Watched

Warehouse Management

WM; P2P; PTM

MB52; MD07; ME2ON

Hey there reveal TV Community, Martin here, back with another opportunity to track down stranded inventory in your supply chain. Now, maybe you're one of the lucky ones where all your inventory lives within the four walls of your environment and have no risk of it sitting elsewhere. Most of us, on the other hand, do find inventory in all different places, and it's amazing what happens with that inventory if it's out of sight, it tends to be, out of mind. Here to shine a light on lingering inventory that may not be in the forefront and awareness of your organization is our friend Kelly. So Kelly, take it away and tell us more about how do we find this inventory that seems to be out of mind, out of sight. So when a bunch of supply chain folks get together over a happy hour, and they are sharing stories, this one often comes up. Inventory, lost, forgotten, neglected stock that everyone remembers, but no one's had an eye on in a while. Today I am going to highlight three common places where inventory might be lurking and accumulating cost. First stock at a subcontractor, toller, or co-packer. Second customer consignment, which while assumed sold, may still pose a risk. And last, but not least, offsite or in the yard storage where excess inventory goes on to live forever. Let's get into it. First up on our hit parade of out of sight, out of mind inventory is the stock we've provided our partners for external processing. In SAP, this is represented as special stock type O, also known as vendor provided stock. What we're looking for here is inventory in excess of requirements or inventory that was not consumed as expected in the last production run. We certainly want to verify the count on what is showing in stock with our partners, and then make a decision on how long we want to leave an excess material with them. Perhaps we can use that stock somewhere else. There are two great ways to identify material in excess of requirements. The first is through exception monitoring, and the second is through subcontracting cockpit. Both are excellent options for keeping the stock top of mind. Second stop, customer consignment. Now you might be thinking, but wait, Kelly, customer consignment is a commitment from our customers. I'm sorry to say, but there are actually two potential costs here. The first is risk of return. This is a commercial policy opportunity and worth verifying with your partners in sales and customer excellence. The second potential cost is when your customer is requiring too much inventory versus how much they are consuming. This restricts availability to our customers if the product is not exclusive. It also can create unexpected gaps in the need to top off their orders and create issues with moving material efficiency. It also can create unexpected gaps in the need to top off their orders and create issues with moving material efficiently through the supply chain. Third and final example for today, what happens when you start keeping inventory on trailers in your yard or need to temporarily rent some additional space? Serious question. How often is that temporary actually temporary? In both cases, we're adding the cost and risking quality, and unfortunately, it's very difficult to get rid of this easy button once it's in play, until the situation is significantly and highly visible. That's no fun for anyone. Now we have three ways to make sure that our inventory is not going out of sight, out of mind. To keep things nice and tidy, we must have regular reviews, just like we did today. We need to have a plan for validation and clean up where needed, and where our inventory is growing, where it's going. We need to reset our policies to eliminate the opportunity for that to happen. Okay, great. I feel a lot better now, but it's kind of half the story though, right? I mean, at the end of the day, everyone has to still go look, decide and act. So keep this inventory moving. Make sure you've got an accurate account with minimal risk. So thanks again, Kelly. Hey folks, if you wanna know more about inventory and we actually have quite a myriad of inventory videos, please check out our video catalog. And if you're struggling to find a specific one, please suggest a recommendation below or just use our chatbot.

Warehouse Management

WM; P2P; PTM

MM03; COGI; LX26; MIBC; MB51

Hey, fellow supply chain aficionados, Martin here. I'm so glad you could join us today. We all know that knowing what inventory we have, where it's located and what's its current stock status is table stakes for driving value out of our SAP engines. Everything starts there. Unfortunately, for many organizations, we find ourselves relying on cycle counts or even annual physicals as a backstop for getting our inventory sorted. And even more unfortunate, sometimes that's as far as the focus goes, it's less diagnostic and more solution, and that's not how it's meant to be. So let's get into it. Today we have Jake. Jake's here to let us know if our count programs are working and what we need to do to get them there. Take it away, Jake. Thanks, Martin. You know, we have all these great topics and I get to talk to people about the potential pitfalls of their physical inventories and cycle count programs. Alright. All right. If I must, I must. So here we go. Today we're going to walk through a couple of ways to verify if you have a cycle count program and if it's actually being followed. I'm going to give you some recommendations for reviewing results and highlight some ways to know if you're doing better or worse as a result of the cycle counting activities that you've got going. So let's dive into SAP and take a look. I can't tell you how many clients say they have an active cycle count program, but what we go in and take a look, it's clear that it's only happening when someone's pushing for it. So first of all, we want to see a nice consistent level of activity around counts. And second, we want to see counts triggered when issues arise. So think COGI or someone trying to go pick only to find that what they're looking for isn't there or a warehouse worker going to put something away only to find that the bin is occupied. So if we look here on the screen, we can see examples of records from a couple of different warehouses. One of them is quite active. The other's not so much. This one was active but seems to have dropped off and the other doesn't seem to be counting much, if at all. Another thing we can look for are bins that are locked and have been for a long time, or count docs that are just hanging out with open counts. All of these things indicate that there's some work to be done, some good habits we can get after developing. Our count program should be governed by the ABC classification of our materials. This sets the frequency requirements of the counts, and it also helps us analyze the results. So if your ABC classes haven't been updated for a long time, that's also an indication that the cycle count program doesn't quite have the teeth that we're looking for to drive the daily habits and get the results. So as you can see here, SAP can help with refreshing that classification for you. One of the things we want to look at when reviewing results is MB51. This is the transaction that tracks all inventory movements. So as we're posting counts, we can see if there were then subsequent adjustments. In other words, did we write down just to write up later or vice versa, or have we've been consistently writing up or down? If we then step back and think about how that material is flowing, we might get some great insights into where the problem lies. Reviewing counts and variances, particularly at physical inventory, is good for generating the report card. Digging into the details and talking with the folks involved gives us the study plan to review an action, and catching issues faster so we understand the cause and take corrective action is the value of a cycle count program. Now I do have to take a moment to talk about human behavior. There's a few things to consider here. First of all, not everyone's great at counting or even identifying products. So if you're not scanning and you put that new person or that intern on loan from HR on the floor, you may get some less than stellar results. Second, some people are more invested in the process than others. If your counts seem to be making it worse rather than better, be sure to take some time to check in, coach, retrain, and then check in again. Let's do this and let's do it well. Cycle counting is a diagnostic tool that lets us know where we're struggling to keep our inventory accurate. So if the results are good, we may not have to go through all the time and expense of a full on physical inventory, and that's what we want. So we need to get really good at this. Research shows that the quality of counts with a consistent cycle count program is much higher than during an annual physical inventory. So when you go to present your results, give them the real feedback and absolute values. Get some meaningful stats to them and drive actions, and count again where there are issues to make sure that we're achieving the results that we're after. This is the way. Awesome, Jake, thank you so much. That's super practical advice and its realistic perspective on this is amazing. Thank you. And thank you for pointing out that an organization can think they have a cycle count program in place, but without careful watching, it can fall stagnant. We've seen this far too many times and it's fully preventable. It's good to revisit the fundamentals now and again. Thanks again, Jake. Hey folks, you want to see more about this video or other details related to it? Please check out our video catalog and if you can find what you're looking for, feel free to use the chatbot.

Demand & Supply Planning

P2P; PTM; OTC

MD04; MM02; ME21N; VA02

Hey folks, Martin here, and today I'm ready to tackle a challenge alongside you. Do you find that the intercompany transfer process just doesn't seem to flow as well and easy as it should? Do you find that service is a struggle and you're competing for priority? We know how frustrating this can be, and it's a common business scenario, so I think we should work it out. Okay, when we need clarity and common ground. Jake is our man today. He will walk us through an example of a basic process so we can be all aligned to how it is expected to flow. Jake, where do we start? The only place to start is at the beginning Martin. Definitions are key. Let me ask you something. Does anyone struggle with intercompany transfers versus intracompany transfers? We're all familiar with intracompany transfers. These are our normal stock transport orders going from plant to plant within the same company code. What we're talking about today are intercompany transfers. These transfers are happening when you're transferring from one company code to another. So today I'll walk through the process and I'll highlight where it often breaks down. So let's dive in and take a look. Alright, so you know, we have to start in the stock requirements list, right? Planning central. It's where all the good stuff lives. Let's level set. This intercompany transfer process is a purchase. Now the terms of that purchase will be unique to your organization. It may be a discrete price or it may be some sort of cost plus model. Whatever makes sense for your organization. In any case, this process starts with a purchase requisition or a schedule line that's generated by MRP and is informed by the rules that we've maintained in SAP. When we say rules for MRP, let's think about how MRP will know where to get it, how many to order and when the purchase order needs to be placed by. If we look at our MRP results, we can determine if we have a nice planning situation or if we need to adjust. If you think, I'm going to change that date or quantity, take a moment. Can we fix a rule or get a better result? Less work for better outcomes is what we're after. But I digress. So back to the process. Let's convert this requisition into a PO by double clicking on the MRP element and choosing convert to purchase order. We'll get all of that good quality data right into our purchase order. We save and now let's go to see what it looks like for the supplying plant. For the supplying plant, we're going to see a sales order. They'll be able to clearly see that this sales order is for one of their sister facilities. They'll be able to acknowledge the order, run ATP, and confirm the order, and adjust the dates or priority as we get closer to that shipment. The sales order will add additional rules like pick, pack, and load time, whether partial shipments are allowed, the delivery priority, and the route. When the product ships and outbound delivery will be created, the goods will be PGI'd, and an inbound delivery can also be created at the receiving plant so that they know the goods are on their way. Now, this all sounds simple, but let me take a moment to share where it can go wrong. First, the receiving plant doesn't respect the lead time or over orders, making it difficult for the supplying plant to deliver on time. This also erodes trust that the requirements are real, and perhaps even worse, it ties up inventory unnecessarily. The receiving plant forgets that the supplying plant has other parties that also need the goods and needs the clearest demand picture possible. Second, the supplying plant constantly changes the date or lowers the priority of the order. They prioritize end customers and production needs first. They may not know that this intercompany order is so the receiving plant can meet the needs of another end customer or one of the other manufacturing floors. And third, the rules are incorrect, which we know leads to bad planning, manual intervention, and second guessing everything. So to address those things, my suggestion is to get closer. Just open up the conversation, put your heads together, and evaluate options. There's no reason why this process can't perform. We just need to invest in understanding. Today we walk through an example of how the process is expected to work and some of the challenges that typically arise. To alleviate some of the common challenges with this process here are a few things to consider. If you're the purchaser, be sure to get your demand into the system at the standard lead time. Buy to your needs and your stocking strategy, and be a good partner to outside customers in your sister facility by negotiating dates and quantities when necessary. For those of you on the supplying plant, treat orders from your sister facility like real orders and communicate with them so they know what's going on and they can meet the needs of the end customer or the manufacturing floor. If you are going to reprioritize the order, be sure to let them know, negotiate and be fair. Thanks, Jake. I think your message there is be clear to be kind. If the message isn't great, then work the problem together. But otherwise, treat that order seriously and honor the commitment. Make a promise, keep a promise. We can do more to take care of one another. Thanks again, Jake. Hey folks, if you want to know more about this topic and others, we have an entire video catalog of items that specifically relate to this topic. And if you have a specific question, please feel free to submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

OTC; P2P; PTM; DM

MD07; MD04

Hey, team Martin here, and let's be clear. No one likes late deliveries or a supply chain that's falling behind. And delayed inbound results leads to delays in manufacturing floor and obviously ultimately to the customer. That's extra days of cycle time, hits to our fill rates, and everyone's favorite headache, fines. Now I have to admit, today's topic sounds a bit odd to me. What does past you mean to you? I'm sorry, but I'm an engineer and I bet many of you are too. Surely past due is a fact, not an opinion. Well, today we have Jason here to help us figure this out specifically. So what does past due actually mean to you? Well, you'd be surprised. I'm kidding. Past due is past due. If it was supposed to be here or there yesterday, it's past due. And if it's past due, it requires some research updating and even intervention. What we're talking about today is how to get a little more proactive, a little more strict and serious about those past dues, and we're going to learn more about how SAP alerts us to situations where we're falling behind. Now, today I'm going to show you the difference between finding overdue elements and the exception message 07 that alerts us when the finish date is in the past. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. So let's get into it. Here I am an MD07 ready to investigate what's happening with the materials I'm responsible for today. When I'm here, I'm not just thinking about the production I need to schedule or the materials I need to procure, but also what I have planned or ordered already, and whether it's on time. If it's not, I need to understand the impact so I can take action. What I want to show you today are some ways to identify the materials with a past due situation to be addressed and answer a common question. Let's go up to find, for you this may be binoculars or it may be a magnifying glass. It might be right at the top of your screen, or you may have a dropdown. All options will take us to the same place. If you've spent any time with Reveal TV, this find function is familiar to you. This is where we go to find MRP elements and materials with particular exceptions. If you want to know the ins and outs and impacts of the different exception messages, just search for them in the video library and you'll find a bunch. And what's interesting here is that we have two signals for past dues. We have an exception message, this guy here, that tells us we have a finished date in the past and we have another one that's let us know that we have a start date in the past. And we even have one that says, plan the process according to schedule, which means we're working inside of the lead time. The one I want to focus on today is the finish date and the past. Let's select that one and find the materials that have this particular exception. Let's call those up, showing the selected materials. There's something really interesting about this exception message. It's oriented to the process. Let me show you. You see this toggle for goods receipt versus available. Well, this exception message is smart and it's going to alert you when you're past your plan GR date. See here, and that's so we can have a chance of taking action before it's supposed to be available. We can communicate to the manufacturing floor or customer service and figure out what our options are. We can see if it's sitting on the receiving dock or investigate if it's in the yard. We have a chance to get ahead of it before the next place that material is destined to support is feeling the impacts. We can make a tough call or a smart decision. Let me go back one layer. I want to compare to the find feature, have two very important notes for you today on a topic we could spend hours discussing. First, we get exceptions on supply elements only. We do not get them on demand elements. I know that one requires a pause, maybe even a verification, and definitely some thinking time. So because we're responsible for the entire planning situation and we want to have a great conversations with the folks in the upstream and downstream processes, we need to monitor both. We can do that with this find feature. This says all MRP relevant elements. So that's first. Second is this. We just saw the finish date in the past exception message gives us a notice if the GR is past due. The find gives us a notice when the available date is past due, so this is a little less proactive, and if you see a difference in the material shown and always wondered why. I love your curiosity, gold star, and a sticker for you. This is why it's different Now, the opposite can be true for our sales orders and deliveries. If we're past the MAD date, it's past due, but we might not be past the PGI date. Just to note in a larger topic to be explored in a future video, but this is why we want to think element by element on how much tolerance there is and do everything we can to keep the system up to date. We gave your curious minds a gold star and a sticker earlier. Unless you really are Dr. Who and have a Tardis at the ready past due is past due, and we want to make sure we update the system with the best information or best estimate we have, and take action as soon as we know so we can properly prioritize, notify, and plan our next move. By far, the most common question we get from customers is, how can I use SAP to help me make and keep a promise to my customers? Well, the first step is ensuring that we have a good cadence of review and action on any items that are past due. The objective of MRP is to supply the demand and let us know when something isn't happening as expected, and unfortunately, the responsibility for planners to review past dues goes beyond inbound goods. We must look at all of the MRP elements. When our data integrity improves, magic happens. Communication improves across the organization to our customers and suppliers, and trust builds in that ability to make and keep a promise. Well, I for one am glad to hear that past due still means past due. If we're late, we're late. And I appreciate the additional insights on searching for past dues versus the exception messages we receive when a process is running behind. So thanks again, Jason. Hey folks, if you want to know more about this topic or others, we have an entire list of videos that you can check out, and if you have a specific question for us, hey, submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

