| Building Truckloads of Success at ICP |
| Cindy Farmer, Senior Director of Pricing and Order
Administration at International Comfort Products Corporation, faced a frustrating problem
during the implementation of the Business Planning and Control System (BPCS) version
6.0.01. Customer orders were placed on the system, but available inventory to satisfy
orders sat idle in the one million-plus square foot warehouse at ICP's main location in
Lewisburg, Tennessee, unpicked and unshipped. Customer service was suffering as a result. |
|
| "They
needed a way to maximize their shipments and achieve a functionality they simply weren't
getting from BPCS." |
 |
|
| She needed a way to enhance the functionality of
the Outbound Logistics Mode (OLM) of BPCS in order to increase shipping efficiency and
deliver product to waiting customers. Cindy and her team of order managers turned to IDSS
for assistance. As system integrators specializing in BPCS applications, the IDSS team
offered their expertise to solve this problem. |
| The IDSS consulting team, along with Cindy and
other key ICP employees, designed the criteria for a new application that would maximize
shipping capabilities. Agreement on the overall functionality did not come easily, but the
cooperation of all parties involved produced a master plan outlining the desired
functionality, new screen designs and data flows. |
| Then the work of programming and unit testing
began. As time progressed, inevitably some of the requirements changed, while new ones
were added. After completing extensive system testing and conference room piloting, Load
Build and its complimentary application, Outbound, both went live in November,
1998. The impact of the applications was an immediate success. |
|
|
"We
now have tremendous visibility of inventory available to fill our orders" |
|
| "We now have tremendous visibility of
inventory available to fill our orders," says Cindy Farmer. "Load Build
tells our order pickers in the warehouse where the available inventory to fill orders
actually resides, while Outbound defines the best pick path and tells pickers where
to stage and consolidate orders based on dock location and available trucks. Our ability
to ship product more efficiently has improved dramatically. Our customers are happier as
well. They now receive their shipments much more quickly with minimal backorders and
delays." |
| For IDSS team, Load Build and Outbound
were yet more examples of successful application development achieved by working closely
with users and putting forth the extra effort to truly understand their requirements. |
|
| Improving Customer "Contact" at Ocular Science |
| When San Francisco based Ocular
Sciences, Inc. (OSI) needed to develop a web based configuration and order entry system,
they tapped IDSS to help them "see" the solution. |
| One of the world’s leading
manufacturers and suppliers of contact lenses, OSI had developed extensive modifications
to their BPCS version 6.02 order entry system to facilitate a complex order configuration
process necessary to fill each prescription accurately. The challenge came when OSI needed
to respond – quickly – to competitive pressure to provide web based order
configuration and order entry services to their doctor and provider customer network. |
| Chief among the concerns of CIO
Bill Downs was the need to deploy an internet based order processing system that was both
as secure and as accurate as their current, highly customized, host AS/400 application. Oh, and by the way, he needed it within 5
months. |
| The IDSS solution was based upon
the PowerLinks E-Business transaction engine and IBM’s Websphere.
The IDSS development
team steered clear of “reinventing the wheel” and made extensive use of the
business logic and processes already within the BPCS ordering system. The result was a
quick deployment of a secure order configuration system that was readily accepted by
OSI’s customers. |
| Among the value added features of
the new system is a secure patient record database that is specific to each doctor. Key
patient information is retained, saving time and effort on the part of doctors’
staffs. In fact, the new system was so much of an improvement over the old, “green
screen” processes, OSI’s internal sales team now exclusively uses the web based
ordering system too! |
|
| IDSS Service Team "Shines" at Hauer Custom
Manufacturing |
| Hauer Custom Manufacturing (HCM)
learned first hand recently about IDSS’ ability to deliver projects on target and on
time. HCM, based in eastern Pennsylvania, is one of the country’s leading custom
manufacturers, packagers and distributors of consumer products. Included among their
dozens of product lines is Kiwi shoe polish. HCM maintains the vital supply links between
its customers and virtually all the major national retail chains. |
| HCM President, Jim Hauer, knew
that if his company was to keep pace with the ever increasing IS demands on his business,
he needed to upgrade his systems and begin the process of adding applications. Ordering
the new Model 820 iSeries was easy; the tough part was converting all of the
company’s legacy ERP and custom applications from CISC to RISC processors.
That’s where IDSS entered the picture. |
| “This was the
first project to go live without a single glitch” in the many years that Hauer has
worked with other consultants, remarked IS Manager Suzanne Flynn. |
 |
| As with all projects, the first
step was careful investigation of all current business process which take place both
within HCM’s systems as well as within certain trading partners. Then the HCM system
was duplicated in a test environment. This facilitated development of conversion programs
and extensive testing. |
| Finally, the new system was taken
live over the course of a single weekend. The result? IS Manager Suzanne Flynn remarked
that, “This was the first project to go live without a single glitch” in the
many years she had worked with other consultants. The conversion to
the new system has enabled HCM to begin work on additional system enhancements. One of
which was asking IDSS to assist them in implementing a custom EDI processing solution. |
| As a result of this projects
success, HCM President Jim Hauer sees a “bright” future for the IDSS and HCM
partnership. |
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