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Connecting your business horizons

Welcome to iChain Consulting

Founded by industry experts in 2008

End-to-End supply chain & IT specialists

Global presence in almost all continents

Customer-centered methodology

What we do

Consulting

Business Process Transformation

Planning Processes

iChain's consulting group brings years of experience, successful projects and industry knowledge to the table. It is only natural for the team to recommend laser focus transformation solutions with accurate understanding of customer requirements and needs.

Solutions

Supply Chain Planning

Supply Chain Planning has been the brain power behind the Supply Chain Management framework for any organization. With the advances in computers, ease of application of advanced Operations Research concepts and advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML), Supply Chain Planning systems have advanced over the years. These systems from various prominent software vendors run Fortune 500 and even small to mid market companies.

Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain Planning

Oracle’s supply chain planning software supports the specific requirements of a wide variety of businesses on a unified platform, including high technology and manufacturing enterprises, project-oriented organizations, wholesalers and distributors, healthcare providers, and service-based supply chains.

Oracle On Premise Planning Suite

Oracle Value Chain Planning enables best in class processes such as demand sensing, shaping for profitability, fast event-driven scenario simulation, supply chain risk management, sales and operations and integrated business planning, comprehensive trade management, integrated order orchestration and promising, and multi-enterprise planning and collaboration. Oracle Value Chain Planning is a complete planning solution built on a common foundation that leverages pre-built integration with both Oracle (E-Business Suite, and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne) and non-Oracle systems and can be deployed in a modular approach to save time and cost.

Kinaxis Planning Solutions

Kinaxis Planning One provides the perfect foundation for your digital transformation journey with essential control tower capabilities and concurrency across demand, supply, inventory and operational planning-- all in one low-risk, low-cost package. Our easy-to-configure, synchronized applications have one data model, one user interface and one codebase. So you can effortlessly connect your entire supply chain and seamlessly grow over time.

Training

Oracle Planning Tools

iChain team with their extensive experience understand the Planning processes and tools like no other. Part of our success at successful implementations and adoption by the customer is due to emphasis on training. We also offer training services to customers in post implementation times as new users are hired, new features are added, or overall processes need revisiting. Especially in the Cloud products era, where new features are added almost every quarter, it's imperative to have ongoing training exercises scheduled several times a year.

Planning Processes

iChain team prides itself with decades of experience in the industry as well as implementations. We have amassed extensive process expertise, knowledge during these times. Utilizing, these invaluable experience, iChain resources deliver training on how to perform the planning processes and of course ensure it all fits into the solutions they are utilzing or plan to utilize.

Product Development

Apps on Oracle Cloud Integration

Oracle along with its SaaS offerings provide multiude of tools to support integrations of SaaS systems with various on premise and other cloud systems. iChain has worked deligently identifying integration requirements specific to its typical customer needs and invested in creating tool boxes that can be utilized as accelerators in the implementations. Customers can take advantages of the templates, solutions by simplying subscribing to Oracle Integration Cloud. iChain then can bring in these templates as starting points to many On-Premise systems such as E Businesss Suite, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft or even legacy systems as well.

Cloud Data Modeler

Cloud Data Modeler Integrates with Oracle SaaS, On prem Oracle / legacy ERP/other systems. Provide effective net change data loads. Provide uniquely placed functionality augmentation and enhancements for data structures required in Oracle SaaS applications. This would include easy creation of custom hierarchies, measures and segmentations to support the planning applications that is user configurable, transform any data requirements from integrations and SaaS requirements perspective utilizing OIC/ODI and Cloud Oracle DB functionality/capabilities.

Demand Lifecycle Management

Works in conjunction with Oracle SaaS Demand Planning tools (DM, SOP, PC clouds). Provides augmented/advanced New Product Introduction/End of Life functionality required for generating effective and accurate Demand Forecast. Augments cloud functionality/features via supporting Demand Forecast/planning combination life cycle management.

