ERP Enterprise Structure in Oracle Application Enterprise Structure

Enterprise Structure defines how a company is structured from an operating, legal and reporting perspective. Oracle Application considers the following in defining enterprise structure from an Inventory perspective: Set of Books Legal Entity Operating Unit Inventory Organization Locations

Set of Books (SoB)

This is a financial reporting entity having unique Chart of Account, Calendar and currency. A corporation may have more than one Set of Books. Each Set of Book has the following : Calendar: This is the accounting calendar; this might be different from the workday calendar. Currency: Each SoB has unique functional currency. Transactions can be enetered in multiple currencies which can be converted later. Chart of Accounts: Each SoB has unique chart of Account which represent the set of accounts that related to the Inventory, Purchasing and Account Payables.

Legal Entity
This can be defined as the legal company for which fiscal or tax report can be prepared. A SoB can have multiple tax entities.

Operating Unit

This is a division. A corporation can be divided considering its operation. For example, a computer manufacturer may have separate divisions for Laptop, personal computers and Servers. The Laptop can be represented by one operating unit, which is having its centralized purchasing and ordering function. The physical part, which is Inventory may have received in separate inventory organization but the purchase orders are maintained centrally in an operating unit to optimize the supply chain. Operating units affects transactions involving in order management, purchasing, payables and receivables.

Inventory Organization
This can be manufacturing facilities, warehouse or any facilities where a company stocks and transacts inventory.

Sub-Inventories
In Oracle Application, these are the physical locations within a manufacturing or warehouse facilities where goods are stocked and transaction takes place from here. These are created inside Inventory Organizations.

Locations
This represents a physical address of a facility, office, warehouse or any place else used in the entity. Inventory Organization uses locations to represent the address of the following: Ship To Bill To Office Site Internal Site Receiving Site Each Inventory Organization must have at least one location.

Multi-Tier Architecture in Oracle Apps

Multi-Tier Architecture Oracle Apss architecture is a framework for multi-tiered computing in which various servers are distributed in multiple levels or tiers. A server is a process or group of processes that runs on a single machine and provides a particular functionality often referred as a service. e.g. HTTPS server is a server which listens and processes HTTP requests and a Forms server is a server which listens and processes requests for activities related to oracle forms. A Tier is a logical grouping of services, potentially spread across more than one physical machine.

The 3 tier architecture which comprises an oracle ebusiness suite installation is made up of Desktop tier, Application tier and Database tier. 1. Desktop Tier The client interface is provided through HTML for the new HTML based applications and via a Java applet for the traditional form based interface in a web browser. Forms Client Applet: The Forms client applet is a general-purpose presentation applet that supports all Oracle Apps Forms-based products. The Forms client applet is a JAR file with all Java classes required to run the presentation layer of Oracle Applications forms. Oracle Jinitiator: The Forms client applet must run within a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) on the desktop client. The Oracle JInitiator component allows use of the Oracle JVM on web clients, instead of the browsers own JVM. 2. Application Tier
The Application Tier hosts various servers that process the business logic, and manages communication between desktop tier and database tier using Oracle9iAS. Six servers comprise the application tier viz:

Web Server Form Server Reports Server Discoverable Server (Optional) Concurrent Processing Server Admin Server

Web Server: The oracle HTTP server (Apache) acts as the web server. It processes the requests received over the network from the desktop clients and includes additional components such as:

Web Listeners Java Servlet Engine

Java server Pages(JSP)

