Green SCM: Brand-new study of The Future Laboratory

Challenge has to be mastered – but how?

Cost, value and speed. Up until a few years ago, these factors were all that concerned the purchasing or supply chain director. Certainly they cared about efficiency, but only so far as it reduced prices and delivered goods faster.

Today, there’s a new concern on the radar and this is set to have a dramatic impact on supply management. The new driver is sustainability. In a new industry survey and report for Oracle, by consumer insight agency The Future Laboratory, a third of the 56 supply chain, logistics, operations and procurement directors from medium-to-large organisations across the UK said they would focus on sustainability most over the coming year to improve the chain’s overall effectiveness. Far fewer (23%) said value would be their leading concern. Only 4% claimed speed would be a consideration.

The push towards this greener, more ethical approach to supply management is driven partly by current or potential regulation. But pressure is also coming from consumers.

Read the whole study here

Innovation and Design Report 2008 - Benchmarking of Manufacturing companies

PLM as key to innovation

At the heart of every manufacturing company are the products it produces, and in the face of competition from overseas manufacturers - particularly those in low cost economies - the imperative to produce new and improved products has never been greater. The Design and Innovation Report 2008, which contains original market research, is conducted by The Manufacturer and commissioned by Oracle. It provides an overview of the role and importance of innovation in the survival and prosperity of manufacturing companies and the role of product lifecycle management.

Oracle offers FREE for Download - vital and up-to-date information that addresses the challenges faced by manufacturers looking to benefit from PLM. You will find:

• A UK-wide PLM survey - the challenges UK manufacturers are facing and how they manage the product development process including a customer success story

• The Forrester Wave: Product Life-Cycle Management Applications, Q2 2008:
  Forrester evaluated leading product life-cycle management (PLM) applications across approximately 70 criteria from the perspectives of both discrete-based and process-based manufacturers.

• Gartner industry research: PLM for Process Manufacturers Provides a Competitive Edge in Global Markets
  Process manufacturers are increasingly turning to product life cycle management software to compete globally. This report summarizes the market's evolution and assists Gartner clients in vendor selection.

Get Agile with Oracle!
Bring world-class products to market faster with Oracle Agile Enterprise PLM

Whether you are an executive or an engineer, you'll share the common goal of rapid and continuous improvement in your products and services. Oracle Agile PLM solutions help you bring together traditionally separate functions such as CAD, product data management, product development, ERP, lifecycle analysis and even recycling, to create a world-class product development and support-performance capability.


Profiting from PLM
World-beating product innovation requires the management and coordination of product information, processes and decisions across all lines of business and throughout the extended design and supply chain.
Oracle's Agile Product Lifecycle Management provides the tools to achieve and maintain sustainable advantage through agility and innovation - a great asset for organisationsacting in today's dynamic and competitive markets.

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The Forrester Wave: Product Life-Cycle Management Applications

In Forrester’s first PLM market landscape, analyst Roy Wildeman evaluated leading PLM applications across approximately 70 criteria from the perspectives of both discrete-based and process-based manufacturers. Criteria included current offering, product strategy, market presence, scalability and solution breadth. Seven vendors were assessed: Dassault, IFS, Infor, Oracle, PTC, SAP and Siemens. Oracle was ranked as a Strong Performer due to advanced discrete-based and process-based functionality gained through the acquisition of Agile PLM.

Highlights: “For discrete manufacturers, we evaluated Oracle Agile PLM 9.2.2, which leads all other vendors in its support for discrete-based PDM requirements through its configurable data model, workflow speed and security-based collaboration capabilities.” “Oracle Agile PLM 9.2.2 also offers extended support in select areas like project and portfolio management, material sourcing and quality and regulatory compliance for discrete customers.”

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Success Factor - Product Lifecycle Management

Supply Chain Management – in recent times became a topic, especially because of delivery problems with the Airbus A380, at Boeing’s Dreamliner 787 and a flood of products such as, for example, toys, cosmetics or electrical devices which are dangerous or contain contaminants. A key discipline of modern supply chains is “Product Lifecycle Management“, which supports Management by providing information, processes and decisions about products throughout their entire lifecycle and across the entire global product network.

To an increasing extent, enterprises take advantage of the globalization during the development, design and manufacturing of their products, including the provision of services. Complicated operating procedures and widely-networked delivery chains are the consequence. With Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), companies can overcome this complexity while utilizing all of the opportunities for globalization to the full extent. For an increasing number of producing companies, PLM therefore stands at the focal point of their growth strategy, because it represents the basis for making decisions relating to product innovations and compliance with the regulatory requirements. Furthermore, the selection of the PLM solution has an influence on the entire application landscape of a company.

The products determine the competitive situation, the profitability and the long-term growth of manufacturing enterprises. A company’s product data or the "Product Record" represents its most important intellectual property because the products are uniquely defined in every aspect and in every phase of their lifecycle. Product data contains all the information an enterprise needs to develop, to design, to procure, to manufacture, to maintain and to dispose of products. Only with a transparent PLM solution which is integrated in a company's IT systems, can the challenges of the globalized economy be mastered.

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PLM for Process Manufacturers Provides a Competitive Edge in Global Markets

The product life cycle management (PLM) market serving process manufacturers addresses a broad range of industries, including food and beverage, personal care goods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and so on, where the essential product contents are formula- or recipe-based. This report addresses how the market is evolving and the ability of vendors to serve process manufacturers.

