What does an enterprise gain by having precise production planning & production execution information in SAP? This is one of the many key questions when trying to achieve 100% customer service levels with the caveat to possess as little inventory as possible. A Make to Order (MTO) planning strategy would satisfy this goal if it…
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Real-time availability of production data and information is increasingly becoming critical in a modern-day connected manufacturing environment. ERP systems like SAP provide the backbone of tools that IT organizations use to model manufacturing processes. An optimized environment allows these organizations to model in detail, their products and processes providing seamless data flow across their internal…
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In this series of manufacturing execution, we will start to look into some of the pitfalls of the production planning process. Furthermore, how utilizing SAP as the sole source of information, or one system of record, as we like to say, serves to drive efficiencies throughout the supply chain. Imagine if you could harness the power…
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When I was in the operations department, those of us on the shop floor were seen almost as a nuisance and not seen as the last people to touch our products before they got to our customers, so to my mind we were a pretty important nuisance. This was 30+ years ago and it’s only…
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In the digital age, staying competitive requires speed, responsiveness, and innovation, all key drivers of the SAP S/4HANA solution. The impending 2025 deadline, when SAP will end support for ECC6 and by which time all SAP customers should be on S/4HANA, has two possible journeys: The first and most sought after is that all current…
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Many years ago, when I started a position as Operations Manager for a warehouse, I would ask myself questions, such as: Why is this material in the incorrect storage bin? Why are we picking materials this way? How are we so far behind in closing transactions? How are we losing so many materials? How are…
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Understanding, and using the power of MRP has many benefits and can help your organizations supply chain greatly. Setting off on the path from imbalance and inefficiency to balanced integration requires recognizing that data and material requirements planning (MRP) are the glue that holds everything together. As MRP runs, it touches everything — materials, BOM,…
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There is a natural progression to reap the full benefits of a supply chain that is demand driven, and it starts with optimizing the performance of your people, processes and SAP. Is everyone working from one system of record and viewing the same set of information to make decisions? Or, are spreadsheets being utilized in…
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Your SAP ERP system provides decision-driving high-performance analytics that personal information systems (aka. spreadsheets) don’t because of features such as: All this is not to say that spreadsheets don’t have their place. They still offer value for ad hoc analysis and the visualization of data. They can even be linked with advanced digital solutions. But…
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) began in the 1960s with efforts at planning and scheduling materials for complex manufactured goods. In the 1970s, expensive and clunky MRP solutions began to take shape. In 1972, five engineers in Mannheim, Germany started SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung) with the purpose of producing and selling software to drive integrated business…
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Working with various industries as a planning manager, I have found Engineer to Order (ETO) to be the most complex environment to plan for, and often times the most frustrating. Coming from a Production Planning (PP) background, it is easy to neglect many of the core principles and fundamentals that must be accounted for in…
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In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin, a printer by trade and a scientist by fame, said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Recently, I received a call from a supply chain professional who has 30+ years of operations and supply chain experience, is Lean and APICs certified, and needed some help. He shared…
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Over and over again, I hear people say “SAP did this to me” or ask “Why did SAP do this to me?” While this may be a natural tendency, it is nevertheless a fallacy. SAP is not a sentient being, and it is not capable of “doing something” to a human. SAP does not make…
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There are times when using By-Product/Co-Product functionality is mandatory, or else be ready to pay significant consequences in managing your manufacturing operations using related SAP ECC functionality. What is By-Product/Co-Product? By-Product/Co-Product is manufacturing functionality where a single PP-PI/PP (Incl.PP-REM) order reflects that fact, and when attempting to produce inventory for a single material, the manufacturing…
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Reveal promotes the phrase “Changing lives, One Supply Chain At a time.” We turned these words into a core belief just less than 5 years ago in recognition that true change is really about the people, not about the technology. Truthfully, that might be over-simplifying the matter. We all understand that in today’s world, anything…
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In life, we have rules set up to guide different processes. There are rules for driving, rules for paying your bills online and there are rules that we set for our kids. Each one of these rules can be in three different states; they can either be followed, bent, or broken. We’ve all seen the…
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The Lack of Alignment Between Strategy and Execution Recently Gartner commented at a conference that, if organizations want to be or remain world-class, they need to consider spending 8 times more on execution than they spend on innovation. What?! Just yesterday everyone was saying ~ “innovate or die”. The context to the statement was not…
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This article introduces the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and knowledge-based systems in a world where AI is now the buzzword. In doing so, this first part of the article looks at AI’s historical origin. In a subsequent article, the generic architecture that embraces such systems and a reasoning strategy based on fuzzy logic concepts…
