Targeted JD Edwards Enhancements Deliver Up to $12M in Inventory Savings
A Targeted JD Edwards Project To Address Inventory Management Inefficiencies
One of Australia’s major manufacturers, and a partner on major construction and infrastructure projects, recognised the need to address inefficiencies in their inventory management and credit claims processes across two key business units. The scale of the problem demanded more than a workaround – it required deliberate, well-scoped JD Edwards enhancements that could deliver lasting operational improvement.
Ndevr’s consulting team worked closely with both business units involved to strategise and implement solutions within JD Edwards (JDE) ERP, drawing on over 15 years of partnership, to ensure the right outcomes were achieved without disrupting the customer’s day-to-day operations.
Project Goals: JD Edwards Inventory Optimisation and Credit Claims Automation
Challenge 1: JD Edwards Inventory – The Cost of Returned Special Orders
The business faced a significant and growing JD Edwards inventory problem: returned custom (special) orders that suppliers would not take back, and were difficult to resell, were accumulating, driving up inventory holding costs substantially. With no straightforward path to liquidate this stock, the financial exposure was material – and growing.
The goal was clear: reduce holdings of these special order items by 50%, targeting savings of up to $12 million.
Challenge 2: A Paper-Based Credit Claims Process Causing Delays and Errors
The business processes approximately 95,000 credit orders annually. Complex or high-value credit claims were managed through a paper-based workflow – a process that was leading to claims being lost or delayed, customer dissatisfaction, and significant difficulty in reporting and analysis. The volume alone made manual handling unsustainable.
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Solutions: JD Edwards Process Optimisation and JD Edwards Automation
JD Edwards Enhancements to Support Changes in Trading Terms
To address the inventory problem, the business needed to change the trading terms governing which branches could accept special orders — a change that would directly reduce the volume of non-returnable stock entering the business. This required careful management of both the technical and the customer-facing dimensions of the project.
On the technical side, modifications to multiple JD Edwards programs were required to accommodate the new trading terms — a detailed and precise body of JD Edwards enhancements work. On the customer side, Ndevr collaborated closely with the client’s Marketing team to support the delivery of customer communications and manage the collection of trading term change acceptances, ensuring existing customers were informed and onboarded to the new terms effectively.
“When communicating our business changes to customers, Ndevr’s business and JDE knowledge assisted enormously with speed to market, while at the same time there was genuine consideration of the customer experience and how we could improve the completion rate of customer agreement with the changes.”
JD Edwards Automation to Streamline the Credit Claims Workflow
To resolve the credit claims bottleneck, Ndevr designed and built a purpose-built JD Edwards application to automate the management of the credit claims workflow. This JD Edwards automation solution replaced the paper-based process with a structured, trackable, and auditable digital workflow — reducing errors, eliminating lost claims, improving processing speed, and delivering a meaningfully better experience for the business’s customers.
How Ndevr Delivered: End-to-End JDE Consulting
Ndevr’s JDE and broader business experience were central to the success of both workstreams. Across the project, Ndevr:
- Collaborated with the business to assess requirements and recommend solutions
- Defined the scope and outline for both projects
- Prepared detailed functional specifications
- Managed and supervised all programming efforts
- Oversaw unit testing and supported user acceptance testing (UAT)
- Managed project documentation throughout
- Designed and implemented the automated JD Edwards workflow system for credit claims management
“Ndevr have been supporting and supplementing our internal JDE team for 15 years with exceptional consultants, and this project has been no exception. Ndevr has been a great asset… it’s been great having them onboard.”
Outcomes: Targeted JD Edwards Improvements, Significant Business Results
The results of this JD Edwards process optimisation project demonstrate what focused, well-scoped ERP work can achieve:
- Up to $12M in projected savings through a targeted 50% reduction in special order inventory holdings
- A fully automated credit claims workflow, reducing delays, errors, and customer dissatisfaction across ~95,000 annual credit orders
- Successful delivery of a complex trading terms change, with customer communications and acceptance managed at pace and at scale
Ndevr’s work on this project is a clear demonstration of the impact that targeted JD Edwards enhancements can deliver — not a system replacement, not a costly reimplementation, but precise, well-executed improvements to address specific, high-value business problems.
Are You Facing Similar JD Edwards Inventory, Automation or Process Challenges?
The issues this business faced are far from unique. If you’re running JD Edwards, there’s a good chance some version of these problems exists in your business right now. Here are some of the most common scenarios we see:
JD Edwards Inventory challenges:
- Excess or slow-moving stock that’s difficult to identify and act on within JDE
- Special or non-standard orders creating inventory risk with no clear disposition process
- Inventory holding costs growing without clear visibility into root cause
- Branch-level ordering behaviours that are inconsistent or ungoverned
JD Edwards Process Optimisation opportunities:
- Manual workarounds that have grown up around JDE processes over time — spreadsheets, email chains, paper forms
- Trading terms, pricing rules, or order conditions that JDE isn’t currently enforcing correctly
- Approval or exception-handling processes that sit outside the system entirely
- Reporting that requires significant manual effort to produce
JD Edwards Automation candidates:
- Credit claims, returns, or warranty workflows currently managed on paper or via email
- Customer notification or communication processes triggered by ERP events
- Approval workflows for high-value orders, exceptions, or pricing overrides
- Repetitive data entry or reconciliation tasks that could be handled by a JDE application or orchestration
If any of these resonate, the good news is that targeted JD Edwards enhancements — rather than large-scale projects — are often all that’s needed to unlock significant value. Ndevr’s team has been delivering exactly this kind of focused JDE work for Australian businesses for over 15 years.
This case study has been anonymised at the customer’s request following a change in their business structure. The outcomes, figures, and project details are accurate and verified.
