To increase its forecast accuracy and decrease planning cycle times, Cabot Microelectronics, a supplier of consumables to the semiconductor industry, implemented Oracle's Real Time Sales and Operations Planning solution.
Cabot Microelectronics had a successful history of utilizing Oracle On Demand Hosted and Managed Applications, including the Oracle E-Business Suite On Demand, Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning On Demand and Oracle Hyperion Planning On Demand for analysis, strategy, forecasting and financial insight. Previously, the forecasting process was highly manual and time intensive, which had the potential to cause errors at the item number level.
Working with Hitachi Consulting, Cabot Microelectronics implemented Oracle Demand Management over three months with a primary focus on improving its sales and operations planning (S&OP) efficiency. During the second, eight-week phase, Hitachi Consulting developed new and enhanced S&OP processes and integrated Oracle Real Time Sales and Operations Planning with Oracle Hyperion Planning, with a primary focus on improving S&OP effectiveness. The new, tightly integrated system allows Cabot Microelectronics to design long-range plans in Hyperion which are then translated into annual plans and synchronized with Oracle Real Time Sales and Operations Planning for execution across sales, inventory and forecasting.
As a result, the company has seen a 50 percent reduction in forecast error rates at the item number level. Oracle Hyperion Planning, which replaced a spreadsheet-based process, offers Cabot Microelectronics a powerful and accurate analysis for business planning and strategy that helps to speed its financial planning and forecasting processes.
Source: http://www.hitachiconsulting.com/page.cfm?ID=newsDetails&EID=325