PTM

CO03; CM25; MD07; MD04; COOIS

Hey there, supply chain enthusiasts, Martin here. I have a quick question for you. Are you greeting your Mondays with optimism? When you log into SAP to start the day, does it feel like the week is full of possibility or are you logging into what you know will be a pile of problems? You're not alone. Many of us are greeted with that when we come in on a Monday morning. It's the not so great reset every Monday morning program, if you know what I mean. You leave Friday feeling relatively okay about the plan, and then everything looks wildly different on Monday, and as a result, you're off to the races with emails and team messages, and before you can even take a chance to take your coat off, sit down and breathe, you're stuck. And with all that said, I'm happy to invite Jake to this conversation. If there's somebody who's figured out this in his life, it's this man. He knows about the not so great reset. Take us away, Jake. Hey Martin. I know the dread of walking in on Monday mornings to a full on slug fest. It's not a good way to start the week. So here's what I want to do today. I want to get into SAP and describe some of the most common areas that might be affecting your Monday morning, and then I want to give you a few suggestions on how to address them so that we can lessen the degree of chaos that we see on Monday mornings. None of them are quick fixes, but they can be significantly improved. So let's dive into SAP and take a look. So you may be wondering where this topic came from. Well, first of all, it's a common one. Mondays are often very high stress days for planners and buyers. If you haven't observed this, maybe pay attention next Monday. It's not just coming off the weekend is tough. It's that we're often under pressure, stressed and disoriented because a lot happened between exiting the building on Friday and coming back in on Monday. Now, the second origin story for this topic came from overhearing a conversation with a buyer. She was chatting with one of her colleagues about how SAP messes up her week every week. Guys, it literally felt like SAP was a thinking being with less than great intentions that was just lying in wait, waiting to ruin her Monday. But since SAP has meant to enable processes and empower people, this isn't what we wanted to hear. So let's unpack some of the things that might be happening here. You can see here that I'm at MD07. It's Monday morning, and a lot has happened since I left on Friday. Let me run it down for you. First of all, I've got production orders that did not run or didn't finish on time. Turns out there were issues on the line, some problems with staffing. Oh, and because Ava in the office was out last week, were behind on both confirmations and she's the only one who can fix problems with receiving. Not everything for us is line side or real time yet. As a result, I can't quite tell where we actually are and because Ava was out, I know she's scrambling to figure out what's most urgent. The second thing that I can see is our production supervisors went in and resequenced the schedule I so carefully put together. The weekends, always do this without calling, and it just kills me. We do pretty well during the week, but stuff happens and they keep the lines running. Bad news bears here, because they produced some items that were not on my priority list, I'm missing some of what we need for key customer orders, one of which has been re promised four times. I need to call Brenda and she's not going to be happy about it. Also, they've used some critical materials that we need for other orders. So I'm going to have to rework the schedule for this week before they just start running what they can and make the problem worse. Two other fun things about Mondays. We had our big MRP run over the weekend, so I have all new proposals. That's great, but because of the issues over the weekend and the delays in posting, it's not really what I need and I've got to go in and do a careful review. Man, I wish this was running nightly. We only run MRP once per week per site. The other thing is that we get a glut of customer orders in the wee hours of Monday morning. It's by far the highest volume of orders we get in the week. Unfortunately, they generally arrive after the MRP job and to make things even better, I just found out that the job that reorganizes the forecast happens after the MRP run, but before most of the customer orders hit. No wonder it feels like we're in chaos every Monday morning. Now, if I take a step back and look critically at what we just walked through, I can pull out some things that we can work with. Number one. Look at the activities over the weekend to support quality planning results, can we get those sequenced in a better way? Number two. Cleaning up activities and leveling out postings. Maybe there's a few things we could do there. Number three. Communication with the shop floor. Before I leave on Friday, maybe I can get out there and have a recap going into the weekend on the why behind the schedule and talk through Plan Bs that will hurt us so much and be proactive about it. If you just sit down and write out your Monday morning blockers, I bet there's some things that you can get after too. There's no easy button, and some of these things take time, but trust me, they're worthwhile. Let's create better Mondays. Look, I know this is hard. I've been there before and I see this all the time with our clients. So let's recap a few things that we can work on to make it better. First of all, work on the cadence of activities. For example, make sure that the reorganization of forecast makes sense with the way that the customer orders are hitting. And look at the weekly activity list to see what else is being pushed to the end or the beginning of the week that should happen throughout the week. Second, communicate. Don't just go, all that happened again, talk to your colleagues because this craziness has a cost to it and it impacts your suppliers, your customers, and the efficiency on the manufacturing floor. And as you're asking others for adjustments to how they want to do things, offer your support and either provide it or be an advocate when they ask leadership for it. Alright, thank you Jake. Obviously a world with better Mondays would be a beautiful thing, so thank you. So team, what other things drive your Mondays crazy? Reach out and let us know. You're not the only ones and we can share and help to address this with our fellow planners. Alright, folks, if you want to know more about this and obviously talk to Jake some more, there are some videos on this specific topic about keeping the chaos at bay, and if you can find it, feel free to use the chatbot.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

ME3N; ME33K; ME01; VB13

Hello fellow leaders, Martin here. This is a timely video. We're right in the midst of uncertainty related to tariffs, and many companies are on a journey of transitioning in their supply base. As you focus on where to take your business and do the hard work of supply qualification, we'd like to highlight a couple of the key features in SAP to support you in making the transition happen more effectively. So today, to help us with this specific strategy and some of the tactical elements around it is Ed. Ed, can you help us highlight some of these areas that we can use to help weather this particular storm? This is not an easy time and things are changing rapidly. I think we can all use all the help we can get, and that means putting SAP in supporting our ever evolving sourcing strategies. Today we're going to look at three features that we can leverage to help lessen the burden of dynamic changes, set our partners, old and new, up for success and ease the growing pains of transition. On today's tour, we'll review how contracts , source list and material determination can help us keep the train on the tracks. Let's hop over to SAP and take a look. Have you started working with purchasing contracts in your organization? If not now might be a great time to start exploring how contracts can support your sourcing strategy. In times of turmoil, we often find that our clients will turn to large PO's in order to secure inventory or lock in a price. We'd like you to consider the benefits of using purchasing contracts instead. Purchasing contracts support our commercial commitments while allowing MRP to continue to do its job of calling off orders when they're needed. In fact, if you are a large organization with multiple plants, you can even use a central contract that can consolidate your total commitments in actual spend. We can see here that this contract is in place for a specific quantity that we've committed to at a specific price and validity period. We can also see that we've started calling off this contract and how many additional units are still to be secured under this agreement. As demand shifts, we can then manage our volume commitments with our suppliers and adjust as necessary. This can be very helpful when transitioning from one source to another or committing to a temporary alternate source of supply for commoditized materials, and also an added benefit of dealing with temporary negotiated price adjustments that require a spend or volume commitment. Another essential tool to support your strategy is the source list feature in SAP. Source lists allow you to set validity periods for sources of supply, temporarily blocked sources of supply, change the fixed source or supply, and choose which source is relevant for ongoing planning via MRP. This is also where we can reference the contracts to call off from. When we set these rules in place, then it becomes very easy in execution. We don't have to manually manage the assignment of source, try to figure out lead times and when we need to send a PO, or manually control the price. Where we have specific volume limitations or volume splits among suppliers we can also use quota arrangements to help us meet our goals and agreements. Before we wrap, let's discuss one more feature. SAP has two techniques for managing material substitutions. Alternative materials for raw materials and material substitution for finished goods. We can use these two techniques to push some or all of our demand to a different material on a temporary or long-term basis. This makes the effort of controlling the speed, qualification, and approved for use portion of the transition, easier to manage via rules rather than manual intervention, conversion and tracking. Strategy drives execution and SAP will follow the rules that we lay out. Let's get away from spreadsheets and into the system so that our teams can focus on the value added outcome oriented work. Transitioning sources of supply can be challenging, but we have solid tools available to put our strategies into action. We recognize how painful source transitions can be during quiet times. It is 10 times worse when we're under pressure. Now's a great time to look for ways that SAP can support you. A couple of key considerations. Master data, master data, master data. Not only does it help us get the planning right, but it also helps ensure we're accounting for our purchases correctly. Think Country of Origin and HTS codes in addition to things like lot sizes, lead times, price scales, and effectivity dates. What is your strategy? Getting the rules in SAP allows it to get to work, to build you a good quality, properly source plan for replenishment and all along the way, you'll want to monitor performance. We have several videos on monitoring supplier performance. Be sure to check those out. Wow, thank you Ed, much appreciated. A lot of what we discussed today is the upfront work that allows the system to pick up the heavy lifting on delivering your sourcing strategy. So by thinking through these rules, you add structure, which reduces chaos and we could all do with a little bit of chaos right now. So folks, if you want to learn more about this topic or other current news and how to deal with SAP to react to it, please check out our video catalog. There's plenty of answers there.

Quality & Batch Management

P2P; PTM; QM

MD07; MD04; MB52

Hey there fellow supply chain enthusiast Martin here. We've had a few questions recently around where working capital might be tied up and a little less obvious. Well, this one sounds obvious, but yet we find it's often not well mentioned or monitored, and even less well actioned. We're talking today about inventory that is sitting in quality inspection stock. Not only is the inventory sitting in a non-usable status, it's typically MRP relevant and not being replenished. This can lead to a lot of sticky situations and hidden costs. Here to help us today and address this particular thing is Kelly. Kelly, how do we get a handle on this and bring the hidden costs to quality holds out into the open to be addressed. Hey, Martin, this can be a tricky one. Quality holds are legit. So how do you find the opportunity to reduce cost free up inventory and close order cycles faster? There's three good places to get started. First, what's sitting on quality inspection that's past due? Second, what's parked in quality inspection, stock status, that's not in an active lot. That's essentially inventory on hold. And lastly, what's hanging out because it's been returned or it needs to be returned. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. Good news. Finding outdated inspection lots is not difficult. They can be found using some of the quality T codes to produce a quick list. Our friends in quality should be looking for past due usage decisions regularly. If this has never been introduced to the team or if it's been a minute since they've run a list like this, we've published a video that will help them get up and running. Another good place to find past due quality inspection lots is in MD07, where as planners, we perform our exception monitoring. If we go to find and then to MRP elements, we can see that we have quality inspection lots that are clearly past due. If it's past due, then we need to follow up. These items may be stuck in the process, or they may be lost. In any case, we need to know and commit to the action. Now, sometimes inventory gets placed into quality inspection status, but not on a quality inspection lot. This is very common, and when that's the case, there are no dates to look at. To know how long it's been there, you have to go through some serious Inspector Gadget work on the transaction history. We can and should monitor quality stock on a regular cadence. Quality status can quickly become like the junk drawer of SAP, and the worst part is, MRP thinks it is available for us today. You can see here I'm looking at the perpetual inventory in MB 52. So here's the deal. MRP thinks this inventory is good, so it's not replacing it. When you find out you do have to replace it, expediting occurs, disruption occurs, customer fines occur. None of this is good. Last but not least, most organizations have a quality hold process for customer returns, and some also use it for returns to vendors. For return to vendors, we should be getting the PO cut as soon as possible. Don't let it linger. Quality holds are meant to be temporary. Time spent in quality hold that's not intentional is where one of the biggest hidden cost of quality lies. Let's bring it out into the open. Today we took a good look at the different places where costs might be accumulating unnoticed. When confronted with this opportunity, a triage is often required to get things sorted with a solid cadence of activities, to keep things on track. To stay on track, we need to regularly review what's out there. Don't let the hidden costs accumulate again. And we all know making decisions on the inventory sitting in the quality bucket can be tough, but we need to stay committed to making decisions in a timely manner and moving trapped inventory along its way. So what's lurking in your supply chain? Kelly just gave us a couple great ways to find out. Chances are the cost of quality hold is much higher than appreciated. It is one of those items when we really think about it, we know it's costly, but just as easily goes unnoticed. Not anymore, not with these skills. Hey folks, if you want to find out more about some of these quality holdups or just to use quality better, we have a myriad of videos for you to check out, and if you can't find something, you have a burning question, please submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

OTC; P2P; PTM

Monitor Material Coverage

Hey there, fellow Reveal TV goers, Martin here. How often are you asked this question? How long will you be out of stock? How do you provide those answers? Is it efficient? Are you talking about current orders only or back to safety stock levels ready to support the forecast? How much time is taken away from the proactive planning to stop, fill out a spreadsheet and yet again, send another email. Well, we have some new tools for you to check out, quick visualizations and perhaps even options through resolution on these shortage situations. Here to talk us through some more of these examples is Leon. Leon, tell us more about how do we visualize these stockouts proactively. Hi everyone. If you are looking for a good reason to get excited about working in Fiori, this one might just fit the bill. I'm going to give you a tour of one of my favorite apps and show you three things today. First, I'll show you a view that looks very familiar, a planner's comfort zone, our much loved stock requirements list. Second, I'll add onto that with a heat map that shows where the gaps in supply are and how long they are going to be there. There's a number of filters that we can also apply to gauge how critical the situation is. I'll finish up by showing you a chart that tracks our inventory position over time and give you a little insight into how SAP can help you resolve shortages with recommendations. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. I'm going to give you a tour of one of my favorite apps and show you three things today. First I'll show you a view that looks very familiar, a planner's comfort zone, our much loved stock requirements list. Second, I'll add onto that with a heat map that shows where the gaps in supply are and how long they are going to be there. There's a number of filters that we can also apply to gauge how critical the situation is. I'll finish up showing you a chart that tracks our inventory position over time and gives you a little insight into how SAP can help you resolve shortages with recommendations. I like anything that drives clarity to a situation and helps point us in a direction to resolve the issue. This app does just that. It highlights exceptions so we can manage them. It allows us to simulate options for resolution, and most importantly, it provides options for adopting the recommendation. For many of us, that last part is opportunity for the future. If you're looking for a reason to drive excellent data integrity and rules in SAP, this is your sign. Put SAP to work for you. I like anything that drives clarity to a situation and helps point us in a direction to resolve the issue. This app does just that. It highlights exceptions so we can manage them. It allows us to simulate options for resolution, and most importantly, it provides options for adopting the recommendation. For many of us, that last part is opportunity for the future. If you're looking for a reason to drive excellent data integrity and rules in SAP, this is your sign. Put SAP to work for you. Uh, thanks Leon. I do like the self-service nature of these visualizations, of course that you provided us, so thank you. This is an opportunity to drive focus and actions. And I can see the potential outcome executing, if we have the necessary quality of data, and that's a big if Leon, as you know. That would bend the curve on more real time visibility for our colleagues who are looking for answers. I like this a lot, thank you. Hey folks, if you can find what you're looking for in the video catalog, hey, please submit something in the suggestion box below. Otherwise, feel free to use the AI chatbot as well.

Sales & Operations Planning

OTC; P2P; PTM; DM

MC62; MC93; MC90

Hey, SAP practitioners. I am Martin. And in this video we're going to explore a lesser known value created that's available in your SAP environment. Did you know that you have capabilities today to get you started with building a consensus demand plan without buying additional software? It's a great way to get started, gain some experience and see what works before you seek out advanced planning solutions. Here to chat to us about this specifically today, I'm going to introduce to you John. John's going to take us through flexible planning and teach us a little bit about how to use this as a demand consensus tool. Take it away, John. Hey, thanks, Martin. Advanced planning solutions can be an enormous value add to your business. However, the learning curve around what is needed and where to start can be tough and there tends to be a lot of rework in the build process. So perhaps before we do that, it would make sense to exploit what we have already available in ECC Today. I'm going to give you a sneak peek into flexible planning. I'll talk a bit about planning hierarchies, and I'll also hit on some of the key figures, KPIs and macro capabilities within the solution. Spoiler re alert. It's very flexible. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. So, as I mentioned, the vehicle for facilitating the consensus demand planning process in SAP's ECC that we'll be looking at today is called flexible planning. This is one of the two tools that can support your overall sales and operations planning review process. The other is simply called the sales and operations planning. It has great functionality too, but it is less flexible than flexible planning. We'll give you a tour of that solution in another video. I'd like to start here. This is my planning book. It represents the products or accounts and locations that I'm responsible for planning. It offers a visual representation of my planning hierarchy and allows me to drill down to the level of planning I need to work at in order to produce the best quality plan. Planning hierarchies are one of the most important decisions in setting up any sales and operations planning process and with flexible planning we have loads of options on how we can set this up. My planning book is made up of characteristics and key figures. You can see here that I have order history so that I can see the basis for any statistical forecast that I might perform or compare to any of the forecasts that I may receive from sales, marketing or the customer. I can also use this to measure forecast value add to see if we are moving the needle on quality versus a naive forecast. You'll also see that I've set up a number of copy operations and I can invoke macros to move through the process. This is a very simple use case for quite robust functionality. Our macros can also help us to build out metrics, dollarize the plan, or make repeat processes more efficient. To create my statistical forecast, I can choose the level of the planning hierarchy where I have a reasonable signal, and then run the model according to the statistical profile that I have set up. I also have the ability to aggregate up, disaggregate down, or lock forecasts at different levels. This is helpful if I need to apply an increase or a decrease to only certain members of the hierarchy. When reviewing all of these inputs from key stakeholders, I can build what if scenarios and store these as an upside or a downside version of my plan . And once we've decided I can take the final numbers to the consensus demand plan line or transfer to either supply planning for rough cut capacity and sourcing, or demand management for final planning by MRP. We could spend days exploring the bells and whistles of what flexible planning has to offer to support your demand planning process. I hope today gives you a little insight and drives your curiosity to explore whether this might be an opportunity for your organization. As we've seen here today, we have a load of capability right here, right now in SAP ECC. If you're new to flexible planning, there is untapped potential here. Before I go, a little business side advice, the consensus demand planning process is cultivated over time. It takes a concerted effort to drive participation and value for the time invested. It's critical to measure and report on quality and performance and show where the improvements are happening. As you're thinking about what this might look like for your organization, I hope this preview of what flexible planning could offer you helps to craft your next steps towards driving a quality consensus demand plan. Hey, John, I love this opportunity to work through kind of like a proof of value through this specific asset that we already own before we invest in something new. So thanks again. Getting a quality signal into SAP is so important and all too often we run into organizations that struggle to get started with this process. The good news is there is a plan forward with SAP. Hey folks. I know sometimes we want to jump to advanced planning, but sometimes it's also okay to step back and kind of look at the basics and see what you have. If you're looking more for some of those videos, there's a whole catalog on that. But if you are looking from some advanced tools, what S/4 can bring for us, use the chatbot and find some of those as well.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MM02; MD04; MD02

Hello, supply chain professionals, Martin here with an interesting topic for today. Have you ever reviewed your MRP results and wondered why you're not seeing a message recommending a date reschedule when you're clearly not expecting the material on time? Well, it might be due to a feature in SAP call a rescheduling tolerance. Here to help us today is our friend Brian. Brian, tell us more about this tolerance and how it can help. Hey Martin. Oh, I've seen this a time or two, and it's very confusing for people. Uh, what this function does is it tells MRP when to propose a reschedule and when it's close enough to on time that I can't do anything about it on the planning side. This tolerance shuts down the exception message. So you aren't going to find these materials if you're searching by say, an exception message 10 or 15. Now there are tolerances for both forwards and backwards displacement, and we're going to take a look at both of these today. Note that these settings can be at the MRP group level, which gives us a really good option for grouping and prioritizing materials based on the criticality to the process. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. Let's start by giving you the lay of the land here. What I've done today is set up 3 MRP groups with 3 different sets of rescheduling tolerances. What we'll do is look at the current planning situation, which has the problem Martin was talking about. Easiest place to start is the stock requirements list. Now let's use a common scenario that we hear all the time so long as we're aligned within the week we're good. Way back in the day, someone said that to IT, or your implementation partner, and taking you at your word they suggested that you set your forward and displacement horizons to 5 days. Sounds okay. Maybe even good, right? So MRP goes, cool. Now I'm a rules follower. I love rules. If you want me to tell you if something is coming in more than 5 days late, or if something is coming in 5 days early and then to tell you the date is really needed on. If it's closer than that, then no alert needed 'cause we're in the ballpark. So, good enough, time marches on, you're getting good at this whole single source of truth, SAP MRP planning thing. You're starting to rely on it a little bit more, and as a planner, you've realized you've created a black hole or a dead zone where MRP is thinking we're good, but we're not. Because the manufacturing floor isn't happy with 5 days late. The warehouse doesn't have the labor or storage for 5 days early. Your subcontracting partner is trying to plan your business and your customers want you to keep your promises. So let's change it. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'm going to choose a different MRP group where the only difference is the rescheduling tolerance. Let's enter that, let's save it, let's run MRP. Now we've gone to a smaller tolerance and our results should be a bit more lively. Let's refresh and see. Oh yeah. Here's a bunch more messages for us to be able to react to. Now we're really cooking. I'm going to change this again and make it super noisy. There's kind of a goldilock scenario here where you have to think through, what is too much, what's not enough, and what's just right? It's not about the message we want to hear, it's about what we need to hear so we can take action. Action might be communicating that something is late and replanning it. It may mean telling a warehouse or subcontractor that something is coming in early. It may involve a communication with a customer. Early is inventory on the shelf waiting and working capital tied up. Late is a risk to the next step in the process chain. So group your materials by behavior and criticality and you can start to dial in those horizons. I'll give you one more example before we head back to the studio. We have a customer who transfers product internationally. They did not want to see reschedule out messages within the transportation lead time, which makes sense, right? However, they did want to see messages for move-ins so they could manage their production schedule. So I'm from a production planning background, and yes, we're going to catch this via the material availability check, but man, it's easier if we get consistent, proactive messages at the time that we can do something about it. Rescheduling tolerances are one of the several ways we can dial this in and really make the messages we're getting meaningful. Now, today we went through a few very key things. We took a look at the effect changing the rescheduling tolerance has, particularly in the MRP run. We saw the black hole effect that can be so darn confusing for folks, and we talked through some of the key considerations to make sure that the tolerances that are in place provide meaningful signals. That we can act on and not just noise. Interesting stuff, Brian. Thank you. So what do you think, folks? What are the right thresholds for your business? If you haven't had a chance or a conversation recently about that, I would recommend you do that. Maybe it's a time to revisit. Hey folks, if you have a specific question for us on this topic, or either please submit it below.