The Web server may service a request itself by returning the HTML to construct a simple Web page or pass the request to the servlet engine, which contacts the database server as needed. Forms Server: The Forms server hosts Oracle forms, it is an Oracle Developer 6i component that mediates the communication between the desktop client and the Oracle database server, displaying client screens and initiating changes in the database according to user actions. The Forms server caches data and provides it to the client as needed. Forms server communicates with the Oracle database server using the Oracle Net networking infrastructure. When a user initiates an action in the Forms client applet, such as entering data into a field or clicking a button, data is passed to the Forms server on the application tier. The user interface logic runs in the Forms server, and determines the appropriate user interface effect based on the users action. Reports Server: The request for an HTML-based report is similar to the flow of any other HTML-based Applications request: 1. The users clicks on the hyperlink of a function from the browser. 2. The browser makes a URL request to the web listener. 3. The web listener contacts the report server through the reports CGI. The reports web CGI allows the user to run reports and see the output through a web browser. 4. The report server starts the report run time engine 5. The run time engine locates the necessary reports and connects to the database to query the requested information. 6. The queried information has been put to the user in the form of a HTML page. Concurrent Processing Server: The adhoc reports and scheduled programs which run in the background while users continue to work on other tasks, may require large number of data-intensive computations, and are run using the concurrent processing architecture. Concurrent processing is an Oracle Applications feature that allows these noninteractive and potentially long-running functions to be executed efficiently alongside interactive operations. It uses operating system facilities to facilitate background scheduling of data- or resource-intensive jobs, via a set of programs and forms. Processes that run on the Concurrent Processing server are called concurrent requests. When you submit such a request, either through HTML-based or Forms-based Applications, a row is inserted into a database table specifying the program to be run. A concurrent manager then reads the applicable requests in the table, and starts the associated concurrent program. In Concurrent Processing, programs are run as operating system background processes. Admin Server: The Admin server is located on the node where you maintain the data model and data in your Oracle Applications database. You carry out the following operations from this server:

Upgrading oracle Application Applying database patches to oracle Application

In general, Applications patches consist of files and scripts that update the file system and database objects. Most patches consist of a number of patch driver files viz: The copy (c) driver file modifies Applications files, the database (d) driver modifies Applications database objects, and the generate (g) driver generates forms, reports, graphics, or message files. 3. Database Tier The database tier contains the Oracle database server, which stores all the data maintained by Oracle Applications. More specifically, the database tier contains the Oracle data server files and Oracle Applications database executables that physically store the tables, indexes, and other database objects for your system. In general, the database server does not communicate directly with the desktop clients, but rather with the servers on the application tier, which mediate the communications between the database server and the clients

Supply Chain Management Overview

Supply Chain Process Overview A supply chain is a network of suppliers, manufacturers, assembly, distribution and logistic facilities that perform the function of procurement of materials, transformational of material into intermediate and finished products and the distribution of these products to customer. SCM is a systematic approach to manage the flow of information, material and services from raw material supplier through manufacturer and warehouse and finally to the end customer. SCM has three primary goals: Reduce Inventory, increase the transaction speed by exchanging data in real-time and increasing sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently. Supply Chain Stages/Entities A typical supply chain involves following stages

Customer Retailer Distributor Manufacturer Vendors

In this network, finished goods or components move from vendor to manufacturers to distributors and to finally end customer.Cash flow happens exactly in the revers order, from the customer to the vendor through manufacturer. Supply Chain Cycles

1. Customer Order Cycle The customer order cycle occurs at the customer interface and includes following processes

Customer Arrival Customer Order entry Customer Order fulfillment Customer order receiving and paying for the goods or services

2. Replenishment Cycle The replenishment cycle occurs at the retailer/distributor interface, which is similar to the customer order cycle except that the retailer is now the customer. 3. Procurement Cycle This cycle occurs at manufacturer/supplier interface which includes the following processes

Manufacturer orders component from the supplier Supplier ships the component Manufacturer receives the goods and pay for this

4. Manufacturing Cycle This cycle typically occurs at manufacturer/distributor interface and includes following processes

Order consolidation from the warehouse, distributor, customer and retailers Supply chain planning Production scheduling Manufacturing and stocking

