Global manufacturers need global supply chain management layer
1 min read
Manufacturers that are adopting a global presence specifically including production and sales overseas are likely to find that their ERP systems cannot accommodate the resulting supply chain issues.
That’s the view from Swedish supply chain management software developer Syncron, which acquired Unicorn in the UK, is now opening offices in the US, and is seeing considerable growth against competitors such as i2, Infor and SAP.
UK sales director John Sookias makes the point that manufacturers need to build global capabilities able to consolidate demand from all regions, irrespective of local ERP systems.
“Ten years ago, sales and operations planning would have been all UK-based, or by local region. Not any more. Now companies need to consolidate demand form sales worldwide and then translate that into demand for production and find the factories around the world best able to meet that. So this is invariably a global challenge today.”
He says that means companies have to deliver a single business process across geographies and systems. “And that means they need a BPM [business process management] layer that sits above their disparate ERP systems – a global supply chain layer.”
Manufacturers such as JCB, Eaton Aerospace, Maplin and Wilkinson – all Syncron users – seem to be proving the point. Most appear to be using the system to manage service parts inventory worldwide. JCB, for example, uses the system on top of its ERP to ensure that the right stock is in the right place at the right time for dealers from its new world parts centre in Uttoxeter.
Meanwhile, companies such as Cone Cranes and Atlas Copco are using it for order management, providing a single user interface for customers, while also enabling global planning. And British Gas is using Syncron to manage service engineers, including optimising inventory in its warehouses.
“Master data management sits behind all of these,” explains Sookias, “and that includes parts, customers vendor and masters as part of the business process management tool at the supply chain layer… But that’s just one part of it. This level of supply chain experience just isn’t in the ERP community – and the software need to span different ERP systems anyway, as well as local issues, which is where we come in.”
