An
Oracle
White
Paper
April
2013
Oracle
EBusiness
Suite
Warehouse
Disclaimer
Thefollowingisintendedtooutlineourgeneralproductdirection.Itisintendedfor
informationpurposesonly,andmaynotbeincorporatedintoanycontract.Itisnota
commitmenttodeliveranymaterial,code,orfunctionality,andshouldnotbereliedupon
inmakingpurchasingdecisions.Thedevelopment,release,andtimingofanyfeaturesor
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
Executive
Overview ...
3
Overview
of
Engineered
Systems...
3
Oracle
Exalogic
...
3
Oracle
Exadata
Database
Machine
...
4
Oracle
Exalytics...
5
Technical
Benefits
of
Oracle’s
Engineered
Systems...
6
Technical
Benefits
of
Oracle’s
SPARC
SuperClusters ...
9
Oracle
Supply
Chain
Management
...
11
Oracle
Value
Chain
Execution ...
11
Oracle
Warehouse
Management
...
11
WMS
Delivers
Value...
11
Increased
Inventory
Accuracy...
12
Improved
Space
Utilization
...
12
Better
Labor
Productivity
...
13
Optimized
Order
Fulfillment
...
14
Improved
Customer
Service
...
15
Benefits
of
Running
WMS
on
Engineered
Systems
...
16
Improved
Business
Efficiency ...
16
Enhanced
Scalability
...
18
Reducing
the
Total
Cost
of
Ownership
...
19
Conclusion
...
19
Executive Overview
ThiswhitepaperdescribesthebenefitsofrunningOracleWarehouseManagementSystem
(WMS)onengineeredsystemsusingOracleExalogicandOracleExadata. OracleWMSadds
advancedinventorymanagementcapabilitiestotheEBusinessSuiteandefficientlytackles
themostdifficultandintensivecomputationalchallengesofdistributionsystems. Thefollowing
sectiondescribesthebenefits achievedbyrunningOracleWarehouseManagementSystem
(WMS)withOracleExalogicandOracleExadata.
Overview of Engineered Systems
Oracle’sengineeredsystemscombinebestofbreedhardwareandsoftwarecomponentswith
gamechangingtechnicalinnovations.Designed,engineered,andtestedtoworkbesttogether,
Oracle’sengineeredsystemscanpowerthecloudorstreamlinedatacenteroperationsto
maketraditionaldeploymentsevenmoreefficient.ThecomponentsofOracle’sengineered
systemsarepreassembledfortargetedfunctionalityandthen—asacompletesystem—
optimizedforextremeperformance.Bytakingtheguessworkoutofthesehighlyavailable,
purposebuiltsolutions,Oracledeliversasolutionthatisintegratedacrosseverylayerofthe
technologystack—asimplicitythattranslatesintolessriskandlowercostsforyourbusiness.
OnlyOraclecaninnovateandoptimizeateverylayerofthestacktosimplifydatacenter
operations,drivedowncosts,andacceleratebusinessinnovation.
Oracle
Exalogic
OracleExalogicisanEngineeredSystemonwhichenterprisesdeployOraclebusiness
applications,OracleFusionMiddlewareorthirdpartysoftwareproducts. Exalogiccomespre
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
InfiniBandinahighredundancyarchitecturedeliveringfivenineavailability,with faulttolerance
andzerodowntimemaintenance.
ExalogicdramaticallyimprovesperformanceofOracleApplications,FusionMiddlewareand3rd
partyapplicationswithoutrequiringcodechangesandreducescostsacrosstheapplication
lifecycle,frominitialsetuptoongoingmaintenance,ascomparedtoconventionalhardware
platforms.OraclehasmadeuniqueoptimizationsandenhancementsinExalogicfirmware,
Exalogicsoftware,andinOracle’smiddlewareandOraclesapplications.Theseincludeon
chipnetworkvirtualizationbasedonnearzerolatencyInfinibandfabric,highperformance
RemoteDirectMemoryAccess,workloadmanagementinOracleWeblogicserverand
optimizationsinOracleCoherenceandOracleTrafficDirector.Exalogicincludessupportfora
highlyoptimizedversionoftheOracleVM,whichsignificantlyoutperformscomparable
virtualizationsolutionsandisanidealconsolidationplatformforOracleApplications.
Templatestosimplifyinstall,deploymentandconfigurationofApplicationsonExalogicare
available.
Oracle
Exadata
Database
Machine
Oracle’sExadataDatabaseMachineisOracle’sdatabaseplatformdeliveringextreme
performancefordatabaseapplicationsincludingOnlineTransactionProcessing,Data
Warehousing,Reporting,BatchProcessing,orConsolidationofmixeddatabaseworkloads.
