REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oracle today announced the availability of broad new capabilities for processes manufacturers within Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Release 12, including a new Manufacturing Execution System (MES) designed to give customers better control and lower operating costs. This latest release delivers new capabilities, allowing organizations to simplify compliance processes, increase performance for lean, global operations, develop and execute enterprise-wide plans and improve product innovation.

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"With this release, Oracle relied heavily on our customer insight to capture industry specific functionality. Many new features were added to deepen the functionality in process industries including food and beverage, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and biotech, metals and natural resources," said Oracle Vice President, Process Manufacturing Industries Doug Souza. "Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 offers many, new process-industry capabilities enabling our manufacturing customers to lower operating costs, increase efficiencies and effectively compete in today's global economy."

Streamline Compliance, Increase Competitiveness

Faced with increased competition and changing markets, process manufacturers are under continuous pressure to efficiently deliver high quality products, maintain margins and achieve regulatory compliance. Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Release 12 introduces a new application, Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Process Manufacturing, which is completely integrated with Oracle Process Manufacturing. Customers can become more efficient, implement better controls and meet compliance regulations by linking standard operating procedures and shop floor execution. With Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Process Manufacturing, these benefits are available without having to purchase a third-party MES system requiring expensive integration. Customers can also improve product quality and compliance with workflow-driven sampling notifications and critical manufacturing deviations tracking.

Better Manage Global Operations

Process manufacturers need a completely integrated, global view of customers, suppliers and operations to make accurate, timely decisions. Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 introduces a unified data model that allows access to the full range of Oracle manufacturing applications. This gives both process and discrete manufacturing companies an enterprise-wide view, enabling decision-makers to quickly respond to changes in production, supply and customer demand. Oracle Enterprise Asset Management for Process enables process companies to maximize efficiency and availability of assets by utilizing integrated production and maintenance planning, purchasing and project management functionality.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 also includes new enhancements to Oracle Warehouse Management allowing process companies to better manage lots and specification-based inventory. Companies can easily match customer requirements to specific inventory, and efficiently track, pick and ship attribute-based lots.

Execute Holistic Planning and Logistic Strategies

Process manufacturers are challenged with supply chain complexities including shelf life limitations, product customizations and regulatory surveillance. This latest release delivers new, industry-specific enhancements to Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning, including sequence-dependent setups, shelf life and support for complex process routings to help customers overcome these challenges and optimize production and logistics.

A new distribution planning capability in Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning includes support for fair share allocation, multiple inventory policies, circular sourcing, global forecasting with local allocation of supply and ship method selection. Customers can use out-of-the-box integration between Oracle Process Manufacturing and Oracle Production Scheduling to pre-empt supply chain disruptions and maximize shop floor efficiency and throughput while minimizing cost. Other enhancements include process-specific features such as support for vessel filling and emptying, and processing time.

Improve Product Innovation and Differentiation

With Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, process manufacturers benefit from a new, Least Cost Formulation module that optimizes material usage and cost. This capability generates a formulation from a list of alternative ingredients based on a true optimization of cost and other technical or quality parameters. The Least Cost Formulation capability finds the best ingredients based on the attributes of the available materials and the constraints defined by the customer.

Process manufacturers are also equipped to speed product innovation with Oracle Product Lifecycle Management, relying on features such as Idea Management, New Item Introduction Workflow and Lifecycle Management. Additionally, Oracle Product Information Management Data Hub allows process manufacturing companies to eliminate product data fragmentation while tracking customer requirements.

General Availability

The new process manufacturing capabilities within the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 are currently available. Terms, conditions and restrictions apply.

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