Managed Services | Center of Excellence

Solution Monitoring

iChain Managed services not only monitors the customers planning systems but also ensures the results produced by the solution are with in the acceptable guard rails that are setup. This ensure the solution is not only technically running but also creating correct results required for business to make decisions. The support team also answers users questions and assist in explainability of the solution which is a paramount issue with AI/Optimization based solutions.

Continuous Enhancements

Managed services shouldn't only help when sustaining a solution, additionally, it should keep the solution relevant by keeping it up to date with system updates, changes to business model/scenarios.

Quarterly Cloud Updates Support

Quarterly updates is possibly the best thing to happen to SaaS applications, however, can be the most daunting both for business users and IT teams as well. We have developed methodologies to proactively work with these updates and maximize the advantages and minimize the additional burden it may sometime bring. We have dedicated many teams within iChain to continuously work with our partner instances to understand, test new features that are released, bug fixes that are made available each quarter. We develop additional presentations to make these changes easily digestable by customer IT and user communities. We have tested this approach at many of our managed services customers and successfully changed them from being speculative to enthusiastic to the updates.

24x7x365 Support

One of the Pre-Requisite for managed services / center of excellence services is ability to keep the systems operational 24 x 7 x 365 days.iChain offers round the clock and year support for solution monitoring ensuring all their planning processes are completed without any issues.

Infrastructure Applications

iChain team not only supports cloud based system but also support on premise systems that have infrastructure support included as well often times. The technical team supports Operating system upkeep, Databases maintenance/patching/updates etc., ETL tool support as well.

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Who we are

Since 2008, iChain Consulting has provided end-to-end supply chain planning solutions, from business process to integration, and IT consulting services to clients worldwide.

Partnerships

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Service Track Partner

Oracle Cloud Supply Chain Planning solution focuses on S&OP through demand management and supply network planning. Its operations are geographically diversified, and its clients tend to be midsize and large enterprises needing support for end-to-end supply chain management and manufacturing processes. Oracle is focusing its investments on leveraging its cloud technology expertise, enabling composability, more intelligent decision-making through ML and other advanced capabilities, and building out industry-specific capabilities for a range of verticals.

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Partner

Microsoft Azure and data integration, datbases are actively utilized by iChain team to implement integration, cloud hosting. We have been their partner since 2009.

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System Integrator

Kinaxis RapidResponse solution is focused on delivering concurrent planning across a broad range of SCP capabilities, including S&OP, production planning and execution. Kinaxis’ operations are primarily focused in North America, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific, and its clients tend to be midsize and large enterprises in industries such as consumer electronics, industrial discrete manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. Kinaxis’ investment prioritizes bringing in ML and big data capabilities through its Self-Healing Supply Chain and Planning.AI capabilities, enabling its ability to support operational decision-making.

Solutions

Oracle Planning Cloud

Demand Management

Sense, predict, and shape demand for better outcomes Next-generation demand management incorporating replenishment planning, segmentation capabilities, new product introduction, and machine learning for planners. Sense demand to improve visibility Transform qualitative and quantitative signals from diverse sources into business insights. Analyze demand by segment Dynamically group items, locations, and customers with similar behavior into segments that share a demand profile. Predict demand to manage variability Use machine learning to generate more accurate forecasts, while measuring and tracking the root cause of forecast error. Evaluate the impact of demand changes Analyze the cause and effect of seasonality, promotional events, product attributes, and leading indicators to make adjustments to inventory. Shape demand to achieve business objectives Simulate forecast scenarios, collaborate with stakeholders, and manage new product introductions to improve business performance. Establish a robust demand plan for your manufacturing strategy Track changes, monitor exceptions, and synchronize with sales and operations planning (S&OP) and supply plans to ensure a well-functioning process.

Sales & Operations Planning

Align the enterprise with continuous planning Align business plans and operations across your sales, marketing, finance, and supply chain organizations. Build agility into your operations to orchestrate change across your organization and balance demand and supply for the best possible outcomes. Align the enterprise Leverage built-in, integrated business planning processes and collaborative tools to drive consensus among stakeholders. Build a realistic aggregate plan Balance aggregate supply and demand by modeling and comparing alternative constrained planning scenarios. Achieve business objectives Gain insight from personalized, KPI-driven dashboards to support revenue growth and cost management tradeoff decisions. Act confidently on the consensus plan Quickly aggregate and disaggregate demand and supply plans to optimize utilization and investment decisions.