Exadataisapreconfigured,pretuned,andpretestedintegratedsystemofservers,
networkingandstoragealloptimizedaroundtheOracledatabase.BecauseExadataisan
integratedsystem,itofferssuperiorpriceperformance,availabilityandsupportability.Exadata
freesusersfromtheneedtobuild,testandmaintainsystemsandallowsthemtofocuson
highervaluebusinessproblems.
Exadatausesascaleoutarchitecturefordatabaseserversandstorage. Thisarchitecture
maintainsanoptimalstoragehierarchyfrommemorytoflashtodisk. SmartScanquery
offloadhasbeenaddedtothestoragecellstooffloaddatabaseprocessing.Exadata
implementsSmartFlashCacheaspartofthestoragehierarchy. Exadatasoftwaredetermines
howandwhentousetheFlashstorageforreadsandwriteaswellashowbesttoincorporate
Flashintothedatabaseaspartofacoordinateddatacachingstrategy.Ahighbandwidthlow
latencyInfiniBandnetworkrunningspecializeddatabasenetworkingprotocolsconnectsallthe
componentsinsideanExadataDatabaseMachine. Inadditiontoahighperformance
architectureanddesign,Exadataofferstheindustry’sbestdatacompressiontoprovidea
dramaticreductioninstorageneeds.
Oracle
Exalytics
As analytic applications become more sophisticated and calculationintensive, the use of
mobile BIexpands, user adoption increases, and data volumesexplode makingthe need for
speed and efficiency more important than ever. Inmemory technology can dramatically
accelerate analytic performance. Oracle Exalytics InMemory Machine is the industry’s first
engineered system for analytics that combines market leading BI foundation , inmemory
analytics software,and bestin class hardware engineered andoptimized towork togetherto
deliver extreme performance for Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance
Management applications.As aresult,userscanvisuallynavigateanddrill intoinformationat
thespeed of thought, without limits onthecomplexity of their questions orthe volume of the
underlying data. Exalytics drives a new class of smarter and more powerful analytic
applicationsthatsimplyweren’tpossibleusingconventionalBIsoftwareandgenerichardware
configurations.
Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation running on Oracle Exalytics has been specially enhancedto take advantage of largememory, processors, concurrency,storage,networking, operatingsystem,kernel,andsystemconfigurationaffordedbytheOracleExalyticshardware. Oracle TimesTen for Exalytics has been specially enhanced for analytical processing at in memory speeds.Withlighteningfast scan speedof up to 100million rows/second andup to 10x columnar compression, TimesTen for inmemory analytics delivers faster reports & dashboardsfordepartmentalaswellasenterprisewideconsumption.
alogic, Exadata, Exalytics; Applications, Database and Analytics. The fastest, est path to unbeatable application performance
cle’s Engineered Systems
s that Oracle E
s faster for forms and self
nd linear scaling allows for very large deployments and multiple ously while maintaining consistent response times. Oracle’s itected
g in an overall reduction in cost of application ow
l benefits delivered by Engineered Systems:
ite applications consists of many batch processing programs oads. These workloads are highly CPU intensive. High
or
rea (SGA) and Program global area (PGA) capable of disk input/output (I/O). Or
ngineered Systems
Engineered Systems: E . The fastest,
as
Technical Benefits of Or
Internal benchmarking indicat Engineered
tems performs 3 to10 tim ending upon
currency load profile. and multiple
tions to run simultan es. Oracle’s
Engineered Systems are arc rmance, and
ments, and
reduce server footprint resulti ship.
technic
Business S rograms
that create large work igh
concurrency of these city with
large Systems global of
processing high spee s are
Business Suite WMS on Oracle’s
Engineered Systems: Exalogic, Exadata, Exalytics; Applications, Database and Analytic
Business Suite running on Oracle’ service applications de currency load profile. And linear scaling allows for very large deployment tions to run simultaneously while maintaining consistent response ti
to deliver maximum availability, high perf Business Suite customers to consolidate enviro
e
Business Suite applications consists of many batch processing that create large workloads. These workloads are highly CPU intensive.
with large memory cap large Systems global area (SGA) and Program global area (PGA) capabl cle’s Engineered Syste
The Benefits of Running EBusiness Suite WMS on Oracle’s EEngineered Systems
Figure 1: Engineered Systems: Exxalogic, Exadata, Exalytics; Applications, Database and Analyticss. The fastest,
easiiest path to unbeatable application performance
Technical Benefits of Ora
acle’s Engineered Systems
Summary
Internal benchmarking indicatees that Oracle EBusiness Suite running on Oracle’ss Engineered
Systems performs 3 to10 timees faster for forms and self service applications deppending upon
the concurrency load profile. AAnd linear scaling allows for very large deploymentss and multiple
applications to run simultaneeously while maintaining consistent response timmes. Oracle’s
Engineered Systems are archhitected to deliver maximum availability, high perfoormance, and
scalability helping Oracle EBusiness Suite customers to consolidate environnments, and
reduce server footprint resultinng in an overall reduction in cost of application ownerrship.
