Epica News
March 2009
DOD/SANDF Phase 2 Rectification Program
Epica Solutions as part of the C1C consortium has been awarded Phase 2 of the DOD/South African National Defence Force (SANDF) Codification, Cataloguing, Inventory and Asset upgrade program. Some of the stated objectives of the project are to improve the Logistics Intervention, Codification and Cataloguing accuracy, Asset Register accuracy and the rationalisation of its inventory. The program should also allow the DOD's National Codification Bureau to achieve tier 2 status within the NATO Codification system. Epica's primary function within the consortium is the provision of subject matter experts in codification, cataloguing of the data as well as assistance with the inventory management program. Phase 2 program has been contracted for an initial 3 year period.
March 2009
Epica Solutions Welcomes Andy Brittain to the Team
Epica Solutions proudly announces the appointment of Andy Brittain as Victorian Manager with effect from 30th March 2009. Andy brings to the team a proven capability and extensive background in the NATO Codification System and its implications on the Defence Industry community. Andy has worked with a variety of National Codification Bureaus around the world and also has considerable experience in Support Solutions for Defence capability providers. Based out of Victoria, Andy will further strengthen the Epica capability in providing ongoing support to the Australian Defence Force, the Defence Materiel Organisation and the Australian National Codification Bureau.
January 2009
Epica Solutions provides personnel to the National Codification Bureau
Epica Solutions (Epica) was the successful tenderer for the provision of technical and supply cataloguing personnel to the National Codification Bureau (NCB), located in Melbourne. NCB provides codification and cataloguing services to the Australian Defence Forces (ADF). With the advent of new equipment programs and the current workload NCB determined a need for assistance. Epica is able to provide the required qualified and skilled technical cataloguing personnel to conduct the task. Epica Solutions is proud of its history with the ADF and feels sure that it can be of assistance in other related projects in the future. The Project is due to commence mid February 2009.
November 2008
Classic One Consortium - South Africa
Epica Solutions was invited by C1C to be part of its successful bid to provide assistance to the DOD/SANDF Inventory Logistic initiative involving Codification, Cataloguing and Inventory Verification Services. The DOD has an ultimate aim to move to Tier 2 status with its National Codification bureau and at the same time achieve full asset visibility. Epica are able to assist the Consortium through the provision of its Workbench application and Defence Codification and Cataloguing experience.
November 2008
Origin Energy - Kupe NZ
The Kupe Field south of New Zealand's Taranaki Peninsula will play a major role in helping New Zealand meet its increasing gas needs. Origin Energy, an Australian registered and owned public company operating throughout Australia and New Zealand, will develop the Kupe Field. Epica Solutions has been engaged to provide the cataloguing support post construction as well as subsequent item maintenance. The scope was widened in November as Origin Energy acquired Swift Energy. The spares and equipment held by that entity was added to the Kupe Project. Epica is proud to be able to play a part in this vital infrastructure project.
October 2008
Queensland Gas Company (QGC)
QGC is a rapidly evolving integrated energy business positioned to meet a rising demand for its abundant coal seam gas (cleaner power technology). QGC has Gas Fields and proposed joint venture Power Stations in various areas of Queensland such as Berwyndale & Argyle-Kenya (Darling Downs). Epica Solutions was engaged to provide data upgrade services for those inventory items already in QGC's SAP system with the provision of further services for their Condamine Gas Turbine Power Station currently being built in the Surat Basin.
Aug 2008
Lihir Gold Limited
Lihir Gold Limited (LGL) is a leading global gold company with operations in Papua New Guinea, Australia and West Africa. LGL had a need to cleanse and upgrade its catalogue data to support the various sites. Epica was engaged to provide the upgrade services as well as the provision of continuing item maintenance service. Unfortunately LGL was unwilling to share some of its mineral products as Gold is at an all time high however Epica was pleased that it was able to a make a vital contribution to its ongoing operations.
Jun 2008
Ausdrill
Ausdrill is a diversified mining and services company providing leading edge services in mining, drill & blast, exploration, procurement & logistics, manufacturing, telecommunications and automotive industries with operations in Australia, United Kingdom and Africa. Epica Solutions has been engaged in cleansing and upgrading the catalogue data for its operations in preparation of a company wide catalogue.
May 2008
Innovation – SAP Material Description
One of the problems of the SAP Material Description is its limitation of 40 characters. Users need to be able to pack as much differentiating data within the forty characters to enhance its use as an effective browse or inquiry tool. Epica's Workbench facility does this in two ways.
- Firstly it can abbreviate the relevant data (using standard abbreviations) that is applied to the Material Description field. This is separate to the P O Text data which normally contains the full item description and in many instances is used for printing the purchase order description. Abbreviations in the latter would be minimal and normally restricted to size designators such OD, ID, MM, etc.
- The second feature is that the Epica Workbench can re-sequence the data within the Material Description for the optimum fit of available data. Again this may be conducted independent of the attribute set that was initially used to build the P O Text and the Material Description data. These two steps allow Epica to provide a much better item search capability for SAP users. This initiative was developed in response to client requirement so that they may avoid lengthy inquiry process to locate and identify the correct item. This initiative is of the most benefit to users who have a configuration where the material description is used for browse purposes only rather than the front end of the full description which may flow onto the P O Text or use the Material Description only.
April 2008
Cement Australia
Cement Australia has recently awarded its Catalogue Maintenance to Epica Solutions Pty Ltd. This is conducted through the Sydney office with direct access to Cement Australia's SAP Parts master file. Epica previously conducted some work in cleaning up the current data file. While there is still some work to be done on the project Epica welcomes the opportunity to be able to further contribute to the operational needs of Cement Australia. Cement Australia operates a number of sites throughout Australia with its head office in Brisbane.