Supply Planning

Optimize resources for service and cost Identify and execute the best supply to demand plans. Plan items across multitier locations, identify and address the most important problems, and simulate potential responses to optimize customer service and the cost of inventory. Unify planning processes Balance demand and supply, optimize inventory for service and cost, and plan for multiple material and capacity scenarios. Plan the entire supply chain Plan process, discrete, project-driven, configure-to-order, and outsourced production, as well as drop-ship and back-to-back fulfillment. Monitor and prioritize supply problems Use embedded analytics to review impact on KPIs, such as margin and turns, and navigate to focus on problem areas. Predict and proactively respond to disruptions Review and collaborate on planned supply order changes with internal and external stakeholders. Utilize built-in machine learning or integration with Internet of Things (IoT) systems.

Integrated Business Planning and Execution (IBPx)

Connect your planning, execution, finance, and operations Transform plans into execution and monitor activity to detect unexpected events using IoT, AI, and prescriptive analytics. Simulate and evaluate alternative responses to maintain or improve business targets. Reduce decision latency Leverage real-time planning and execution details to act on negative trends faster and more effectively. Consolidate all planning in a single hub Improve your short- and long-range strategic planning by seamlessly integrating planning and execution into a single data model. Enhance visibility across the enterprise A unified data model provides a single view for all participants. Use advanced analytics to provide business outcome projections, simplifying business complexity and enabling managers to make timely decisions.

Backlog Management

Intelligently manage open orders Prioritize your open orders to reduce delivery delays, increase sales, or achieve margin targets when supply or demand changes. Simulate multiple fulfillment alternatives, and select those that best meet your business objectives. React intelligently to supply and demand changes Use available supply to schedule new orders and reduce delays while respecting existing promise dates. Fulfill the most important orders first Prioritize orders in the backlog using flexible business rules that maximize order revenue, margin, and service. Solve sourcing and fulfillment problems Model what-if changes to sourcing, transit mode, and shipping constraints to respond quickly and find the best solutions. Perform what-if order planning Simulate the scheduling and availability impact of a potential order on the rest of the backlog.

Replenishment Planning

Enable demand-driven replenishment Make replenishment planning easy and effective. Drive more accurate fulfillment with inventory policies and consumption rules tailored to demand segments. Plan for customer-centric demand Integrate demand-driven consumption, inventory and fulfillment to meet customer-specific requirements. Predict consumption to optimize service levels Forecast demand to anticipate seasonal, trend, and event-based changes and keep supply within inventory thresholds. Tailor inventory policies to demand segments Automatically assign replenishment parameters to groups of items and locations based on their behavior to reduce stockouts. Simulate and resolve replenishment issues Graphically simulate and adjust the replenishment strategy for individual items and locations to improve performance. Automate continuous replenishment Calculate replenishment requirements and release of planned orders automatically as consumption occurs. Make more effective replenishment buying decisions Consolidate orders to maximize price breaks and save on transit costs while maintaining service levels.

Production Scheduling

Improve production efficiency Schedule production during the day to maximize use of bottleneck resources and available components. Reduce work in process inventory, waste, and expedites. Visualize how work order operations are allocated to resources. Drag and drop to simulate the best response to issues or changes, and release schedules for execution in real time. Create high-quality, executable schedules Use real-time resource availability and work orders in Oracle Cloud Fusion Manufacturing to create feasible schedules that take the latest material, capacity, and calendar constraints into account. Optimize changeovers to minimize downtime Increase throughput and asset utilization with schedules that make efficient changeovers based on your industry attributes, minimizing idle time. Resolve shop floor bottlenecks Schedule work order operations with your desired attribute sequence to maximize the efficiency of your production lines. Reduce bottlenecks by offloading to alternate resources. Simulate the impact of schedule changes Easily inspect schedules and analyze production issues in a visual Gantt chart. Make drag-and-drop adjustments and edit dispatch lists as necessary. Run quick in-line simulations and what-ifs to resolve issues. Minimize the effect of unplanned downtime Run and repair schedules dynamically to deal with unexpected machine outages, labor shortages, material delays, and changes in order priorities. Release adjusted schedules as needed during the day for instant shop floor execution. Proactively monitor your shop floor Evaluate how your factory is scheduled at a glance, with interactive analytics that reveal insights about changeover time, resource utilization, and late orders.