Production & Capacity Planning

P2P; PTM

CM01; MD07; CM25

Hey there, SAP enthusiasts, Martin here. If you went out and ran your exception messages right now, how many rescheduled out messages would you find? Most planners do not pay much attention to reschedule out messages as they should. Why? Because we're focused on the urgent and the immediate needs, were focused on the shortages. Here to spark some thoughts around the benefits of reschedule out messages is Tom. Tom, why is it so important and what exactly do we need to look out for? I didn't say the messages are fantastic. I said there was a fantastic thing about reschedule out messages. Of course, they aren't fantastic. It means we're behind our sales plan and that's never fun. But guess what? To Martin's point, as planners, we're always trying to recover where we're short. We're working those reschedule ins, we're hunting for available capacity, labor, and materials, so we can accommodate those immediate and urgent needs. Reschedule outs are a hidden treasure trove of relief. Let me show you what I mean. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. I love working with the manufacturing floor and I take the job of producing a reasonable, realistic, and stable schedule for them very seriously. I also love working with the customer service teams to do the very best job we can do for the customer. Let's be real though, none of these jobs are easy, but it's my job to try to make their jobs easier. As a production planner, I've got several tools I use every day. I use capacity evaluation to check in on my lines and the graphical planning board to level, load, and sequence my schedule. I perform material availability checks to make sure I'm only sending work that has materials required. I'm doing all the pre-flight checks. But things happen. Supply chain is an adventure. Things don't always go as planned, and fortunately we do get exception messages that let us know where our attention is needed. Here I am in MD07. I have several MRP controller numbers that I'm responsible for, and I've done my best to make logical groupings of materials based on how they're processed through manufacturing. You can see here I have a few message 30s, those are super urgent. I also have several message 10s, which are materials looking for a better date. The good news is that while I don't have any cancellations, I do have some reschedule out message 15s, and each of those represents an opportunity to free up machine time, labor, and materials that may be needed sooner somewhere else. Now these are precious commodities, so I'm not going to free them up just for a drop in order, but I know I might be able to do so. Right now I know I'm over capacity on this line, so I'm moving this order out would help me to move another order I need right now in. Before I do that, I'll run a material availability check to make sure I don't waste the exchange. You can start to see how I think about putting the pieces of the puzzle together for a better outcome. We can start to see some real value from what may seem like nuisance messages. Start thinking about them as potential remedies for a pressing problem, and you'll be able to get some significant value from investing time and reschedule outs. If I move it out, I create space for something else to move in. See here, this is what we want to see. Welcome back. When we're able to act on those reschedule out messages, it's a real opportunity to reduce waste. That shelf space, labor, capacity, or materials may be used to get products out the door to our customers. The other thing those messages can do for us is to prompt a compelling, critical thinking conversation. If there's a bunch of reschedule outs, is there something unexpected going on? Is there an offset somewhere else? Can we help demand planning by sharing what we're seeing? This is a good exception message to pay attention to. It can be very important and surprisingly helpful. I like the glass half full approach Tom, thank you. What you're saying is absolutely true. I think I'll use that treasure trove of relief the next time someone asks me about reschedule outs. Thanks for the humor. Hey folks, we have a whole catalog of videos about similar topics or even expanded versions of this topic. If you are looking and struggling to find it, we have an AI chatbot that will actually help recommend some videos to you. Check it out.

Demand & Supply Planning

OTC; DM; P2P; PTM

MD04; VA02; COR3,

Hey everyone, Martin here, and I'm here to introduce you to a topic that tends to cause a lot of friction with most organizations. Are you ready for this one? When you think about how you run your supply chain and what your expectations of performance are. Are you driving to customer requested date, market lead time, or the confirm date you promised to the order? Okay, next question. Would everyone give the same answer? And last question, does SAP know which one you are driving towards? So it's giving you the right signals, exceptions, and alerts, or is this a custom report when maybe a power BI or maybe even a spreadsheet? Good news, everyone. Jason's here to make the complex topic simple. Jason, take it away. The bar has been set. Make the complex simple. Thanks Martin. Let's start with this. There are a few measures of success we can think about. The first is whether we're capable to meet our customer's requested delivery date. That's all about how well we anticipate demand, how well we've worked with our customers on what lead times they should be planning for, and how well we've positioned our inventory or build time to meet customer needs. The second measure of success is how reliable we are. So whether we were capable to respond when the customer wanted the goods or services, or we provided a different date, did we meet that date? Can they trust what we tell them even if the news isn't ideal? Can they plan their activities based on what we've told them? As we sort through this, keep in mind that we need to decide if we're driving to requests or promise so that we have good alignment of signals in SAP that drive the right behaviors across the different functions in the supply chain. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. You know what? It's not so much that it's complex. The question is simple. If your customer submits an order today for delivery today, and you don't have what you need for that order. Are you going to drive your supply chain to expedite, or are you going to go make the promise based on your best available date and hold yourself accountable to that date? SAP has the ability to drive the supply chain to either scenario, and the key is to get everyone on the same page. If you're sitting here going, but Jason, why would we ever stop trying to meet the customer request date? Let me give you a few examples. I'm a small business owner and I run a 3D printing business out of my garage. We make these really cool elephant shaped phone holders in a bunch of different colors. I'm on Etsy and one night they do a little promo. All of a sudden my little for fun one I can business is getting some serious volume. So I've placed an order for resin, with you, and depending on when that's going to arrive, I'm firing up the 3D printing factory. We got these three little girls with very full schedules, it's summertime, so we're getting ready to go on vacation and the sale of these phone cases is our pocket money for fun stuff on our trip. So I submit my order. My request date is a generous 3 days, but you are out of stock. You send me back a confirmation for 2 weeks from now. Okay, well, I'm a little disappointed because we leave for vacation in 7 days. I call you and confirm, yes, that's the best you can offer. Okay, so I adjust our activity schedule to accommodate the lack of bonus pocket money. Hey, we're still going on vacation, no biggie, and I'm clear on the plan. I learned I need to allow more lead time next time, and I know we'll be back before the shipping arrives, so it won't be sitting out in the elements or where someone might decide it's theirs and not mine. So what are your planners seeing? What do you expect them to do? The majority of time, they're going to see the date they need to have material available to meet my requested delivery date. In fact, they may prioritize my order over someone else's that has just come in and try to get it to me, first in first out. There may be expedite fees for material changeovers and manufacturing or expedited freight, all driven by trying to get me that order as soon as possible. Everyone's trying to do the right thing and the best thing for the company but here's the thing. I no longer expect to receive those goods in 3 days or 4 days, or even 12 days, you told me 2 weeks and I'm on vacation. I have my activities planned around what you've told me. News wasn't great, but now I've planned for it and the only thing that makes bad news, in this case not being capable to supply what I wanted when I wanted it, worse, is to then be unreliable in what you've told me. Now, there are a couple of good ways to change the signal to the planners and SAP, so we're driving to the customer agreement and lessening the churn where appropriate. Well be sure to offer walkthroughs on those techniques and future videos. All I ask you today is to give it some thought. Will you drive your supply chain to customer request? No matter how reasonable or unreasonable that request is, or will you come to agreement with your customer and then drive to the date that you've promised. I suggest this, always work on capability, but make sure you're killing it with reliability. If you're going to make a promise, keep that promise, and make it clear to your customer if that's the promise date that you will drive to, or if it is the on or before date. Clarity is key. This is a big topic that takes dedicated time and conversation to sort through. It is not an easy undertaking, but I promise you that it is a worthwhile endeavor. I've seen plenty of organizations living in chaos because they have not wrangled the point of view and subsequent rules in SAP to keep everyone aligned on chasing what matters. This is a strategic decision that needs to be mutually agreed to across functional areas, and ultimately we need to get those rules into SAP. An organization cannot scale or thrive in collaboration when the strategy is not clear and the rules are not aligned. Thank you for the walkthrough, Jason, much appreciated. This topic will be further explored in other videos. It's a key pillar to sorting out friction points across the organizations. Being smart in how we prioritize our time, money, and resources, and provide exceptional service to our customers is critical. Hey, folks, as we mentioned earlier, there's quite a lot of videos on them and each one has a nuance to this particular topic. So just go check out our video catalog, and of course, if you have a very specific question about this or actually frankly any other topic, feel free to reach out.

SAP Optimization

DM; P2P; PTM; WM

MC50; MD07; MB52

Hello Reveal TV community, Martin here. Many organizations struggle with finding a mix of inventory that delivers on the service levels that customers expect. When fill rates go down, we start to stock up, up, and up. But guess what? We don't always get the mix right. At some point, we have to face the music and go find the inventory that needs to be addressed and make some tough decisions. So here to help us today is our friend Jake. Jake, what do you recommend we do about managing this? You know, Martin, I'm a big fan of the movie Jerry McGuire, like everybody. Show me the money. Show me the money. That's what all that underperforming inventory actually is. It's working capital that's tied up and it may not be helping us to meet our customer needs. But how do we find it? Today we're going to hop into SAP and take a look for the highest contributors to something called dead stock, and then I'll show you where you can review days of forward coverage. Lastly, we'll cruise on over to look at what might be hiding in block stock. So let's dive into SAP and take a look. Can we just take a moment to appreciate how powerful SAP really is? It's such a treasure trove of information when we take the time to explore what it has to offer. Today, we're going to deal with an everyday supply chain problem, monitoring our inventory performance. I'm going to get SAP to show me the money. So where should we go first? Well, it just so happens that I'm an optimist by nature. I like potential. I love opportunities. And I think I know where we can find some. How familiar are you with dead stock? Like it sounds terrible, right? Well, you could choose to see it that way, or you could choose to see it as potential or opportunity. Here we are looking at one of SAP's document evaluation reports. This particular one highlights dead stock. Dead stock is the lowest level of inventory over the period of evaluation. This inventory is untapped potential. It may include some overprotective safety stock, or reflect larger than life lot sizes. In either case, it's like those extra 5 or 10 pounds that we just can't seem to get rid of that tends to increase over time if we don't get it in check. The point is there's definitely money there. Next up, let's head over to very familiar territory. I love starting each day with MD07 or the collective view of the stock requirements list. In here we'll find some really helpful pointers to where the money might lie. Let me highlight a few things for you. First, our green lights can help us find where we're storing inventory, but how much? Let's look a little further to the right. Here we find our days of forward coverage. Think of this as a mini pipeline report. This is highly configurable, so check out our other videos on exactly how, but in the meantime, know that we can get an idea of what we have, what's on its way and what we're committed to. And of course, we can also find materials that have cancel messages. No one likes to cancel an order, and sometimes we can't. But it's so important not to become complacent. And to ask or look for ways to find purpose for these inbound goods. Have a conversation, you might get the help or support you need, and at the very least you'll build awareness. We have so many options to identify opportunities and even to take action. So last but not least, and here we can't avoid it, guys. Block stock. Let's head to MB52. I know no one wants to go through the disposition process. It's the ultimate coming to terms with our misplaced or unfulfilled plans moment, but loads of things end up lurking in block stock and we need to keep it clean. Just last week I was visiting with a client who admitted that they've had items in block stock that they've counted in the last seven annual physical inventories. Ouch! But look at all this potential. Look at the great tools we have to find these opportunities, and you know what? We haven't even scratched the surface. What are some of your favorite ways to explore opportunities to find the money held up in your supply chain? You know, there's another great line from Jerry McGuire. It's, help me, help you. Help me, help you. As a planner I've wanted to say this to my colleagues and even to our customers so many times. So here's what we're going to do. This is your call to action. Go find someone to show what you've learned here today. Show them the money and ask them to help you to help them with clear and open communication. You got to keep an eye out and get beyond the story to the action. If we start to have those good conversations, we can make great strides towards better inventory performance. Well, thanks again, Jake. Thanks for teaching me and of course, our whole Reveal TV community. Show me the money. I love it. Let's get the best possible inventory performance out for our investments. Hey folks, we talk a lot about SAP being an investment in assets specifically, so if you need to know how to exploit this asset some more, please check out our video catalog we've got plenty of topics on that.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

MD04; MM02; MD02; MDVP; CM25; COR2

Greetings from the studio, Martin here, and today we're addressing a common challenge. Order churn as we work to stabilize our production schedule to best meet the needs of our customers, hold the right inventory and set our suppliers up for success. Well, it's a delicate balance between agility and predictability. So how do you manage through that conundrum and be who you need to be for your customers? We're going to get into a conversation around managing dispatch horizons in SAP and here to help us is Brian. So Brian, what should we be thinking about as we explore dispatch horizons and production planning in SAP? Well, Martin, the job of a production planner or scheduler is not easy. Their job is to produce a schedule that's reasonable, realistic, and actionable for the shop floor. They're constantly working to balance inventory, investment service levels, and operational efficiency. The good news is that we've got a bunch of tools that help set us up for success. Today we're going to walk through the planning cycle of an order to reduce churn and put the appropriate boundaries in place for where we're doing the work and where MRP is doing the work for us. Let's get into SAP and take a look. Let's start out here in the stock requirements list . As you can see here, we've got a pretty active material with a combination of planned orders and production orders. If you're in process industries, these are planned orders and process orders for you. My material is here throwing a lot of exception messages, and the churn on the sales order side has been less than stellar. So , I want to start working this problem thinking about it a little bit differently. The first thing I'm going to do is to establish my zone of control. This is going to be the baton pass between MRP realigning dates and me realigning dates. Now, there are some trade-offs to consider here. I have to be working actively on the planning and managing my exceptions every day, when I put in the planning time fence it will keep MRP from putting an order on the inside of that time fence. If I'm under serving the demand, I'm going to get orders parked outside of the fence with exception messages. MRP will do the math for me and tell me how many I need to move into my schedule and what that date should be, but it will not move orders inside the fence. It's a healthy boundary. If I'm moving it in, chances are I need to take another action to make that work. It's my job to review and decide. Think of any time beyond the time fence as the free zone. Let's hit refresh on the stock requirements here and see the effect. See here, it's respecting the fence now and I'll need to decide what to do with those orders, but I've got a much cleaner picture inside of the fence. Any orders inside of the fence should be going through all of the pre-flight checks. Will I have the material, labor and capacity available to produce them? If all signs point to yes, then I can start work on laying in my schedule and begin dispatching and sequencing my planned orders. I will be able to see the status change and my cross-functional counterparts will be able to see what I'm actively working on, the schedule for those orders. Now, if the answer was no on any of these pre-flight checks, I have some follow up to do. I do not want orders hanging out in that slushy zone with uncertainty on whether we can execute them for very long. As we march closer to the start of manufacturing, we're going to keep monitoring these pre-flight checks and when the time comes to convert the planned order into a production order, we'll want to be especially watchful, and then especially so as we get to release the production or process order to the shop floor. Each of these statuses are important,an order should progress through them in a thoughtful manner. Alright, let's recap. Released orders. Totally in the firm zone, minimal changes and only with communication. These are the changes you bring to the morning standup and make sure everybody knows about. Created orders and or planned orders inside the planning time fence. These make up your slushie zone as you work to optimize the schedule, prioritize the use of constrained materials, tools, or capacity, and make sure all of the other pieces for a successful transition to the shop floor are in place. You control what orders are able to be pulled inside the time fence and there are expedite messages. Planned orders outside the planning time fence should not be firmed and should be planned by MRP. This is where MRP is most useful in matching supply and demand without having to review and decide. You know, it's been a real pleasure for me to set and lead planning teams, for a variety of organizations. I have a real appreciation for how challenging the role of a production planner or scheduler really is, and I know there were times where I didn't know how to put SAP to work for me and my organization. I hope our conversation today helps you. Remember, we should embrace the concept of firm, slushy and free zones. We want to control the churn, but allow MRP to work for us as long as it's reasonable, and we want to take advantage of tools like the planning time fence to help create that healthy boundary where we're in control to stabilize and decide what's best. Hey, Brian, I know you've truly lived this life. Thank you for sharing some of the suggestions with the team today, much appreciated. So if you want to learn more about how to get the most of your SAP system or just check out some of the other curious videos we have for you, please check out our catalog.

