fleet view - carfleet operational cost for oracle apps

Car fleet activities: Genesis

Fleet View

Extension for Oracle Inventory

module: Fleet fuel consumption

management in ERP

Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013


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Table of contents

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS .................................................................... 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 4

NO CUSTOMIZATIONS ....................................................................................................... 4

FIRST INSIGHTS .................................................................................................................. 5

DESCRIPTION ..................................................................................................................... 6

Why the need to develop Genesis Fleet View .............................................................. 7

SPECIFIC FEATURES ........................................................................................................... 8

Configuration of means of transportation ................................................................... 8

Recording data from Vehicle Log Books ...................................................................... 8

Fuel inventory movement transaction ......................................................................... 9

Reconciling fuel supplies with invoices received from fuel suppliers ............................. 9

Launching Daily Activity Log report ............................................................................ 9

HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED .......................................................................... 10


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SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The fleet cars and equipment that consume fuels require special

attention from managers. The vehicles in the fleet provide services in

transport activities. On the other hand, the management of the fuel

used for deliver of transport services has the following features: gas

station fuel supply is an inventory receipt (tank entry), and the fuel is

used (tank exit) only at the end of the transport activity.

The control of resources necessary for transport activity fulfillment is

recorded in the Daily Activity Log associated with each vehicle. Most

ERP product supplier considers the transportation order based fuel

consumption a „detail” insignificant to be treated separately.

Genesis Software Consulting has developed Genesis Fleet View product

(Fleet View), perfectly integrated into Oracle E-Business Suite, to meet

the request coming from various customers. Fleet View offers the fleet

management the „Daily Activity Log” report, which collects data from

the Vehicle Log Books: mileage, operating

hours, fuel supplies, name of drivers and their

timesheets. After processing these data, Fleet

View calculates the fuel consumption and the

fuel remaining in the tank. Furthermore, the

activity log provides a series of brief

information as alerts: preventive maintenance

schedule, oil changes, tire changes and tax

payments.

Genesis Software Consulting recommends that

Fleet View product to be implemented when

the fleet operational cost control is a topic of

interest to the organization. Fleet View is perfectly integrated with

Oracle Inventory so that the fuel inventory management can be tracked

while maintaining the standard Oracle features. Fleet View is perfectly

suited for 11i and R12 implementations.

NO CUSTOMIZATIONS

We believe customizations, changes made in the standard Oracle

Applications ERP, that are not supported by the vendor are something

we do not recommend. Why customizations are not good? Regression –

one minor customization could dramatically affect a standard set of

functionalities; Standard support cannot be offered even for standard

functionalities if were affected by customizations; Upgrade – new

versions upgrade can become a more costly experience if

customizations are in place; Know how – for standard applications you

have vendor support and general documentation, while for


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customizations the support depends on only a few developers. These

are just a few of many pitfalls of customizing the ERP software.

This is why we don’t recommend and don’t support customizations of

Oracle ERP. We developed our products as distinct tools over the

standard functionalities of Oracle without interfere with or change

these functionalities. They just channel the existing power of Oracle

ERP to more efficiently solve the business problems of your company.

The standard functionalities remain unaffected by our products and you

can still use them, if you choose, independently of our product.

FIRST INSIGHTS

Managers operate the fleet around transport activity. The transport

activity is a process consisting of delivery of services specific to a

particular type of vehicle requiring resources: fuel, drivers, salary, etc.

The costs of these services are settled with the requesting customers,

internal or external. Therefore, the management of the required

resources for the delivery of a transportation service represents a part of

this process, which must be integrated with the other components:

order entry and its delivery.

The management wants to have control over fuel consumption

calculation based on the data recorded in the Vehicle Log Books.

Transportation activity, as a main process, must generate a series of

secondary processes: vehicle fuel supply ends with an invoice received

from the fuel supplier; fuel movements are inventory inflows and

outflows, which must be recorded in accounting. In default of an

integrated system, these secondary processes are errors generation and

propagation sources, because different departments involvement.

Genesis Fleet View is the solution for car fleet fuel consumption

management.


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DESCRIPTION

Genesis Fleet View is an innovation in the fields of ERP and was

developed to manage the resource requirements involved in the

performance of the transportation activity. Fleet View collects the data

from the Vehicle Log Books in an electronic form, automatically

calculates the fuel consumption associated with the transportation

activity, calculates the fuel remaining in the tank and identifies actions

to be taken within a month in terms of preventive maintenance

schedule, tire changes, tax payments. At the end of the month the

management receives, under the form of a printed report, the Daily

Activity Log (Vehicle Log Books journal) where the Vehicle Log Books

are associated with the transportation orders received from customers.

Fuel supplies and consumptions are registered in accounting as inflows

and outflows of the fuel stock, each vehicle tank being considered a

warehouse locator. All fuel supplies operated in Fleet View, based on the

sales receipt, are reconciled with the fuel invoice received from

suppliers.

Fig1. Traffic parameters management leads to managerial reporting


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Fleet View is designed and developed to work in addition to Oracle

Inventory module for tracking fuel inventory movement. Fleet View

does not invalidate in any way standard Oracle features and does not

affect Oracle support for standard applications.

Why the need to develop Genesis Fleet View

In our days, customers all over the world are increasingly demanding.

They want to have now what the developers promise to achieve in the

future. Developers of IT products, especially ERP product developers,

provide “drills” when customers only want “holes”. Customers are less

interested in the technological process incorporated in the new versions

of ERP applications and more interested in the practical solutions for

their business problems.

After years of Oracle Applications implementation, Genesis team was

able to capitalize the experience gained into a developed product suite,

which also includes Genesis Fleet View.

