. alternate resources, substitute components etc.) too if needed for maximizing resource utilization 
• There though are some fine prints on what all ASCP can do with this feature enabled, e.g. plan can violate the sourcing split % if needed for maximizing resources. 
• Use only if key need is to front load and maximize resource utilization 
• Extended Support for Reservation (for plan type : Constrained without detailed scheduling)
• Support so far:
• Reservation b/w on hand supplies & sales order demands
• Reservation b/w on hand, internal requisitions and maintenance work order supply types to maintenance work order demands 
• Extended support for:
• Reservation b/w discrete jobs, process batches, purchase orders & requisitions with sales orders/process batch demands
• Allows companies with Make To Order environment to reserve certain work order supplies to sales order demand
• Supply - Demand reservation could be 1-1, 1-Many, Many-1 or Many-Many 
• Enhanced Project Netting for Project Mfg environment 
• Enhanced User experience with Alta GUI



• Improved user interface provides ADF based Alta GUI, which is where future GUI is going towards for Oracle.
• New supply planning work area:
• Allows personalizing content and page layouts 
• User can define how he wishes to review and analyze the plan output
• Plan definition can be done with new GUI
• Enhanced Supply/Demand workbench using new GUI
• Favorites option
• Taxonomy of  most used/critical elements (E.g. items, resources, suppliers, orders etc.) 
• Planners can define their own set and use for filtering in Supply Demand work area
• Exception Management using new GUI

APCC 12.2.5.1 Release Features

APCC's latest release 12.2.5.1 is available and comes with following enhancements to the features: 

• Org Specific Manufacturing Calendar
• Earlier only one calendar setup by MSC:APCC Calendar Code, now you can setup multiple
• All mfg calendars for all planned orgs in ASCP plan will be available in APCC now
• Single global plans can be better analyzed and reviewed using org specific calendar which respects corresponding work days and start of weeks etc

• Material plan enhancement
• Ability to drill down from horizontal plan into details using Category & Org context embedded

• New reports in SCA dashboard & Project driven Supply Chain Dashboard
• Additional OOTB reports now available in various tabs for Supply Chain Analyst dashboard
• Additional OOTB dashboard content for Project environment

Oracle VCP Product and processes

Rapid Planning, an addition to Value Chain Planning products suite

In May 2009, during Collaborate 2009 event Oracle provided a preview of it's new product "Rapid Planning" and they made a timely release of the product by announcing it's availability on 16th Nov 2009. Rapid planning will benefit customers with it's quicker, real-time, event driven planning and simulation abilities.

Extending the Information-Driven Value Chain

Leveraging its unique web services and open, standards-based architecture, Oracle Rapid Planning customers can enable reduced supply chain decision-making time with the following capabilities:

Fast, event-driven simultaneous material and capacity planning for rapid scenario analysis and real-time evaluation of supply chain events.

Fast sales and operations planning scenario simulation, integrated with Oracle’s Demantra.

Compatible and complementary capabilities to Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning.

Mass edit of supply chain data, enabling customers to conduct ad-hoc, rapid scenario modeling without the need to make changes to the ERP data or transactions.

Predictive and actionable insight via embedded analytics, a spreadsheet-style flexible user-interface, and embedded exceptions and scenario comparisons.

Comprehensive constraint modeling to mimic real-life planner decision making such as alternate bills of material, routings, sources and shipping methods, substitution and lead times.

Multi-enterprise visibility and planning, spanning internal facilities and contract manufacturers.

Multi-planner collaboration and simulation to help speed up the analysis and decision-making process.

Integration with ERP to help quickly translate decisions into actions and release planning recommendations directly to execution without latency.

For complete details about product read the complete release article on Oracle's site @ http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/040402

ASCP Data Collection: A high level overview

Process of collecting data in proper format from ERP(transactional) instance/schemas to APS(Planning) instance/schema, for easy usage by APS modules like ASCP, GOP, IO, Demantra and others. ERP stores all master data & transactional data, in respective product schemas like INV, BOM, WIP, MRP, PO etc., which is collected to MSC schema for planning applications.

