L’Oréal USA Boosts Operational Improvement Initiative with S&OP

Consumer goods company selects Sales & Operations Planning module to assess the accuracy of planning rates used in ERP and scheduling systems.

The consumer goods company has successfully used Solarsoft to support its continuous improvement initiative to drive and sustain manufacturing operations performance, increase capacity and reduce costs.

Chicago, IL - April 27, 2011 - Solarsoft Business Systems, a leading provider of enterprise software and IT services to manufacturers, distributors and wholesale businesses worldwide, announced today that L'Oréal USA, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest beauty companies, continues to boost its operational improvements with Solarsoft's Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) software module. The S&OP module enables fact-based assessments of the accuracy of planning rates used in enterprise resource planning and scheduling systems.

L'Oréal USA's implementation of the S&OP module is the most recent addition to an already successful manufacturing operations continuous improvement initiative. The company has leveraged Solarsoft's manufacturing intelligence solutions across North American operations for more than two years to improve manufacturing efficiencies, increase manufacturing capacity, and deliver performance scoreboards to line workers, site management, and operations executives.

The consumer goods company has successfully used Solarsoft to support its continuous improvement initiative to drive and sustain manufacturing operations performance, increase capacity and reduce costs.

"With Solarsoft's S&OP module we can now compare our actual and ideal planning rates," says Don Bernick, Assistant Vice President of Information Systems at L'Oreal North America. "This will help us determine the most cost effective way of planning production, as well as the implications of inaccurate planning rates."

"Our portfolio has 23 international, diverse and complementary brands, so Solarsoft's ability to help us determine whether we are demonstrating higher or lower than planned rates, and meeting schedules and cycle compliance is vital," adds Bernick. "Using Solarsoft, we can step up efficiency and have an impact on profitability via operational excellence."

L'Oréal will also implement Solarsoft's Enterprise Reporting software to leverage best-in-class profiles to all related plants, find extra capacity across the manufacturing network, and enable scoreboard-based reporting across all levels of management.

About L'Oréal USA
L'Oréal USA, headquartered in New York City, with 2010 sales of over $4.7 billion, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L'Oréal SA, the world's leading beauty company. In addition to corporate headquarters in New York, L'Oréal USA has Research and Development, Manufacturing and Distribution facilities across seven states in the U.S., including New Jersey, Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois, Ohio, and Texas. Between L'Oréal USA and all of its subsidiaries, there are over 9,000 employees.

L'Oréal's impressive portfolio of brands includes Lancôme, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel, Cacharel, L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Vichy, La Roche-Posay, L'Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase and Shu Uemura Art of Hair. The U.S. is the base for the product development, international marketing and advertising for L'Oréal's 12 American brands: Maybelline New York, Soft-Sheen.Carson, Kiehl's Since 1851, Ralph Lauren Fragrances, Essie Cosmetics, Redken 5th Avenue NYC, Matrix, Logics, Mizani, Pureology, SkinCeuticals and Dermablend. For more information on L'Oréal brands visit www.lorealusa.com.

About Solarsoft S&OP Module
The Solarsoft S&OP Module is an enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) solution to assess the accuracy of planning rates used in ERP, supply chain and scheduling systems. Old standard and planning rates create a costly cycle of idle lines and backlogs. When production runs finish sooner or later than expected, they create issues across inventory, customer service, labor costs and many others. Using S&OP from Solarsoft, manufacturing professionals can address the financial and scheduling implications that cripple performance and sabotage continuous improvement efforts.

About Solarsoft Business Systems
Solarsoft provides modern enterprise software and IT services to manufacturers, distributors and wholesale businesses in North America, Europe and Asia. More than 2,000 companies rely on Solarsoft to bring clarity and efficiency to their daily operations. Solarsoft employs more than 400 professionals providing local support across 16 time zones. The company has grown organically and through acquisition since 1986 and has worldwide revenues of US$100 million.