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Value from Transformational Change Being business and people focused ensures sustainable change that drives organizational transformation As we enter the age of intelligent enterprises the requirement for effective change that drives organizational transformation becomes a strategic imperative. So, in this sense, what then is change management? It is a process of creating an enabling environment…
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SAP is an incredibly powerful tool with organizations investing significant time and money to implement SAP. So why then do so many companies that run SAP do so much outside of SAP? Inevitably they think SAP functionality is wrong or under-delivering so they start using spreadsheets without realizing that SAP is a wonderfully designed system…
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In my many years of working in various industry sectors, I have seen different organizational structures and heard differing opinions of what a Supply Chain is and what the role of the Supply Chain Manager is. In this article, I want to share with you the insight I have formed about what a Supply Chain…
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Tom Corley is an internationally recognized authority on habits and wealth creation. Tom conducted a five-year study of the rich and poor and identified over 300 daily habits that separate the “haves” from the “have not’s. Tom’s studies found that 40% or more of all of our daily activities are habits. Habits are unconscious behaviors,…
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Most companies do not use Exception Monitoring or even know what it is. There is always someone who will put their hand up and say, “I know what it is” but the truth of the matter is, they really don’t. In 8 years and all the companies I have worked with, I rarely come across…
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ERP systems are primarily software components used to optimize business process management. Modern ERP systems comprise real-time data integration between the various modular components which are connected to complete a specific business process. SAP©’s integration between different modules is not new to us, but we do not communicate the benefits of what we understand about…
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Many people use the words “training” and “education” interchangeably. While in some cases this may be appropriate, the reality is there are nuanced differences. As defined by Wikipedia: Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Training is teaching or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. The differences become more pronounced…
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There I was, entering the office of the Customer Service manager (we’ll call her Maria because, well, that’s her name) at a new client when a framed picture on her wall caught my eye. It read: DID YOU JUST CALL MY BABY…UGLY? It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where the gang learned that it’s…
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How many times has it been announced that your company is going to partake in a new “global” project during the fiscal year – after the budget has already been set, after personal and department goals have been established and communicated, and resource plans have been completed and approved? I can assure you, the answer…
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What Does Globalization Entail for the Modern Supply Chain? Before we had the luxury of exchanging information at the pace we do today, we relied on discussions by telephones, letters or memos. International transportation was limited to ships and local transportation moved at a snail’s pace. Business was localized and large companies were siloed. This…
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Have You Experienced Forecasting Déjà Vu? My client is describing the challenges experienced when Sales Forecasting inaccuracy is being blamed for inventory issues and availability date (ATP). After so many years in the field, why do I still feel this is a commonly experienced issue within the industry? Seasoned professionals will agree that in order to…
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There are several challenges in an oVo® project especially when it comes to the Realization phase leading up to the Sustain phase. The challenges we face are predominantly people-centric and like it or not that is a make or a break kind of deal in terms of whether we can help the Process Aligned Team accomplish…
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Sometimes we all need to take a break, look ourselves in the mirror and ask the difficult questions. Questions such as: “What can I change about myself today?” or “How can I be a better parent, mentor, friend, or colleague?”. Sometimes we know exactly what we are doing wrong but are afraid of change. It’s so…
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As a millennial, it’s obvious to see that there is one aspect of modern marketing that can instill fear deep into the hearts of older generations: ‘Social Media.’ As you may already know, Social Media is no longer a hobby, a trend, or a mere pastime. This once-considered downtime activity is now a booming industry—and…
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Have you ever wondered what makes a business contract tick? How do organizations determine what to put in them—and what should stay out? Unless you are exposed to this area of business, you may not be able to recognize the in’s and outs of a binding contract. While the word ‘contract’ may seem daunting, a…
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Inventory management continues to be a contentious issue in organizations due to the costs (storage and holding) often tied to excess or shortages in inventory. Excess inventory is often symptomatic of inherent problems in the manufacturing and/or procurement processes. Shortages, on the other hand, result in missed sales, reduced customer loyalty and the inability to…
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Have you ever wondered why organizations appear to have Change Management programs that are separate from Leadership programs? I have! In my own experience with these programs, I have noticed that change is a constant theme … and Leaders are always in the midst of it in their organization or project. This change that Leaders…
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I heard this expression the other day and I could not help but think how that expression has changed over the years. First and foremost, who pays with cash anymore, and secondly who even carries cash? This world over the last several years has changed so significantly from how we pay for goods and services…
