Australian Manufacturers Can Move Closer to Autonomous Supply Chains with NetSuite 2021.1

Australia’s manufacturing sector is leading the way out of the pandemic, and they are doing it by using digital technology to drive manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies. The impact from COVID-19, has forced business leaders to work harder than ever to meet demand and stay ahead of emerging threats.  As a result, this sense of urgency has seen many Australian manufacturers make significant investments in the physical, and digital, technologies that run their business.

Following the disastrous bushfires, pandemic, and most recently floods, supply chains are in sharp focus and under increased pressure. Local and international 3^rd party supply chains have been threatened, resulting in many Australian manufacturing organisations realising the need to prepare and plan for threats across their own supply chains and processes.

Gartner has indicated that the supply chain is beginning to transition from a human-centric model to an automated one, due to the fact that Generation Z (the post-millennials) are just starting to enter the workforce. Within the next ten years, this generation will take over supply chain management with a focus on automation. Gartner is expecting that, by 2022, all low-value supply chain activities, like parcel pick ups and replenishment, will be automated. This future supply chain will have less direct human involvement, which suits the Gen X employees expectations.

New functionality in the NetSuite 2021.1 release is designed to help manufacturers and business owners manage their supply chain more efficiently, with simplified inventory and warehouse management and improved demand and supply planning to reduce costs, all the while moving towards an easier, autonomous supply chain adaptation.

Supply Planning Autonomous Enhancements

• Enhancements of the Supply Planning Workbench allow for a more detailed look at supply planning results. In addition to a dashboard-based view of demand, planners can now use date-based views that help them identify trends. They can also create sortable tables and use the new “high demand late threshold” parameter to trigger color-coded alerts whenever demand exceeds thresholds that have been defined.
• To reduce strain on the system during busy times, planning repositories can be organised to run off-hours. Planners can designate criteria for the process to repeat at a specific interval, freeing up time for other priorities.
• Thanks to the new Saved Search functionality, users can get ad-hoc reporting and analysis of the supply planning engine, consisting of planning repository data and planning results data.
• Purchase orders are now included in the Supply Chain Control Tower snapshot. An organisation can get a more accurate picture of its current inventory throughout its supply chain by accessing the Inventory Snapshot.

Inventory Management Automation

• A simple touchscreen interface in NetSuite Pack Station provides easier, and more accurate, packing processes. Examples of the functionality includes grouping orders with the same shipping routes together, supporting partial picking and weights directly from the scales and avoiding manual entry errors and saving time
• The new warehouse management system (WMS) features enhanced order fulfilment and inventory control. The functionality automates the creation of picking waves, which ensures that items are shipped to the right address at the right time. Wave creation activities can be scheduled for off-peak hours so that the system is not overloaded during busy periods
• Warehouse Management System (WMS) enhancements provide the ability to automatically create picking waves and organise them by delivery times, delivery address, shipment numbers and more. Wave creation activities can be scheduled for off-peak hours so that the system isn’t taxed during busy periods
• Other WMS enhancements include tally scans, cart put-away for bulk picking, automatic label printing and additional support for mobile status changes. Investment in these tools will dramatically improve margins, while streamlining supply chain processes and increasing productivity
• Inventory allocation and reservation by channel can be assigned to a blanket purchase order
• First Expiry First Out (FEFO) customer rule for inventory allocation generates inventory and reduces waste.

Smart Financials and Operational Automation

• New functionality helps multiple subsidiaries invoicing and billing processes by the process automation of moving the items from a single PO from the purchasing subsidiary to another. This automation replaces what has been a highly manual process
• Individual subsidiary statutory bills and paperwork is now automated
• Expense commitments, and budget validation functionality, prevents overspending by validating purchase requests and orders against an organisation’s available budget, ensuring that budgets are closely followed.

Want More Information?

If  you want more information or have any questions about the NetSuite 2021.1 Release features you can join the OneKloudX User Group event on 22 April 2021.

If you want Local help preparing your organisation for transitions, please contact a OneKloudX Business ERP Consultant today on email to info@onekloudx.com.au or tel. 1800 155 163