Oracle spices up Emirates Flight Catering division with its supply chain solutions
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 15 August, 2006: Maintaining high levels of service in delivery and culinary standards is no mean task when it comes to serving 60,000 meals to passengers, in addition to providing quality catering to over 105 airlines that fly daily from Dubai International Airport to remote corners of the globe.
To help ensure high standards in this demanding environment, Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) has gone live with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite, based on a JD Edwards solution from Oracle Ò.
Operating in one of the biggest and the fastest-growing airports in the Middle East, timely delivery of food and refreshments to passengers is part of a complicated schedule of requirements for EKFC, as delays have significant cost implications. With aircraft landing and taking round-the-clock, uninterrupted IT infrastructure operation is critical. Oracle’s Flight Catering Solution module helps ensure that orders are streamlined at EKFC, right from the procurement of fresh produce through to acknowledgement of meals received on board. This module covers the complete supply chain function for the airline catering industry, and is the first of its kind to be implemented globally.
With the support of a six-member team, the first enterprise-wide rollout of the JD Edwards solution was completed within 12 months. In addition to the flight catering solution, Oracle’s ERP implementation also covered key processes in the area of financial planning, plant and equipment maintenance, purchasing, warehouse and inventory, production and manufacturing, Human Resources and payroll.
“The expanding tourism market in the Middle East has had a direct effect on the airline industry,” said Haroon Siddiqui, EKFC CEO. “New routes and flights to remote destinations are introduced every week. This requires us to maintain an impeccable hygiene and quality standards at the Emirates Flight Catering division. Oracle’s ERP solution has helped us gain an integrated view of the business, cut overhead cost, and identify and resolve bottlenecks that caused unnecessary delays.”
Forecasting and detailed and timely planning are the two most critical factors in the catering industry, as they help prevent over and under-production of meals, thus optimizing usage of perishable goods, while allowing the catering company to meet passengers’ culinary tastes. The Oracle solution specifically focuses in these areas, providing planners with a detailed view of near-term and mid-term demand.
“Currently, the airlines sector in the UAE is experiencing dramatic development,” said Deepak Mehra, Senior Consulting Director, Oracle Middle East . “The last six months have seen leading airlines introduce new routes and strategies to capture the growing market. This puts undue pressure on the airlines’ catering divisions. Emirates Flight Catering was able to take advantage of quick wins such as the enterprise-wide inventory management, even while the implementation was underway, as our teams worked closely together to ensure that the project truly met customer requirements.”
“The implementation, which covers users from multiple locations, was carried out with minimum possible customizations and uses mostly standard functionalities” said Arun Tewary, Sr. IT Manager, EKFC. “Currently there are approximately 200 users actively using the system to manage EKFC’s varied set of business processes.”
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Oracle Corporation is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle in the Middle East, please visit our web site at www.oracle.com/me or contact Aly Rifaah on +9714 390 9000.
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