Inventory Management System
Inventory Management System
L’Oreal is one among the world leaders in cosmetics. It has large number of factories all around the world, but still the organization manages its inventory in a well-organized manner. The organization has included advance technological and user-friendly systems to its functions to compete with the rivals in the market. L’Oreal has implemented an integrated Apriso’s FlexNet and an ERP system for the operations and inventory management. The new advance system has improved management of various operations at the organization like supply chain management, production management, inventory management, and quality management.
Previously, L’Oreal had only implemented SAP for business processes like human resources, finance, supply, and demand planning. However, for operations management, the organization required a user-friendly and an effective system that could support corporate functions of ERP. It is important for the system to provide 24x7 availability to support communications between the warehouse management systems and operations management users. In addition, L’Oreal management required an error-free system that could ensure that supply chain would not hang up by contradictory instructions. It was decided to implement Apriso for the inventory management system, since it is highly capable to deliver wide range of functionalities. Today, L’Oreal has implemented Apriso FlexNet to manage warehouse operations, and other functions like on-site production, traceability, quality, and material movement.
Apriso FlexNet Operations Management System
Today, Apriso is considered as the leading manufacturing software solutions provider and the top IT logistics provider. Apriso is committed to synchronize organization material flow, production, and other operation on a global enterprise scale. The system also improves the manufacturing efficiency and inventory accuracy by reducing lead-time and removing the idle inventory from the warehouse. Apriso’s FlexNet aims to accomplish mainly five challenges related to material management that includes, reducing cost, achieve customer satisfaction, data management, increased visibility, and ease system integration. Apriso has the tendency to improve responsiveness to shifting market, competitive conditions, and supply chain. These features greatly help manufacturers to operate efficiently on a worldwide scale. Currently, Apriso has 170 customers in 41 countries that includes, Novelis and Essilor, Saint-Gobain, Becton Dickinson, Lockheed Martin, Trixell, Honeywell, Lear, and General Motors. The best fact about the Apriso FlexNet is its feature of traceability. The barcodes and other online systems help to keep the record of the raw material and finished products .
Process of Current Inventory Management System at L’Oreal
Considering the case of L’Oreal that required a management software program to control operations globally is gaining large benefits after implementation of Apriso FlexNet. The management software is helping the organization in providing highly scalable structure and global solutions. In addition, the system helps in carrying out the organization operations worldwide. Now, the L’Oreal inventory is more visible with Apriso Solution. Faltec is one among the top organizations like L’Oreal that are taking benefits with the Apriso FlexNet system.
The advance automatic system of L’Oreal operations management starts receipt of primary materials on site. Raw material is identified and labeled with barcodes. The barcodes are stored with the material information related to composition, history, and identity of provider. The quality of the raw material is tested using samples. Once the order is approved, the information is forwarded to the operators, which can be accessed by scanning the barcode. The system chooses the right place to store raw material; the guidelines are provided to the fork truck driver, who takes the stock to the warehouse.
The details stored in the barcodes are used during the manufacturing process. The operator is also provided with the production order that also contains the recipe and guidelines regarding the manufacturing procedure. The system checks for the required material and starts production upon confirmation. Once production is complete, the order is affixed with barcodes or identification label that contains all information related to composition, shelf lives, and quality of the product. However, before the packaging procedure, the system checks for the packaging requirements and materials. These automatic systems of packaging, quality checking, and availability of material have reduced L’Oreal burden at the workplace. In addition to the production process, the Apriso’s operations management system carry out product shipping tasks.
Benefits of Apriso FlexNet Operations Management
Apriso FlexNet has simplified many functions of L’Oreal. From a global context, the diversity of practices at the L’Oreal are reduced; rather practices at the global manufacturing sites are adapting corporate best practices. The operation activities at each site of L’Oreal have been reduced and switched to automation. For example, production orders are dispatched automatically on production lines and many other warehouse management tasks are set automatic. In addition to the automation of inventory management activities, Apriso FlexNet has helped the organization in reducing discrepancies in actual-versus-plan, consumption of primary materials, on-hand inventory of finished goods in warehouse, and wastes excreted during the manufacturing process.
In case if the, L’Oreal had implemented Operations Management and ERP separately to carryout warehouse management and other tasks then the costs and risks would have been increased. However, with the combined Operations Management and ERP implementation have increased the number of benefits and decreased the costs of implementation.
References
Beach, L. (2009, June 18). Apriso Customer L'Oreal Wins Editor's Choice Award at 2009 Progressive Manufacturing Summit. Retrieved from Dassault Systems: http://www.apriso.com/about_apriso/news/announcements/Jun_18_2009_Apriso_Customer_LOreal_Wins_Editors_Choice_Award_at_2009_Progressive_Manufacturing_Summit.php