Here are some of the technicaal benefits delivered by Engineered Systems:
• Oracle EBusiness Suuite applications consists of many batch processing pprograms
that create large worklloads. These workloads are highly CPU intensive. HHigh
concurrency of these wworkloads requires systems with large memory capaacity with
large Systems global aarea (SGA) and Program global area (PGA) capablee of
processing high speedd disk input/output (I/O). Oracle’s Engineered Systemms are
architectedtodeliverthesesuperiortechnicalcapabilitiestomanagesuchlarge
workloads.
• Engineeredsystemscanhandletwiceasmanyuserspercorecomparedtoother
serversdeliveringthescalabilityrequiredtoaddmoreapplicationusersduringgrowth
andexpansion.
• LinearScalingeasilysupportsverylargedeployments.
• ResourceManagercanhelpconsolidationofdatabaseandapplicationenvironments
bycontrollingCPUusage,managingCPUcontentionviainstancecaging,controlling
diskI/Ousage,andmanagingcontentionviaIORM’sinterdatabaseresourceplans.
Customerscanachievehigherthroughputsasmoretransactionscanbeprocessed
usingsingleExadatacorecomparedtootherservers.
• ExalogichasbeenengineeredtoleverageatechniqueknownasSingleRootI/O
Virtualizationtoeliminatevirtualizationoverheadanddelivermaximumperformance
andscalability.Missioncriticalservervirtualizationoffersawholenewlevelof
consolidationwheremultiplevirtualmachinesaresharingasinglephysicalserverin
ordertomaximizetheutilizationofserverhardware,whileminimizingassociatedcost.
• OracleVMtemplateforExalogicreducesinstallationandconfigurationtimeandallows
rapiddeploymentofOracleEBusinessSuiteapplications.
• OracleEBusinessSuitecustomerscanloadbalancewebandformsservers,
configureparallelconcurrentprocessingandconfigureOracleRACandOracleData
Guardforhighavailability.
• OracleEnterpriseManagerCloudControl(EM)helpswithExadatamanageabilityand
providesacompositeviewofallhealthindicatorsofacellorcellgrouptodiagnose
andtroubleshootperformanceproblemsefficiently.
Oracle EBusiness Suite customers will benefit from using following unique features of
ExadataDatabaseMachine:
ExadataSmartFlashCache
ExadataSmart FlashCache usesFlashmemory to dramaticallyreduce thetimeto read and
write database and log records. The intelligence inSmart FlashCache transparently moves
activedatabaseblocksfromdiskto flashinrealtime,thusensuring that"hot"data isinFlash
memory when the next access occurs. Blocks that should not be in Flash are similarly
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
Internalbench marksforOracleEBusinessSuite haveshownfollowing results asa resultof
SmartFlashCache:
• AverageI/Olatencyreducedby58%andnospecialtuningisrequiredtoachieveI/O
performanceimprovement.
• Logfilesynceventsimprovedby5%andnospecialtuningisrequiredtoachievelog
filesynceventimprovements
ExadataSmartScan
ExadataSmartScanspeeds updataintensivequeries byleveraging theprocessingpowerof
ExadataStorageServerstoscanandfilteroutresults.Bymovingqueriestostorageinsteadof
movingthe datato thedatabaseservers, longrunningreportsoften complete10timesfaster
thanconventionalsystems.
InfiniBand
The use of InfiniBand asthe networkingfabric within Exadataensures the lowestlatencyfor
messages and the highest bandwidth for data transfers. Highspeed transactions as well
asdataintensive queries and reports reap the benefits from InfiniBand. Oracle EBusiness
SuitebenefitsresultingfromInfiniBandare:
• 3040%lowerCPUutilizationand100%ormorethroughputcomparedtoGigabit
Ethernet
• 20%improvementinonlinetransactionsresponsetimes
• EasierscalingofEBusinessSuiteonlinetransactionalprocessingthroughlowlatency
ExadataScaleOutStorage
Exadata ScaleOut Storage enables the full performance of Exadata to be realized against
large and growing databases, without fear of bottlenecks. As the database size grows and
storagecapacityisaddedtoExadata,storageperformanceandnetworkingbandwidthscalein
equalproportion.Asaresult,
• BackupsandClonescanbeexecutedatarateof20TB/hour
• Fasterincrementalbackupscanbeperformed
I/OResourceManager(IORM)
IORM allocates I/O bandwidth across different applications and databases, based on a
prioritizedallocation plan, toensurethatthe mostimportant applicationsgetthe performance
theyneedwhentheyneedit.As aresult,customerscanconsolidatedatabaseandapplication
environmentswithoutworryingaboutresourcecontentionandperformancedegradation.
