Efficient supply chain management is crucial for staying competitive in today’s ever-changing business environment. Integrating Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM can be a significant move for any organization looking to modernize its supply chain management. Bryan Rose, Terillium’s VP of Digital Transformation, recently sat down with Ted Comstock from Admiral Beverage and Zach Blackwell from MacLean Power to discuss their experiences, challenges, and successes during their transition. Here’s what they had to say.

FROM REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN | GET STARTED WITH YOUR SCM CLOUD ASSESSMENT

Admiral Beverage is a leading distributor and manufacturer of beverages, known for its extensive reach and efficient supply chain operations. With a strong focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, Admiral Beverage has embraced advanced technologies to streamline its processes and stay competitive in a dynamic market.

Ted Comstock – Supply Chain Director

Ted has over 24 years of experience in supply chain operations, including ten years at Admiral Beverage. Renowned for his leadership, Ted consistently manages one of the top facilities in quality control and operational efficiency.

MacLean Power is a prominent manufacturer in the utility industry, specializing in products and solutions that support critical infrastructure worldwide. Committed to quality and efficiency, MacLean Power leverages modern technology to enhance its operations and maintain a leadership position in the market.

Zachary Blackwell – Demand Planning Manager

With nearly a decade of experience in supply chain management, Zach at MacLean Power excels in inventory management, demand planning, warehousing, and transportation analysis. He’s led initiatives resulting in significant savings, including a $2M reduction in parcel spend and a 38% decrease in obsolete inventory.

Ted Comstock: Admiral Beverage has three production facilities—one in Wyoming, one in Utah, and one in Idaho—that support 24 company-owned warehouses. Additionally, we distribute to another 24 warehouses that represent affiliated bottlers and other partner distributors. We also have a pretty wide footprint, with warehouses in New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.

Before implementing the Oracle Fusion Cloud solution, each location ordered their own products, sent those orders to the production facilities, and then the production facilities reacted to those orders. With so many locations, you can imagine the variety of inventory control philosophies, leading to sporadic demand on our factories. This caused planning and capacity bottlenecks. We had instances where warehouses would order too much or too little, putting unnecessary pressure on our factories. We needed a solution to centralize our supply planning function and push inventory to warehouses based on historical forecasting algorithms.

Fusion Cloud SCM was an obvious choice because of its ability to integrate with our existing systems, which managed sales and warehouse inventory at the warehouses. The solution’s customization capabilities and powerful forecasting engine have proven beneficial, even in the short time we’ve been using it.

Ted Comstock: We took a big bang approach, rolling out the planning solution to 21 locations since the beginning of the year. We plan to integrate the remaining locations by the end of the year. Since implementing supply chain and demand planning, our production schedules have smoothed out. Soda pop is highly promoted during major holidays like the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Christmas, and even the Super Bowl, all of which represent big spikes in demand. Historically, we struggled to keep up with these spikes, but this year has been the smoothest we can remember. We were able to anticipate demand and plan ahead, building inventory and distributing the product to locations far in advance.

One of the biggest improvements has been reducing our out-of-stock rates. At the start of the year, we were hovering around 14% out-of-stocks, but we’ve reduced that down to about 3%, holding steady for the last 12 to 16 weeks. Recently, we’ve seen it drop to under 2%. Our long-term goal is 2%, so we’re optimistic about achieving that. Additionally, our total inventory value has decreased by about 8.6% compared to last year. We’re still on the low end of the learning curve, but we’ve seen good gains so far and are very happy and encouraged by the results.

Zach Blackwell: At MacLean Power Systems, we support distribution and transmission lines, which means managing our supply chain is crucial. We realized we needed a more dynamic solution for our supply planning and demand forecasting because we were relying on fixed lead times in our system to provide original promise dates to our customers.

Our customers are mostly distributors, so getting that promise date right is incredibly important for their inventory management. We were relying on fixed marketing lead times in our system to provide that original promise date, but we needed a solution that could adjust to real-time constraints and offer more accurate, dependable information.

Zach Blackwell: We started our implementation in December, working with Terillium. We began by identifying internal site leads and conducted workshops with Terillium on the different modules, with the site leads involved in the design phase. While that was going on, we worked on integrating JD Edwards and Fusion Cloud SCM. Then we moved into the different rounds of testing, including conference room pilot, systems integration testing, and finally user acceptance.

We had a functional rollout and a phased approach. Our GOP and demand planning modules went live mid-June, and we started rolling out the supply planning module in early June. By July, all locations were live. We’ve been working through our one month of post-go live support, addressing issues as they arise. Terillium has been great in helping us troubleshoot those areas.

Zach Blackwell: The biggest long-term benefit we anticipate is being able to consistently provide accurate original promise dates to our customers. By providing a reliable promise date, we can become a supplier our customers depend on, which is crucial for building and maintaining strong relationships. This reliability helps us grow our market share. Additionally, the demand-at-risk feature has been a game-changer. It allows us to spot potential issues well in advance and take proactive steps to address them. Even though we’re still early in the system, this feature has already proven to be incredibly valuable.

The integration of Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM has been transformative for both Admiral Beverage and MacLean Power. While the journey had its challenges, the benefits of enhanced visibility, better collaboration, and improved operational efficiency have made the investment worthwhile. For organizations considering a similar move, the experiences shared by Admiral Beverage and the MacLean Power offer valuable insights and practical advice.

Interviewed by Bryan Rose – VP of Digital Transformation at Terillium

Bryan has been involved in numerous successful implementations and digital transformation projects across a wide range of industries. He has 15 years of experience helping organizations transform their supply chain processes.