Successful use of Fleet View product has enabled Genesis to extend ERP

implementation in the difficult area of operational transactions. Now,

management can control consumption of resources required for the

transportation activity, related to transportation orders.


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SPECIFIC FEATURES

Genesis Fleet View adds new features to Oracle Inventory, which allow

controlling the consumption of resources required for the delivery of the

transportation through the Daily Activity Log. The Daily Activity Log

represents a report sent to the management on a monthly basis and

contains the Vehicle Log Books for transportation activities in that

month. The Daily Activity Log also contains the number of

transportation orders received from customers, mileage, operating

hours, fuel consumption (expressed in liters) and fuel remaining in the

tank. At the same time, the management receives recommendations

for preventive maintenance schedule, change of tires and tax payments.

Configuration of means of

transportation

With reference to the fuel consumption

vehicles and equipment, Fleet View allows

the recording of their main characteristics,

with the central goal – fuel consumption

calculation. Each vehicle will be uniquely

identified in the system (fixed asset number,

for example, and also the vehicle registration

number, etc.).

From the perspective of implementing a

solution of Cost Accounting – Genesis Cost

Accounting, vehicles shall be defined as

objectives (cost centre) in management

accounting. Fleet View takes over the

reporting dimensions from the management

accounting.

Fig2. Means of transportation configuration

screen

Fleet View allows the configuration of vehicle

general characteristics, of interest to

management: average fuel consumption,

vehicle series, vehicle color, tank capacity,

mileage for a set of tires or between two

inspections, tonnage, number of axles, and

others.

After configuring the means of

transportation in Fleet View, the

management has available the data on fleet

car characteristics.

Recording data from Vehicle Log

Books

Vehicle Log Book represents the legal

document recording the performance of a

transportation activity, for an internal or

external customer, for a vehicle.

In order to obtain information on the

customer in Daily Activity Log report, Fleet

View integrates with Oracle Order

Management module. An automated

workflow process generates in Fleet View the

recording of transportation order to be

associated with the Vehicle Log Book

number. Users operate in Fleet View the data

from Vehicle Log Books, mileage, operating

hours, degree of difficulty of the road and

drivers’ timesheet.

Fleet View automatically calculates, using

vehicle configuration data, fuel consumption

and fuel remaining in the tank.

The vehicle dispatcher uses Fleet View to

record the Vehicle Log Books and to

automatically calculate the fuel remaining in

the tank.


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Fig3. Vehicle Log Book data entry

Fuel inventory movement

transaction

Genesis Fleet View is integrated with Oracle

Inventory by the feature of allowing the

recording of fuel supplies and consumptions

as inventory transactions.

After recording the data from the Vehicle Log

Book, the dispatcher uses Fleet View to track

fuel movements. A major asset of the

solution is that inventory transactions are

automatically recorded in Oracle Inventory

based on workflow mechanisms.

Reconciling fuel supplies with

invoices received from fuel

suppliers

In the transaction auditing process, it is

important that the sales receipt issued to

drivers, when supplying from the fuel pump,

matches the invoice from the supplier in

terms of quality and value.

To that effect, Fleet View integrates with

Oracle Payables, through the screen for

reconciling supplies and invoices. The

operator finds in Fleet View all the supplies

recorded from the Vehicle Log Books and

associates them with the invoice lines

received from the fuel supplier. After

reconciliation, Fleet View automatically

generates the suppliers’ invoices in Oracle

Payables.

Accountants responsible for recording fuel

invoices use Fleet View to reconcile supplies

operated by dispatchers with the suppliers

invoice lines. The link between the suppliers

account and the inventory account is

performed through this mechanism.

Launching Daily Activity Log

report

Fleet View registers and processes all data

regarding the consumption of resources

required for the transportation activity. At

the end of the month, operators recording

the Vehicle Log Books launch the Daily

Activity Log report.

Vehicle dispatchers use the Daily Activity Log

report from Fleet View to track the

transportation activity recorded in one

month. The Daily Activity Log report offers

them messages regarding the actions to be

taken in the following month, such as: vehicle

preventive maintenance, tire changes, car tax

payments.

Fig4. Daily Activity Log report

The management uses the Daily Activity Log

report from Fleet View to control the

performance of the transportation activity –

number of orders, average fuel consumption,

peak demands etc.


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HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED

Genesis Fleet View was developed progressively, covering the business

requirements raised by different customers in implementation projects.

It is “encapsulated” in an easy to customize and control product,

containing all objects, being similar to any standard Oracle product.

Fleet View refers to all the technical elements characterizing an Oracle

product: it has its own schema of the database objects, specific

configuration elements and an operating form. The process of issuing

transportation orders from Oracle Order Management automatically

generates records in Fleet View. The operating form of the Vehicle Log

Book automatically calculates the amount of fuel consumed for carrying

out the transportation activity, as well as the fuel remaining in the

vehicle tank.

Fleet View automatically generates the fuel inventory movement

transactions in Oracle Inventory.

Fleet View integrates with Oracle Payables for the automatic recording

of invoices reconciled.

White paper

(Informative document)

January 2013

Author: Dorian Balmuș

Genesis Software Consulting

Address: 65 Samuil Vulcan St., sector 5,

Bucharest, Romania

Contact person: George Faur

phone: +40 741-084-009

e-mail: [email protected]

www.genesissoftware.eu

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reserved. This document is provided for information purposes

only and the contents hereof are subject to change without

notice.

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This document is provided for marketing and information

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All Genesis trademarks are used under license and are

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Consulting.

fleet view - carfleet operational cost for oracle apps

Business

fleet management

fleet cars

fuel suppliers

genesis fleet viewextension

car fleet activities

reconciling fuel supplies

daily activity log report

vehicle log books