OracleEBusinessSuitecustomersbenefitfromusingfollowinguniquefeaturesofExalogic:
ExalogicExabus
Applications running on Exalogic utilize Exabus, the underlying Infiniband fabric, which
provideslowlatencyandhighthroughputeliminatingI/Obottlenecksineveryapplicationlayer.
ApplicationscomponentsaretypicallydeployedinmorethanoneserverandExabusprovides
low latencyforI/O acrossnodes onsameExalogic rack. Access to ZFSstorage device over
Exabus greatly reduces latency for log file writes and other file access operations. For
applicationsrunningonExalogicandaccessingthedatabasetieronExadata,Exabusdelivers
faster I/O, reduces CPU usage on both the midtier and DBtier and providing higher
connectionpoolingefficiency.
OracleVMforExalogic
Exalogic OracleVMcansubdivide a physicalcomputenodeinto multiplevirtualmachines to
increaseapplication deploymentefficiencywhile maintaining applicationperformance. Oracle
VM has been engineered for tight integration with Exalogic Exabus I/O backplane using a
technique called Single Root I/O Virtualization (SRIOV) ensuring Oracle VM significantly
outperformscomparablehypervisorsfromotherleading vendors.Thebenefitofthisapproach
isunmatchedapplicationperformance.InanExalogicconfiguration,theimpactofvirtualization
onapplicationthroughputandlatencyisnegligible.
Technical
Benefits
of
Oracle’s
SPARC
SuperClusters
Similar to Engineered Systems such as Exadata, Exalogic, Oracle EBusiness Suite can be
deployed on Oracle’s SPARC SuperCluster to achieve high availability, performance,
scalability and environment consolidations. Here is a brief description of Oracle’s SPARC
SuperCluster’stechnicalcapabilities.
Oracle’s SPARCSuperClusteristhe world’s mostefficient multipurpose engineeredsystem,
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
applicationsandrapidlydeployingcloudservices.Oracle’sSPARCSuperClusterrepresentsa
complete, preengineered, and pretested highperformance enterprise infrastructure solution
that is faster and easier to deploy than a collection of individual database and application
servers. The system combines innovative Oracle technology—the computing power of
Oracle’s SPARC servers, the performance and scalability of Oracle Solaris, the Sun ZFS
Storage Appliance, the optimized database performance of Oracle Database accelerated by
Oracle Exadata Storage Servers, and a highbandwidth, lowlatency InfiniBand network
fabric—into a scalable, engineered system that is optimized and tuned for consolidating
missioncriticalenterpriseapplications.
Oracle’s SPARC SuperCluster provides both the capacity for growth, as well as the fine
grainedservervirtualizationneeded to isolateindividual applicationcomponents.Deployment
speed,applicationperformance,andavailabilitycanallbeoptimizedwiththemultiplelayersof
enterprise application infrastructure consolidated onto a highperformance, highly available
SPARC SuperCluster system. Designedas a preconfigured,pretested,and readytodeploy
SPARC SuperCluster engineered system, the solution provides a complete and optimized
infrastructure solution for applications, built around robust compute, networking, storage,
virtualization, andmanagementresources. Theresultisa system thatisorders of magnitude
easiertomanage, and upto five times fasterto deploy than alternatives,all whileoccupying
considerably less real estate requiring less power. Furthermore, the SPARC SuperCluster
system provides full builtin redundancy resulting in a highly reliable infrastructure without
singlepoint of failure. An issuewith one componentwill notimpactother componentsof the
system offering true isolation. Customers can consolidate multiple Oracle EBusiness Suite
environments with minimum disruption, without fear of performance degradation, and the
abilitytoachieverequiredservicelevels.
Oracle Supply Chain Management
Yoursupplychainoperationsandchallengesarechangingrapidly:globalization,sustainability
initiatives,governmentregulations,andcostcuttingmeasuresexertconstantpressure. These
externalchallengesneedtobebalancedwithinternalgrowthsuchaswarehouse
openings/closings,newmarkets,anexpandinglistofsuppliersandcustomers,andacquisition.
Theonlythingcertainischange,soyoumustbeflexibleandpreparedtoadaptquickly.
Oracle
Value
Chain
Execution
OracleValueChainExecution(VCE)isanintegratedsuitethatprovidesasinglesolutionto
yourlogisticsneeds.Itprovideswarehousingandinventorymanagement,tracking,
transportationmanagement,tradecomplianceandmanagement,landedcostanalysisand
suitewideanalyticscapabilities.Whetheryouhaveadomesticorientedbusinessoraglobal
operationspanningmultiplecountries,OracleVCEhasthecapabilitiestosupportyourneeds.
