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In the fascinating world of Oracle applications, the process manufacturing industry is broadly categorized as ‘Discrete manufacturing’ and ‘Process manufacturing’. Technically, there are quite a good number of differences in the way one looks at each of these manufacturing streams. For ease of understanding, in discrete manufacturing one assembles to make things, while in process manufacturing as the name suggests, one processes to get some output. If we dig deeper into the process manufacturing stream, it typically deals with mixing, blending to yield products, co-products and sometimes by-products. Another easy way to understand this is that in the process manufacturing industry, the raw material consumed will eventually lose its form to yield a finished product. Rarely will you come across a scenario where the finished product can be reverse engineered to yield the raw material. This is one major difference as compared to discrete manufacturing where the finished product can be de-assembled to get the components back. The final product characteristic is determined through a formula, recipe and routing along with different process instructions and parameters being maintained throughout the process.

At a broader level, some of the sub-verticals of this industry include Chemicals, Metal and mines, Food and Beverages, Pharma etc. There are a few more like Glass, textile, paper manufacturing etc, which again can be broadly categorized under the above or can be a different category by itself. Within each of these sub-verticals, there are categories like the Food and beverages have dairy, chocolate, juice, meat and poultry etc. as categories, whereas the Chemicals have streams like paints, fertilizers, specialty chemicals, glass etc. This list can be endless, but the common thread across these verticals, sub-verticals and categories is that there are formulas, recipes, operations, routings, batch processing yielding products, co-products and by-products, measuring product in multiple unit of measures, quality grade and status, ensuring traceability of material across the supply chain.

I have been fortunate enough in my working career to be associated with these different verticals directly or indirectly. Every association has resulted in some new learning about the process manufacturing stream, with each vertical/sub-verticals having a few common challenges like:

-          Ingredient characteristic variability, which affects product quality

-          Process control and stability to yield consistent product quality

-          Visibility and traceability across the supply chain

-          Cost and margin pressures

-          Process cycle time and shop-floor control

-          Non-conformance and deviation

-          Regulatory Compliances

Right from the initial process manufacturing solution GEMMS, till the recent Oracle Release 11i, most of these requirements have been addressed directly or indirectly. With the introduction of some new features in Oracle’s R12 OPM solution and a combination of new modules which are now available for OPM customers, most of the above mentioned challenges  can be addressed quite comprehensively.

Today I would like to conclude here. In my next update I would initiate a discussion on R12 upgrade as an option for any existing OPM enterprise on 11i or earlier version, typical challenges, some best practices and then move on to the new features and modules available for OPM enterprises.

Find Part 1 of Pankaj’s series here.