AI for ERP: Real-World Use Cases in Automation and Process Mining
Real talk: Many AI solutions for ERP feel like they’re overpromising and underdelivering. Oliver Packaging and Xpress Boats demonstrate how manufacturers can leverage AI, automation, and process mining tools to drive measurable results.
Results Snapshot
| Company | Industry | Cloud ERP | Solution | Highlighted Use Cases | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver Packaging | Food Equipment | Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) | Infor Value+ Automations | Analyzing Customer Order Patterns / Improving Customer and Item Demand Forecasting | 30x faster inventory optimization, 90% workload reduction, <90 days value realization |
| Xpress Boats | Marine Equipment | Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) | Infor Process Mining | Strengthening On-Time Delivery / Improving Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, Demand to Build Processes | 98% faster to identify process issues, 50% reduction in expedited shipping costs for materials |
Oliver Packaging and Equipment
Oliver Packaging and Equipment Co. is a premier bakery equipment and meal packaging manufacturer supporting schools and senior meal programs nationwide. Oliver previously partnered with Decision Resources for their Infor CloudSuite Industrial implementation, achieving significant operational improvements such as a 20% reduction in inventory, $400k in inventory savings within one business unit, and a 5% savings in freight costs.
As demand for pre-packaged meals surged post-pandemic, customer purchase patterns became more complex and less predictable. Undetected customer order anomalies create inventory issues and increase costs. To solve this problem. Oliver employees were pulling data into Excel on a monthly basis to scan for variances.
Seeking ways to improve responsiveness and stay ahead of demand fluctuations, Oliver extended their CSI environment with Infor Value+ automations.
Video: Oliver Packaging and Equipment
See how Value+ automations help teams at Oliver more accurately predict customer demand.
Accurately Predicting Customer Demand with Infor Value+ Automations
Leveraging Value+ automations, Oliver implemented anomaly detection algorithms to flag changes in customer orders and amounts. These insights are processed daily and delivered via a user-friendly dashboard through Birst. As a result, Oliver makes real-time decisions, reduces costs, and improves customer satisfaction and retention.
- Real-Time Sales and Operations Decisions: Sales teams can quickly investigate changes in demand, and operations can make the appropriate inventory adjustments.
- Reduced Costs: Oliver saves on expedited shipping costs by having the right items in stock. The company also reduces the need to ship more expensive substitute products. Mitch Summerfield, president at Oliver Packaging, remarked, “We’ve seen significant margin improvement simply because we’re able to better project what products we need.”
- Improved Customer Satisfaction and Retention: Customers are happier to receive the correct product instead of alternatives. Sales is also more responsive to new customer requirements, supporting long-term retention.
Sara Patrick, Sales Analyst at Oliver, commented, “Recognizing these customer order anomalies and that our customer is changing their pattern means that I don’t have that gap.” She continues, “I don’t have to send a more expensive product. I can send the correct product. That savings in our inventory because we’re not over or under [is] hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Faster inventory optimization
Workload reduction
Days value realization
Variance Identified in 2 Months
Xpress Boats
Located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Xpress Boats specializes in all-aluminum, all-welded fishing boats, pontoon boats, and trailers. Xpress Boats was the first company to build boats by welding. This method ensures stronger durability compared to wooden or riveted hulls.
Fast delivery is key to meeting customer expectations and staying ahead of the boating and fishing season demand. To identify bottlenecks and process deviations, Xpress Boats instituted process improvement projects. Every week, ten employees met to outline processes, pinpoint issues, and propose solutions. This time-consuming process typically lasted a month and required one dedicated data analyst to manually query data to locate issues.
Recognizing a need to streamline their process improvement approach, Xpress Boats began using Infor’s Process Mining tool to improve on-time delivery and procure to pay, order to cash, and demand to build workflows.
Video: Xpress Boats
Discover how Xpress Boats optimized its procure to pay, order to cash, and demand to build processes with Process Mining.
Strengthening On-Time Delivery with Process Mining
Process Mining uncovered issues in Xpress Boat’s vendor return process. Jason Tugwell, ERP systems analyst, commented, “We had parts that needed to go back to vendors that were not. We had parts that were going back to vendors but not getting removed from inventory.”
The tool also identified process deviations in job order and customer order alignment. Xpress Boats are highly customizable with a wide selection of features, finishes, and accessories. Customers have the flexibilily to make changes to their order, however not all changes were being properly propogated to the job order. If newly ordered items were not in stock, teams had to pay for expidited part orders which prolonged delivery wait times.
The insights generated by Xpress Boats provided a clear pathway to improve operations. After learning about vendor RMA problems, the company activated the Infor Quality Control module to improve inventory accuracy, vendor selections, and cost savings. Proactive monitoring with process mining helps teams correct job order deviations before they impact delivery.
Improving Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, and Demand-to-Build Processes
Process Mining uncovered inefficiencies in Xpress Boat’s procure to pay, order to cash, and demand to build processes:
- Procure-to-Pay: Process mining revealed a higher frequency of purchase order (PO) mismatches due to daily fluctuating aluminum prices. With each mismatch, users had to make manual pricing adjustments to re-receive POs.
- Order-to-Cash: Xpress Boat discovered their invoicing process consisted of 30 steps, including 5 consecutive steps where users had to copy and paste job orders.
- Demand-to-Build: Customer order changes were not flowing into job orders, causing stock issues and expedited purchases.
With Process Mining, Xpress Boats can refocus its team and resources towards improving core processes rather than troubleshooting issues after they occur.
Faster to Identify Process Issues
Reduction in Employee Time Identifying Process Issues
Reduction in Process Issue Reporting
Reduction in Expedited Shipping Costs for Materials
Make AI Your Competitive Advantage with Velocity Suite
Infor Velocity Suite is a single, ready-to-use set of AI, process mining, and automation tools designed for Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) ERP. Velocity Suite includes the automation and process mining solutions used by Oliver Packaging and Xpress Boats, as well as additional tools for robotic process automation (RPA), generative AI, and AI agents.
Velocity Suite isn’t just a tech stack. It’s a proven methodology to accelerate AI adoption and time to value.
“Velocity Suite provides a guided “diagnose, automate, optimize” approach and is supported by industry expertise and prebuilt capabilities that accelerate AI adoption and are proven to add tangible value.”
– Nick Perry, AI Technology & Innovation Account Executive at Infor
Are you ready to make AI your competitive advantage? Our AI and CloudSuite Industrial experts are here to help.
FAQs
What is Infor CloudSuite Industrial?
CloudSuite Industrial (also referred to as SyteLine) is Infor’s cloud-based ERP solution for SMB manufacturers.
Read more here: Infor CloudSuite Industrial
What is Infor Birst?
Infor Birst is a cloud analytics and business intelligence (BI) platform. It offers prebuilt data models and content tailored to your industry and user roles.
What are Infor Value+ Automations?
Infor Value+ automations are a series of ready-to-deploy solutions for traditionally labor-intensive tasks such as invoice processing, financial period closure reconciliation, sales contract fulfillment, purchase order updates, vendor compliance checks, and return sales orders.
What is Infor Process Mining?
Process Mining is a solution that audits your current business processes to uncover bottlenecks and top areas to optimize.
What solutions are included in Velocity Suite?
Infor Value+ Automations, Infor GenAI, Infor Process Mining, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Infor Industry AI Agents are included in Velocity Suite.
How is Velocity Suite different from other Infor AI solutions?
Individual tools like Process Mining or RPA solve specific problems. Velocity Suite brings them together with a proven framework to identify and execute improvements at scale.