Order Management Cloud

Global Order Promising

Exceed customer expectations Promise fast, reliable delivery dates every time. Schedule ship-from-stock, drop ship, and make-to-order items based on actual product availability and delivery capacity. Dynamically source supply Automatically select the best supply source that can buy, make, or transfer items to meet demand. Use zone-based and profitable-to-promise sourcing to find supply that optimizes cost and on-time delivery. Commit to the sale Increase on-time shipment and maximize your profitability by leveraging open purchase orders, supplier capacity, and in-transit and planned supplies when promising orders. Fulfill complex orders Reduce shipping costs by consolidating line items to ship together or deliver on the same date. Schedule configure-to-order items by adjusting supply sources, lead times, and availability. Manage drop-ship and back-to-back orders. Proactively manage backlog Prioritize and reschedule backlog orders to allocate scarce supply to prioritized customers, channels, or geographies. Reserve local supply for short lead-time orders and source long-term orders from upstream capacity.

Oracle On Premise

Demantra

Oracle Demantra is a web-based demand management software designed to help organizations produce forecasts for future demands based on historical sales data and drive supply chain planning processes. Key features include promotions management, historical reporting, sales forecasting, replenishment management, product introduction planning, inventory optimization and supply forecasting.

Advanced Supply Chain Planning

Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP) is a comprehensive, Internet-based planning solution that decides when and where supplies (for example, inventory, purchase orders and work orders) should be deployed within an extended supply chain. This is the supply planning function. Oracle ASCP addresses the following key supply planning issuesThe key capabilities of Oracle ASCP are: Holistic Optimization, Planning, and Scheduling. Oracle ASCP can plan all supply chain facilities simultaneously. Short-term detailed scheduling and long-term aggregate planning are supported within a single plan. This single plan also supports multiple manufacturing methods, including discrete, flow, project, and process manufacturing. Finite Capacity Planning and Scheduling. Oracle ASCP generates feasible supply chain plans that consider both resource and material constraints. Optimization. Users can easily configure Oracle ASCP to optimize specific business criteria. No programming is necessary to access Oracle ASCP's powerful mathematical optimization capabilities. Backward Compatibility. Oracle ASCP's component architecture allow it to be deployed against any version of Oracle transaction systems. Workflow-Driven Exception Messaging. Oracle ASCP's exception messages alert planners to critical issues across the extended supply chain. Workflows that drive these exceptions route data to and feedback from trading partners as required, thus effectively involving them in the supply chain planning process. Global Accessibility. Oracle ASCP's database-centric architecture stores plan data in a central planning server database. These data are accessible from anywhere via a simple browser. It is possible for multiple planners to simultaneously access data from a single plan. Integrated Planning and Execution. Oracle ASCP's Advanced Planner Workbench user interface not only displays plan results, but also allows planners to execute planning recommendations. Planners do not have to move to the transaction system to perform plan execution. Simulation Capability. Oracle ASCP allows many types of changes to supply, demand, plan options, and resource profiles to simulate changing business conditions. You can generate a plan considering all the changes that have been entered via the Planner's Workbench. Unlimited numbers of scenarios can be simulated and compared using online planning, copy plans, and exceptions. Examples of the types of changes are firming, changing sources, modifying quantities and dates, modifying priorities, modifying resource availability, modifying supplier capacity, and modifying objective weights.