Key Findings

• Although this market is substantially smaller than the PLM market serving discrete manufacturers, its importance grows as consumer goods manufacturers take a keener interest in PLM.
• In this segmented market, each vendor has particular strengths for different classes of formula-based products.
• Packaging functionality, formulations rationalized for international markets, and regulatory compliance are becoming increasingly vital to this class of PLM software.
• Integration of ingredient traceability with PLM capabilities is becoming increasingly important.

Recommendations

• Favor vendors that have a performance track record in the relevant manufacturing vertical. While vendor viability matters, prioritize proven vendor capabilities over size.
• Prioritize PLM offerings that enable interfaces for coordinating packaging design, labeling, regulatory compliance and formulation, and that can share common data across these activities.
• Achieve superior process flow by streamlining interfaces between PLM, ERP and manufacturing execution systems (MESs). Prioritize interfaces, standards support and capabilities to synchronize laboratory formulations with formulations optimized for production efficiency.

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Solutions for Managing Pharmaceutical Packaging

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
This white paper examines the complex process of managing labeling, text, and artwork for printed pharmaceutical packaging components as a segment of product lifecycle management. Developing packaging is the highest-cost process in manufacturing and selling a commercialized drug. Poor management can lead to errors that can be extremely costly in both financial and regulatory terms—with consequences including patient death and product recalls. This paper describes the process required to create and manage printed packaging components and explains how Oracle’s Agile product lifecycle management applications support global procedures and documentation with a centralized business process solution.

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Global Pack Management Processes - Pharma
Advanced Pharma Packaging Kongress – Berlin 26-28.Februar 2008
Rolf Laudenbach
Senior Solution Consultant, EMEA PLM, ORACLE Deutschland GmbH

• Introduction
• Complexity - Constraints - Collaboration
• Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management -
• capabilities
• Case studies

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Pharmaceutical Packaging Management – Issues and Solutions

This paper looks at the complexity of managing pharmaceutical labelling, text and artwork for printed packaging components as a segment of product lifecycle management.
The number one cost of a commercialised drug is its packaging and labelling. Printed packaging components are a necessary and vital part of all pharmaceutical and medical products – no product may be sold without some form of packaging for protection, identification, distribution and use. Errors can be extremely costly with both financial and regulatory risk implications – including patient death and product recalls.

The paper goes on to describe the process required to create and manage printed packaging components and shows the benefits that may be derived through use of a centralised software and business process solution to support global procedures and documentation.

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Product Lifecycle Management – Key to Faster Product Innovations, Profitable Growth, More Efficient Globalisation and Compliance

During the last 20 years, products such as mobile phones, cars, medical equipment and even pharmaceuticals and consumer goods have become significantly more complex in their composition and their production. In addition, companies are taking increasing advantage of globalisation in the development, design and manufacturing of their products, including services.

Although this makes it possible to increase the profit margins, the complexity of company procedures increases at the same time. Without a high performance Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, it can even take weeks to implement technical change orders if the approval chain stretches across eight time zones, three languages and five different countries. Quality control is also a challenge when companies draw upon a multitude of components, raw materials and a worldwide supply chain for their products.

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Magic Quadrant for Manufacturing Product Life Cycle Management, 4Q07

Four significant acquisitions have changed the dynamics and complexion of the PLM software market in manufacturing. The field of vendors most suitable for large manufacturers consolidated from 10 in 2005 to six in 2007.

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Products formerly known as A9 for all Discrete Industries and E6 for Complex Configurations' Engineering Data Management

Oracle's Agile Product Lifecycle Management manages the enterprise product record, the single system of record for product information required to maximize profitability throughout the lifecycle. Containing the rich information that uniquely defines all aspects of a product at each stage in its lifecycle, the product record includes all of the information required by the across a global product network to conceptualize, design, source, build, sell, service and dispose of products.

Through a broad suite of best-practice, business-ready solutions, Oracle´s Agile Product Lifecycle Management provides secure, timely, visibility and control of product information for PLM processes and for stakeholders across a global product network. Agile helps companies accelerate revenue, drive innovation, reduce costs, improve quality, and ensure regulatory compliance throughout the product lifecycle.

PLM is evolving into an enterprise-wide discipline that spans multiple product design systems and interacts with a wide-range of enterprise applications to manage the complete product lifecycle from concept and design, to production, sales and service. The combination of Agile and Oracle will create an integrated, enterprise-wide PLM solution. Additionally, Oracle's commitment to open-standards based integration will enable users of other enterprise applications to utilize Agile's best-in-class capabilities.

OFFERINGS and BENEFITS

• Agile Product Collaboration-Helps users share product data and structure and manage change across the global product network.
• Agile Product Cost Management-Enables companies to manage product costs through early and real time cost visibility.
• Agile Product Quality Management-Drives improved product quality and customer satisfaction by integrating customer, product, quality and regulatory information within a closed-loop corrective action system.
• Agile Product Governance & Compliance-Enables organizations to manage product, substance, material compliance against standards and regulatory requirements.
• Agile Engineering Data Management-Organizes and manages product design assets to support globally distributed engineering teams.
• Agile Product Portfolio Management-Provides tightly synchronized program and product information, maximized resource utilization, and cross-program visibility and decision support throughout the product lifecycle.
• Agile Engineering Collaboration-Ensure that engineering processes are fully leveraged throughout the product lifecycle driving engineering best practices across the enterprise.
• Agile Enterprise Visualization (Autocue EM Pro)-Provides native document collaborative visualization across a global enterprise for over 450 file formats.
• Agile Variant Management (e6) -Provides a best-practice approach to managing portfolios of related products and product variants across the life cycle.