Capi Europe Makes Deliveries Faster with Fewer Errors, Despite Fewer Workers
 
 

Capi Europe Makes Deliveries Faster with Fewer Errors, Despite Fewer Workers

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Capi Europe is a familiar name in garden, pottery, and decorative accessories industries. The company has production sites in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, supplying approximately 2,500 types of garden items to customers in 45 countries. Capi Europe has maintained strong growth over the past 10 years, particularly in the Netherlands, which is a trendsetter in the garden sector. The market is characterized by fast-changing trends, requiring greater control over production and inventory. For this reason, Capi Europe was looking for a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that would be robust and encompass all of the company’s activities.

An integrated ERP system was essential for success in the garden market, as it would enable Capi Europe to run its production, sales, logistics, and inventory-control operations more efficiently. The company chose Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 as its ERP solution, as it met the company’s specific requirements, including providing modules for warehouse management and business intelligence. In addition, the system was preconfigured by using Oracle partner Cadran’s Oracle Accelerate solution for wholesale distribution to enable industry-specific processes.

Capi Europe’s solution included three integrated components, JD Edwards Enterprise One ERP modules for finance, procurement, sales, and customer relationship management (CRM); a warehouse management system for inventory management and delivery; and business intelligence capabilities to manage information through reports and analyses. The implementation enhanced Capi Europe’s operational efficiency with increased shop floor control and enabled managers to make informed decisions at operational and strategic levels.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Capi Europe

  • “We are already realizing the extensive benefits of implementing Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne applications—including greater visibility into our inventory and automated report creation. Over the next few years, it will continue to help us achieve even greater improvements in efficiency and our understanding of operational processes.” – Toine van de Ven, Director, Capi Europe

  • Deploy an ERP environment to effectively monitor finances, inventory, and delivery processes to ensure Capi Europe keeps its high-demand garden furniture and decorative accessory items in inventory and can deliver them to customers in a timely fashion
  • Enhance financial reporting capabilities to aid managers in making informed strategic decisions
  • Enable Capi Europe to quickly alter its production and inventory controls to adjust to changing trends in the garden sector 
  • Acquire full visibility of the inventory and automatically reconfigure products to ensure high-demand items are easily accessible

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Worked with Oracle partner Cadran to implement Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 using the partner’s Oracle Accelerate solution for wholesale distribution to enable industry-specific business processes 
  • Utilized JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to manage finance, procurement, sales, and CRM processes and data, and integrated the modules with a warehouse management system for inventory management and delivery, as well as a business intelligence component for detailed financial reporting capabilities
  • Acquired full visibility of items in stock at all times
  • Leveraged the new ERP system to automatically reconfigure the stocking of products, such as furniture and seasonal accessories, in the most suitable location in the depot, based on order frequency
  • Increased operational efficiency by accelerating delivery processes and minimizing errors with fewer worker hours
  • Enhanced administrative decision-making by leveraging accurate control and financial information in the business intelligence console

Why Oracle

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne provided the integrated components and functionality that Capi Europe required to support its wholesale sector business. The solution’s intuitive interface was also attractive because it would be easy for employees to learn and navigate, speeding adoption and proficiency. An additional deciding factor was that Oracle partner Cadran offered an Accelerate solution for wholesale distribution, as a means to jumpstart the implementation with predefined industry templates.

Implementation Process

Oracle partner Cadran began the implementation in early October 2010 and the system went live on January 1, 2011. The system was ready to use in just three months because the Oracle Accelerate solution’s preconfigured template substantially reduced the number of parameters that it needed to define. Furthermore, an implementation environment was immediately set up on a Cadran Virtual Machine, which enabled the project to start immediately.

Partner

Cadran was selected by Capi Europe because of its industry expertise and capability to deliver a tried and tested Oracle Accelerate solution that could be implemented within a very short time in a fixed-price mode. Cadran worked with Capi Europe to identify the processes and system setup. In addition, Cadran tailored the software to Capi Europe’s processes—such as order picking, sales orders, and information provisioning, using delivery notes and other documents.

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