SAP Optimization

P2P; PTM; WM

MM60; MM03; CL03N

Hey there, SAP supply chain aficionados Martin here, and today we're on a quest to unlock the hidden treasures within your SAP system. Okay, ready to reveal some full potential. Let's jump right in. In this video, we're going to be digging into a topic that is very helpful in driving clarity and focus in how we set up critical master data that allows for quick reference in SAP. So here's the question. Are smart material numbers really smart? We're happy to have Jason here. Jason, I know this is a topic near and dear to your heart. This is a hotly debated topic. We've seen organizations set up their material numbers in a lot of different ways, some very successful, and some that have had to try to repair what they thought was really smart logic at the time. Please tell us a little bit more about whether that was smart or not smart to set up the materials that way. Here's the thing, smart numbers really are attractive. They let us derive information about the material at a quick glance, and this builds familiarity in a common frame of reference. But if you choose to go this route, it is an absolute imperative that you continually review and refine your structure so there's absolute consistency in the approach. This allows you to keep the assignment within the structure straight. If the structure isn't healthy and robust then we're really not going to realize value from this effort. And we do typically shy away from smart numbers for a couple of good reasons. First, there are limitations. If you're not super smart about it, you could box yourself in and run out of runway to keep up with the business. Second, you have so many master data attribute fields available on SAP. This can be your alternative to achieving that common frame of reference you're looking for. So let's go in and take a look. So I'm going to jump over to MM60 where we can search by material group. So I'm going to pop in here. I'm looking for a pump and there are different ways I can do that. So I can use the find function and just say pump, hit go, and it'll show me that I can use the find next button and it'll go to the next one. So that's a pretty cool way to do it. Or I can pop in here and search on the material description and to make sure I get everything, I am going to use wild cards, and there I am. So I'm going to select this 00120 pumps group. If I know the plant code, I can enter it here, but I want to search the organization as a whole so I'm just going to hit go. And there we have it, all the pumps and the plants in which they exist. So if I need a quick replacement, this is one quick way I can go to see what my options are. We can also use product hierarchy as a way of classifying. So I'm going to go to MM03, the material master, and I'm going to do a search here. Another thing I want to point out is look at all the different match code options that I have here. So there's a bunch of different ways that I can configure my search of the material master, but for now, I'm going to go with product hierarchy. And so here, I'm going to click this drop down. I'm going to click on the machines group and say, next level, I'm going to click on pumps, go to next level, and then finally, I'm going to select this 00T00100 by double clicking, and now I'm going to go, and here are all the items that have that particular setup. So across my organization, we've got all these materials that have that exact same product hierarchy. So just another way to figure this out, I'm going to refine this just a little bit, I'm going to put in a sales org , and we will show one more trick. So here I have the option as well to do control Y to highlight, and then I can grab a list here like this and then pop that back over to MM60 and just paste it in. I have a full list of those parts there. So a couple different ways to go about doing this. Finally, we have material characteristics and this is something that can be super powerful. So I'm going to pop over here and we're going to drop in this material T-F300 and we're going to look at the classification material classification. So within here, you'll notice that this particular item, this pump, has lift capacity, turn speed, material, so that's what it's made out of, as well as the usage. So I can have any number of characteristics defined here, for that particular item. So how might I do that? I'm going to go over to transaction CL30N and I'm going to pop in that class. If you don't know these, you can do searches within here to find it, but I'm just going to hit enter, and now I've got a list of search characteristics. So I said that I want a lift of 20. I know I want a boiler pump, so I'm going to grab that guy and I want a turn rate of 2000 RPMs. Actually, I'm going to take this one out because I don't really care about that. And I'm going to hit go. And now I'm going to hit find an initial class. And down here it gives me a list of material numbers, which I can expand. Now what's cool here is, let's say I want to look at this T-F300 that we've been curious about. If I go over here to this little guy, it says display material, so I can jump straight into the material master or I can hit the stock overview, and I can see that we actually have this in stock. We got 10 of these bad boys sitting in the Rotterdam DC. Sounds like I'm going to need to jump across the pond. I wonder if they'll let me put that in my carry on? I don't know, it's pretty big. Anyway, now I want to go show one more thing, and that is MPN or manufacturer's part number. I'm going to go back to MM03 and I'm going to select the purchasing view. I have to put in my org level and down here we have a field manufacturer's part number. So there's actually really robust functionality in SAP around the MPN, but that's a whole other video. So for now, I'll just show this field in the material master, in the purchasing view. And now in our example, this T-F300 is actually a smart number representing a type of pump. But we could have used the next number approach and stored the T-F300 here in this field and that's just as searchable as if it's in the actual material number. So to summarize, we advise against using smart numbers, but we really do understand why they're so attractive, and we won't disown you if you still do it. But hopefully this video has helped you see the wide array of options available to classify materials in ways that are easily searchable, while still maintaining a simple next number strategy for your material master. Thank you very much for taking a little walk through SAP with me. Let's take a moment to highlight the importance of what we just ran through. First, we looked at some examples of how a smart number might be constructed, and then showed some alternative master data attributes that allowed for strong visibility and quick reference. Second, we highlighted the importance of consistency in leaving room for business growth and expansion. We have so many resources available to us in SAP, especially when it comes to robust master data, so let's make sure we take full advantage of it. Hey, thanks a lot Jason. A highly debated topic. The importance of getting this right is often undervalued and it is a big missed opportunity for a lot of organizations. I'd wager most folks listening to this could uncover hidden opportunity in their organization. Simply by reviewing some of the highlights from this particular video, especially in their own business. Hey folks, as we mentioned before, this is a topic that's quite controversial. There are many hotly debated topics like this one. If you're not sure what to look for, use the chatbot and it'll recommend some videos for you.

Procurement & MRP

PTM; P2P; DM

MD04; MM02

Hey, team Martin here, and I have to say, we're about to discuss one of my personal favorite features in SAP. One that most organizations aren't even aware of, at least not yet. Many of us are aware of coverage profiles that are an alternative to static safety stock and allow us to specify what your target days of coverage looks like. Here we are going to go a step further and add time phasing to the mix. So if you need a little extra going into the holiday buying season, but then a little less coverage come January, this might be the good option for you. And today to share a little bit about this is Nicole. Nicole's going to take us down this path and share specifically how one of my favorite features can help you Take it away Nicole. I think we can agree that this is pretty helpful, Martin, and it's one of those features where folks think they need an additional piece of software. Today is good news for you. What I'm going to walk through for you today is a regular old coverage profile with a target stocking level of five days. We'll look at what that's doing across the time horizon as demand ebbs and flows. Then we are going to change it up and model the scenario Martin gave us, where we ramp up the target going into the holiday buying season and drop it back as we head into the new year. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. Let's start by making sure we're all on the same page with what a coverage profile is and what it looks like in our stock requirements list. I'm going to start by pulling up one of my favorite go-to materials, and I'm going to navigate to the period totals view. Now this material does not currently have a coverage profile assigned, so this view should look pretty normal to you. I just want to highlight that I have a small list of columns here, really focused on my forecast, my commitments, my inventory and receipts, and my resulting approximate available to promise quantity. You can see here, if we look at the months view that this goes out for about a year. Now, when we assign a coverage profile, this view is going to become far more robust. Let's go ahead and use the navigation menu to hop into the material master and make a change. I'm going to head to the MRP 2 tab and scroll down to the very bottom, and here is my safety stock options that are available. I'm going to choose a coverage profile. I think this one looks pretty good. I'm going to save and return back to the stock requirements list. Okay, now, nothing has changed just yet, but let's hit the refresh button. Now. Look at all these new columns that have appeared. If you've ever wondered how to view what the coverage profile is doing, this is where you'll find that information. Now we can see here that we have a consistent target coverage across the entire time horizon. The days of coverage we're targeting remains the same over time. It's the quantity required to meet that target quantity, which is dynamically updated based on the anticipated demand. The target quantity stays the same while the quantity needed to meet those target days of coverage changes. Okay, so that's the simplest version of a coverage profile. From there, you can layer in mins and maxes, which can trigger alerts. You can also adjust your target based on a time horizon so that it continually adjusts based on the level of confidence in the near term versus longer periods. There's all kinds of great stuff you can do. However, for Martin's problem statement, what we want to do today is choose a profile that has some specifics configured behind it. We know we want to ramp up for the holiday season and then get that inventory back down by January. So let's navigate back into the material master. I'm going to choose this option Now. Setting these coverage profiles up is a configuration task, so you will need some help from your friends in IT to create these options for you, and it's also very important that you name them well with a clear description. As you can see here, there are a few examples in the list that are clear as mud. If that's an opportunity for cleanup. Okay, let's now save the material master. But before I hit refresh, let's look again at our targets, the flat number of days through the full horizon. Now let's refresh. We can now see a ramp up going into November and then a step back that starts in November. So we're scaled back by January. To adjust my supply plan, I simply need to rerun MRP and get new proposals which fulfill the new requirements for our target days of supply. Super useful. There are a lot of great use cases for this. If you know you have certain times of year where you're heavily impacted by external factors, say weather, for example, you may want a different target to weather that storm, or perhaps you have a planned event or promo that's out there. One of my colleagues used to work in toys and games, so when a movie came out, she really needed to prepare for that surge in sales, not only in the forecast, but also in planned coverage. It also can help level out the load on production and procurement. Most importantly, we must review our targets regularly, particularly if there are specific periods involved, we need to extend or close out those with different values. Hey, thanks Nicole. Actually, one additional note from my side, a static safety stock is very clear and highly visible. When you get into these more advanced techniques, they require more skill to review and understand what's actually happening. It can be confusing at first, so be patient with your team members if you decide to try and use any of these new techniques. And if this is your first time considering reaching out for a little bit of help to one of our team members like Nicole here, feel free to submit your question below or just schedule an appointment with us.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

MD04; MM02; MD03

Hey everybody, Martin here. So, who here has challenges with drop in orders or demand within lead time? Almost every organization that makes a product, sells a product or offers a service, has this challenge, and it's a noisy problem to have, there's a ripple effect through the entire supply chain. One of the features SAP offers to help quiet this noise is called planning time fence. Now, this is also one of the features that is most commonly misused and one of the most common go-tos when things do get noisy is putting in a planning time fence and often one that is much longer than is practical. Here to unpack the great, not so great, and the downright ugly that we see in the way that gets organizations to use planning time fences is Brian. Brian, what do you have to share with us specifically about this particular challenge? I think I've experienced all the things that you've just described. Martin great, not so great and downright ugly is a good way to set the spectrum, and this is one of those situations where it all starts with good intentions and then leaks into improper use. I want to correct that today. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to get in, we're going to set a planning time fence. We're going to review the results and talk through what a planner or buyer's expected to do. And last but not least, we're going to discuss how to decide what planning time fence threshold should be. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. Alright folks, I'm headed to a planner's happy place. The stock requirements, a little good old MD04 to start this walkthrough. Now, while I'm getting this material teed up, have you ever had a case where you put your planning time fence in or thought you did and it just wasn't working? That's actually a pretty common issue for planners trying to set it up for the first time. There's actually two settings you need to address. I'm going to show you where they live and how the tell if the fence you've set up is working. See, this material doesn't currently have a planning time fence that's being respected, and I don't see a line that says in the planning time fence anywhere on here. There's no demarcation line that says what MRP is handling and what I'm handling. And that's important. We need to clear lines of responsibility. We're working as a team to plan this material after all. So let's address this. I'm going to jump straight from here into material master. The two fields we're going to update here are the MRP type. We need to choose one, with fixing, in this case a P3 and the planning time fence in work days. I'll choose 5 days to reflect a firm zone of 1 week. Let's go ahead and save, back out of the stock requirements list. Now, if I hit refresh, even without running MRP, I now have a clear line that shows where MRP has control and where I have control. Let's say we have a new requirement come in and I need to increase my production plan within lead time. MRP is going to park a planned order right outside of the time fence. It's also going to give me an exception message and a reschedule date. That's my cue to step in and start making some decisions. So this seems ideal, right? We have a firm zone where we've got a schedule that's set, stable and in motion. I do not want to change that all willy-nilly. An MRP shouldn't drop orders in there because I've already done my work to put together a schedule for the shop floor that's reasonable, realistic, and actionable. Outside of the planning time fence, MRP is continuing to work hard to realign supply and demand as things change. When it's time for me to do my thing, I've got the best possible, most closely aligned picture. The title of this video is How Long Is That Planning Time Fence? The answer is the number of days that your schedule is fully locked and committed to. Where you've done your work and where making a change requires a judgment call. Where folks get themselves into trouble is when they put a very long time fence out there and try to quiet the churn. I'm sorry to break this to you, but setting a planning time fence does not quiet the churn. It parks the churn outside the fence, but the further out the fence is, the more work you have to do to keep things aligned and the more time passes without action. Put MRP to work for you. Let it help you to keep your supply plan in the best shape possible to meet demand. I think when properly used, a planning time fence is a fantastic tool in the toolkit for planners and buyers. Without a doubt, it can help us to quiet churn and become more intentional about reprioritizing our schedules. We have to set proper time horizons through collaboration and conversation, and remember that it's a threshold that captures an exceptional situation as a planner or buyer, that's where our work begins, not where it ends. Thank you, Brian. I'm always sad for our clients when we see these really long planning time fences because it means that MRP is of no use to them for a long, noisy horizon that truly does not have to be firm. That's a lot of work and a difficult thing to stay on top of when we handcuff SAP. I'm happy to hear your tips for getting this right. We should have a part two on this one, so thanks again. Hey folks, as we mentioned, there may be a part two coming up, so please check it out if you can find it in the catalog. And if you're struggling to find it, hey, use the AI chatbot.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

MD07; MD04

Hey Reveal TV Martin here. Welcome to your quick hit checklist of what you need to do as a production planner to have a successful time away. It may sound like a topic of levity, but this is actually a very serious problem. Many organizations struggle with from burnout to fear, there's a bundle of stress that can be built up when we are approaching some quality time away. Today I look to our resident vacation expert, Tom. I, I kid you not, you want the best trip of your life to Disney call Tom. But on a more serious note, what needs to happen before you get on that plane for that epic trip to be worry free? We need to know more about that checklist. Tom, take it away. It can be seriously challenging to ease into a vacation, but there are some key things we can do to make it far less stressful. And no Martin's not kidding. I am the best trip of your life, Disney guy. So let's say you're getting ready for a three night, four day trip to Disney. What can you do to prepare? SAP is our information conduit and its rules engines are going to be the best assist for whomever is covering for us. We need to get all of our dates dialed in with the best information we have. We need to leave notes in the material memo and the stock requirements list to help with planning, and we need to connect with the people we work with the most to prepare them for our absence by walking through the plan. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. Alright folks, we're going to keep this as simple and straightforward as possible. Step one, my favorites list. I have them organized in folders by the activity I'm trying to achieve. This is my daily work. Before I leave, I'm going to export this and have the folks who are covering for me load it. I'm also going to walk them through my daily work and any weekly tasks that need attention. Hey, maybe I'll even learn something from them while I'm at it. Step two, what can I confidently plan ahead now in SAP so that they have good bones of a plan in place during my absence? This means getting ahead on capacity and resolving any overages or putting comments on materials that need priority. Are there lines that I can schedule ahead and leave a little bit of room for anything that comes up and needs to be blocked in? Is there any guidance I can provide that will help make good decisions in my absence? Step three, is my planning as clean as possible? Are all my dates up to date? Is there stuff I'm chasing? Have I left notes in SAP? Are there emails that I need to forward or reply and Cc my partners on? Step four, where are my usual suspects or sticky situations? It's time to check in with people and make sure they know what the plan is. It's also time to ask for help and introduce folks who are planning coverage while I'm out. Let's make sure they know which lines tend to run behind, what materials are iffy and who needs reminders to keep things flowing. Make the connections for people. Step five, bribery. Just kidding, kind of do nice things for people who help you and for those who should be helping you. You'll be surprised what a little unexpected kindness can do. When you feel like your schedules look pretty good and everyone knows what you're expecting from them, that's your time to pass the baton. You've set the team up for success, and now it's time to check out, recharge, and get ready to pay the favor back for someone else and have a great vacation. The need for time away is real. We need to recharge our batteries, avoid burnout, and connect with our friends and family. When you feel like you can't get away, you start to feel a bit trapped, and that's not good for anyone. As a supply chain professional, we need to be able to work as a team and cover for one another. And as we demonstrated today, the cadence is important to make the work needed while we're out more predictable. Thanks, Tom. The team should be enjoying drinks with a little umbrella comfortably with these tips, so thank you. Hey folks, if you want some more videos on this particular topic or anything related to how a planner should approach their daily work life, please check out our videos, and if you have a specific question, please submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