Oracle
Warehouse
Management
OracleWarehouseManagementenablescompaniestomaximizetheirlabor,space,and
equipmentinvestmentsbycoordinatingandoptimizingresourceusageandmaterialflows.
OracleWMSprovidesarobustwarehousesolutionsplatformtoefficientlymanagetheflowof
goodsandtheactivitiesofwarehouseresourcesacrossmultiplebusinessprocessessuchas
orderfulfillment,manufacturing,fieldservice,inboundlogistics(receipt,inspection,and
storage),counting,labeling,andreplenishment.
WMS Delivers Value
Improvingthespeedatwhichinventoryflowsthroughyoursupplychainhasadramaticeffect
onyourfinancialbottomline.Efficiencyisachievedbyreducinglatencybetweentheactual
inventorytransactionandreflectingthattransactionwithinyoursystemwhilesimultaneously
increasinginventoryaccuracy.
Youcanalsoincreaseefficiencybyenforcingandfollowingthebestpracticesforyour
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
suchasthematerialallocationforpickingandlocatorselectionforputawaytasks(how
replenishmentishandled,andhowtasksaredispatchedtotheworkforce).
Althoughindividualwarehousesmaydifferduetoavarietyoffactors physicalconfigurations,
productlinedifferences,shippingmethods,andseasonalproductlineswarehousingsystems
mustadapttothesedifferencesandperformdynamicallywithoutcostly,timeconsuming
customizations. Globaldeploymentsmay needadditionalrequirementssuchasmultilingual
support,multiplecurrencies,andmultipleunitsofmeasureclasses(lbsandkg).
Increased
Inventory
Accuracy
Warehouseemployeesperformimportantwarehousetasksandfunctionsthathaveacritical
impactoncustomerservice.Theseemployeeresponsibilitiesrangefrompushingacartor
drivingalifttrucktopicking,packing,andshippinggoodstoyourcustomers. Although
employeesmustdotheirjobwell,itisessentialthattheycanperformitefficiently.OracleWMS
deliversamobileinterfacethatcanbeconfiguredtomeetoperationalneedswhilemaintaining
thequalitycontrolsrequiredforhighcustomerservice.
Thepickingprocessmustbeexact:locators,items,andlotsmustbeverifiedquicklyand
accuratelywhilebarcodesandscannersmustbereliableandequippedforrapiddataentry.
WiFidataterminalsproviderealtimedataverificationsothateachvalueenteredisquickly
validatedbytheWMSsystem. Tomaximizepickingefficiencyandincreaseproductivity,users
mustspendaslittletimeaspossiblewiththeuserinterface.
Improved
Space
Utilization
Itmakesabigdifferencewhereyoustoregoodsinthewarehouse;forexample,it’sprobably
notagoodideatostoreicecreamincooler;orchocolatecookiesonthetoprackduringthe
warmsummermonths;orfastmovingitemsinthebackofthewarehousefarfromtheshipping
dock.
Whilesomeonewithwarehouseexperience typicallyknowsthaticecreamisalwaysstoredin
thefreezer,itmaynotbeasobviousthatchocolateicecreamisahighvelocityitemandtutti
fruttiisnot. Slottingproductssothatthosepickedfrequentlyarereadilyaccessibleandclose
totheshippingdocksavestimeandmoney.
Sometimesselectingastoragelocationisstraightforward,butaswarehouseoperations
becomemorecomplexandexacting,thedemandsforwarehouseoptimizationcontinueto
grow. Itisnolongeradequatetoidentifythecorrectstoragezoneortheclosestemptybin.
Manyotherfactorsmustbeconsidered:whichpartiallyfilledbinmakesthebestuseof
availablespace? Willtheproductfit,consideringitsdimensions? Canmultiplelotsforanitem
bestoredinthesamebin? Aredatecodesrelevant? Ifmultipleitemsorlotsarestoredinthe
samebin,newmaterialmustnotblockorburyexistingitems. Ifanitemisblockedorburied,
additionaltimeisrequiredduringpicking.
TheseconsiderationsmustbeanalyzedforeachandeveryputawayscheduledbytheWMS.
Carefullycraftedputawayrulesgreatlyenhanceworkerproductivitybyslottingitemsfor
efficient,accuratepicking. Theserulesalsoincreasethespaceutilizedwithinthewarehouse,
whichsavesmoneyinthelongrun. Theanalysisrequiredtoattainthesebenefitsis
considerableandtheburdenplacedonhardwareissignificant. Therefore,itisveryimportant
tohaveadequateprocessing toenableWMStoruninatimelyfashion.
