Home Depot's Project Sync: An ERP System Success Story

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes Home Depot's successful ERP implementation.

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ERP Report

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Introduction
The report will study for Enterprise Resource Planning software and systems used by Home
Depot in order to increase the productivity and effectiveness of the business. The report will
further discuss for background information for the software used and will project for tasks and
operations undertaken by the software. It will strategically observe for profitability provided by
the software towards the business.
Home Depot
Home Depot is an American home improvement organization which provides with supplies and
retailing of tools, construction products, and services. It is the largest home improvement retailer
established and operating in the United States. The organization is headquartered at Atlanta Store
Support Center, Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The business has expanded operations and
functions in recent years and has developed the resources strategically to support beating
competition. The business recently adopted a new ERP system which has supported for multi-
faceted benefits and developments for the organization.
In a recent study and at the Home Depot’s Investor and Analyst Conference it was identified that
the new supply chain synchronization project with Internet Software was designed to improve
the annual turn rate of its 35000 stores available SKUs. The new Enterprise Resource Planning
System named Project Sync has provided with opportunities for the Home Depot workers to
process the inventories more quickly and subjected to the requirements of the centres and stores.
Software Background and Specifications
The software has aided the business to develop strategic growth and extension towards the
competitive business environment and its contemporary dynamics. The supply chain
management has evidenced the success of Project Sync in the operations and functions of Home
Depot. The business developed five years of sustained excellence partner for the suppliers and
the distributors with the incorporation of the software in the business (Home Depot, 2018). The
business has evolved with 100% freight hauled by the smart way certified carriers in the business
operations and functions. The business has also been aided in keeping 4000 trucks off the road
through truck optimization provided with the new ERP software of Project Sync.

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(Source: Home Depot, 2018)
Functions of the Software
The business of Home Depot has reported massive success and advantage of implying the
software in business strategy and processes. It has been developed that Home Depot was able to
reduce 4000 trucks on road with the feature of truck optimization in the business. The
organization reported Green House Data Collection and Reporting systems were simplified and
systemized with the application of Project Sync (Home Depot, 2018). The operations further
reported an investment of $1.2 billion back into the supply chain with ERP systems and
software.
The software has aided in the process of moving freight off trucks in the process of receiving
areas to customer-facing shelves. The software has encouraged for reducing footsteps of the
workers and the store associates drastically. It has been subjected to devise technological systems
with the internet connectivity that directs the store associates about the placement of products on
the shelves. It has reduced up to 4,500 of footsteps per carton per employee in a week. The

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business announced for growing inventory turns from 4.8 times in fiscal 2015 to a targeted 5.7
times by the end of 2018 (Home Depot, 2018).
The software has provided for organizing the database and information like suppliers shipping
schedules, carrier’s transportation times, load capacity and pricing. Shipping schedules and time
are allotted according to the processing of these interim details and data to save up for 60% of
the prices and costs involved in the processes earlier.
The routes and locations of the inventories are designed and optimized in order to provide with
shortest routes possible providing maximization of services and product delivery within
minimum time frames (Sprenger & Mönch, 2014). The business executives and software
administrators have reported for lowered time frames necessary for Home Depot supply chain
since the incorporation of the business.
Profitability and Improvement for the business
The business reported increased productivity and efficiency in the business systems and
processes by modelling the inventory and supply chain networks. The business claimed for cost-
cutting and settling the benefits and profits as discounts to the consumers. It has been noticed
that the features of Green House Data and Records supported effectively framing the business
corporate and social decision making (Home Depot, 2018). It has been gathered with the study of
reports and seminars that the new ERP systems aided Home Depot to reduce the numbers of
transported trucks to 4000 trucks in a year. With better route development systems and
organization of the data Home Depot was able to cut short the distances and transportation
undertook (Shaul & Tauber, 2013). The software reduced the time to respond towards the
changes in demand by changing the lead time from 6 to 12 days to specific three days. The
software created opportunities to reduce the number of damaged goods in relocating and
transporting the products from inventories to store. This was possible with a reduction in the
product touches and decreased number of footsteps undertaken by each store member.

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(Source: Home Depot, 2018)
Conclusion
From the above discussions and report reading it has been developed that Home Depot has
developed a smart way to interpret the current state of markets. It has developed a strategic
business platform in the face of Project Sync in order to combat business conflicts and issues.
Adoption of Project sync as an Enterprise Resource Planning Software has worked wonders for
Home Depot.

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References
Home Depot. (2018). Supply Chain elevates the home depot into Gartner top 25. [Online]. Home
Depot. Available at: https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/supply-chain-elevates-
home-depot-gartner-top-25. [Accessed on: 23.02.2019].
Shaul, L., & Tauber, D. (2013). Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning systems:
Review of the last decade. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 45(4), 55.
Sprenger, R., & Mönch, L. (2014). A decision support system for cooperative transportation
planning: Design, implementation, and performance assessment. Expert Systems with
Applications, 41(11), 5125-5138.