PTM

MD04; VA03; MM02; CO09

Hey everybody, Martin here, and it is math day here at Reveal TV Studios. Have you ever wondered how SAP comes up with lead times for out of stock or make to order product? Well, there's a number of different considerations. It may be looking at scheduled production, it may be considering just a stock on hand, or not providing a date at all. Or it might be considering replenishment lead time or total replenishment lead time. Wait, there's two replenishment lead times to consider. Okay, this is probably as clear as mud for most of you. So let's get into this. Today we have Nicole. Nicole tell us the difference between these two lead times and which one to use is the best for the situation we're in. Hi Martin. Don't worry, we've got this. First I'm going to clear up a common point of confusion around total replenishment lead time, which is not calculated by SAP. Then I'm going to explain how SAP calculates replenishment lead time based on in-house production time. And lastly, how it can calculate your replenishment lead time based on lot size, dependent lead time. It may sound complicated, but all we're doing today is a simple addition. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. We're going to keep this very real and very simple today, guys. I'm just going to walk through where the fields that matter live in SAP and explain how they will be used in the calculation. So I've got a sales order queued up and we'll run ATP to see these changes. Let's start by looking at the MRP 3 view. Most people fall into one of two camps. They either think that SAP is going to calculate a total replenishment lead time by exploding the bill of material and then finding the longest lead time component and then adding everything together. Or they fall into the camp that thinks SAP doesn't do any kind of calculation in the background at all. But here's the facts. SAP will only calculate a replenishment lead time. SAP will not calculate a total replenishment lead time, so there is no BOM explosion and there is no accumulation of lead times that occurs at any point when it comes to determining the total replenishment lead time. And when you put a value in this total replenishment lead time field, that serves as a manual override to the calculation that SAP would do in the background during ATP or scheduling functions. I'm going to put a value of 7 days in here and save, and then return back to the stock requirements list. You see here that I now have a line that reflects the total replenishment lead time. Now let's get into my sales order. My availability check includes stock and replenishment lead time. Let's check availability. Okay, and it says 7 days from now. Now, total replenishment lead time is on the MRP 3 view, but it is not quantity specific. I could put in a million pieces and it would come back with the same confirmation date. And this along with many other reasons is why it may not make sense to include replenishment lead time in your availability check, but that's a different topic for a different day. Let's get back to the math by heading back to the Material master. I'm going to take the total replenishment lead time value out of the material master. Now SAP knows it has to do the math for me and it can do it one of two ways. SAP's first choice for calculating the lead time is going to use the most specific data available, and that data is stored here on the work scheduling tab of the material master.If I have maintained data within the lot size dependent lead time section, then SAP will do the math based on the minimum allowable lot size to support this order. That's a little complicated for the video to demonstrate, but this is going to simulate the runtime in much the same way we would calculate dates for a planned order. If this lot size dependent data is not maintained, then SAP's next choice is to use the data available for the simple calculation. And in this case, SAP will use the in-house production time, which is maintained on the MRP 2 tab and adds it to the goods receipt processing time, which is also on the MRP 2 tab. In this case, it's going to add up to a lead time of 5 days, which will be applied regardless of the order quantity. Let's save. And now let's back out. We're going to take a look at our sales order again, and we're going to rerun the ATP check and we can see we get a newly confirmed date that's two days earlier. So let's review. TRLT or total replenishment lead time is manually maintained and manually calculated, and it will override the default SAP calculation logic. Lot size dependent lead time reads the information from the work scheduling tab and calculates a lead time based on the lot size. And last, but not least, calculations from the MRP 2 view, SAP will add the in-house production time to the goods receipt processing time in order to determine the replenishment lead time for the material. See, it's really not so complicated after all. These are key master data fields that we use all the time for planning. The key is just knowing which ones are being invoked and when. Today we looked at how SAP does the math in the background for replenishment lead time. This really is the tip of the iceberg on this topic though. The bigger question is where and how should replenishment or total replenishment lead time be used in your availability checks? And that conversation is for a different day. A few reminders in the meantime. If you are using replenishment lead time in your checks, you'll want to let SAP calculate the lead time for most stock items, and you'll need to manually populate TRLT from make items to capture the full lead time of those long lead time components. Other than that, the manual override in TRLT should really be used in exceptional situations and should be temporary when possible, and of course requires regular review. Okay, Nicole, so it isn't just A plus B equals C. It's not just the math that's getting us all knotted, it's sometimes actually the quality of the data we are feeding it. This was very helpful. Thank you. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about, uh, replenishment lead times or just lead times, generally speaking, we actually have quite a lot of videos on that, please check out our video catalog.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM; P2P

MD04; MM03; MEQ1

Hey everybody, Martin here with an episode of Reveal TV you won't want to miss. We're all living in a period of ever changing complexities on where we can get product from, who we can get the product to, what lines we need to run on, which materials we should have or use , you name it. Supply chain is always a puzzle. It's just a little extra challenging right now. Sometimes the best way to untangle a tricky problem is to start at the source, and that's where we're going to start today. Here to talk to us about a tool that can help you get your demand pointed to all the right sources is Nicole. Nicole, we've spoken about quota arrangements before to specifically help us with source allocation. Can you help us today figure out how to use quota arrangements to get to the internal sources of supply? Yes, I certainly can. Martin. Quota arrangements are there to apply rules to how we award business to different sources of supply. A source could be an outside supplier or a plant, or a specific production line, or even a production version. Quota arrangements can accommodate all of these, even including transfers. I think we'll kick it up a notch today though. We're going to set up a fairly complex quota and we're going to take it out for a spin. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. So our plan today is to create a beefy quota arrangement. We're going to go ahead and build it from scratch. Now, we're also going to assume that we have the prerequisite master data already in place. So for example, if a production version, source list, PIR, material, master, updates for quotas, et cetera, is required. We're assuming we've already done that. Stop and make no mistakes, there are quite a few data prerequisites for any type of source determination, internal or external. What you see here on the screen is the stock requirements list. Now, here's the scenario. This product has been going up, up, and up in volume. In fact, we just qualified it on a new, more efficient line. But we're not ready to move it to the new line completely just yet, because even the new production line is starting to fill up pretty fast. You see, we're one of the few domestic suppliers of this product, and now is a particularly good time to source domestically. So what we've done is set up a couple of production versions. We have one for the old line and one for the new line. We also have one for the old line, which contains a newly qualified material that we're hoping will make the old line more efficient. We have limited supply available of that new material though, so we can only produce so much per month with that alternative BOM. In addition to all of this, we also have a plant that we can draw from, but again, only a small percentage of our total requirements. So if we look here at the top of the screen, just a note that it looks pretty normal, I'm going to show you a change here in this location in just a moment. Now I can't wait to create this quota because I've been managing all of this in my spreadsheet and manually creating all of my orders. Yep, if you know, you know. Here we are on the first screen and the first thing we need to do is enter the material number and at a validity period. That's one of the nice things about this. Not only can you update a quota arrangement, you can also have a finite time for which these conditions will exist. You can also proactively set up the next set of rules to kick in at a future dates. Alright, first source, the old line production version using the old entrusted BOM. This is my steady Eddie. I'm going to say about 40% of the production volume should land here for now. Now let's consider the production version for the new line. Let's get that entered and let's make it 20% of the production volume. Okay? Now, for the old line with the new material that's in limited supply, we're going to put that in here as well and make it at 20% of the production volume. And last but not least, I want to include one of our sister plants as well. So that one will be a stock transfer from another plant, but also at 20%. Now let's look at the other fields here. The other field that I'm interested in for our new production line and our old line with a new material is a maximum release quantity. I'm going to add that for both of those options and for the new line, that'll be per week. I'm going to add a maximum release quantity for both of those and for the new line, that'll be a per week quantity, and for the old line with the new material, that'll be a per month quantity. So since this is pretty crazy, I'm also going to run a simulation and make sure that SAP is cool with all the data that I've just entered. And great, amazingly, it looks great. Now, if we go back to our stock requirements list and click the refresh button, we're going to see a new button appear at the top signaling that this material has a quota arrangement. And if we take a moment to run MRP, and confirm again, that we're really, really, really sure, we'll see we've got some changes. Let's return back to the stop requirements list one last time and see our handy work. If we scroll down, we can now see that we've got several sources of supply in play, all following the rules that we set in the quota arrangement. So let's go back to the studio. Whew. Now, that was a robust quota arrangement. Hopefully that triggered some thoughts on how you might put this useful feature into practice. Let us recap with a few highlights though, shall we? First, the quota arrangement is meant to take the proposals that resulted from the demand signal and the MRP run and route them to a specific source based on the rules in the quota arrangement. This can help us level, load or control the max volume sent to a particular source, and we also start to get some exception messages if the rules or restrictions we've put in place are violated, which can be very helpful. Hey, Nicole. Thank you very much. Insights for sure. Now if you're curious about other uses of these quota arrangements, or even more specifically the prerequisites to getting it set up properly, please check out our video catalog and if you have a specific question, submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; ME22N

The best way to learn is by doing so, welcome everybody back to the video series that is not only going to unlock, it's going to expose you to some of the best features in SAP. Martin here. Now just wait a second. Who's trying to hit snooze on their exception? Uh oh. I really don't think I'm going to like this topic. We can't just hit snooze, can we, Liam? Take it away. Thanks Martin. I personally love a good snooze. Just five more minutes. We often get asked if we can clear an exception message and make it go away once we've reviewed it. Well, for those of you on ECC or running classic MRP and S/4, yes you can sort of do this, but even if you do, it doesn't go away, and this feature has gone away in our new S/4 world. MRP is relentless in trying to supply the demand. Demand is king and it'll shout at us if we're not aligned. So what we need to do is work the planning situation, and when we've done all that we can, we need to make a note. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Let's dive into SAP and take a look. So here we have a material with a couple of exception messages on it. Firstly, we have a safety stock violation, so we are already negative straight out the gate. But we still have some inventory there, so although we want to try and get out of there as quickly as possible, we still have some material on hand to fulfill some of our obligations. Nevertheless, MRP has done its job, it's proposed some supply proposals, and we've converted those into purchase orders. But guess what? They're still going to be behind. Mainly because of this demand, right in the 1st of the month, and so this purchase order is asking, Hey, can you bring it in earlier? And then secondly, we had this purchase order here, which is set for the 10th of September, but we actually need it today in line with our safety stock. Now, what's the options here? We can try and work with the supplier as much as possible, but guess what it looks like we already have. We have shipping notifications against these purchase orders, and if we have a look at those as well, they're down as inbound delivery confirmations, meaning that they are probably on the water in transit, or most certainly imminently on their way and cannot be changed. So we are pretty stuck right now and we cannot improve the planning situation in any way. Our first point of call really, is to work with our counterparts in a manufacturing department to try and navigate these demand elements that are now going to be overdue by a couple of weeks. Secondly, we can add a note. We've worked the situation as much as we can, and there's nothing else we can do to influence this anymore, apart from adding a note. So anybody looking this material again, gets an idea of what the situation is. And the way we add a note is specifically on an individual material and it's using the notes button attached. Once I have my notes here, I can add in a quick text. I'm going to write my username first, the date, and then my note. Tried to work with the supplier to improve the date, but the goods have already been goods issued. I'll go ahead and save that, and now if I green arrow back, we should see my note has appeared in this line here. All is well and good, and the next person that looks at this material will figure out that there is a note there. It's timestamped and username stamped, and they can see the further information there. So even though we couldn't do anything to improve the planning or supply situation for this material, what we could do is add a note and that adds up further information for future reference. Okay, confession time. We've had clients that have hidden exception messages. That's not even snoozing, that's hiding from the truth. We do want to have all of our exception messages active and when we have an exception message that we've dealt with but continues to linger, it's probably worth a relook to make sure nothing else has changed there and no other options we can pursue or colleagues we need to notify. It's important to revisit because if there is a new opportunity for improving that planning situation, which improves our service levels, we do not want to be caught snoozing. No, we do not. I know it can be tempting to snooze and move on when you see a message that can't be handled in that moment, but the power of exception message is in the awareness, the conversation, and the actions. It's all three, and unfortunately, it's a slippery slope of apathy. Let's rather get good relevant exceptions by driving the right rules and quality plans in SAP. Then we won't be so inclined to hit this snooze. Hey folks, exception management's a really critical topic and we actually have quite a lot of messages and videos on this. So please check out our catalog and of course, if you have a specific question that relates to this topic or others, submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

MD04; ME22N; MD62

Hey there Reveal TV community. Welcome back, Martin here. Are you ready to tackle the noise and churn in your supply chain? If it feels like things are just changing and changing and changing again, it's time to stop that madness. I promise it's costing you. You're paying in customer satisfaction, supplier collaboration, and your team members are just fatigued. When this fully manifests, a common phrase you'll hear is "just tell me what you want me to do". That's the first sign that we're in real trouble. In this studio with me today, hailing all the way from the UK is Liam. Liam is on the front lines helping clients work through this churn every single day, so I'm sure he is got some ideas to share with us. Take it away, buddy. Thanks, Martin. No one enjoys constantly shifting dates, ever changing prices, and just general repeated adjustments to the POs. Most of the time we don't even know how bad it is. We make changes to POs for loads of reasons, but a common one is when we want to cancel, but we delay instead, and we do this over and over again. We also may have shifting priorities and has this ever happened to you? You end up rescheduling out only to reschedule in and then may be to reschedule out again. And we're probably getting really frustrated with MRP. So let's see where it hurts. Let's go jump into SAP. So we're going to look at this material right here as an example. Now first things to call out in terms of the planning scenario, we've got some quantity of inventory available, we have a higher safety stock than we have available, so we're already negative and we also have some forecast sitting at the beginning of the month. Now further on, MRP has generated some supply proposals and they've been converted into purchase orders. We have one satisfying, some near term demand. And with another out in early September to generate and look at the 1st of August requirements. Now what we can see here is we already have an exception message on it, which is saying, and that's the system telling us, Hey, can you please bring it in, in line with the requirement on the 1st of August? Now, here's the dilemma as a planner. We know we are towards the end of August already, it's now the 25th, and with the forecast sitting at the beginning of the month, we need to toss up whether or not that forecast is going to be consumed or realized in the remaining six days. What's the alternative? We spend a lot of time working with the supplier to try and expedite only for that material to not be required in these same quantities. So let's play that scenario out. If we handle this exception message exactly as it says right now, okay reschedule into the 1st, we can't bring material in in the past, so let's bring it in as quickly as we can and say maybe we can expedite it to the 27th. So let's add that in as a confirmation right here. It is an inbound delivery, we're going to do a thousand and the delivery date's going to be the 27th of the month. Continue through the warning messages and get to my main screen. Now, I've successfully rescheduled that in as early as we can. I've worked back and forth with the supplier. It's still giving me that same exception message because MRP wants it on the 1st, but we know that can't happen. Now, let's play my proposed scenario out. Now we're getting towards the end of the month and as expected, the forecast drops away because our demand team realize that it's not going to be hit. So if we make that change now, I'm going to take out that entry. Let's go ahead and save that and refresh the planning position. Now we've worked tirelessly to bring that through and we've actually got no exception message in the end. So if this was a true scenario to play out, we've worked back and forth with our supplier to try and manage that exception as best as we can, but in the end, it didn't matter because the forecast was there. This happens day in, day out with our procurement proposals based on those exception messages, and so that is the ongoing challenge of having to work backwards and forwards using those exception messages and balance the supply chain with our exceptions generated from MRP. If this seems crazy on our side, imagine what it feels like to our suppliers. We have to stop the churn of change. We have to stop the madness. Yes, POs will need updates. We need to make a meaningful change where it matters, but not just change for change sake. There's only so many times that supply can accommodate us, and if they don't trust our orders, we may not get the best service or our big asks answered. But most importantly, we need to look at why. What is going on in our planning situation that's causing this constant churn, and what can we do to create the stability we're all looking for? Thanks, Liam. You mentioned that the process fatigue of constant changes creates numbness or a lack of awareness of how many touches are required to get through the order cycle, that is worth reflecting on. So again, thanks for the insights. Hey folks, if you want to learn about how to deal with churn and other processes, please check out our video catalog, and if you're struggling to find something, our AI chatbot will be able to help.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM

MD61; MD04

Hey there Reveal TV viewers, Martin here. Did you know that right in SAP demand management, you have the ability to store a separate special cause forecast. One of the most common questions we get asked on a topic of forecasting is, is it possible to reflect promos, upside forecasts or even just key customer forecasts is a separate entry line. You can, that way you can actually monitor your demand plan and make adjustments where appropriate. Here to take us through this work is Mike. Mike, what can you tell us more about this special cause forecast? Hey Martin. First, let's be super clear. What we're talking about is extra visibility through demand management in SAP. These are features embedded in standard SAP functionality. SAP is not an advanced planning solution, but a lot of organizations are very surprised by the capabilities they already own. Today we're going to focus on creating and maintaining a special cause forecast in demand management via the requirement plan, and we'll also walk through the settings and thought process on whether that special cause forecast should be actively transferring requirements or not. Let's get in there and take a look. So here we are in SAP's demand management, where the plan independent requirements are created. This is MD61 for those of you keeping score back home. Now, I bet a lot of you are familiar with this transaction, but you may be used to entering a forecast by material. Today we're going to be doing something a little bit different. We're going to associate this forecast with the requirements plan number. You can see here that we have two options and we're going to focus on the regular requirements plan today. Check this out. The requirement plan can be whatever is meaningful to you. Let's say Kroger is a customer and is collaborating on what their demand is going to look like. Maybe that plan's name is Kroger, or let's say it's for Kroger, but it's for a planogram, or maybe it's for a Kroger store set in 2025. It could be anything. Think of it as a logical way to be able to pull up and review the information. You also need to enter a plan. So let's do that, and this is super cool. You could also enter an MRP area more on that in a future video. We can control our forecast version and our time horizon and time buckets here as well by entering the time horizon and whether it should be in monthly, weekly, or another bucket. Once we've made those entries, let's hit enter. Okay, so here we can see that we can enter multiple materials and the forecast will be able to be grouped under the same requirement plan, which gives us excellent visibility right here in demand management. I am going to enter three materials for this promo plan. I'm separating them because if Molly, from marketing calls that she sometimes does, I want to be able to pull up this promo quickly and adjust it if I need to. The other thing I would like to see, this has a separate demand line in the stock requirements list, so I know that this is special demand. That way I can pay close attention to it. If it's event driven, then I know it's especially time sensitive. Although I do love all my demand kids the same , it also lets me easily see if we've got something in the past due and unconsumed so I can consult with my partners and decide if we should roll the unconsumed demand forward and see if it's still coming or to close it out. This is important care and feeding. Let me go back and show you one more thing. Let's say your customer gives you a forecast and you don't quite believe it. You could keep your demand plan and have these stored under a unique requirements plan number. You then can say, I believe the normal forecast, so it's going to MRP, and this is one from the customer that's all under this requirements plan number? I don't believe so, I'm not going to make it active. I just want it for quick reference and check for feasibility. This is a great example of commonly used series of transactions in SAP that may not be fully utilized. This is serious opportunity to get curious and explore. What would it mean to you if you could be on the phone with the key account and be able to pull up all the forecasts that has been loaded for them or be able to respond when you get a team's message from marketing that one of the promos isn't performing well and another was overperforming. And be able to make those changes quickly and easily. SAP is providing us with an opportunity for excellent visibility. As we talked about today there is care and feeding involved. For example, we have to make decisions on whether to carry or drop demand. Being able to do something like pull up the same promo from last year. That's awesome. And last but not least, being able to control which requirements transfer and drive replenishment and which do not is a game changer. Thank you, Mike. I just love that we're in control of what we execute to and obviously the conversations we are having to drive results. Very nice, thanks again. Hey folks, we actually have quite a few videos on forecasting and demand management. If you can't find it, use the AI chatbot and if you have a specific question for us, please feel free to submit it below.

