In order to take full advantage of the new JD Edwards products and innovations, Printpack has committed to an annual code current schedule with the intent to take the cumulative update every January/February. The Printpack JDE E1 team is committed to helping Printpack transform how they do business by looking at ways to modernize the user interface, increase user productivity, and introduce manufacturing industry best practices and capabilities.
About Printpack
Printpack is a customer and consumer-focused packaging partner. There are 3,300 employees across 19 plants in 2 countries. Printpack has broad market expertise in providing flexible and specialty rigid packaging for bakery items, beverages, condiments, pet food, and more.
Here’s a high-level timeline of Printpack’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne journey:
- December 2004: Signed contract with Oracle
- October 2007: First two plants go live in EnterpriseOne
- January 2008: Implement E1 for HR and Payroll
- 2008-2012: 14 additional plants go live on E1
- June 2012: Implement E1 GL system of record
- October 2013: Upgrade from E1 8.11 to E1 9.1
- 2013-2016: Final 6 plants go live on E1
- September 2018: Upgrade from E1 9.1 to E1 9.2
- July 2020: Code current event to 9.2.4
- May 2021: Code current event to 9.2.5
Printpack currently runs Applications 9.2 UN4 and is in progress of upgrading to UN5. Printpack is on Tools 9.2.4.4 and is in progress of upgrading to Tools 9.2.5.2. The team also utilizes Linux Enterprise Servers (AWS hosted), Windows AIS/JAS Servers (AWS hosted), Oracle Database 12.2, and Orchestrator Studio 8.0.2.0.
Driving Factors for Printpack’s Code Current Strategy
Printpack identified three primary factors that are driving the code current strategy:
- Reduce business operation and security risk
- Stay current with cyber technologies e.g., modern authentication
- Minimize business disruptions by limiting the amount of change e.g., annual 2-3 months vs. multiyear 6-9 months of project work
- Ensure stable software environments by maintaining compatibility with operating systems and databases
- Ensure compatibility with third-party solutions e.g., label printing, RF scanner, EDI solutions, and interfaces such as banking solutions
- Enable innovation and agility
- Improve productivity and accuracy through automation of repetitive tasks / data entry
- Improve utilization of technical resources and developers by using native tools and functions within E1
- Improve user experience
- Enable user-level preferred views and queries
Goal for the Code Current Project
Printpack’s goal for the code current project is to establish a framework and building blocks for a repeatable and scalable solution that would allow for:
- Enablement for utilization of E1 new functionality as well as enhancements
- Enablement for utilization of E1 tools (decustomizer, object usage tracker etc.)
- Stable platform to continue streamline, standardize and simplify the E1-suite
- Mitigate risk for incompatibility with 3rd party systems, OS, browsers and hardware
Lessons Learned from Printpack’s CC2020 Event
After Printpack completed its 2020 code current event (CC2020), the team identified several lessons learned that will benefit them moving forward with future code current events:
- Assess system and database sizing needs before actual event.
- Document lower environment updates for issues and timing.
- Use separate code current pristine environment provisioned well in advance.
- Don’t underestimate initial system set-up time before retrofit work can begin.
- Use third-party analysis for scope definition of impacted objects.
- “Scientific” approach to focused testing worked very well; we did not miss anything, and we saved time.
- Update the categorization in OL.
- SICATO with functional area
- SIOLCD03 with upgrade (R92, R924, R925)
Code Current Project Plan and Execution
Printpack’s code current project was divided into three execution events:
- CC2020: Executed on July 18, 2020 (E1 9.2.4)
- CC2021: Targeted for May 2021
- CC2022: Targeted for April 2022
After reviewing and leveraging lessons learned from the CC2020 event, Printpack moved forward with the CC2021 event. Printpack moved to code freeze on February 24, 2021. After a retrofitting effort, the team went from 133 objects to 59 objects – a 56% decrease. Printpack evaluated and categorized suggested retrofits and used a third-party service and Printpack developers to execute.
After unit testing, Printpack went from 1,030 objects to 634 – a 38% decrease. Printpack overlaid data from E1 usage tracker and used a third-party service for impacted objects. Then, Printpack did a technical and functional test. Printpack also did integrated testing based on key business processes and business risk.
The high-level plan target was for cut-over on May 8, 2021, or May 15, 2021.
Retrofit Effort
Printpack followed these steps for retrofit analysis:
- Push all possible development to Production.
- Create 9.2.5 Pristine environment.
- Load ESU 9.2.5 and multiple one-off ESUs to 9.2.5 Pristine.
- Run object extract in Pristine and Production.
- Send to third-party for analysis.
- Receive analysis report and evaluate proposed retrofit.
- Finalize list of objects to retrofit.
- Assign retrofit phases to object listing by functional area. Ensure that the phases are assigned to follow the flow through E1.
To complete the retrofit effort, objects were assigned to Printpack developers and third-party developers. Target dates were assigned for each phase, and a code freeze was enforced as retrofits began. Printpack maintained a list of any urgent development outside of retrofits to revisit later. There was a weekly review of retrofit status and issues with all developers. Retrofit sequencing was based on downstream dependencies to minimize waiting time. The retrofit effort was tracked against the phased timeline, and unit testing was completed by developers as each retrofit completed.
Lessons Learned (So Far) from Printpack’s CC2021 Event
After Printpack’s CC2021 event, here are a few additional lessons learned:
- Creation of QA_UN environment that will become new PD during cutover process. Complete unit and integrated testing in this environment.
- Detailed compare of processing options in PD and QA_UN environment.
- Since Object Librarian is shared across environments, make a copy before applying the ESU (UN5) plus one-off’s.
To learn more about how Printpack plans to stay code current, check out the full INFOCUS Envision presentation below.