Better
Labor
Productivity
Overthecourseofaday,pickersspendmostoftheirtimetravelingfromonetasktothenext.
Traveltimeisa‘necessaryevil’requiredtogetproductpickedandshippedto customers.
Fortunately,theWMSprovidesseveralfeatures tominimizetheallocatedtraveltimeand to
raiseproductivity.
Inadditiontoslottinghighvelocityitemsclosertotheshippingdock, theWMSsupportsthe
useofoptimalpickspathstominimizethedistancetraveledwhenorderpicking. TheWMS
automaticallyassignstaskstooperatorstoensurethepickpathisfollowed. Thisoptimization
isdoneintheWMS,freeingthepickertoconcentrateontheworkathand.
Whileautomatictaskassignmentprovidesanoptimalpickpath,italsoreduces thetraveltime
betweendifferenttypesofequipment. Itisfrustratingwhenyoutrytocompleteapickonlyto
findthatyoudonothavethenecessaryequipment. TheWMStrackstheequipmentinuse
andonlyassignspicksthatcanbecompletedbythattypeofequipment. Similarly,WMS
tracks theskillsofusersandassignspicksonlyforqualifiedusers.
To fullyrecognizethebenefitsofslotting,theWMSmustcalculatetaskassignmentsby
balancingmanyvariablessuchasorderpriority,orderID,currentlocation,pickpath,
equipmenttype,userskills,andsoon. Optimizinglaborforceeffectivenessdependsonthe
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
Optimized
Order
Fulfillment
Customerserviceistheprimarygoalofeverydistributionorganization. Itisanongoing
challengetoget therightproducttotherightcustomerintherightquantityattherighttime.
Wavemanagementdeliversthetoolsnecessarytoinitiate,monitor,andoptimizetheoutbound
flowofmaterial.
FlexibilityDrivenProductivity
Awaveconsistsofbuildcriteriausedforgatheringconformingsalesorderlinestogetherto
formawave. Youcancreateawavebasedonsimplecriteriasuchasalllinesforagiven
carrierordefinemorecomplexcriteria. Forexample,supposeyouneedto limitwavesizeto
theavailablecapacity(weightandcube)ofanoceangoingcontainer. TheWMScancalculate
andaggregatetheweightandvolumeforeachpickcreateduntilthecontainerisfilled. Wave
buildingprovidesgreatflexibilitytotheuserandtremendouscostsavingsfortransportation.
ReducedCycleTimes
WhiletheWMSisanexecutionsystem,planningplaysanimportantroleindeterminingwhich
ordersto processnext. Multiplewaveplanningscenarioscanbeevaluatedsimultaneously
becauseordersarenotcommitteduntil thewaveisreleased. Thewaveplanning process
providesinsightintoimportantwarehouseresourcessuchas inventoryandlabor;however,it
isinefficienttoreleaseorders thatcannotbefilled,orifnooneisavailabletopickthem.
Waveplanningprovidesexpectedfillratesandlaborusagepriortopickrelease. Onhand
inventorybalancesserveasthebasisforafillrateanalysisofallorderlinesinthewave.
Orderswithoneormorelinesthatcannotbefilledcanbeautomaticallydroppedfromthewave
orbackordered. Waveplanningalsoprovideslaborestimatesforeachpickarea. Ashipping
supervisorcanbetterorchestratethepickreleaseprocessandmaximizeworkforceefficiency
bycomparingthelaborestimatesfornewwaveswithlaborestimatesforpicksalready
released. Thisplanningleadstobetterdecisionmakingandlowercosts.
CustomerCompliance
Wavereleasegeneratesthepickandreplenishmenttasksforpreparingcustomerordersfor
shipment. Userdefinedallocationrulesdeterminewhatinventoryisallocatedtoeachsales
orderline.Theserulesvaryincomplexity,buttheycanplaceheavyprocessingdemandson
systemhardwareresources.Engineeredsystemsenablethewarehousetoruncustomer
specificinventoryallocationruleswithoutimpactinganyotherprocesses.
Consideranexampleinwhichlotcontrolledgoodsareshippedtoseveralcustomersonthe
sameroute:
• Thefirstcustomerrequeststhatallgoodsshippedhaveatleast15daysofshelflife
remaining.
• Thesecondcustomerrequeststhatnomorethanonelotbeshippedforanygiven
orderline.
• Thethirdcustomerrequeststhatallgoodsshippedhaveatleast30daysofshelflife
remainingandthatonlyonelotisshippedperlineitem.
Allqualifyingitem/lotcombinationsmustbeevaluatedandsortedtofindtheinventorythat
bestfitstherulecriteriaforeachlineofeveryorder. Thisabilitytoautomaticallyensurethat
customers’needsareaddressedisasignificantcompetitiveadvantage,butitisalsoa
demandingandpotentiallytimeconsumingprocess.