Warehouse Management

IM; WM

Manage Physical Inventory Documents

The best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that shares and unlocks the hidden value in your SAP system. Martin here and today we're going to talk about cycle counting with Fiori. If you haven't experienced the Fiori apps for cycle counting, you are in for a treat. Inventory accuracy underpins every decision we make in supply chain and is a critical component of proper controls. A robust cycle count program that yields consistent quality results gets us out of the costly, and dare I say, really not so fun task of annual physical inventory. And today to talk about this particular topic is our friend Jason. Jason, what do you have for us today? Oh, Martin. Martin. Martin. This topic is near and dear to my heart. Guys, we need to get our cycle count program in running and trusted. We need to use it to understand where we're experiencing issues and address them. Everything from MRP, to ATP, to audits, to our friends in Finance having to get very involved in what Ops is doing. It all depends on the accuracy of our inventory. So on the whistle stop tour today, I'm going to give you a quick overview of setting up the count, conducting the count, requesting recounts, and ultimately approving and posting your counts. So let's dive into SAP and take a look. I have to say I really like this new interface for cycle count and physical inventory. Not much has changed in terms of the actual steps, but the ease of use has definitely improved. I'm going to start here with the inventory overview. This allows me to monitor the progress of the counts. I can see what's been counted, partially counted, not counted at all. I can also see the progress towards postings, which allows me to dig in and ask questions if something's held up. We don't want our counts lingering. Usually these are counts that require approvals or are pending recounts, but it's also possible that the next step just hasn't been taken.I can also dig into the count details, see who counted what and when, and also the count versus book. Now for the counter, this was blind. This count doc was generated and issued to them. They were directed to a bin and asked to count the material in it. This is what it would've looked like for them. We have a lot of choices as to how we would like to create them, and maybe based on turnover or velocity, count status, date of last count, ABC indicator, et cetera. You get the idea. Lots of options. The nice part, is that we can also choose a specific material if we think there's a problem. For example, we went to pick the material wasn't there. We went to put something away, there was something in the way. Lots of good reasons to trigger a count for a specific material. Once the count is complete, we need to post it. When we do that, SAP will look at our tolerance rules and alert us if we're outside of those tolerances. We can then trigger a recount to the floor for verification before posting or decide to approve it if we're confident in the original count. Overall, this is a much nicer experience for counting and it works really well on everything from a phone, to a tablet, to an RF device, so give it a try. Welcome back from today's tour. As you're thinking about the robustness of your cycle count program and a few key components for success, be sure to start with cadence. Remember, cadence keeps the chaos at bay and reinforces good habits. If you're having trouble finding enough quiet time to perform your counts, consider dynamic cycle counting, which allows you to count even if there's a pending TO . Cycle counting with Fiori offers a far more user-friendly experience with improved reporting. Now, make sure you take what you learn from your counts and address the process, integration, breakdowns, and other issues that are causing those differences. Getting this right, eliminates the dependency on an annual full shutdown, super expensive, not at all fun physical inventory, and helps us run the business well in the meantime. No more surprises. Thanks Jason. So team, we need to get this right and there are some really good tools out there to help us with this. Cycle counting is a diagnostic, not a solution. It's what you do with the count results to continually improve that actually matters. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about this topic and others, we actually have a fabulous video catalog that you can research and look at. Otherwise, if you have a particular topic on inventory and inventory counts, feel free to submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

PDP

MD04; MM02; MM03

Hey friends in procurement, Martin here. So I'm curious, do your purchase requisitions go through the full planning horizon or do you get purchase requisitions up through lead time and then planned orders after? Do you convert planned orders to requisitions and then requisitions to PO's, or are you getting your requisitions right at the time to set your supplier up for success? Well, that's what we're going to be talking about today. Liam is here to help us understand how MRP knows which element to produce and when. Take it away, Liam. Cheers, Martin. Now we're speaking my language. Let me explain. Today we're going to jump into SAP and look at what MRP is producing and why. Planned orders are up first, as they're often the first element that MRP will generate for us, particularly in the mid to longer term horizon. Then we'll talk purchase requisitions, which officially kick in the procurement cycle. And last but not least, we'll discuss procurement type and its impact on what MRP is doing as we go in and actually run MRP and unpack the results. And bonus, we'll look at one more very important setting that will help us get this right. I love a little tour, so let's dive into SAP, and take a look. So let's take a look at this material right here. As you can see in the near term, we have purchase requisitions created. As we look a bit further out into the medium to long term, we have planned orders created. Now, these have both been created by MRP. We can't see any firming on any of these items, so that means they're not manually created. But how does MRP know when to create a planned order versus when to create a purchase requisition? And the answer's simple. It's all to do with lead time. Now, MRP is very clever. It knows that in order for a purchase order to go out of the door, it first needs to be a requisition. And so in normal circumstances, the requisition will be created automatically on the day that the lead time begins. And that's because MRP assumes that once the purchase requisition is created, it can be converted to a purchase order and sent out the same day. Now in this example, we have something slightly different going on, and I'll show you where that is and what's affecting that. If I jump into the material master and I go to MRP 2 tab, it's all within the scheduling tab. Here we have our planned delivery time of 10 days and our goods receipt processing time of 1 day. So that means 11 days before we need to receive the item, MRP will automatically convert that purchase requisition from the planned order. Now we have another piece of information here, which is actually adding to that time, and it's all based in the schedule margin key. Now we have a 002 entry here. So let's see what that actually means. If I open up the selection criteria, it's going to show me the data that sits behind the entries available. And here we have our 002 tab or option, and the key column we're looking at is the opening period. The entry here shows also 002, and that equates to 2 days. So what we are telling MRP and the system to do is that give us 2 days prior to the beginning of the lead time to process that requisition. So MRP will create or automatically convert the planned order to a purchase requisition 2 days before the start of the lead time. This is useful for several reasons. It allows us to complete any approval activities. Maybe there's some additional sourcing or pricing checks that we need to do with our suppliers. But if we look at some of the other entries here, we have lots of other options as well. So if we think about the first option, 000, we have no opening period, and that means , at the very beginning of the lead time, MRP will convert that planned order into a purchase requisition automatically. Our next entry gives us a little bit more time. So here it's saying 10 days, and this might be if it's a new product, we need to source the supply from a specific supplier that we haven't introduced ourselves to yet, and we need to get pricing agreed terms and all of the other contractual obligations. And finally, we have a really long opening period, and this last entry, 090, that's given us 90 days ahead of the lead time, MRP will convert that planned order into a requisition. Now this fits another scenario where maybe you may need to open up a tender operation or it's for a large piece of work where very specialist materials are required. And that just gives us enough time to completely source price and build out that requisition so that at the beginning of the lead time, we are ready to convert it straight away into a purchase order and get it out the door to the supplier. Now, if I leave that as a 002 entry, I'm going to go back to my main screen, and that is why we have the planned orders out into October, and then in the near term for deliveries, at the beginning or second week of September, we have purchase requisitions. Now, that's not the only field that affects whether we get a planned order or a purchase requisition. There is one other field which is really important in determining how MRP creates its supply proposals, and that is the special procurement type. I have another material to show you where we have a very special procurement type selected. So if I open up the material master, go to MRP 2, here we have a procurement type X. Now if I open up the dropdowns, I'll show you the options that are available. If it's blank, there's no procurement, no sourcing. If we have an E, we're going to make that material in-house. If it's an F, we're going to buy it from an external source, either stock transport order, or from an external third party supplier. But here we have an X and so we're telling MRP and the system, hey, we can procure it in both ways. We can both make it internally and also procure it externally. So then how does MRP behave when it has this entry? And the answer is it creates planned orders for all supply proposals . Because we haven't told it a specific reason, whether we want to make it or buy it, it creates a planned order with a very special order type. And if we look at the option when we open up that specific element that we have here, we have both options to convert to production orders and process orders, or we can convert to purchasing related, order types as well, such as purchase requisitions. So here we are given the flexibility to convert either to an external supply or an internal manufacturing process. Welcome back. In today's walkthrough, we explored running MRP with a few different settings. The first was opening period, which controlled the horizon for purchase requisitions. Then we discussed how important the release date is in making sure our PO's are issued on time. We have some other videos on this topic, so be sure to check them out. And then we discussed the fun procurement types and influence of X on the MRP run for those of us who need to make and make slash buy decision on critical items that must be planned with extra care and contemplation. Aha, procurement type X. That's a good topic for a future video. I'd love to see how SAP can help us with that make or buy decision. Getting the right element at the right time so we can focus our work on decision making at the right stages clearly helps us set everyone up for success. Thanks again, Liam. Hey folks, if you want to know more about this or even that procurement type X that we talked about, please check out our video catalog and if you can find it, feel free to use the AI chatbot.

Quality & Batch Management

OTC; PTM; WM

MD04; BMBC; MB52; MB51; CO09; MMBE

Hey everyone, Martin here. Do you ever find that you have a batch of materials that deviates from the normal requirements for unrestricted use, but may be okay for specific use, or perhaps that batch may be reclaimed after it has been reworked? When we use batch management, we get an additional option beyond using blocked or quality inspection stock. It's called restricted use stock. Here to explain the principles of restricted use stock for us today is Monique. And who better to tell us about this than you? Go ahead, Monique. Take it away. Thanks, Martin. When batch management is in play, we have the ability to record a lot or a few characteristics about that batch of material or finished good. These characteristics allow us to get pretty sophisticated with things like batch searches, strategies and ATP. What we're talking about here is a broader classification of status. Today, I'm going to talk through the definition. Show you some of the reporting. And then talk about a key decision on how we factor restricted use stock in our planning. So let's dive in and take a look. And off to the races we go. Let's start with the definition by going back to the familiar, unrestricted used stock is our normal everyday bread and butter inventory that we count on as part of our supply plan. It's MRP relevant and is expected to be used. Quality inspection stock is on quality hold, pending inspection, but has a good chance to returning to unrestricted use. We're expecting to be able to use it and it also is very MRP relevant. Block stock is stock that is awaiting review and disposition and should not be MRP relevant for most organizations. We don't want to count on it. It may be returned to another stock category after rework or additional review. With batch management, we get to introduce another category in restricted use stock. Restricted use stock has been reviewed and we've decided it can be used in some way or for some requirements or at some percentage. Let's say for example, you had a batch of raw materials that did not quite meet specs. But you could introduce it to the process at a lower percentage of use. We believe we can use it, but with oversight. And the good news is that it shows up in all the reports we're familiar with. We see it with the golden cubes here in MD04. We can pass it through to MMBE and see it there. We can get a full account in MB52 across an entire plant if you'd like to, or be very specific in your selection. It shows up in many places, which makes reporting and identification easier. We can also use MB51 to track the transactions moving inventory in and out of restricted use and may even be able to pick up the reason for the move. As we know, there are two big rule engines in place in SAP, MRP and ATP. We get to make choices and configuration on how we consider different stock statuses for both. As you think about what restricted use means in your organization, you'll need to make a call on whether MRP should consider it in its planning. This is a key decision. Do you expect to return it to that inventory to use? Is it a valid source of supply if you could not get inventory and time from somewhere else? Or is this going to be a disposition decision that will be acted on quickly, but you expect to have a positive outcome? Those are all possible options for maintaining MRP relevancy. But if your use case for restricted stock is only to use in special cases that represent very little of your total demand, you may choose not to count on that stock for MRP. It's all about the rules. It always comes back to the rules. Much like stock that has been blocked or placed on quality hold, we need to keep our eyes on what's sitting in restricted use stock. Keeping proper accounting of status, specific batch characteristics and quantity is essential in creating the data integrity that we are looking for. We should have a regular cadence of reviews so that we use what we can and make timely. Yet sometimes difficult decisions around disposition of the rest. Much like block stock, restricted use stock has risks associated with it. If it's factored into MRP yet not eligible to support normal requirements, then we may under plan or overserve our demand. If it's not factored in but we do have some uses for it, we want to make sure we don't overproduce or over procure and we make use of it as soon as possible. These are important decisions. So again, Monique, thanks for the description. Hey folks. SAP has a lot of good uses and a lot of gotchas, so please make sure you understand what you're actually trying to implement. If you're not sure, feel free to submit a question below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

ME22N; MD04

Hi there, it's Martin again, and I'm quite curious to ask, how do you know if your suppliers have received your purchase order? How do you know if they've accepted the price, the delivery date, or even the terms? How do you know if they need to make a change to the date or quantity being delivered? For many of the folks we work with, the answer is quite simply, I got an email or I don't know. Some people even have robust collaboration tools that support this process that may or may not be able to flow the data back into SAP. Today, we want to explore how we can get better communication flowing with our suppliers and more timely information to our buyers so they can make a promise and keep a promise. Here to talk us through this one is one of our best communicators, Jen. Jen, can you help us understand how we can efficiently process acknowledgements and updates from our suppliers? Message received Martin. I'd love to help make the communication flow in SAP. Today we're going to look at the options for order acknowledgements. This is a supplier acknowledging that they have received and accepted the PO. We'll look at where this information is stored in a standard PO. We'll then talk about what happens if your supplier responds with a date change a change in quantity or even split shipment. You have options for how you can choose to use this information and whether you accept it or not. No matter what we do want to see the information in SAP, so we have the history of the updates, requests, and acceptances or denials. Let's jump right in. One of our strongest areas of focus on Reveal TV is setting ourselves and our partners up for success. Encouraging proactive communication with our suppliers, get the collaboration flowing. If we've written a PO with all the right rules in place, then most of the time our PO should be easily accepted. However, it would be good to know for sure and not to have to dig around in an email to confirm. So here we are, in ME229. This is a purchase order that we place with all the right rules in place, the supplier has come back and acknowledged the PO. An order acknowledgement is a type of PO confirmation. PO confirmations are configurable and use different types to suit different communications over the life of the PO line item. Some of us have very long lead times and a lot can happen in 90 or a 100 days. And yes, some of you have lead times that are much, much longer. Here's the basics. We send the PO to the supplier. The supplier acknowledges that it has been received and accepted. Great time marches on, the supplier has an update on availability. They send back a notice letting us know that we'll get part of the requested quantity on time, but part of it will be late by two weeks. We can record this update in SAP. See there. They can let us know when it's on its way to us through different confirmation types, and we can create an inbound delivery from that ASN. My friend Rutul made a video on that topic, check it out. So what happens if we get acknowledgement or notice of change that's different from what we ordered? Well, then we have some options. First of all, we need to decide if that supplier is reliable in the information they provided. If so, we could use a confirmation type that is MRP relevant. Meaning that the rest of the integrated team would know what the new date, and we get exceptions if the new date poses a problem, so we respond and work with the supplier. Let's go to MD04 and take a look. The great news is that supplier performance monitoring stays in place. We can still measure performance versus lead time, or we can choose to adjust our statistical date, and now we can also measure their performance to their confirmed date. They'll allow us to measure if they're both capable to supply and reliable to their promise. Now if you have a lot of lines to manage, you may want to consider how to load order acknowledgements into SAP. This can happen in a variety of ways. They can be delivered via collaboration portal or perhaps via a good old fashioned EDI. Or you could choose to use an upload tool with error handling. There are lots of good options to help get this done. No matter which option you pick, knowing your supplier has the ball and is running with it builds confidence in the way we support our customer. Let's create the visibility we need to make good decisions by having proactive communication channels in place. The order acknowledgement really is a great tool to get closer to your suppliers and encourage the proactive exchange of information. The showstopper for a lot of teams is if they're just getting started and the volume seems impossible to keep up with. It doesn't have to be. There are lots of ways to get this information loaded into the system, and a pilot program supported by the manual maintenance will help the team see the value in the effort. Then you can optimize a process with your suppliers, broaden the program and make it efficient. Let's keep the communication flowing with the effective use of order acknowledgements. Hey, thank you, Jen. Well communicated. No one wants to get to the delivery date and realize the supplier doesn't even have the order open on their end. And this functionality can also tie into other processes like reminders, exception monitoring for missing parts, late confirmations, or delivery advanced shipping notifications. All of these are powerful things that we need to consider. So folks, if you want to learn more about some of these things I just itemized and listed out, please check out our video catalog if you can't find them, ask the AI chatbot.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; PTM

