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— March 29, 2006

Execution Technology

Red Prairie Teams With Ortec for Load Planning, Optimization
RedPrairie Corp. is partnering with Ortec, a vendor of advanced planning and scheduling software, to offer a new system for building pallets and trailerloads. RedPrairie offers a range of software applications for supply-chain execution, including a warehouse management system. The new software, called PalletCtl, will help users to optimize the positioning of products in a trailer. According to the two companies, customers will realize increased cube utilization, decreased damage during shipping and lower freight costs. Ortec said it has already implemented the software at more than 50 companies in multiple industries throughout the world. PalletCtl becomes an integrated part of RedPrairie's Extended Supply Chain Execution (eSCE) suite of applications. Loading is based on carrier or item characteristics and customer requirements. The tool creates detailed, graphical loading instructions, allowing for optimal utilization of various types of shipping containers. It employs sophisticated logic which can be used with multiple types of items and varying shipping characteristics. Loading processes can be simulated for optimal capacity planning. RedPrairie also announced the appointment of David Mott as product marketing leader in the company's Workforce Performance Management business unit. He has more than 13 years of experience in marketing and implementing the software across North America and Western Europe.
RedPrairie and Ortec: http://www.redprairie.com/
David Mott appointment: http://www.redprairie.com/

Manhattan Updates Fleet Management App; Wins Nissin Contract
Manhattan Associates, Inc. has released the latest version of its Fleet Management software, part of the vendor's suite of Integrated Logistics Solutions. Fleet Management allows companies to manage and optimize their transportation operations, including the activities of private fleets and for-hire carriers, through a single transportation-management application. The product analyzes real-time information on all fleet activity, aiding users in the execution of strategic routing guides and the monitoring of critical metrics and events. Built-in algorithms assess information on fleet resources and customer orders. The system then assigns the best possible routes for drivers to make deliveries. It accounts for numerous constraints and variables, including delivery and capacity commitments, asset utilization and regions. Also figured into the mix are hours of service regulations, company fleet requirements, driver preferences, weight limitations, maintenance schedules and tandem loads. Features include dynamic fleet-planning optimization, asset dispatch and tracking, integration with current for-hire fleet execution capabilities and comprehensive inbound and outbound execution. In a related company development, the Manhattan Associates K.K. subsidiary announced that Nissin Corp., a Japanese logistics service provider, has selected the vendor's Warehouse Management software as the global standard for its logistics management systems. The application will first be deployed at seven of Nissin's distribution centers, and at stocking points in China. Following the relaxation of Chinese laws on foreign ownership of local subsidiaries, a major Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer set up a local sales company within China. It hired Nissin Transportation Co. Ltd. to build a new logistics operation, which will now be supported by the Manhattan Warehouse Management system.
Fleet Management release: http://www.manh.com/
Nissin Selects Manhattan: http://www.manh.com/

Progressive Int'l Acquires New WMS Software From SSA Global
Progressive International, a seller of quality kitchenware products, has acquired a warehouse management system from SSA Global. Progressive makes a wide range of products sold in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America and elsewhere, utilizing diversified trade channels. Customers include department stores, specialty houseware chains, independent gourmet and coffee retailers, national and regional mass merchants, mail-order companies and online retailers. The company needed to increase its control over people, processes and inventory within its warehouse, as well as throughout the supply chain. The SSA Warehouse Management Solution (SSA WMS) helped it to improve picking operations, while using task management and native radio frequency technology to automated packing processes. Productivity was enhanced by the replacement of manual pick-to-bin processes with automated pick-to-carton operations. Running on the IBM eServer iSeries, the software was implemented with support from Cornerstone Solutions, an SSA Global partner. SSA WMS is part of the vendor's SSA Supply Chain Management suite, which also includes modules for advanced planning and transportation management.
http://www.ssaglobal.com/

Regional Caterpillar Dealer Opts For TMS EliteSeries App
Empire Southwest, a dealer of Caterpillar heavy equipment and engines in Arizona, southeastern California and parts of northern Mexico, has selected the EliteSeries Transportation Management System (TMS) from Tecsys for managing its product-delivery system. Mesa, Ariz.-based Empire will integrate EliteSeries TMS with its own systems, implementing the program under the name eTrac. Using handheld devices, Empire employees will track incoming and outgoing product, shop for transportation rates and confirm delivery to customers. A query function built into eTrac will allow customers to go online and check the status of products en route to them. “This will not only increase the amount of information available to customers, but will also reduce Empire's administrative load,” said project manager Ron Brown. Empire said it was looking for transportation-management software that could accommodate the flow of real-time information between its existing warehouse-management and order-entry systems.
http://www.tecsys.com/