Inventory Optimization

Oracle Inventory Optimization is a comprehensive Internet-based inventory planning solution that enables you to determine when and where to hold your inventories across the supply chain to achieve the desired customer service levels. You can factor in criteria such as demand variability and supply lead time variability when you make your inventory decisions. It is a strategic planning tool that can help you address the following key business issues: The following are the key capabilities of Oracle Inventory Optimization: Oracle Inventory Optimization uses stochastic optimization technology that enables you to factor in the multilevel supply chain network and interdependence of demand variability and supply lead time variability when generating time-phased safety stock recommendations. Oracle Inventory Optimization enables you to evaluate multiple inventory planning scenarios and graphically compare the results. The planning scenarios for example can include different sets of customer service levels, budget constraints, and capacity constraints. Oracle Inventory Optimization is integrated with Oracle's E-Business Suite and Advanced Planning products including Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning and Oracle Demand Planning. This enables collaboration between these applications. For example, the safety stock recommendations of Oracle Inventory Optimization can be automatically fed into Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning to drive tactical supply chain planning decisions.

Production Scheduling

Production Scheduling (PS) enables production schedulers to create detailed finite capacity and materially constrained optimized production schedules to drive shop floor execution and material planning. Production Scheduling uses a constraint-based approach to automated scheduling. Unlike traditional automated scheduling tools that are limited to simple dispatch rules and have known bottlenecks, constraints in Production Scheduling can be assigned to every element - resources, operations, and due dates in a schedule. Through an advanced solver technology, feasible solutions can be found, if they exist, for virtually any floating constraints.

Global Order Promising

Oracle Global Order Promising is an application that helps you fulfill sales orders by the requested date for items that you receive from your ordering application, such as Oracle Order Management. Promising considers the supply that is or might be available in your entire supply chain, including suppliers, factories, distribution centers, and warehouses.

Strategic Network Optimizer

Strategic Network Optimization (SNO) is a tool that enables you to model and optimize your supply chain network, from obtaining raw materials through delivering end products. With strategic network optimization you can: Determine which material should be sourced from different suppliers. Determine what products to make in what plant. Optimize your aggregate production plans including machine routings, the flow of materials, and use of critical resources. Optimize your distribution plans, including plant locations, warehouses, and transportation alternatives.

iChain Solutions

Cloud Data Modeler

Cloud Data Modeler Integrates with Oracle SaaS, On prem Oracle / legacy ERP/other systems. Provide effective net change data loads. Provide uniquely placed functionality augmentation and enhancements for data structures required in Oracle SaaS applications. This would include easy creation of custom hierarchies, measures and segmentations to support the planning applications that is user configurable, transform any data requirements from integrations and SaaS requirements perspective utilizing OIC/ODI and Cloud Oracle DB functionality/capabilities.

Cloud Integrator

Cloud Integrator integrates various ERP systems to Oracle Planning systems with ready made templates utilizing Oracle Integration Cloud ETL, Oracle Cloud Databases, and Oracle Data Integration on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It significantly cuts down time to integrate the cloud planninsg systems to disverse data sources.

Demand Lifecycle Management

Works in conjunction with Oracle SaaS Demand Planning tools (DM, SOP, PC clouds). Provides augmented/advanced New Product Introduction/End of Life functionality required for generating effective and accurate Demand Forecast. Augments cloud functionality/features via supporting Demand Forecast/planning combination life cycle management.

Kinaxis

Demand Planning, Consensus Planning

Demand planning should never be a guessing game. With the Kinaxis Demand Planning application, it never is. From a single platform, improve the accuracy of your forecast by using inputs from multiple stakeholders, like sales, marketing and finance – and even customers and suppliers. Compare actuals to any other plan across multiple horizons. Monitor forecasts and order status, and better coordinate across the supply chain to maximize revenue, minimize costs and elevate customer satisfaction.

Demand.AI

A social media post. A summer cold snap. A sales promotion. A shift in consumer shopping habits. All those factors, and countless others, impact demand for your products. But how do you know which? Or when? And by how much? Demand.AI’s powerful models incorporate deeper patterns in internal and external data, cutting through the noise to get to the signals that matter. So you can sense changes and accurately forecast demand over every time horizon to delight your customers. And your business.

