Case Study

Cloud and IoT integration for Alcar Ruote

A modern ERP cloud solution integrated with new IoT-based applications that redefines the concept of maintenance in the automotive realm.

How does a business optimise its order planning system to improve its quality?

The Group has embarked on a digital transformation process with a view to optimising its planning and order management system

Alcar Ruote is a multinational company in the automotive sector and a leader in the production of steel rims, with a distribution network and commercial subsidiaries located throughout Europe, over 800 employees and 5.5 million wheels sold annually around the world. The Group has embarked on a digital transformation process with a view to optimising its planning and order management system, reducing the management costs of operational and production processes and consequently improving quality. In a market where seasonality – closely tied to the change to and use of winter tyres – generates peak demand periods, it is essential to have a reactive and efficient planning process as a base.

Therefore, Alcar needed to have an accessible and easily scalable system at its disposal that was cloud-based and easy to integrate for the management of production and supply chain operations. Business Reply answer was to implement an innovative solution integrating Oracle Cloud ERP and Supply Chain Management (SCM) for the manufacturing sector with the new Oracle IoT (Production Monitoring) services.

Cloud integration with IoT services

Alcar Ruote relied on Business Reply’s experience for the first EMEA implementation of a fully cloud-based Oracle ERP and SCM solution in the production and planning area, a complex project that involved the company’s Finance, Procurement, Sales and Manufacturing departments. To enhance the efficiency of its tyre production activities, Alcar Ruote chose to integrate the new ERP and SCM system with the Oracle IoT Production Monitoring and Maintenance Cloud solution that enables the connection of production lines to provide continuous production monitoring. The data collected makes it possible to predictively identify potential maintenance needs, as well as ensuring greater flexibility and production rescheduling capabilities. Finally, the new system was integrated with the company’s Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), facilitating the daily monitoring of production, and with the Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence solution to provide advanced analysis and reporting.

A 'product-driven' approach for rapid implementation

One of the key elements that determined the success of the project was Business Reply’s 'Product-Driven' approach involving interactive workshops to acquire full knowledge of the Alcar context and to progressively refine the product configuration in accordance with the functional and process requirements. This implementation strategy meant that the gaps that emerged during the analysis phases could be effectively identified and managed, while at the same time favouring the adoption of the standard functions of the Oracle solution for even faster and more effective implementation.

Scalable architecture and real-time supply chain monitoring

In addition to reducing the Total Cost of Ownership of the application solutions, the project has led to a significant simplification of Alcar Ruote’s systems architecture and of the planning and order management processes.
The integration with Oracle IoT services also made it possible to construct a real-time monitoring process of the production lines, capable of verifying their status and of predicting potential anomalies.

Business Reply

Business Reply is the Reply Group company that specialises in the creation of integrated systems based on Oracle application solutions. A leader in ERP and Corporate Governance services, Business Reply has over 20 years' experience in the sector. Thanks to its strong inclination towards Digital Transformation, as well as its investments in innovation, research and development, and training courses for its employees, Business Reply was the first Italian Oracle partner to implement projects on Oracle ERP Cloud, OTM Cloud and Service Cloud platforms. Business Reply supports its customers with expertise and in-depth knowledge of business processes – acquired through extensive experience in different contexts and sectors – combined with strong technical competence on all Oracle application solutions (ERP, CX, Transportation and Supply Chain, PLM, HCM and Business Intelligence).