Emerson Debuts Web-Based Monitoring for Inventory Management
Emerson Process Management has developed what it says is the first fully integrated wireless remote monitoring system for inventory management of tanks in chemicals, oil and gas and other industries. The Rousemount 753 with iTraX integrates smart sensors, communications and self-contained power into a single packaged system. Intelligent Rosemount 753R indicators provide wireless communication of measurement data, alerts and device-health status through established cellular networks. Information is accessed via the secure iTraX Web interface, which issues electronic alerts when a particular tank reaches low levels. According to Emerson, the product is ideal for vendor-managed inventory programs, as well as remote inventory-monitoring applications where the avoidance of customer tank outages is critical to distributors of industrial gases, specialty chemicals and fuel. The smart monitoring system mitigates tank outages and reduces the logging of thousands of miles from unnecessary bulk-product deliveries, the vendor said.
http://www.emersonprocess.com/

BHP Billiton Petroleum Speeds Up Its Procure-to-Pay Process
The procure-to-pay process of BHP Billiton Petroleum recently got a boost from the new electronic invoicing system of Quadrem, a provider of electronic connections between businesses. The new tool is designed especially for oil and gas upstream services, and is based on the American Petroleum Institute's PIDX standards. It connects directly to BHP Billiton's enterprise resource planning system from SAP. As a result, said Quadrem, the oil and gas operator can rapidly and accurately pay invoices, analyze line-level expenditure data, identify price discrepancies and promote purchasing that complies with corporate contracts. The company has reduced the time it takes for engineers to reconcile invoices without having to enact major changes in its business processes, said Yusuf Dalai, world drilling finance adviser to BHP Billiton. In addition, he said, the automatic download of data from Quadrem to SAP eliminates between five and six business days of work at the front end of the procure-to-pay process. “These and other efficiencies, including the time saved using electronic delivery rather than regular mail, are enabling us to make important process improvements and compress payment cycles,” he said.
http://www.quadrem.com/

Canon Deploys Visibility, Event Management in European Unit
Canon Europe NV, with headquarters in the Netherlands, has wrapped up a pilot program for the deployment of visibility and event management software from the Descartes Systems Group Inc. The maker of cameras and other imaging technology has signed a longer-term contract with the vendor, and will now expand the software throughout its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations. Descartes Visibility & Event Management is an on-demand, Web-based application which works across companies, regions and transportation modes. It allows Canon Europe to monitor, measure, query and report on order and delivery information at the line-item level. The software utilizes the Descartes Global Logistics Network, a multimodal collection of transportation and logistics service providers and their customers. Canon Europe is a subsidiary of Canon Inc. of Japan. Its main business focus is in two areas: business solutions (I.T. products and services for offices and professional print environments) and consumer imaging (photo, video, Bubble Jet printers, scanners, fax machines and multi-function devices). It employs approximately 10,000 people across 19 countries within Europe.
http://www.descartes.com/

Rubbermaid Commercial Streamlines Deliveries With SAP Tool
Rubbermaid Commercial Products has implemented Master Data Management (MDM) software from SAP AG, in order to respond more quickly to distributor and customer requests for product information. The application, part of SAP's NetWeaver platform, has improved Rubbermaid's distributor relations, enhanced customer service and significantly reduced administrative costs, the vendor claimed. MDM provides a single view of Rubbermaid data for more than 3,000 products, leading to more current and accurate information. Rubbermaid's website is now receiving four times more traffic than before the implementation, due to improved data accuracy, usability and performance. A division of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., Rubbermaid Commercial Products sells a wide range of items for airports, factories, hospitals, offices, schools, and other commercial and industrial organizations. Because some of those products are designed and manufactured in-house and others are outsourced, Rubbermaid's product information had become scattered throughout 12 different databases. As a result, it found itself scrambling to locate and send data each time it received a request from one of several hundred distributors. The SAP software allowed the company better to manage its data, and keep information visible for all partners and distributors.
http://www.sap.com/

Tech Alliance Between eSP, Odyssey Bolsters Wireless Link
eBusiness Solution Pros, Inc. (eSP) has joined with Odyssey Software, Inc. in a alliance to link wireless mobile handheld devices and terminal emulation technology. eSP sells Stay-Linked, a thin-client terminal emulation system. Odyssey produces the Athena Device Management Suite, software for management of mobile devices. The partnership creates a fully integrated, wireless terminal application. Odyssey's Athena software, running on the host-application user's mobile terminal device, can now be accessed from within the Stay-Linked Administrator graphical user interface console. Help-desk staff can manage wirelessly connected terminal devices from within the same centralized console application they use for configuring and controlling terminal emulation behavior, and executing advanced terminal session management commands. The system allows for the use of wireless mobile handheld terminal devices from a variety of major manufacturers, including Symbol, Intermec, Hand Held Products and LXE. The Stay-Linked portion is based on eSP's Client2Host architecture, through which all terminal emulation and client device control run natively on the same host system as the Telnet or SSH server, with only a thin-client software component on each wireless terminal device.
http://www.marketwire.com/


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