MD04; VB11

Hey, everybody, Martin here. Does your organization struggle with product transitions, promotions, or managing substitutions? If so, you're not alone. These type of situations are often managed offline or in Excel. It's time that that changes. We don't want the stranded material, send a substitute material to a customer who won't accept it or forget to change a temporary substitution back to the material we want to be replenished. Today we have our great efficiency builder Ed. He's going to introduce us to a key but woefully underutilized feature in SAP called material determination that facilitates scenarios like material supersession. Ed, take it away. Thanks Martin. I'm a big fan of the simplicity and efficiency of material determination to support things like promos, material substitutions, or suppressions Material determination allows us to set up a series of materials in a chain. The system can then move from one material to the next to look for the next eligible material. We have the ability to control eligibility for substitution with both validity periods and key combinations. This could be as simple as material entered, or we can be a bit more specific and choose something like customer and material. This allows us to control when a substitution is allowed and which customers the new rule applies to. Let's get into SAP and take a look. Let's begin in the stock requirements list. Let's say we've just received news that the release date for the next evolution of this product is ready for release as of today, which is great news because we have more customer orders than we have inventory and nothing left to come in. To make this fun, let's imagine that this is wine and we are moving from one vintage to the next. This is not a super premium wine where the vintage demands different market value. But we do want to track the change, use up our old inventory, and then move into the latest release once the old one is exhausted. This is a material super session. Super session simply means that we are replacing old with new, and the technique in SAP that we use to do this is called material determination. Here you can see the new part number, and this is the one we want to plan replenishment for going forward. Note that there are currently no customer orders sitting over here. Let's see if we can get SAP to help us reroute the customer orders over to this new release. We want everyone to have wine when they need it. Here we are in transaction VB11 where we create or set up our material determination chain note the key combinations button at the top. This is where we can select options like material entered or customer and material entered. We can can configure whatever key combinations might make sense for our business. Let's keep it simple today, and we'll go with material entered. Up next, we need to set our validity date. This is a great feature because it allows us to do a temporary rerouting of orders. For example, maybe you have a promotion coming up and you want to sell the special holiday edition for a fixed period of time, and then go back to the original material. And while today we're working with an immediate change, you could proactively set your release dates in place well in advance. Below the validity period, we have the opportunity to set a reason code for the material substitution. This helps us to track the reasons why we're shifting orders over time and in the main body here, we set our material entered and the material we want to progress orders to. As you can see, we can enter many materials at one time. So if you have a longer list of transitions, you could work a whole list at the same time. Once we have this entered, then we need to choose which material we should be running MRP against. In the case of a temporary substitution, you may want to continue to replenish the original material entered. For our scenario, we're going to choose the material number that represents our latest and of course, finest vintage. I'll save this, and then we'll go back over to MD04 for the original material entered. Now we'll run MRP. It'll ask us if we're sure, yep, we are. See here, there are some new results. Now let's go back to the stock requirements list. We will hit refresh and we can now see our list got a little shorter. And if we look at the new part, here we go. We can see that our orders have shifted over. Excellent. All new orders will shift to this new part number and this will be what we plan to replenish going forward. A couple of notes before we go back to the studio. First, EDI can be a bit tricky, so be sure to communicate and keep an eye out for any EDI issues Second. This was a very simple example of a very robust functionality in SAP. If you need to build out a longer chain or you're struggling with a key combination, don't hesitate to reach out to us. I was chatting with one of my fellow Revealians and she told me that when she was planning this was one of her favorite tools in SAP. Not only is it easy to use, but helped her make sure she was in compliance and also that she used the inventory to the best advantage of the company. It had measurable impacts on their inventory investment, for sure. Let's summarize today's chat. First material determination is much easier to maintain than manual entries. Put SAP to work for you. Second, we were able to set up the rules in ways that honor customer requirements. And finally, we get to choose which material should hold the requirements and be relevant for replenishment proposals from MRP. Very powerful, highly valuable. Thank you Ed. Most organizations have a use case that fits material determination perfectly, so thanks for that. It has the capacity for complexity, but can also be kept simple. There's so much opportunity here. Hey folks, we have a whole catalog of videos, and if you're looking for something really specific, just use our AI chatbot and ask your question.

SAP Optimization

OTC; P2P; PTM; WM

MM60; MM03; CM25; C223; MD07; COOISPI; ME5A; ME01; VA02; BP

Hey, curious detectives, Martin here. Good quality data is an asset, and non-performing data can be a liability. All organizations have quality issues, and today we're going to help you proactively identify the master data that is not performing well. The value to the business covers everything from service levels to ATP and controls and compliance. This is an ongoing long-term body of work that deserves our time and focus and attention. So I really want to hear from Jake on this one. He's been in the trenches and has lived this day to day and knows exactly what good looks like. Jake, how do we get our arms around this data deficiency issue and proactively work to resolve the pieces that need our attention? Well, Martin, I think we might have to shift our perspective. A lot of us kind of stumble into finding a data challenge. Now, wouldn't it be nice if we could proactively identify and resolve these issues when we fix the master data, we're fixing a rule. When we fix a rule, we get a lasting correction and immediate impact on our quality of decision making, our service levels and inventory levels or quality of planning. Today, we'll look at an example for production planning, for procurement and sales order management. I'll know about you, but I'm excited. Let's make things better, over to SAP we go. My pursuit of data quality over the course of my career has been relentless. I've sat in the production scheduling chair. Now I work with clients to improve data quality across all functional areas. And we all know that data's important, right? But it's not just important. It's essential. Once upon a time I was a lead aircraft dispatcher or flight planner, think about the importance of data quality in that world. People's safety depended on the decisions I was making, and I'd argue that that's true for all of you too, even if it's not in such a clear and compelling and ever present way, as in aviation. So let's get some tools. In fact, let's get some skills in this video to help improve our data quality. First up, production planning. If we want to get our schedule right, we need capacity, labor, and materials, and to know how much each of these we need and by when we need them. We need elements like BOMs, routings, and recipes, production versions as well. Here's my quick tip on how to identify missing data. Let's proactively look for it using C223. Here we can look for any production versions with a red or yellow light. Those are the ones that need investigating. We can also find materials with master data related exception messages. These are going to live in group 4 or 5, and it'll alert us to a planning problem. And lastly, we can use C-O-O-I-S or COOIS. Or COOISPI, C-O-O-I-S-P-I to find any planned orders, production orders, or process orders that are missing information. Here's a good example for procurement. We can review any purchase requisitions that are missing supplier information by running ME5A to view or ME57 to process. It's great to get a list. So let's look here. Alright, so now I want to be the right kind of lazy and fix it so MRP can do the work for me next time. So I'll go to the source list and either auto generate and review or update the incomplete information here by ticking the fixed source tick box and tell the system to make it MRP relevant. Now, we can't forget our friends and customer excellence who are managing our sales orders. Here's some missing information. I know for a fact that it takes the DC time to pick, pack and load orders for this customer. We need to allow time for that, or we'll be setting ourselves up to be late, and that's not good. Also, if I come over here, I can see there's inconsistent data around partial deliveries. That's an important rule that drives downstream processing. I can fix both of these problems at the source, so we're square going forward. I love that we can proactively diagnose and resolve missing or incomplete or inconsistent data. Every time we find and address one of these, we're winning. We're winning in efficiency, compliance, and decision making, and all of these things improve. You know what, I don't like to be caught flat-footed. Consider some of these examples we talked through today. They have big implications to productivity, efficiency, and business performance outcomes. We saw examples of missing, incomplete and conflicting master data. If you want SAP to really be driving great values, we need to be sure we've got solid rules in place. So with tools like the ones we looked at today, we know that we have levers to be able to get after this, and I hope you'll get curious and get after the opportunities. Thank you, Jake. We all know this is a problem and every single one of us has a data integrity issue, so thank you once again. But now we have some great ways to find out where it hurts and how much. Those are the first steps towards making it much better. Okay folks, if you want to learn more about this topic and some of the other data integrity issues that we talked about with Jake earlier, please check out our video catalog, and if you have a burning question, feel free to submit it below.

Quality & Batch Management

OTC; PTM; WM

MM03; BMBC; MSC3N; MMBE; CO03

Hey everybody, martin here. We're here and ready to dip our toe into a huge topic today, batch management. Now, depending on your industry, you may be a prolific user of batch characteristics as the backbone of compliance, traceability, eligibility for use, etc. For many batch management can be a little bit of a tricky thing to get started. There's just a lot of unknown and often something that gets overlooked at the implementation. If you're considering it, and how you should get started with batch management, this one is for you. And today, who better to get us going in this conversation is Monique, take it away. Sometimes it's a really good idea to go back to the basics. What we find is that even folks who have batch management are under utilizing that functionality. So today we're going to go over some of the basic functional principles that we can build on in the future installments of Reveal TV. The first thing we need to know is that once we've turned on batch management for a material, that material is batch managed forever. There's no going back. Second, we need to know that we can get started with very basic batch characteristics and they can also accommodate highly robust requirements. And third, while we know that a compelling case for batch management is being able to trace where different batches are, we often underappreciate that SAP can help us with the right batch selection for a particular production run or customer requirement. So let's get into SAP and run through some of the basics. Here's the material that is batch managed. If we go to the material master, we can see the batch management flag is ticked on. This means that every unit in inventory must be tied to a batch. The batch number can be generated automatically based on the flow of transactions. For example, at the time of goods receipt, when a production or process order is created, when you create a PO or inbound delivery or manually. As inventory is coming in, it is assigned to the batch. Let's back out of the material master and let's go to our stock overview. This is MMBE, and here we can see the different batches for this material. Each of these batches have a set of characteristics that are captured. The most common getting started example is the date of manufacture. This sets us up to be able to track the shelf life and "best by" date. Now we can get super robust with what we capture. Let's go to the batch management cockpit to get a feel of our options. We could do something like build out the specific chemical composition of that particular run, and we can also track batch status and whether the batch has restricted use status. We recently visited a client that makes all kinds of containers in different colors. They have a chemist on site who figures out exactly how much recycled material they can introduce to each run based on a combination of materials with different batch characteristics. She has to determine the right structural and pigmentation outcomes, and uses the batch characteristics and batch search strategies to build that out. Batch management also helps us to know where specific batches are, but also where they've been used. We can search using a where used list to see what the next item impacted would be if we ever needed to do a recall. And last but not least, for today, we can use search strategies to adhere to specific customer requirements. Take our first example of remaining shelf life or best by date. Different customers may have different requirements, and with batch search strategies, we can identify just the right batch to fit their needs. That was a nickel tour of the very basics of batch management. I hope we've sparked your curiosity. To recap the major use case and incentives for putting batch management in place typically fall into one of the three categories. Compliance, ensuring we've got the proper controls in place. Tracking and visibility, knowing what we have, where it's been and where it's planned to be going. And last, but certainly not least, matching the batch with the appropriate characteristics for use. If you're doing any of these manually today, I'd encourage you to keep exploring batch management in the future. Hey, once again, thank you so much, Monique. That was a good start, but I know we have a lot more to explore on this topic. Batch management helps organizations reduce risk. It does require care and feeding, and that is important to understand when you go into it, but also offers a lot of opportunity to create visibility that's needed for solid decision making. Hey folks, as we keep exploring batch management, you'll see more and more videos come out. If you're looking for a series of videos, please use the AI chatbot to go look for them.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

ME55; ME28

Hello to all the supply chain aficionados out there, it's Martin here. And today we're highlighting a solution for control and compliance in SAP. Purchase requisition and purchase order release strategies. This approval process helps to ensure we've got the right governance in place before we send that purchase order out the door and commit to our suppliers. The release strategy behind the approval process needs to be properly designed to be practical, relevant, efficient, compliant, and resilient to the changes of the organization. To break this all down for us today is Sean. Sean, what are the essentials we need to have top of mind around the purchase requisition and purchase order release strategy? Thank you, Martin. So release strategies are meant to drive the right level of scrutiny on the purchase requisition before we commit to it. And we have several opportunities as we move through the procurement process to review and to approve. For example, indirect purchases may come via a purchase requisition that requires approval before a purchase order is generated, particularly if we will be going through an RFQ or an RFP to determine the best source of supply. Whereas a purchase requisition for a direct purchase that came via MRP may not require an approval because we've already approved the demand plan through the sales and operations planning process. Now, no matter what the process is, it's essential that the policy and the strategy makes sense, are meaningful and are fully aligned. So let's go into SAP and let's take a look. Let's go in and start with purchase requisitions. Do you review your requisitions for SAP or do they come to you for approval via email. Now, as a buyer or an MRP controller, it's helpful to monitor for past due releases. It's an easy loop in the process where things can get delayed. Especially ifyour approvers are not regularly in SAP, sometimes a bit of chasing is required. So in this transaction, I have loads of selection options to choose from. This ME55, which allows me to pull full lists. The only mandatory entry is the release code. And from here I can narrow the list in any way I wish to see the items that are relevant to the work I'm doing today. Okay, so let's run this. Here are a few things worth talking about. Firstly, we can quickly identify purchase requisitions that have a material number versus those that are free text or indirect purchasing PO's, spend PO's. The free text spend that should have meaningful material group assigned to it, and that material group should help set the requirements for approval before release, right? Secondly, we can also quickly identify purchase requisitions that do have material numbers that were manually entered. There's also good candidates for release strategy. We want to get MRP working to generate the lion share of our direct purchases and where it's not, that's worthy of scrutiny. Now, number three, we also have those purchase requisitions that have a material number that were generated by MRP. Now, the majority of these should not require approval, if, of course we have a sales and operations plan in place, and the proper master data rules. We want to work away from those approvals at execution and rather approve our demand and supporting plan for that supply through the sales and operations planning forums. So it's important to set the approval thresholds based on the type of purchase and also at the right stage. So for example, if we've been difficult to find a reliable source, a requisition may route to someone in strategic sourcing to review it and qualify that source before we place the purchase order. If on the other hand, we're just getting started with MPR, or we're maturing in our S&OP process, then we may have an approval at the purchase order stage for high dollar value items and they're at the beginning of their lifecycle. So those two options, either high value dollar value or may at the beginning or the end of their lifecycle. And we can see the list of purchase orders pending approval in this very similar list display right here. The release strategy for procurement can also apply to outline agreements such as a contract, which lessens the day-to-day approval process for PO's and calls off from the contract. The good news is that the process is robust, it's highly accommodating for complex business needs, but should flow, make sense, and of course be meaningful . Alright, so after that demo, let's now take a moment to acknowledge there are plenty of release strategies out there that do not drive any real scrutiny to the pending purchase. And I'd like to challenge you to take a good look at yours and make sure that what's flowing to leaders is meaningful. We don't want the important approval to get missed. In a sea of all these ticking the box approvals. Today, we talked a bit of how we would recommend approaching requisitions via MRP versus a person. We also recommended regular review of your strategies to make sure that you have the right levels of approval in place. Finally, folks, it's very important that leadership is brought into the strategy in a timely way to give the approvals and we ask the right questions to keep those approvals meaningful and productive. Thank you, sir. An important control to have in place with the right level of diligence. We want to focus on the things that require a check and approve and make the process an active one. Hey folks, if you are looking for more videos related to control and approval, please check out our video catalog and if you have a specific question for us, submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

DM; P2P; PTM

MD07; MD04; MIGO; ME01; MC$G; ME2N; ME33L; MEQ3

Hey folks, Martin here, and we are here today to talk about a real life supply chain challenge that one of our viewers submitted. What can SAP do when we are over capacity at a supplier? We are managing this currently with blanket orders in Excel today, and it's getting out of hand. What are the options in standard SAP? Wow, what a great question. If you are over capacity at a supplier, you're in a very risky situation, and that's made worse if you're manually managing it. Let's address this. The good news is we have a lot of tools in our toolkit to help us with this, and Steven is with me in the studio today to specifically answer some of these particular questions you have. How would you use SAP to help and over capacity at a supplier situation? Take it away, Steven. Well, that's no fun, Martin, as you say, that's never happy news, but I can take you through some practical blocking and tackling that I would do and explain how we could put SAP to work instead of relying on Excel. First, I've got some ideas on how SAP can help us if we're going over the capacity threshold at our supplier and how to identify the uncovered demand. Then I've got an interesting idea on how to identify other potential sources. Lastly, I'd like to highlight the difference in approach for a temporary versus persistent constraint at that supplier. Let's take a dive into SAP and take a look. We're headed to communication central in SAP MD07. This is where planning related exception messages live. This is one of the places where we can start to identify and unpack when we're falling short on supply. There are several exception messages that are designed to help us quickly get our arms around the materials that require attention. We can see a few examples in this list. An exception message 30 lets us know that we've uncovered demand within the lead time and we're already behind. An exception message 10 lets us know that our supply is coming in too late, and we need to see what we can do to fill that gap. An exception message 96 lets us know that we're under our safety stock target. Red lights let us know that we don't have sufficient supply for today's demand. These are some of the usual suspects, but let's take a look at a few more. Exception message 70 lets us know that we've exceeded the max release quantity on the quote arrangement. Did you know that you can control how much volume is released to a supplier over a particular period of time? We've got some great walkthroughs on how to work with quota arrangements. And when you're in here working with a materials planning situation, you may also see a warning message letting you know that you've exceeded the target quantity on the scheduling agreement if you have allocations in place, these are two really helpful messages to help manage those situations. So what do we do if we know we're struggling to keep up with the demand that a particular supplier? Well, first we'd want to check our source list for any additional qualified sources. Then I have a more interesting idea for you. How about using SAP spend analysis to find other potential sources? We could run the report for a longer term horizon, and then switch our drill down to the material group. What other suppliers are supporting similar materials? Are there other potential sources where we have existing relationships? Or is there an alternate source applying to a different plant in your network? SAP provides a ton of ways to slice and dice information from this single report. The next thing to consider is if this is a temporary or a persistent challenge. If it's temporary, you may be able to set up a contract for a fixed period of time to call off of. MRP will automatically record the purchasing volume for you if the master data is properly set up, allowing for ease of maintenance. You could also consider the use of scheduling agreements that reflect what the supplier has committed to you. This will invoke the aforementioned warning if the target quantity is exceeded in the MRP run. The tendency of many organizations that are experiencing a capacity constraint at a supplier is to issue a blanket PO. Blanket PO's are not a good solution. They limit the help MRP can give us in aligning the supply plan. We want to use these other tools in the toolkit to commercially commit to our suppliers and then set them up for success while still keeping our plans reasonable and realistic to our demand. Then of course, there's the quote arrangement and the ability to throttle how many units a single source can provide over a period of time. And then let us know with an exception message when that quota is exceeded. A challenging situation is even more difficult when you're forced to manage it offline. Let's move these rules into SAP and address the situation with clarity, precision, and support. All right people. We got our hands on some tools. Most of them aren't new, but applying them in the right way to the right situation is where the magic sometimes happens. And I think we had some of those good conversations today. As a reminder, we touched on contracts to support a shorter term allocation of volume to an alternate source. Contract acceptable in most cases, blanket order bad, almost always. Then we looked at scheduling agreements to provide better mid to long-term visibility to the constrained supplier with a firm zone to represent specific commitments. Lastly, we hit on quota arrangements and MRP to help us balance the volume. We've got videos on all of these tools individually that I'd love to encourage you to go and check out. Hey, Steven, much appreciated, that's awesome. You know, and the reality guys is that if the more visibility we have of our constraints and the alternatives we have to deal with them, the better. We just become more proficient. Hey folks, we have quite a few topics in this particular area, and if you can find the video in a video catalog, please use the AI chatbot, it'll recommend some for you.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