Improved
Customer
Service
Thefinalstepintheshippingprocessisveryimportantbecauseitisthefinalchancetoconfirm
ormodifyyourcustomer’sorderrequirementsandmakeapositiveimpactbeforetheorder
leavesyourorganization’sfacility.
Theshipconfirmationprocesscanberatherinvolvedanddemandingdependingonyour
configuration. Ataminimum,allsalesorderlinesareprocessedforinvoicingandthe
associatedinventoryisremovedfromthewarehouse. Youcanalsogeneratecustomer
specific shippingpaperwork,andcustomerspecificandcarrierspecificlabels.
Howtheorderispacked,thepreparationofthepaperwork,andeventheplacementofthe
labelsreflectuponyourbusiness,yourprofessionalism,andyourrelationshipandattitudeto
thecustomer. Thisprocessisimportanttothecustomer,andessentialtoyourbusiness
practicesandreputation.Shipconfirmationinitiatestheinvoicingprocessandensures
continuedcashflow.
Unfortunately, theshipconfirmationprocessistypicallyrunattheendofthedaywhichisoften
thebusiestandmosthecticpartoftheday. Ordersarepackedandlabeled,tripsareloaded,
driversarewaiting;thesuccessofanentireday’sworkcomesdowntothisfinalstep. You
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
Benefits of Running WMS on Engineered Systems
Improved
Business
Efficiency
TheWMSsystemdeliversadvancedinventorymanagementfeaturesusingwithanexecution
systemthatprovidesfasterresponsetime. Theengineeredsystemprovidespowerful
performancetodeliverthebenefitsoftheWMSthat maximizesproductivityfor mobileuserson
thefloorpickingordersorsupervisorsplanningthenextwave.
ImprovedEndUserResponseTimePerformance
MostWMSusersworkonthewarehousefloorusingmobiledataterminalstocompletetheir
tasks. Abusyfacilitymaycompletethousandsoftasksperhourrequiringthousandsofdata
entriesandvalidations. Theseprocessesarefundamentaltoawellrunoperationandare
carefullytailoredtoenhancespeedandaccuracy. Barcodesandscannersenablealmost
instantaneousdataentryWMSorchestratesthisactivitythroughthemobileuserinterfaceby
guidingusersfromonetasktothenext.
Industrystandardstypicallyrecommendsubsecondresponsetimeformobilewarehouse
applications. Engineeredsystemsprovidethepowernecessarytominimize thetimerequired
fordatavalidation.Slowerresponsetimesreduceproductivity:forexample,ifresponsetime
doublestojustasecondortwo,thelosttimequicklyaddsup. Ifpickersspend10percentof
theirtimeondataentry,pickingefficiencyisdecreased,workerproductivitywoulddropbyfive
percent,andcostswouldincreaseaccordingly.
ImprovedBatchProcessingPerformance
AlthoughWMSisfundamentallyanexecutionsystem,somefeaturesrequiringaconsiderable
amountofbatchprocessing.Threeofthesefeaturesarecentraltoanywarehouseor
distributioncenter:waveplanningandpickrelease;shipconfirmation;andintercompany
invoicing.
Waveplanningandpickreleasedrivetheoutboundflowofmaterial. Waveplanningprovides
fillrateanalysissothatshortorderscanbeidentifiedand addressedbeforepicking. Labor
estimatesprovidevisibilitytopotentialbottlenecks,allowingforbetterworkflowthroughoutthe
day. Theseplanning simulationshelpdeterminethemostefficientpickingstrategiesfora
particularmixoforders. Engineeredsystemsensurethatthesesimulationsarecompletedina
timelymannerandminimizeimpactonotheroperations.
Thepickreleaseprocessallocatesitemstothesalesordersandcreatespicktasksforthe
operatorsonthewarehousefloor. Inabusyfacility, thisisademandingprocessunderthe
bestofconditions. Ascustomerscontinuetoplacesmallerordersmorefrequently,the
demandsonthesystemincrease. Customerspecificallocationrulesgreatlyimprovecustomer
service,buttheyalsoincreasedemandsonthesystem. Forcomplexanddemanding
processeslikewaveplanningandpickrelease,thebenefitsofengineeredsystemsare
significant. Thefollowingchartshowshowreleaseorderprocessingmorethandoubles1.
OrderManagementFormsResponse
Ordershipmentprocessingisacomplexanddemandingprocessthatrepresentsthelaststep
ingettingtheordertothecustomer.Thissteptriggersshippingpaperworkandlabelsand
initiatestheinvoicingprocess. Tocomplicatematters,ordershipmentprocessingoften
happensduringa shorttimeattheendofalongday. Thereisnotimefordelays. Asthe
precedinggraphicshows,engineeredsystemsprovidesignificantbenefitstotheorder
shipmentprocess,improvingperformancebyalmost50percent.
