WILMINGTON, DE – JULY 13, 2015 – Owens Corning Composites confirms their long term partnership with Solventure to go for sales & operations planning excellence across the globe. Solventure is the provider and implementation channel partner of the Arkieva sales & operations planning software.
Owens Corning develops and manufactures insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites. The company’s market-leading businesses use their deep expertise in materials, manufacturing and building science to develop products and systems that save energy and improve comfort in commercial and residential buildings. It has been listed as a Fortune 500® company for more than 60 consecutive years. Based in Toledo, Ohio, Owens Corning employs about 15,000 people in 25 countries.
Owens Corning’s composites business faced multiple challenges within their sales and operations planning process. Inherent to being a global company, there was an immense amount of data to be collected and applied. Supply and demand information was tracked through a collection of spreadsheets, emails, and notebooks. The difficulty of consolidating information from disparate sources and getting alignment on the facts was often difficult. As a result, the end-to-end sales and operations planning cycle could take up to eight weeks. Without a unified approach, there was no global oversight or actionable analysis possible.
To support the company’s growth and their customers, Owens Corning’s supply chain team has redesigned the sales and operations planning process via implementation of the Arkieva supply chain software together with Solventure. “Through the implementation of Arkieva, we’ve successfully reduced the Sales & Operations Planning process from weeks to days, producing actionable statistical analysis enabling us to deliver more value to the company,” said Michael Morris, Global Supply Chain Process Leader at Owens Corning composites.
Optimizing the entire global sales and operations planning-cycle through Arkieva has allowed Owens Corning Composites to focus more on the value-adding activities instead of data gathering and number crunching. This has dramatically improved the company’s ability to use data effectively in decision-making. The Arkieva toolset has been widely accepted across the business with many related functional departments such as sales, planning, finance, marketing and logistics. Increasing their individual efficiency while producing an in-depth analytical insight of the entire company has proven to be a major asset.
This collaboration between Owens Corning composites division and Solventure has had a lasting impact. Based on the success of this project, Owens Corning purchased the Arkieva software, and it has become a core resource. New projects with focus on further financial integration, inventory management and scenario management are in the pipeline, with benefits that Morris is excited to capture. “Solventure had the ability to scale with us over the years. We see Solventure as a flexible extension of our supply chain expertise. It is part of our DNA,” said Dan Nelsen, Global Supply Chain Strategy/S&OP leader at Owens Corning Composites, confirms this long term partnership with Solventure. “As for our S&OP, we now spend more time driving business improvements rather than chasing numbers.”
“We’re pleased to have an industry leader as Owens Corning place their confidence in the Solventure team,” said Bram Desmet, Managing Director at Solventure. “Managing a global, complex supply chain isn’t easy, we are proud that the Arkieva software has brought the composites business a book of record for forecasting, supply planning and inventory optimization.”
About Arkieva Supply Chain Software
Arkieva, founded in 1993, is the developer of Arkieva software solutions for global manufacturing supply chains. With headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, and offices in Antwerp, Belgium and, Mangalore, India, Arkieva is positioned to support multinational businesses around the world. Arkieva products enhance productivity and reduce operating costs in the supply chain, providing the full range of features necessary for effective Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP). Such major corporations as Momentive, INVISTA, Gates Europe, and INEOS use Arkieva solutions. For more information, visit arkieva.com.
About Solventure
Solventure turns your supply chain into a competitive advantage and engages in long-term improvement projects. Solventure adds value by providing actionable insights through a unique combination of tools and expert resources. The Arkieva software selected and distributed by Solventure is user friendly, scalable, and proven in optimization and quantitative techniques. Solventure is Arkieva’s channel partner in Europe. For more information please visit www.solventuregroup.com/.
About Owens Corning
Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) develops, manufactures and markets insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites. Global in scope and human in scale, the company’s market-leading businesses use their deep expertise in materials, manufacturing and building science to develop products and systems that save energy and improve comfort in commercial and residential buildings. Through its glass reinforcements business, the company makes thousands of products lighter, stronger and more durable. Ultimately, Owens Corning people and products make the world a better place. Based in Toledo, Ohio, Owens Corning posted 2014 sales of $5.3 billion and employs about 15,000 people in 26 countries. It has been a Fortune 500®company for 61 consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.owenscorning.com.