We Are Back!!!
Epica Solutions provided a number of personnel for the Department of Commerce Smartbuy® Project in 2002 through to 2004. Epica is now again contributing to this worthwhile service with the provision of personnel. Smartbuy® is a fully developed electronic procurement system managed by the NSW department of commerce. Items supplied under contract by various organisations and businesses to the NSW government are catalogued so that users within government departments can readily access the items require for their needs. It is understood that these contracts are also used by Commonwealth Departments and various other government agencies.
November 2007
Defence Contract
Epica Solutions Pty Ltd has won a contract for the provision of personnel to conduct codification and cataloguing for the National Codification Bureau (NCB). The NCB provides codification and cataloguing services to acquisition and sustainment levels across the ADF. The bureau processes requests for the codification of items of supply manufactured both domestically and overseas and is governed by the principles and standards of NATO. These services underpin the logistics capability of the Defence operational and business environments. The requirement for assistance stems from the growing Defence Capability Program which will significantly escalate the demand for NCB services. In order for the bureau to meet its service requirements it was decided to establish commercially based support to its service delivery capability. Epica Solutions is proud of its association with the ADF and has recently been accepted under the Defence Recognised Supplier Scheme (DRSS).
June 2007
What's in a Name
When Epica Solutions started in September 2002 it was decided that the company should have a name that had an Australian theme. Dennis Allsopp came up with the word Epica based on the Epica Banksia which is native to the south coast of Western Australia. The name is derived from the Latin "epicus" or epic, relating to the long journeys of Edward John Eyre (who first saw this plant) and John Falconer who first collected the plant (ANPSA). It was officially named in 1987. It is not an endangered species which augers well for our company.
I recently listened to a radio program broadcast in Melbourne hosted by Ernie Sigley where he and a guest reviewed the "GM Holden Epica" and discussed where the name came. The comment was that it could be just a made up rubbish name. We cannot comment on behalf of the car manufacturer but we may have to enlighten the good folk at 3AW that it is in fact a part of Australian history and flora.
Photograph by Gnangarra
April 2007
New Clients
Epica would like to welcome two new clients this month. Both operate SAP ERP Systems and incurred similar problems in their item information (catalogue) needs. Iluka Resources Ltd involves an upgrade of their total catalogue data base. Iluka Management is fully aware that productivity gains can only come about using quality data. They are keen to be rid of duplications and redundant data that could lead to carrying excess inventory with potentially unnecessary capital investment. Management wants to take advantage of total asset visibility to enable the economies offered by implementation of company wide contracts. They are also aware that the catalogue data needs to be tailored to take advantage of the functionality of the SAP ERP Materials Master to ensure ongoing productivity gains. Cement Australia has a large MRO inventory that covers a number of sites throughout Australia. For similar reasons to Iluka such as continued productivity gains and total asset visibility for contractual purposes Cement Australia has taken the first steps in a catalogue data upgrade. They are aware that they have a high percentage of duplicated items both inter and intra site which need to be amalgamated. Cement Australia also wants to implement company wide contracts which is currently limited as each site previously maintained its own catalogue.
February 2007
New Trading Entity
Epica Solutions has been successful in obtaining the company name Epica Solutions Pty Ltd. Previously it operated as a partnership between two companies trading as Epica Solutions. This should have the effect of streamlining its dealing with both clients and suppliers. The services have not changed and Epica still provides Item information Master Data through its cataloguing services and continues to develop its range of software products to facilitate this process as well as associated software products such as it Spares Assessment Manager.
Defence Recognition
Epica Solutions has been recognised under the "Defence Recognised Supplier Scheme" (DRSS) and can now use the DRSS logo both on its web site and advertising material. Epica has had an association with Defence Projects and tasks over the last 4 years and is a proud recipient of the award.
July/August 2005
Centennial Coal contracts Epica Solutions for global catalogue upgrade
Epica Solutions has been contracted to conduct a global catalogue upgrade for Centennial Coal. To date each site has been responsible for its own data and has been maintained across a number different software platforms such as MIMS, PULSE and Pronto. Centennial Coal was born out of the old Elcom and Newstead collieries. Since its privatisation it has rapidly expanded its role as a premier coal operation and has acquired a number of additional mines. To keep pace with the requirements of the operations Centennial has implemented the Pulse Mining System. The Catalogue data held by the various mines needs to be amalgamated so that economies can be realised from central purchasing and the establishment of contracts. Therefore Centennial requires total inventory visibility.
The current catalogue data has been maintained on a number of different software platforms such as MIMS and Pronto and by a variety of personnel. This means that the data exhibits marked differences in standards and exhibits a considerable number of duplications both intra and inter site. Epica Solutions has been chosen to standardise and upgrade the data across all sites and eliminate all duplications. It is a formidable task however the anticipated savings should provide significant dividends within 12 months and continue to accrue there after. Paul Kelly Centennial Group Purchasing Manager has always understood the need for good quality data to drive purchasing and contractual decisions. He is pleased that his ambitions in this direction are now being realised.
Epica undertakes Materials Control, Spares Assessment and Cataloguing for the Alcoa Pinjarra Upgrade
Alcoa embarked on an upgrade project of its Pinjarra Smelter site some two years ago. The upgrade project costed at $411 Million dollars includes the installation of two additional lines to keep up with the demand of its customers for Aluminium products. Epica Solutions has been able to assist the project through Hatch Engineering (Implementation Contractor) with the provision of technical personnel to conduct the cataloguing of the new equipment as well as assist in the technical spares assessing task. Later in the project Epica Solutions also supplied a Materials Controller. This project was the catalyst for the development of its Spares Assessment Software (SAM).