Components of Collection process:
1. Refresh Snapshots: runs always only on the ERP source instance in Distributed environment
2. Planning Data Pull: Pulls data from ERP source schemas to MSC_ST% tables
3. ODS Load: Does data cleansing & manipulation, followed by loading base MSC% tables from MSC_ST%(Staging) tables

For integrated Demantra, further collection of history & related data is required to populate Demantra base tables. The processes for these collections are run from the responsibility "Demand Management System Administrator". The Standard collection option in Demantra responsibility is same as ASCP standard collection. The other collections processes are Demantra specific.

Modes of Collection:

1. Standard: Using this option, one can manually launch collection in three methods, Complete Refresh, Targeted Refresh & NetChange.
2. Continuous: this is an automated collection process, which requires minimal manual intervention and it keeps planning instance data synchronized with ERP source instances. It automatically determines which method of collection should be used.

Few notes to remember:
1. Source ERP instances can be a mixture of releases and can be a legacy instance as well
2. ASCP instance can share instance with one of the ERP instances
3. Collection is required even if APS & ERP instances reside on same instance
4. Supplies against Drop Ship are not collected, as ASCP doesn't plan for drop ship sales

ASCP - Unconstrained Plan

Few basic characterstics can be listed as below;
An unconstrained plan:
- doesn't consider manufacturing capacities (material & resources)
- assumes infinite capacity
- results are same as traditional MRP
- simply is an statement of what all resources would be needed to meet the production schedule
- can come handy in long term decision making for resource requirement planning

Oralce's ASCP module can be used for unconstrained planning as well, unconstrained ASCP plans are usually like baby steps towards more complex, holistic, constrained & optimized planning ASCP world.

Unconstrained ASCP plans thus form an integral part of ASCP implementation, as it can be used for getting familiar with application, as well as in verifying the ASCP outcomes. You can compare the unconstrained ASCP plan recommendations with your MRP plan results and thus can validate the basic ASCP setup.

Two important aspects to be focused on while running ASCP unconstrained plan should be:
1. Try to duplicate results of legacy MRP system.
2. Increase familiarity & confidence on ASCP application.

Steps to implement an unconstrained ASCP plan:

1. Create DB link between transaction source(ERP) server and APS(Advanced Planning & Scheduling) server

2. Setup collection program

3. Run collection to copy supply chain model from source instance to APS server

4. Define an ASCP plan and setup plan options.(with no constraints)

5. Launch the plan

VERIFICATION: Unconstrained plan is designed to produce identical results as that of legacy ERP system. This becomes useful in verifying implementation and in building users confidence with the ASCP application.

Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning(ASCP)

ASCP module forms the core of Oracle's APS suite, with its holistic global supply & distribution planning functionalities. With ASCP you can plan simultaneously for all your manufacturing plants & distribution houses at different granularity of time in a single plan, which considers the latest demand, forecast, sourcing rules, current inventory and production levels. ASCP offers a variety of plan options and plan types, which can be used to model individual business supply chain planning needs. In general, ASCP implementations start with an initial phase of "unconstrained ASCP plans" usage. In due course of time and with planner's readiness towards understanding the inputs, setups and results, one can move forward with "constrained" ASCP plans (e.g. EDD, ECC & Optimized plans).

Why MRP isn't sufficient?
Becasue:
- It is sequential in nature
- It plans based on unconstrained production, storage & transportation capacity
- It does not optimizes the supply recommendations
- It has no decision support capabilities

Few of major features of ASCP module can be listed as:
- Global Visibility
- Rapid ROI
- Supports Centralized & Decentralized planning
- Supports mixed mode manufacturing
- Holistic Plans for high level planning & Detailed scheduling
- Finite Constraint based Planning(CBP) & Scheduling
- Optimization across multiple Objectives
- Online Replan & Simulation capabilities
- Supports Global Order Promising(GOP)

A good definition for ASCP, found in Oracle documentation:
"Oracle ASCP is a comprehensive, Internet based planning solution that can rapidly and significantly improve supply chain performance. ASCP is based on Oracles' Internet computing architecture, third generation Oracle memory based planning engine technology and proven constraint based planning & optimization technology."

For more details:
Oracle's ASCP offering page link: "http://www.oracle.com/applications/planning/SCMP.html"