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“70% of profitability can be tied to the performance of an organization’s supply chain”. The statement made by an academic keynote speaker at a recent supply chain conference. A Deloitte survey noted, “79% of companies with high-performing supply chains achieve revenue growth greater than the average within their industries. Conversely, just 8% of businesses with…
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A 40 Year Perspective A lot has changed in manufacturing in the past 40 years. The globalization of manufacturing has moved manufacturing all over the globe. Supply chains have become extended and complex. Planning and executing in manufacturing facilities across multiple global locations has been greatly influenced by the implementation of ERP solutions. ERP systems…
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Why Do Companies See the Std ECC Capacity Planning Reports, You Know CM01,04,05 Etc. and Think, What a Load of Rubbish? Or that they can’t help. There ugly old and should have died with the dinosaurs. There is a general fundamental lack of understanding of Capacity Planning and how its role is core to achieving…
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A day in the life of an off-shore Materials Coordinator Todd Jenkins arrived at the Pearcy Shore Base outside Aberdeen at around 5:30 am. Fifty minutes earlier, having downed the last of his Java deep roast coffee, he said goodbye to his wife of 22 years, Janet. Both were now accustomed to the 28-day rotation…
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This is an old adage that I have believed in when dealing with complex situations. I leverage this as part of a team when we are working with a client, optimizing their Supply Chain. Optimizing is about leveraging existing People, Process and Technology to their fullest capability/ability and to be successful everyone must “play their…
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Back when I began my SAP SD career, Sales and Distribution (SD), Materials Management (MM), Production Planning (PP), and FICO (Finance and Controlling) were referred to as modules. At some point, this changed, and they were called functional areas, but they were still easily identifiable as SD, MM, etc., at SAP conferences, on the ASUG…
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As a long time, SAP practitioner (20+ years) with lots of experience in the Logistics Information System (LIS) space, I am astonished and shocked at the optimization opportunities that has been revealed to me by Reveal using Logistics Information System (LIS) data. I am calling this epiphany “Buried Treasure” given that very few companies are aware…
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Many organizations underestimate the significant value of analyzing their inventory stocking strategy on overall supply chain operations. It is difficult to zero in on stocking strategy because much of the attention is drawn to the critical items that are in immediate demand and inevitably not available on shelf thus impacting critical production or maintenance operations….
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It is an old saying, “What gets measured, gets done.” Lighthouse™ is a critical analytical solution specifically developed to complement the oVo® Methodology Reveal uses as part of their approach toward Business Maturity®. This solution works runs on the SAP HANA Cloud Platform. There are a lot of analytical tools that organizations use, but many of…
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I have been on the trail of the illusive supply chain strategy for over 30 years. Just when I think I am getting close to a supply chain strategy, it vanishes and the search begins anew. Why is something that is so needed, so difficult to find? As a supply chain consultant who has been…
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By Rutul Thakkar What is EDI Maturity? How does EDI capability relate to the Supply Chain? Before we get into those questions, let me tell you a story. I have a three, soon to be four year old daughter. Like any other kid, she loves her sugar – chocolates, ice cream, cake etc. When she…
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Change Management studies and practices began in the 1960’s, gaining business momentum in the 1980’s and is commonplace in 2017. Change Management incorporates communication, education, training, and deployment as part of the change management process. Although consultants, corporate change management practitioners, and advisory organizations have developed multiple change management implementation methodologies and best practice recommendations, organizational…
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I was sitting with a client this last week and we were talking about SAP’s roadmap to S/4HANA. We were trying to align it with the client’s IT strategy and Reveal’s recommendations for their Supply Chain initiatives. This was a lively discussion with just a little bit of tension about how they were going to…
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I was sitting with a client this last week and we were talking about SAP’s roadmap to S/4HANA. We were trying to align it with the client’s IT strategy and Reveal’s recommendations for their Supply Chain initiatives. This was a lively discussion with just a little bit of tension about how they were going to…
Read MoreI have been working for Reveal for almost seven years. I joined the team because I loved the Reveal message. Reveal was a home with a methodology, ongoing Value optimization® (oVo®), around principles I had been living by for years. So, the other day when a colleague asked what I go through when I embark…
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MRP, Master Data, and Exception Management Last week I presented the Reveal April 2017 online seminar with the same title as this blog. It followed the theme from my previous blog “Surviving Supply Chain Optimization – Intelligent Demand Segmentation is a key dynamic”. I say that because both subjects aim to drive home the point…
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Being a father whose daughter is a freshman in college, I understand the importance of a good education. More importantly, I also understand it goes beyond textbook smarts. To bring true value to herself, her future family and the organization she may work for, she will need to apply the education she has received in…
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The answer to this question depends on who you talk to in any organization. Organizations employ many people whose job responsibility is to provide research and development, product engineering, manufacturing, quality, and logistics. The focus of all of these roles are to ensure a quality product to the customer. Unfortunately, few companies understand how to…
