Douglas Menck

The client was migrating from Excel and multiple ERP applications onto Oracle ERP. Discovered and documented everything required to build merchandiser displays located in store aisles during holidays, using corporate strategic systems. Merchandiser sales represented 25% of their annual revenue.

Two of the conflicting application and business requirements were:
- Multi-SKU items (product assortments and assortments of assortments) would not fit within their Oracle item types.
- Oracle required a complete bill of materials (BOM) to schedule manufacturing, but display graphics were approved eight months after actual production started.

Because the sales used Salesforce, not Oracle, the solution was a Salesforce app to configure the merchandiser product assortment BOM (MR type), which included one empty (MD) representing future display and outer package components. The MR was complete with the MD item to enable production. The MD BOM remained blank until their client approved the final display graphics.

The MR items were created in Salesforce and integrated into Oracle. The MD items were created empty and later updated in Oracle.

This project was the complete lifecycle from inception to support of newly trained users.

Gathered requirements from safety, risk, and environmental audit teams and discovered four additional teams that would fit into a common Salesforce app. Learned developer options to better construct requirements that minimized technical debt. The solution was based on flowers with one stem (common) and varying leaf/petal attributes connected (unique). Users were empowered to maintain their own audit selections and weightings. Each team's data was only shared based on organizational privileges.

The final solution supported seven different teams, including CTPAT, HR, and internal audit. The training material was created, and users were trained. Reporting was available at multiple levels based on the report user's data access. Data was then analyzed in Power BI.

Observed a need and cast a vision to plant leadership until they authorized creating the third of three pilot solutions bringing andon into General Motors stamping facilities. The solution connected production lines to servers and included large stack lights to call maintenance and marquees to show production "status at a glance," thereby improving production management. Significant production improvement resulted because of the process changes this enabled. I later updated and maintained this solution for all stamping facilities while working on other projects at the headquarters.