One of the latest challenges I was involved in, was a project for a worldwide organization that closed the acquisition of another brand.
The company of that other brand was using a mixture of all sorts of home-brewn systems and packages to get their business done. Our challenge was to get all locations of that new brand implemented in Oracle 11.5.9.
For 1 of the locations it was not only required to merge the existing warehouse with the warehouse of the new brand, but there was also a physical move planned to a complete new warehouse so we had to move stock from both warehouses into the new warehouse.
So far no big deal I hear you say, but as business continues it comes to tight planning in a lot of different business areas. The new warehouse needs to be ready to physically receive/store the goods, including all sorts of required permits like from fire dept. etc. Trucks need to be available to move stock from one warehouse to the other, people need to be available to load and unload the trucks, scanning devices in the warehouses need to be operational, etc, etc.
It was a great project to work on and with people from different locations; all over the world it made it even a bigger challenge and experience. We have successfully reached the full integration and have gone-live on Oracle at the new Distribution Centre. Following the closure of the 2 former warehouse facilities, the new combined facility came on-line and began shipping customer orders immediately with no impact to the customers during this transition. Of particular benefit to the customers now, is the ability to receive their consolidated orders for all brands resulting in lower operating costs and streamlined account management. On top of this there is the high total projected operating cost savings from our consolidation project.
Of course, none of this is possible without the dedication and professionalism of a high performance team. Both locally and internationally and I would like to take this opportunity to heap praise on the magnificent people who were part of this integration project and delivered a flawless outcome. You all know who you are ;-).
The plan was to keep Oracle’s Inventory Organization (IO) name the same, as this was used in a lot of custom code and reporting tools. As the new IO needed to be setup as FIFO cost based, we had no other option than to create a new IO as it is not possible to change an existing IO from standard to FIFO based costing.
Below you find the approach we took to setup the new FIFO based IO, Rename it to the old IO and transfer the stock balance.
Approximately 1 week before the scheduled cutover weekend we started with the initial setups in INV and PO modules.
Setting up the new Inventory Org
First thing we did was setting up the new warehouse: WH2
– Inventory Org parameters (FIFO Cost type, Not locator controlled)
– Receiving options
– Sub inventories (E.g: DROPSHIPMENT, NON-ATP, OFFICE, DC)
– Account aliases (E.g: Stocktake adjustments, Scrapped Materials, etc.)
– Enable Items in WH2 through SQL (incl. copy source & stockability)
– Setup Item Cross References
– Open Inventory Period
– Setup/Modify Freight Carriers
– Create material overhead Freight Absorption and Other Freight Absorption.
PO conversion
– Extract open Purchase Order lines from other system
– Set PO numbering to manual
– Create PO lines on WH2
– Extract Oracle open PO lines
– Create PO lines on WH2
– Switch PO numbering to Automatic when finished with PO’s
During the cutover weekend we finalized the setups by completing the following tasks
Finalize all transactions for ‘Old’ WH1.
– Ship confirm all picked order lines
– Place Order hold before pick release on warehouse WH1
– Check for EDI orders in Error Correction form
– Check if all transactions ran correctly (E.g: Tripstop Interface, TOI, Pending Transactions)
– Run Transfer to GL
– Check for any open sales orders/transactions
Now that all transactions for current WH1 are completed, we can move on to the second step of the cutover weekend:
Renaming the IO’s by renaming WH1 to WHX and the new WH2 to WH1
In INV module:
– WH1 name override to WHX (Organisation setup)
– WH2 name override to WH1 (Organisation setup)
– Link Inventory org WH1_FIFO to location WH1_MAIN (Locations setup)
– Update warehouse address on location WH1_MAIN (Locations setup)
– Remove Link Inventory org WH1_FIFO from WH2_MAIN (Locations setup)
– Inactivate location WH2_MAIN (Locations setup)
– Remove link WH1_MAIN from inventory org WHX (Organisation setup)
– link WH1_MAIN location to the new inventory org WH1_FIFO (Organisation setup)
– Items need to be enabled in WH1 (FIFO) and disabled in WHX (Can enable items in WH2 already, will be automatically transferred to WH1)
Completing the setup for the new FIFO cost based IO WH1.
In OM module:
– shipping parameters set up for WH1
– organization parameters: change item validation org to WH1_FIFO
PLEASE NOTE what happens with open orders: you cannot see the lines anymore, so do not change before you have changed the INV ORG on all lines.
– WH1 Picking Rule non locator controlled
– All Pick rules change to WH1
– Order Types linked to WHX need to be updated to WH1
– Change shipping grants from WHX to WH1
– All ship methods need to be assigned to the new WH1
– For all open orders the ship method needs to be updated to the new carrier
– All stuck EDI orders in error correction form need to be deleted and resubmitted.
– Run macro to add Customer Units or Measure
– Extract all open sales order lines from the other system
– Start entering open sales orders in Oracle
In PO module:
– Change Item validation Organization to WH1_FIFO
Transfer balance from the old system to the new WH1 (FIFO)
– Run Stock Report
– Ensure Item number and UOM are matching with Oracle and then use the data to update Oracle
– Miscellaneous Receipt by Subinv FIFO Org
– Use Macro to update Oracle for Inv Org WH1
– Transfer to GL and ensure values are reconciled
– Journal should be posted and reversed in the same period
Transfer stock balance from WHX to WH1-FIFO
– Check Subinventory Stock levels
– Clear all subinventories item balances in WHX except WHSE
– Transfer all transactions to GL for WHX
– Make sure all interface tables are clear
– Run Inventory Value Report for WHX
– Use Monarch 11i Inventory Value Report to extract data from report
– Save the file and use the data to update the macro
– Miscellaneous Receipt by Subinv FIFO Org
– Use Macro to update Oracle for Inv Org WH1
Remove WHX item balance
– Use the On-hand Quantity inquiry
– Save file as On Hand Qty by subinv locators WHX Date
– Use the data to update the macro
– Use the Macro to update Oracle for Inv Org WHX
– Run Inventory Reports to ensure on hand qty and value are not changed (except for rounding issue)
– Push to GL to ensure addition and subtraction are null
Add Overhead Rates to Items IN WH1 (FIFO)
– Extract Item Master from data warehouse
– Use the data to update the macro
– Run Macro and update all items – check to make sure all items have Rate included in cost before any new receipts are added into Oracle.
Change open SO’s from WHX to WH1-FIFO
– Any outstanding order lines on IO WHX need to be updated to WH1 by SQL
Notes
– Overall code check was done to see whether the IO name (WH1) or ORG_ID is referenced in code.
– Check to see if interfaces use the org_id or org_name and make changes if needed.
– Inform the business that history demand for WH1 is now sitting on WHX.
