Titan improves on-time delivery with Oracle Cloud
Wheel and tire maker uses Oracle Cloud supply chain and IoT apps to improve visibility across its business and make production more cost-effective.
“Where there is a challenge, there is opportunity, and Oracle, like many other enterprise software companies, is exploring how it can best help customers be successful on their digital transformation journeys…. Oracle focuses on five key areas for its IoT Cloud Applications: assets, manufacturing, logistics, connected worker, and connected products.”
Business challenges
Titan International, with its North American wheel operations based in Quincy, Illinois, manufactures heavy-duty wheels, tires, and undercarriage products for a variety of off-road equipment used in the agriculture, construction, forestry, mining, and military sectors across the globe.
But the company faced some major challenges: It had limited visibility into its production operations, and it was unable to predict machine breakdowns on its factory floor, both of which caused shipment delays and raised costs. Meanwhile, Titan’s legacy ERP and supply chain management systems were expensive to upgrade, and they lacked flexibility and scalability. The company needed a modern, integrated cloud solution.
Oracle’s IoT strategy focuses on offering customers integrated applications. The focal point of Oracle's IoT strategy is on preconfigured IoT applications. These applications address use cases that include asset monitoring, production monitoring, fleet management, and connected workers. Oracle IoT Cloud deploys on the Oracle Java Cloud Suite, giving customers the ability to use Oracle’s scalable platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings.
Why Titan International Chose Oracle
After evaluating multiple vendors, Titan chose to standardize on Oracle Cloud ERP (financials, procurement, and risk management) and Oracle Cloud SCM (supply chain planning, manufacturing, IoT production monitoring, and supply chain collaboration) application suites for monitoring shop floor operations and inventory.
“We needed to move from multiple systems to a single platform that would give us better visibility into our business,” says Jeff Blattner, director of IT. “We wanted to standardize on an ERP system that could grow with us and ensure our systems are always up to date. Oracle Cloud applications give us access to constant innovation and enable us to benefit from emerging technology, such as IoT, to gain an advantage over the market.”
Titan implemented Oracle IoT Production Monitoring Cloud, part of the Oracle Cloud SCM suite of applications, to address its visibility, tracking, and integration issues. One of the main reasons it chose the application was its seamless integration with Oracle Manufacturing Cloud.
Sensors and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are installed on the shop floor at Titan’s Quincy, Illinois plant, automating manufacturing and monitoring machine health. The continuous flow of data helps the machine-learning algorithms process and predict when a machine needs maintenance—before it goes down.
Results
In less than 12 months, Titan was using Oracle Cloud ERP and Oracle Cloud SCM to integrate its finance, supply chain, and business intelligence functions. It’s now getting more timely and accurate information about its operations, helping it cut costs and improve quality. It has also increased visibility into its financial processes and controls to get a better handle on risk.
Titan took advantage of the cloud implementation to break down organizational silos, standardize and automate processes, and use sensor-generated data to improve insights into inventory. Titan has introduced this automation to additional production areas, says David Martin, senior vice president and CFO.
In addition, Titan’s implementation of Oracle IoT Production Monitoring Cloud enables it to capture sensor data from connected devices to monitor production, stay on top of available inventory, and ultimately increase on-time delivery.
The integrated solution provides real-time reporting of scrap and rejections, automated and flexible product label printing, online communications between production lines, and accurate ETA data to schedule order deliveries.
Titan saves time and money using a connected maintenance network, with real-time issue notification and exception-based alerts to help schedule equipment maintenance and prevent downtime.
Overall, Titan now has a cost-effective, scalable cloud solution with a strong product roadmap to support its digital transformation for its North American wheel operations as well as its corporate environment.