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by Kevin Wilson In this series, we’ve begun to describe the six P’s that make up the modern extended supply chain and highlight how we leverage the Reveal oVo® Methodology to help companies using SAP to run their supply chains to transform them in the most optimal manner. In the first part of this three-part article series, we discussed the Produce…
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by Steven Crooke I spend a lot of my time touting the virtues of a truly integrated supply chain supported by the best (in my opinion) integrated supply chain ERP system available – SAP®. Too often, in searching for solutions for an ailing supply chain, people seem to be consumed by what they do not…
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Keeping demand aligned with supply in the modern extended supply chain is growing more and more challenging. Globalization, increasing freight rates, capacity constraints, regulatory pressure and partner collaboration are just a few challenges that need to be constantly addressed to maximize the effectiveness of the supply chain. In this series, we’ve begun to describe the…
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by Jim Cameron How do you effectively drive value in your supply chain optimization initiative with a smart use of key performance indicators (KPIs)? Part 1 of this article series looked at why the use of KPIs creates change. In part 2, we will review a 10-step process to choose the right KPIs to drive…
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Amazon recently announced that it is hiring 120,000 seasonal workers to support its holiday season fulfillment orders. While this is a boon for people looking for seasonal employment across the United States, adding 120,000 new employees into a complex fulfillment process is a monumental undertaking for any organization. Amazon supply chain professionals are hiring seasonal…
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by Kevin Wilson If you are contemplating implementing SAP Event Management, you will need to be prepared to answer a series of questions in order to be able to establish a design that caters to your needs. The following list of questions is a good start (although there are more based on the answers to some…
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Have you ever been told to do one thing and know you should do the exact opposite? It happens to me all the time. Being a consultant, I travel incessantly – new airports, new cities, new addresses and different rental cars. Every week, I have to figure out how to connect my phone via Bluetooth…
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by Patrice Matthias If you are familiar with Reveal, you probably have heard of a PAT. PAT™ is not short for my name, Patrice; rather, it stands for process-aligned team™. What’s so important about process-aligned teams™? Well, let me start with what a PAT™ is.
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by Pete Kovac “Can you pick up milk, eggs, ham, and cheese from your way home from work, please?” When we get text messages such as this one, we understand what needs to be done. We go to the store and we buy the items on our list; we don’t think about their final step…
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Whether your organization is facing rapid growth or another round of belt-tightening, the need for supply chain optimization remains a business imperative. Maybe there already is an initiative planned or started within the company, or it is possible that you have run out of steam or are not achieving expected results. The reality is that…
Read Moreby Kevin Wilson Keeping demand aligned with supply in the modern extended supply chain is growing more and more challenging. Globalization, increasing freight rates, capacity constraints, regulatory pressure and partner collaboration are just a few challenges that need to be constantly addressed to maximize the effectiveness of the supply chain. In this series, we’ll describe…
Read Moreby Ed Elsbury Recently, I overheard my daughter’s soccer coach instructing the team on when to use certain tactical skills to move the ball upfield. He used two different scenarios to make his point. The first scenario entailed having the ball on the run in the open field and going up against one defender. The…
Read Moreby Lisa Roberts Too often supply chain-based organizations operate in siloed environments. At Reveal, we see it frequently — procurement does not communicate effectively with production; production does not communicate effectively with warehousing; warehousing does not communicate effectively with distribution; distribution does not communicate effectively with customer service; sales does not communicate effectively with any of…
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In the first part of this article series, I described what Track and Trace is and how it relates to outbound logistics; if you missed it, check it out here. In this article, I will discus how we can provide full visibility into the inbound logistics process by leveraging SAP’s Event Management module and EDI carrier status…
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by Jim Cameron Most people will agree that using key performance indicators (KPIs) in their organization will drive behavior, as well as promote a positive change in the teams that utilize them. Advances in technology and trends in using “Big Data” analytics allow for even more accurate and advanced measures of supply chain processes. This multi-part…
Read MoreHumans, by nature, are focused on outcomes; especially in sports. Take baseball, for instance: the number of wins, loses, batting average, a pitcher’s ERA; the list goes on. In America’s game, there is another dimension that most fans don’t pay attention to, “The game within the game.” There have been dozens of books published about…
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by Steven Crooke Why I believe optimizing your supply chain may be harder than climbing Mount Everest: Firstly, a disclaimer: I have not climbed Mount Everest myself; I have only read many accounts of people who have successfully achieved this incredible challenge. Their accounts are awe-inspiring. I am a supply chain guy and an SAP guy…
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In my experience, SAP is an incredibly powerful tool, and any organization that invests so much time and money to implement SAP should feel the same. So why then do so many companies that run SAP do so much outside of SAP? Before you go off thinking SAP functionality is wrong or under-delivering, call a…
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by Pete Kovac Believe it or not, there can be too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to your supply chain analytics With the emergence of Big Data and everyone wanting to get as much data as humanly possible, we have to ask one question: Is this data helping or hurting the business?
