Dec UKOUG 23 Nov 2000

1
Is Release 11i Ready for Production?Two
Manufacturing Case StudiesDouglas 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

2
Release 11i Stability

• Matsushita Implementation
• Robert Lawton

3
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

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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
5
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 BOMs 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

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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

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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 BOMs 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

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Questions and Answers

• Thank you for your time and participation!