Sales & Operations Planning

Is your sales and operations planning (S&OP) inefficient because it’s propped up by Excel spreadsheets? Is integrated business planning (IBP) a struggle because you can’t align with functions considered “outside” your supply chain, like finance and engineering? Don’t let faulty S&OP processes derail your company’s success. With the Kinaxis Sales and Operations Planning application, collaborate with everyone, evaluate different scenarios, understand financial impact and execute based on strategic goals.

Supply Planning

Know sooner, act faster and remove waste across your supply plans with Kinaxis. Concurrently and continuously balance demand and supply plans with always-on, in-memory analytics on a weekly, daily and near real-time basis. Empower your users to be more productive with a simple, intuitive user interface. Get automatic alerts when there’s misalignment between supply and demand. Identify key stakeholders with smart collaboration, simulate and evaluate multiple plans at once and make confident, fast decisions all within our easy-to-use, ready-to-configure RapidResponse platform.

Enterprise Scheduling

Scheduling techniques should not be contained within a single plant. With Kinaxis Enterprise Scheduling, company-wide best practices are unleashed. Comprehensive scheduling is created across the entire organization allowing for more integrated strategies, regardless of the plant layout. With an easy to understand and modify scheme, you can turn plant-specific processes into measurable activity across the entire company.

Inventory Optimization and Management

Ensure the right level of inventory in the right place at the right time to keep margins strong and avoid both excesses and shortages. With the Kinaxis Inventory Management application, proactively identify inventory risks and opportunities, simulate changes and balance trade-offs. Reduce or maintain inventory levels across categories while maintaining other metrics that matter to you, like on-time delivery and revenue-at-risk« nventory management is the practice of overseeing and controlling the ordering, storage and use of a company’s inventory, which includes all of its raw materials, components and finished goods. A company’s inventory is often the single largest asset on its balance sheet, so the importance of managing it intelligently cannot be overstated. While inventory managers have a variety of responsibilities, one of the most important ones is ensuring that the company has enough product to satisfy customer demand, but not so much that it risks becoming obsolete or that the carrying costs associated with it create a cash flow shortfall. The process of striking this balance is referred to as inventory optimization. It’s a systematic and statistical technique that helps mitigate supply chain risks by allowing inventory managers to make informed, data-driven decisions related to trade-offs between service targets and inventory levels. Effective inventory management results in optimal stock levels throughout the supply chain, which reduces costs of storage and warehousing, ensures on-time delivery to customers, increases customer satisfaction and improves cash flow.

Control and Command Center

As global supply chain disruptions continue to rise, businesses are facing extraordinary pressure to speed up digital transformation initiatives and deliver the products their customers want – when, where and in the quantities they need them. All while dealing with unprecedented demand swings, unexpected supplier shutdowns and seemingly endless amounts of big data from an ever-expanding list of digital inputs. The Kinaxis Command & Control Center gives you intelligent and increasingly automated control over your operations, from the C-suite to the production lines. So you can confidently manage risk, seize opportunities and cope with escalating volatility.

Industries we serve

Testimonials

“iChain is a valued partner to Hitachi Computer Products. Their teams take the time to understand your business and offer well thought out solutions, support of implementations, and collaboration with all functions to ensure a successful outcome.”
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Tena Coppedge

Vice President, Supply Planning

Hitachi Computer Products America, Inc.

“When working with iChain, the experience is always collaborative. Their team feels like an extension of our business and they focus on delivering solutions that enable us to accomplish our business goals.”
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Brian Volentine

Application Manager

Hitachi Computer Products America, Inc.

Locations

Our locations

United States

4502 Riverstone Blvd, Suite 1202

Missouri City, TX 77459
+1 (281) 216-6306

Kanpur

304-A, 3rd Floor Anand Tower, 117/K/13- Sarvodaya Nagar, Kanpur-208005
+91 (512) 250-1626

Delhi

C-411 Noida 1, Sector-62

Noida, Uttar Pradesh-201309
+91 (989) 748-9105

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