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by Sean Elliffe Common traits in golf and SAP supply chain optimization: Why getting to golf perfection and the perfect extended supply chain are similar in nature! The Basic Hypothesis Our high-performance ERP system has taken a sizeable investment to implement. It is designed to take our business where it needs to go, has been /…
Read MoreA customer, placing an order for a product to a manufacturer or distributor, expects a certain service level for that order. In short, the customer typically expects the order to be fulfilled with the correct product, to the correct location, on the promised date and for the correct quantity. These four attributes of an order serve…
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When it comes to the extended supply chain, it is critical to ensure that any issue that occurs during the process is uncovered in a timely manner. Once an issue has been uncovered, it then becomes critical to take action on it in order to get the process back on track. Without this kind of…
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by Sean Elliffe Reveal has had significant success, particularly over the past two years, in continuing to help organizations optimize their inventory and address their process performance issues. Production schedule attainment; fill rate to customers (100% on-time and in-full delivery for the first time in 20 years for one customer); overall service-level improvements across the…
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by Jim Cameron What if your SAP supply chain was truly optimized — what would it mean for your company? What if your initial SAP implementation focused on how you use SAP to improve your business — not on how you install SAP to run your business? What if your go-live acceptance test on inventory…
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Have you ever felt overwhelmed attempting to determine what needs to be done to improve business results? In our working with organizations across the world, it is apparent that no matter the industry, the country or the company, supply chain challenges are universal. If you are reading this article, you probably run your company with…
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by Sean Elliffe Your SAP implementation is behind you, and you are up and running. Transactions all are working, and the system is collecting and building data that is rich in content for analysis and improved decision-making. All the same, a question more often posed than not is “Did you get the ROI you…
Read Moreby Sean Elliffe How do we know we have got a world-class supply chain? There are as many arguments as to what constitutes “world-class” as there are detractors who would question if such a thing even exists. In this modern era, there are significant complexity challenges that require us to consider multiple business dynamics, not least…
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by Kevin Wilson SAP Process Observer for Built-In Processes (POB) allows organizations to monitor and optimize core processes based on SAP Business Suite’s built-in business object events. It’s been around quite a while — since 2011, I believe. The functionality it provides is somewhat close to SAP Event Management (EM), but there are major differences…
Read MoreA recent white paper, “Seven Methods That Improve Forecast Accuracy,” suggests that a range of forecasting methods helps companies achieve better results. It cites Gartner, arguing, “companies that excel at demand forecasting average 15% less inventory, 17% stronger perfect order fulfillment, 35% shorter cash-to-cash cycle times, and one-tenth as many stock-outs as their peers.” While forecast…
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by Kevin Wilson In the first article on use cases for SAP Event Management (EM), I took you through some of the use cases for SAP Transportation Management (TM), Global Trade Services (GTS) and Supplier Network Collaboration (SNC), as well as the highly popular Track and Trace where folks simply want to know from their carriers or freight forwarders…
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How can we leverage SAP Event Management (EM) functionality? This is a great question because, after all, SAP EM is a tool that is designed to provide end-to-end business process visibility and exception management. Much like you would leverage a workflow solution to enforce certain activities to take place at the right time by the right…
Read MoreAt Reveal, we focus our efforts on those solution components that SAP ERP has delivered to help create Efficient, Responsive Supply Chains. Global outsourcing combined with increasing demand for better customer service and response while remaining compliant towards regulations is a challenge to any Extended Supply Chain. How can companies leverage their solution technologies to…
Read MoreIs it putting data into, or getting information out of your system? Information systems have become an integral part of the business management landscape. It does not replace the years of business knowledge or experienced decisions to situations, but it does enhance the information available to make informed decisions. Is your planning team focused on…
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