Supply Chain Management

The Oracle Supply Chain applications allow organisations to predict market requirements, innovate in response to volatile market conditions, and align operations across global networks. There are several industry-specific solutions available that incorporate demand management, sales and operations planning, transportation management etc. Asset Lifecycle Management o Oracle Asset tracking o Oracle Enterprise Asset Management o Oracle Install Base Configurator o Oracle Configurator o Oracle Fusion Configurator Logistics o Oracle Landed Cost Management o Oracle Inventory o Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Application o Oracle Warehouse Management o Oracle Integrating Oracle Transportation management with EBS

Master data Management o Oracle Product Information Management o Oracle Site Hub Manufacturing o Oracle Bills Of Materials o Oracle Cost Management o Oracle Flow Manufacturing o Oracle Engineering o Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Discrete Manufacturing o Oracle Manufacturing Operations Center o Oracle Manufacturing: Subcontracting o Oracle Manufacturing o Oracle Quality o Oracle Process Manufacturing Quality Management o Oracle Shop Floor Management o Oracle Work in Process Order Management o Oracle Advanced Pricing o Oracle Configure to Order o Oracle Order Management o Oracle Release Management o Oracle Shipping Execution Process Manufacturing o Oracle E-records o Oracle Manufacturing Execution System for Process Manufacturing o Oracle Process Manufacturing Cost Management o Oracle Process Manufacturing Mobile Supply Chain Applications for Process Manufacturing o Oracle Process Manufacturing Quality Management o Oracle Process Manufacturing Regulatory Management o Oracle Process Manufacturing System Administration

Order to Cash Lifecycle: Processes

Order to Cash Cycle

The Life Cycle of the Order

Following are the steps the process will go through from creating a Sales Order to Posting the details in GL.
Enter the Sales Order Book the Sales Order Launch Pick Release Ship Confirm Create Invoice Create the Receipts either manually or using Auto Lockbox ( In this article we will concentrate on Manual creation) Transfer to General Ledger Journal Import Posting

Applications Involved
Order Management: Creating and shipping the Order Customer Master for customer details in OM Inventory: Onhand availability, Reservation

Pricing for List Price details in OM line Receivables: For Receipt against invoice General Ledger: Importing, entering and posting the journals.

Order Management Processes:

Orders can be created in following processes 1. Enter Order manually 2. Copy and Order or Return 3. Import Orders from CRM or other legacy systems Note: CRM (Customer Relationship Management) includes iServe, iStore, Teleservices, Telesales, Sales Online, iSupport.

Scheduling Process:
1. Checking Available to Promise (ATP) 2. Placing Demand 3. Reserving Onhand 4. Running Pick Release 5. Shipping the Order

Pricing Process:
1. Order line entered, take the part and customer details from Order 2. Check price list or agreement 3. Check for the modifiers 4. Calculates the unit price

Shipping Process:
1. Run Pick Release creates Move Order 2. As per the Move Order details, parts moved out of the Subinventory (Transact Move Order) 3. After getting the part from Subinventory, it will be dropped to Staging area (Pick Confirm, this runs automatically during Pick Release)

4. After loading the goods into the Truck from Staging area, Ship Confirm can be run 5. This ship confirm will decrement quantity from Inventory and update the sales order 6. The information can be transferred to Receivables through AutoInvoice program and will generate the invoice for customer.

AutoInvoice Process:
1. 2. 3. Transaction data can be transferred from a number of locations like Order Management, Contracts and Legacy Systems Data are brought to the Interface table, if any error, that will move to Interface exception table and after correction, again will be brought to the interface table Correct data gets inserted to the Receivables by AutoInvoice program. This can be related to Debit Memos, Memos and as Invoices

Receivable Process:
1. Imported Invoices and manually generated invoices 2. Review and correct data 3. Print Invoices 4. Send Invoices 5. Collect Payement 6. Post Receipts

Cash Management Process:

1. Receive Bank Statements 2. Load and verify bank statements 3. Perform Reconciliations 4. Review Results 5. Enter Manual Entries if needed 6. Post to General Ledger