Supplier collaboration solution from ClearOrbit gives visibility, control over 3PLs
Austin, TX — October 13, 2005 — Foundry Networks Inc. said today it has successfully implemented supply chain execution software provider ClearOrbit's Sales Order Drop Shipment solution to improve the velocity and responsiveness of its global supply network through electronic collaboration with its third-party logistics (3PL) providers.
Based in San Jose, Calif, Foundry Networks manufactures enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Web traffic management solutions. The company has over 7,000 global customers and 10 facilities across the United States, Asia and the United Kingdom, and said it chose ClearOrbit to obtain real-time visibility and control across its extended supply chain.
The Sales Order Drop Shipment solution, part of ClearOrbit's Xtended Process Control (X.PC) product suite, is designed to manage ordering, shipping and inventory processes by electronically collaborating with trading partners such as 3PLs, contract manufacturers, electronic manufacturing service (EMS) providers and component suppliers, ClearOrbit said.
X.PC provides capabilities for supplier collaboration and outsourced manufacturing management while extending the data model and capabilities of existing enterprise systems. X.PC is also pre-integrated to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, such as the Oracle E-Business Suite and SAP mySAP ERP.
Foundry Networks said it is using the software to provide 3PLs online visibility to its Oracle ERP for sales order information, and then control the fulfillment of those orders at transaction points such as order acceptance, packing, staging and shipping. e-Mail notifications and alerts keep trading partners abreast of new sales orders and last-minute changes, and 3PLs can print barcode labels, packing slips, commercial invoices and international shipment documents using data pulled in real-time from Foundry's Oracle ERP system. Business rules also direct the configuration of each order according to customer-specific requirements, allowing 3PLs to assemble shipments to respond to changing market conditions.
"We set extraordinarily high standards for ourselves on order delivery and customer satisfaction, which cannot be met without complete flexibility and visibility among our logistics partners and all of our operations," said Richard Bridges, vice president of Manufacturing at Foundry Networks. "ClearOrbit's Sales Order Drop Shipment solution empowers our 3PLs to help us immediately react to dramatic changes in our inventory and sales requirements. By providing our 3PLs the capability to process shipments on our behalf, we have improved customer response while reducing inventory and warehousing requirements."
For more information on the supply chain execution market, read "Demand Management," part of the Global Enabled Supply Chain Series, in the December 2002/January 2003 issue ofiSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.
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