Intercompanyinvoicingiscrucialforthosecompaniesthathaveintercompanytransactions.
Asthegraphicshows,engineeredsystemsprovidethemostbenefittothecreatinginvoice
process,improvingperformancebyover100percent. Intercompanyinvoicingshouldachieve
thesamebenefits.
1Sourcereference:OracleAuthors:IsamAlyousfy,LathaKrishnawamy,ElkePhelps,NishitRao,“An OracleWhitePaper BenefitsofDeployingOracleEBusinessSuiteonExalogicandExadata”,Feb2012.
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
Enhanced
Scalability
Assuccessfulbusinessesaddnewcustomersand process increasedordervolumes,theymay
needtoexpandbymovingintonewgeographiesandopeningadditionalfacilities. Asan
enterprisegrows,sotoomustitsbusinessapplications. Engineeredsystemsofferthe
scalabilitynecessarytosupportthatgrowth. Thefollowinggraphshowstheadvantageof
engineeredsystemsovercommodityhardwareanddatabasesystems2.
ExadataandExalogicTierUsersperCoreforOrderManagement
Inthe followinggraphics,theOrderManagement(Forms)transactionsareshownasaproxy
forWMSscalability. Increasesinordermanagementvolumetypicallyresultincomparable
increasesfortheWMS.
ThefollowinggraphsdemonstratethescalabilityofExalogicandExadataengineeredsystems
for variousworkloadlevels.Enterprisemanagementdependsuponresponsivepredictable
performanceoverarangeofworkloads.Intestswith700,1,400and2,100concurrentusers,
ExalogicandExadatametricsscaledsmoothly.Responsetimeincreasedimperceptiblywhile
theCPUandmemoryusagerosepredictably.
2Sourcereference:OracleAuthors:IsamAlyousfy,LathaKrishnawamy,ElkePhelps,NishitRao,“An OracleWhitePaper BenefitsofDeployingOracleEBusinessSuiteonExalogicandExadata”,Feb2012.
Reducing
the
Total
Cost
of
Ownership
Customersoperatinginhighvolumeorderenvironments withresultinghighSKUproliferation
willaccumulatemillionsofdatarecordsinfairlyshortperiodsoftime. Thematerialmovement
recordsgeneratedbytheWMStohandlehighordercountsareconsiderable. Engineered
systemsarespecificallydesignedtodealwiththesestoragechallenges. Forinstance,
ExadataHybridColumnarCompressionwillreducethesizeofWMStablesproviding
significantcostsavingsovertime. Additionalbusinessbenefitsincludelessfrequentarchiving
andlongeraccesstohistoricaldata.
TheWMSbenefitsfromfasterandeasierdeploymentonengineeredsystems. Some
businessespreferhostingtheWMSatthefacilitythatitmanagestoensurethatoperationswill
continueevenifcommunicationstothedatacenterarelost. Inadistributeddeployment
mode,theWMScanberunasa“standalone”applicationinaseparatedatabaseinstance.
Engineeredsystemsfosterthisapproachbasedontheirfast,easydeployment. Garmin
benefittedfromExadata’spreconfiguredengineeredsystemsandsupportmodelits Exadata
DatabaseMachineswereinstalledandreadytoloadandtestwithinsevendaysofarrivingon
3
site .
Conclusion
Yourwarehouseoperationsaregreatlyenhancedbyleveragingtheoperationalefficiencyand
costbenefitsprovidedbyOracle.Manyoftheadvancedinventorymanagementfeaturesare
3Sourcereference: “AnOracleWhitePaper GarminInternationalInc.OracleExadataDatabaseMachine TechnicalCaseStudy,”July2012.
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuiteWMSonOracle’sEngineeredSystems
complexandplacesignificantdemandsonthehardwareplatform. Hardwareshouldnotbethe
limitingfactorwhenyouwanttomaximizethepowerprovidedbyOracleWMS. Engineered
systemsfromOracleprovidethepower,convenience,andeconomytomakeyourvaluechain
aworldclassoperation.
References
OracleExadataDatabaseMachine BrochuresandDataSheets
OracleTechNetworkOracleExadataDatabaseMachine
OracleExalogicElasticCloudOverview
TheBenefitsofRunningEBusinessSuite ManufacturingandCostManagement ApplicationsonOracle’sEngineeredSystems April2013
Author:BillReilly
ContributingAuthors:LokeshVerma OracleCorporation
WorldHeadquarters 500OracleParkway RedwoodShores,CA94065 U.S.A.
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