Continuing its efforts to build out its online application offerings, Oracle Corp yesterday talked up the forthcoming release of its first advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software suite. Predictably, Oracle is claiming the APS suite is the first, fully web-enabled one of its kind, allowing companies to use the web to accomplish everything from high-level strategic planning to detailed plant scheduling, all in a single plan. Oracle says the new software, which is slated to be available by the end of the year, will allow planning implementation in a single day, thereby enabling companies to see return on their APS investment almost immediately. Comprised of Oracle Demand Planning, Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning, Oracle Available to Promise (ATP) server and Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling, the suite will also use optimization components from Ilog Inc. The latter form the heart of APS applications. They are the algorithms, or brains of the system, which examine the millions of variables and solve the complex problems required to let companies fulfill their complex plans in ever-shortening time frames – from months to weeks to days to hours.
Oracle said it plans to embed Ilog’s technology in two of modules of its APS suite, namely its demand supply chain planning and manufacturing scheduling modules, although no extra details are available at present. Optimization is one of those technologies that does take a rocket scientist to exploit, said David Dobrin, an analyst with Benchmarking Partners, Why bother to develop it yourself when Ilog already has the expertise. Every major ERP and supply chain vendor has incorporated Ilog technology within their product offering. Oracle said customers already using versions 10.7 and 11 of its database will be expected to implement the APS suite in a day. It also claims the software will support all manufacturing systems, including project, flow, process and discrete applications. Although it provided no details on technology, the software giant said it also intends to include technology to enable supply chain vendors to participate in collaborative planning processes over the web. More details are expected in the coming months.
