Milwaukee Tool taps Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to power its rapid growth

Milwaukee Tool, a world leader in developing innovative solutions for the professional trades, was starting to outgrow its current ERP and supply chain applications. Its systems needed to be upgraded, and the tangled integrations with other enterprise applications needed to be resolved. To meet those goals, the company turned to Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM). It’s connecting those applications with third-party legacy systems using the Oracle Integration (OIC) service, part of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Eight years after a major upgrade, Milwaukee Tool was stretching the limits of its legacy ERP applications, which were designed for smaller organizations.  Milwaukee Tool wanted a cloud solution that would easily scale and tie its manufacturing, finance, and supply chain processes more closely together. “We were focused on how to address uncertainty in the marketplace,” says Jason Simpson, senior VP of IT at Milwaukee Tool. "Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications are giving us the capacity that we needed to onboard or start up new facilities and expand our operations faster than we would have been able to do previously.”

After a rigorous evaluation of multiple vendors’ systems, focused on strong partnership and shared culture, the company selected Oracle Cloud ERP and Oracle Cloud SCM, running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). “While we had used other integration tools in the past, the team ultimately chose Oracle Integration for deeper real-time capabilities,” Simpson says. Milwaukee Tool took a phased, site-by-site approach to modernization, and Oracle Integration played a key role in connecting its new cloud systems with existing applications during the transition.

Oracle stood out for its cloud native design, roadmap for continuous innovation, and deep engagement with Milwaukee Tool team members before and during the implementation process, leveraging Oracle Customer Success Services and integration partner Accenture. “We needed it to be cloud-based, to deliver new features faster, and avoid the cost and the effort of an on-premises solution,” says Simpson.

The manufacturing industry is confronting massive worldwide change, requiring an agile, scalable approach for every aspect of a global company’s operations. Milwaukee Tool’s adoption of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications enabled the company to manage its manufacturing, finance, and supply chain processes on a single, scalable platform. This consolidated six separate systems into a single platform across more than 20 facilities worldwide, eliminating some manual processes. The Oracle implementation has helped Milwaukee Tool maintain uninterrupted business operations during a period when it was rapidly onboarding new manufacturing sites.

“We were growing at a tremendous rate, experiencing rapid, sustained growth over multiple years, but our legacy systems were not optimized for the pace and scale of Milwaukee Tool’s growth,” Simpson says. “Oracle Fusion Cloud gave us a foundation to scale, act faster, and keep our customers equipped, anywhere in the world.”

With Fusion Cloud Applications, Milwaukee Tool accelerated its supply chain planning and order orchestration cycles, reducing order fulfilment turnaround from two days to one. Real-time access to supply chain planning and demand planning data across the enterprise helps global teams make better decisions, keeping pace with rapidly changing market demands. Milwaukee Tool is using Oracle Cloud ERP as its core financial platform enterprisewide, for example, connecting inventory management directly into billing processes. Standardized finance, manufacturing, trade compliance, and distribution processes help ensure operational consistency across North America, Europe, and Asia, while helping internal teams benchmark and improve performance.

With Oracle Cloud SCM, Milwaukee Tool can now open a new facility with order and inventory management capabilities that come out of the box, helping manufacturing and distribution team members adapt to market and supply chain disruptions without the need for recoding or extensive training. Engaging more than 300 employees in the ERP and SCM go-live program created an “army of experts,” strengthening cross-functional communication and trust, says Matthew Prange, Milwaukee Tool senior VP for supply chain. As it continues its global expansion, the organization is now exploring Oracle AI agents for Fusion Applications and Oracle Integration tools. “We’re thinking about how we’re going to deploy AI at scale, making investments in modernizing core operating platforms,” Simpson says. “That’s how we’re going to be able to capture data that’s going to drive the insights and the automation we need.”

Founded in 1924, Milwaukee Tool is a global leader in the manufacture of innovative power tools, equipment, and other gear for trade professionals, with a strong focus on safety, performance, and productivity.

Learn more about Milwaukee Tool

Video: Milwaukee Tool Reduces Order Lead Times with Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM (2:40)