FSN: Canon Europe improves forecasting and demand planning with Oracle

Canon Europe improves forecasting and demand planning with Oracle

4th June 2007
Building on the success of its existing Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment, Canon Europe's Consumer Imaging Business (CCI) has deployed Oracle's supply chain planning applications to improve forecasting, product allocation, order promising and supply chain planning operations across its headquarters, 17 countries and 13 warehouses.

CCI markets, sells and distributes Canon Europe's consumer products including cameras, printers, faxes and scanners. Prior to the Oracle implementation, CCI relied on legacy systems and spreadsheets for planning, which was a time consuming process that was difficult to manage. CCI recognised the need for more sophisticated and integrated forecasting and demand planning capabilities that would help ensure continuous product availability, support its high volume business and improve customer service. Leveraging its existing Oracle Applications, CCI implemented Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning, Oracle Demand Planning and Oracle Global Order Promising.

"By implementing Oracle Applications to support our supply and demand operations, we now have a more collaborative, proactive, problem-solving process in our business, enabling us to significantly reduce the number of 'fires' that require our attention," said CCI Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Program Manager Erik Moses. "Relying on Oracle, we also have a supply chain foundation in place that will promote future innovation and bring value to our customers, partners and employees."

Using Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning, CCI is able to create holistic supply chain plans that combine long-range aggregate forecasts and short-term scheduling. This helps ensure that the right products, in the appropriate quantities are available when needed. CCI now benefits from more efficient, collaborative and transparent planning which has optimised sales, reduced inventory, increased customer satisfaction and improved forecast accuracy by over 20 percent.

Additionally, CCI uses Oracle Demand Planning, part of the Oracle Advanced Planning suite of products, to diagnose market demand through sales, marketing and product management. The integration between Oracle Demand Planning and the other Oracle Advanced Planning applications allows the company to optimise current on-hand inventory and future supply through automated planning recommendations and exception-based management functionality. As a result, CCI can identify the root cause of supply problems and initiate a timely response. The company has also been able to reduce inventory levels of some components by more than 10 percent per year.

"By implementing Oracle Advanced Planning, CCI has completed a true business transformation as well as a systems implementation," said European CCI Product Sales Demand Planning Manager Sinclair Decam. "This transformation allows closer, more effective collaboration within CCI. It also highlights the opportunities we have to further harmonise our operations, ultimately improving our service to the customer."

CCI's planning process has the efficiency and scalability to address new business opportunities, such as changing product delivery demands. For example, Oracle Global Order Promising provides CCI with the ability to promise current and future supply to specific channels, sub-channels and customers. The functionality also enables mass retailers, distributors and specialty retailers to enlist CCI in inventory commitments for "hot products" ahead of the actual product availability.

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