Streamlining Procurement:
Supply Chain Sourcing System

Client:
Long-established midsize manufacturer


Business Challenges:
Original:
To increase the efficiency of maintenance operations by tracking both in-use and replacement equipment and parts

Intermediate:
To even out inventory affected by significantly volatile market demands

Recent:
To track all purchases of goods and services across vendors, for the whole company

To understand costs and trends in the acquisition, use, and sale of inventory, including maintenance equipment, raw materials, and finished goods

To provide a single view into the supply chain across:
• Inventory
• Purchasing
• Warehousing
• Capital projects
• Equipment
• Maintenance

Technology Challenge:
To extract, cleanse, transform, and integrate data from the J.D. Edwards ERP and other proprietary applications, thus creating a comprehensive view into current and historical records from many disparate sources

Solution:
First, Creative Data built a data warehouse that enables the company to track the purchase, storage, and use of equipment and parts required to maintain its factories. Thanks to Creative Data’s in-depth business modeling process, the solution architecture accommodates purchasing and inventory tracking in general. Creative Data added that capability without rearchitecting, restructuring, or rebuilding the original system. Then, since the data warehouse includes the sources of all inventories, the team was able -- with minimal effort -- to refit the solution to handle all supply chain sourcing for the company.

Benefits:
• Offers accurate, up-to-date information about existing inventory
• and how it is used
• Facilitates the process of liquidating excess inventory
• Gives managers a clear picture of replacement costs over time


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