After a long gap, I am once again continuing my earlier OPM upgrade blog series. Carrying on from where I left, OPM upgrade is definitely different unlike the other module upgrades in Release 12+. This is due to fact that Oracle has introduced much awaited inventory convergence in this version. Before we jump on to the inventory convergence, associated impact and some of the challenges which customer might face, I would like to share some details on the upgrade steps for an OPM customer. For OPM customers, there are some additional steps to be performed during the upgrades. Please refer oracle support website for details on OPM migration. Usually upgrades are performed through various iterations and each upgrade would have a few sub-phases, ‘pre-migration’, ‘inline migration’ and post migration’. To complete iteration these sub-phases are followed by additional functional configurations, unit and integration testing. While these iterations are in process, another team in parallel would work on re-certifying CEMLI’s to work in the new environment so that when the final system integration testing is being performed, all the pieces of an upgrade puzzle can be tied together.

Going little deeper into upgrade migration steps, there are a set of pre-determined activities which are performed, but the key lies in pre-migration steps which involve convergence migration setup and post migration steps where the transformation to new model happens. Convergence migration setup form facilitates customers to review their current setup related to companies, organizations, warehouses, items, batches and quality data. Especially in the first upgrade iteration, this phase is the most critical phase where a  high degree of collaboration happens from the customer and vendor team. Hence, we usually recommend a higher time allocation from the customer team during this phase of the project. The setups thus finalized, will determine the new model. Some of the validations which happen are inventory validations, process execution batch validations, quality validations, MAC to SLA model validations etc. Brief details on each of these validations are available in OPM migration guide.

Our experience in some of OPM upgrade cases indicates details provided in migration guide are not sufficient, for example, how the status control of OPM is handled in discrete with new on-hand material status control or how is ISO handled with upgrade, there are some challenges in handling non-inventory items with new model, dual UOM control and deviation issues affects transactions in new model, negative inventory issues in new model, why all the attributes are not migrated during upgrade. While these are some of the issues, there are many more that affect the overall upgrade activity and indirectly impact solution acceptance and user experience with new solution. In addition to this, especially in the case of OPM upgrades, the volume of data in specific functional areas affects the overall upgrade blackout time and needs detailed evaluation before any plan is finalized. This is where our deep-domain expertise in the process manufacturing vertical can help our customers.

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.

Oracle’s R12 solution has now been here for more than 3+ years since it was released in the year 2007. The adoption of the R12 solution over the past few years has grown as expected, with companies seeing value in their investment in the new solution. The new R12 solution not only has a  good number of technical changes, but in many process areas there are major functional changes for example, financials, and manufacturing. In addition to this, Oracle has also introduced many new products bundled with the R12 solution which can also work standalone with 11i. Customer can leverage these solutions while retaining their current investments in R11i or migrate to R12. They can either look at moving to R12 solution through an implementation route or through technical upgrade route. Each of this approaches have their own pros and cons and  every industry vertical has something to look up to for leveraging this solution.

Through this blog I want to share my views  on the R12 solution, upgrade approach, best practices, challenges for process industry vertical. As a part of its strategy for R12, Oracle has introduced many solution enhancements for the Process industry customers. I believe the R12 upgrade initiative by any process industry enterprise  is a major decision which should be evaluated and planned with proper due diligence.

In the next part of this series, I would write about the process manufacturing industry in general, the typical challenges that they face and so on. The subsequent blogs would be about IT approaches suited for this industry, challenges, solutions and best practices available as of now.

Stay tuned.