MD07; MD04; ME21N; ME33K; ME38

Hey folks, welcome back, Martin here. Now here's a really fun topic that sparks a lot of curiosity. Let's go shopping. Now, SAP has many ways to make the process of placing PO's or shopping easy, but many organizations continue to manually enter or modify their purchase orders. That's a lot of work and is ripe for opportunity for error. Let's see how we can address this, exploring a few and different ways in SAP that can make the process of placing PO's easier. And here to help us today is Jen. Now Jen, does the prospect of shopping sound exciting? Or more like a chore for you? Well, it depends, Martin, what are we shopping for and who's paying? No one likes a clunky shopping experience, and that's exactly what we're going to work through today. Let's make the purchase processing easy by putting SAP to work for us. Today we're going to explore how to get the most of our data so we get a good purchase order right out of the gate, minimal manual maintenance. Then we'll talk about how to make the maintenance easier if we do need to make a change. And lastly, I'll highlight a few of the options to level up your purchasing game with a smart use of outline agreements. Let's dive right in and take a look. As a buyer, I'm responsible for setting my suppliers up for success. It is my job to release purchase orders for or delivery schedules to them on the correct cadence and with all the right details. There are many ways to identify what purchase orders need to be written today. First, I could pull out all of my materials by supplier through MD07. I then review my planning situation to see if I'm happy with my planning. Do I have any issues with lot size, lead times, or safety stock? Are there any open past due PO's? Do I have any exception messages that suggest we're falling behind to demand? Once I've got comfortable with what's pending for this supplier, I am ready to go shopping. Now, I could convert individual requisitions right from here. See this release date column. This tells me the date I should convert the requisition. I don't want to release a requisition too early because it limits flexibility if there are changes in demand. I don't want to miss a release date because I want to be giving the supplier the necessary lead time. This is true Goldilocks moment, we want to get it just right. Now, if I didn't want to go through and convert these one at a time, and I don't, one of my other options is simply to go shopping. Let's head over to ME21N, and let's look for purchase requisitions for the supplier and for the appropriate release date. This is going to create a work list for me. I can now take the requisitions and place them in the shopping cart. This is my favorite part. Now all the details from the requisition will flow in from me and auto-populate onto the PO. As you're getting used to this process and working away from manually entering the supplier, dates, quantities, or even price, you may find missing information or incorrect information, and that's okay. Just stop, take a moment and fix the input to correct the output. Next time it will be correct for you. One of the most common mistakes we see people make with purchase orders is the price or price per. We don't want to have to manually enter that information if we don't have to. Setting a rule in place certainly helps though. You can use the search functionality that we just tried here to pull all of the requisitions you're responsible for by the release date. Make sure to look for the requisitions that are missing, the supplier so you can fix that master data and don't miss the buy. ME57 is also great for identifying and correcting missing source data. If there's a lot, fix the data for 5 to 10 today, the pile will get smaller. Now, let's say we need to make a change to this PO. Maybe we need to update all of the dates. We can quickly do this with a fast change. If you look here, there are many options that are eligible for fast change. We simply select the change we need to make and we're able to apply that value to the selected items. Before we wrap up today, I did also want to mention another major helper to the procurement process, outline agreements. We have the ability to set contracts up and then call those contracts with discrete PO's. No need to create PO's for large quantities. We also have scheduling arrangements that allow MRP to create delivery schedules across time, so our supply is time for when we need it. Both allow us to give us the supplier anticipated volume with easy maintenance and excellent reporting. Thanks for shopping with me. The order acknowledgement really is a great tool to get closer to your suppliers and encourage a proactive exchange of information. The showstopper for a lot of teams is if they're just getting started and the volume seems impossible to keep up with. It doesn't have to be. There are lots of ways to get this information loaded into the system, and a pilot program supported by the manual maintenance will help the team see the value in the effort. Then you can optimize the process with your suppliers, broaden the program and make it efficient. Let's keep the communication flowing with the effective use of order acknowledgements. Thank you, Jen. You know, we work with buyers all the time that are experts at their functional areas, but struggle with the tactical aspects of execution. Walkthroughs like these just help make life easier and helps the team really focus on the good stuff and the spend analysis, the supplier quality, and obviously, good old performance and strategic sourcing. It doesn't have to be hard and dare I say, even fun. Hey folks, if you're looking for more fun areas to go and explore, please feel free to use the AI, they may have some recommendations too.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; LOG; OTC

MM03; MD04; ME13; ME01

Hey folks, Martin here. We are in the midst of a quickly changing landscape when it comes to these tariffs. It's a lot to keep up with, let alone fully consume and come up with a solid game plan for your business. It's tough. What we thought we'd do today is help with a quick list of practical tips to keep SAP up to date with all these dynamic adjustments. As an SAP community, we're all in this together, and the more we can share about how we are coping, the better for each one of us. We need a beacon, and who better to guide us and ground us than Sean? So Sean, guide us through this process, teach us what SAP can do to help us deal with these dynamic changes every single day. Thanks Martin, a timely topic of course. So well, folks, it certainly is storming out there. So many changes in such a short period of time. Today we want to focus on some of the key features in SAP that can help us. Let's walk through three pieces. The first is, let's talk about master data. Very key for keeping us compliant and setting us up for success. Second, let's discuss the changing of the sources of supply for those of us trying to move our business from one place to another. And last, but certainly not least. Let's discuss whether and how we might account for those changes in pricing to our customers. Now, some of you may have TM and or GTS in place, and that opens the door to a lot more functionality. Today's walkthrough is for those who may not have access to those tools. Let's get into SAP and brainstorm. Before we dive in, here are some ideas around actions. Let's review the master data that must be in place to ensure we're recording everything as we should, so that we are compliant as a business. Now, there are two key master data elements that provide the foundation. The first is the HTS code, and this lives inside of the material master. HTS, it stands for harmonized tariff schedule, and it sets out the tariff rates by category for all goods imported into the United States. And similarly, most goods traded worldwide also follow a harmonized schedule. The second critical piece of master data is the country of origin. Now country of origin can be maintained in the material master as we see here, or it can be in the purchase info record if it varies by source and can subsequently be maintained by a batch number in cases where there is more than one country of origin in play. In that case, the batch lets you track the country of origin, where it went and on which order as well. So both of these pieces of master data, the HT S code and the country of origin should always be well maintained in order to meet regulatory reporting and compliance standards. You may also have some other customer restrictions on which they will accept or some other commercial agreements that need to be part of it. So with that, let's get us started now. Now many of our viewers are currently working on transitioning source from one country to another, and we know that's proved difficult as the tariff rates are continuing to change and evolve and will continue to do so as negotiations unfold or as our world leaders respond . In many cases, it's not as easy as finding a US source. There's just some materials that are not readily available in the US and others that are much more costly to produce tariffs or no tariffs. If you have a transition in mind therefore, SAP can help manage the timing of the transition from one supplier to another. The source list is a great tool for supplier qualification, control and timing and can be coupled with quota arrangements and outline agreements to help strategically manage volume splits. Not only is this going to help or does this help with transitions, but it can also help with temporary, additional and alternative sources. And here we can see an example as we see it here on the screen. If you have a country of origin requirements for customers or in manufacturing, that's when you want that extra layer of batch management assignment to help manage those more complex environments. Now, let's see if you are changing source and want to go to an entirely new material number, you can use tools like material determination for incoming orders, to push orders to the new part number or to split customer volume by country of origin. And this is handy in particular for use up scenarios. We want to use things up and finish them out, it's very helpful in that regard. As things do continue to shift and change, you are likely to experience shifting demand patterns, so be sure to update your demand plan with the best outlook you have, and get that forecast into SAP where appropriate. In that regard, then pay close attention to your forecast performance and opening remaining items to sell that you've got already in your pipeline. Now we're on to the tricky one. How will these changes affect our customers? If you're considering a change, please just bear in mind that you do not have to make a fixed price increase. You could consider a temporary surcharge that's easy to maintain or determine with solid price procedures, and that's going to be the subject of some further conversations. So folks, as we've taken a bit of a tour around SAP, I hope we've sparked your curiosity. I think it's safe to say that you'll be seeing more on this topic with deeper dives in the future. To recap a few critical points from our time together today. Maintaining the proper master data helps us to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Now is a very good time to double check your work and make sure that you have the proper HTS code and country of origin on all of your products. This is always critical whether or not we're going through a round of tariff changes or not. And then really dig into how we can have SAP help you, from price conditions to a reasonable approach to transitioning from one source to another, to really digging into the puts and takes of your demand plan. We can put SAP to work and managing the churn, quietening the chaos and navigating the changes. Much more to come on this subject, folks. Good luck. Wow, Sean. Thank you. That was super comprehensive. So folks, if you are struggling to keep up or are managing some of these pieces Sean just walked through outside of SAP, I'd encourage you to phone a friend at Reveal and just ask some questions. We know that this is a challenge for many of us right now. Hey folks, if you want to know more about this topic in particular or just other areas that you can use SAP to become more agile, please check out our video catalog or use our AI chatbot to find specific videos for you.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; MM02; MD02

Howdie Reveal TVers? It's Martin here? Today we're having a chat about transitioning from one component to the next. Now, this rarely goes smoothly and it's a common complaint within the SAP community, but here's the good news. We have a cool tool in the toolkit that can help manage this process. It's called follow up material, and we've got Kelly here to tell us more about it today. So Kelly, what can you tell us about follow-up material? Well, Martin. I love to square things away when I'm thinking about them, and follow up materials allows the planner or buyer to do just that. This key piece of functionality helps us to effectively manage transitions by specifying the material we're transitioning to and the timing of the transition. This allows MRP to send dependent requirements to the new material so we can issue orders for replenishment just in time to meet the effect of outdate. Let's get into SAP and take a look. Here we are in the stock requirements list for a component. I just found out it's being discontinued. Let's walk through how SAP can help with this. Today I'm going to focus on our options in the material master, but there are fancier choices when we work directly in the bill of material. That will be an opportunity for another day. Let's look at our planning situation. We can see here that we still have some inventory in stock. Lots of planned demand across time and plenty of purchase requisitions. So let's tell MRP that we need to transition this material. The setting for this are in the material master and on the MRP 4 tab with the other production related master data. You'll see three fields here. First is the discontinuation indicator. We need to make a selection here to start the discontinuation process. Next is the effective outdate. We populate this date if we're planning the discontinuation out in the future. And last but not least is the follow-up material. This is the material that MRP should be moving the dependent demand to once the inventory has been exhausted and after the effective outdate. This is the material that MRP should be moving the dependent demand to once the inventory has been exhausted and after the effective outdate. Now a very important side note. This is a subcontracting item. MRP will not automatically reassign to the new material, but will instead give you an exception message alerting you to misalignment. For now, I'm going to skip the date. Let's save and run MRP. It's going to ask us if we're sure. Yes, yes, we're sure. And we can see the results screen and some changes have occurred. Let's go back to the stock requirements list so we can see what happened in the planning. Okay, now, before we refresh, note the uncovered dependent requirements that go out into the future. See here. Now let's refresh. We can observe a few things. First, we are using up the material we have, if we flip to the replacement material, we can see that the dependent demand has moved over to the new part. Second, we can see that only the dependent demand moved. We intentionally had a mixed demand stream on this part that included order reservations for production orders in the flight and planned independent requirements to anticipation of customer orders or stock transfers. This demand has to be moved over manually. Here's why this makes sense. In order, in flight for production, has already read all its master data and been through material availability checking. We should have the inventory in stock or on its way. A forecast should rarely be on a component, but it can happen and we would manage the transition independently since we can't assume customer acceptance. Before we wrap, I do want to show you an example of an exception message. See this dependent requirement, you'll see a note that it has been partly replaced. There are several exception messages to help us manage different situations that pop up in the discontinuation process. Thanks for taking the tour with me. I like the easy maintenance that we walked through today. By putting simple rules in place, we can put MRP to work for us and get our demand routed to the new component. I love that. I don't have to remember, MRP will help me take the right actions. And the best part is that the plan will be monitored. If we're not meeting the timing or demand and supplier out of balance, we're going to get those exception messages. This sure does make things a lot easier. So this is one of those features that if you know, you know, but if you don't, man, you're missing out. No one wants to scramble for material, and all of us want to use up as much of the old as we can. This is a small feature that can have a significant impact. So again, Kelly, thank you for walking us through this. Hey folks, we actually have quite a few of these little tips and tricks out there. If you can find the one you're looking for, use the AI chatbot. But if you want to ask us a specific questions, feel free to submit it below.

SAP Optimization

OTC; DM; P2P; PTM; WM

MD04

Hello, Reveal TV, Martin here. If I've watched somebody struggle to find an entry in SAP, once I've seen it a thousand times. How to search? It seems so obvious, but let me tell you, it's often not well executed. When you're looking for something, you really need to be able to find it. These small usability pieces do impact the team's likelihood to work outside of SAP and lowers the perceived value of the system. Yeah, but I just can't find it. I know SAP has it, but I can find it. It's just not good enough. Okay, so we're going to solve that today. We need the most curious of curious detectives and our person, Jake is going to be doing that for us. How do we solve this particular issue, Jake? Tell us how to find things in SAP. Hold onto your hats folks, and let's get right into it. We don't want you to be struggling to find what you need in SAP. Let's make it easier for you right now. We're going to try out three different skills for finding information. So first up, a little game I like to play, find, find next. Then we'll move on to fun with wild cards. And we'll bring it home with what's on the menu, working with dropdowns. These are all different approaches to finding what you need. So let's dive in. Alright, it's time to find what we're looking for. I think a good example that we can all relate to is searching for a material. So let's go to MD04 and click into the material number field and choosing this teeny tiny magnifying glass in the lower right corner. I'm going to search by sales material by description, and since this tip is called find, find next, we'll start with a basic find. We can find the Find feature via menus in many transactions, but I really like the binoculars or magnifying glass, so we use the binoculars today. I'm going to search for bike. It will take me to the first entry in the list. Thank you very much. SAP. That's not quite the one I'm looking for, so I want to keep looking. I can't quite remember what the particular bike is listed under. So let's click on the find next. It's the binoculars with the plus sign next to them. Or you might have the magnifying glass with the plus sign. I'm going to hit this a few times until I see the list jump, so let's make sure the search is doing a good job. There we go. Next up, we have fun with wild cards. Wild card is really useful if you know what the entry that you're looking for begins with. See here we can put the first few characters in and then put in the asterisk. The asterisk is the wild card, and you get it by typing Shift 8 on your keyboard. Now we can also add the opposite, and if we know what the thing we're looking for ends with, we can put a asterisk first and then what it ends in after. See here. Find, and then here's the wild part. We can put in what it starts with, an asterisk something it contains, an asterisk, and then what it ends in. Now tell me that's wild. You can really use the wild card search to your advantage. So before we wrap today, I want to go back to the beginning. I knew I wanted to search for sales materials by description, but I had a lot of options. Now we could click through all those tabs to find what we're looking for, or we can go over to the far right and click on the dropdown. Now, that is definitely an efficiency builder. And welcome back. I really enjoyed walking through these different ways of searching through with you. We want this to become faster and easier for you. Do you know what's really interesting? When you're searching a lot, you start to really focus in on the data, and then you notice things. You notice how things are named, how consistent the data is, and the way that you're grouping things. And through this focus on the data, you'll start to make improvements. It's really, really interesting. So try it for a while and see what happens. Awesome, Jake. Now we know how to find things in SAP, which is key for us to become great users. The way to think about this is as follows. Not only do we need to know what's in the drawers, but we also need a strategy for what we put in the drawers. That's going to make the searching a whole lot easier. We talk about the speed to data and speed to decisions. It all begins with locating the relevant data. So once again, thank you bud. Ok folks, if this was helpful, I know there's plenty more videos for you to check out, and if you have a specific question, please submit it below.

SAP Optimization

OTC; P2P; PTM; WM

MD04; MB51; MIGO

Hey there Reveal TV community, Martin here. Do you ever find yourself looking at a transaction in SAP and wondering why somebody did what they did? Possibly even asking yourself why you did what you did. As time marches on, it's harder to unpack those deviations from the expected outcomes. The good news, we have a tool in the toolkit to help you with this challenge, reason codes. Reason codes gives us a quick and easy way to identify, explain, report on the reasons why we took a particular course of action and the difference in the normal expected process and outcomes. For today we're going to have Jason tell us more about it. Jason, tell us more about how to use these reason codes and why they're so important. What was the reason? Thanks, Martin. Chances are reason codes are being used or at least have been set up in some part of your business. They help us with a quick explanation of the course of action that we've chosen. Today we're going to work through a few examples of good use cases for reason codes. And as we do, I'd challenge us to think about how reason codes could open up the door for better reporting and analytics to drive corrective actions or process improvements or cross functional visibility for decision making. Let's dive in and take a look. So why reason codes? Well, if you have well thought out reason codes, and we have a quick and easy way to record the why, here's some examples . Why was this material moved from unrestricted use stock to quality inspection by block stock ? We expect material to move from quality to unrestricted, but to move back to quality and might need a little more information on the why. And if we're moving from unrestricted or quality to blocked, we would definitely not to know why . Was the material damaged, that happens. If we saw a pattern, we might find you need to up our incoming inspections then for a while until we see improvements. Or perhaps we aren't storing this material in the best place for it's survival and we need to think about a different storage strategy. Or maybe it's just not there. We really don't want that one, but sometimes it happens. We don't know where it is, so we block it to make sure that MRP and ATP won't see it as available for use. With a reason code, it makes it easy to quickly review and also spot patterns. Let's take this material, for example. If we look in the stock requirements list, we see three little golden cubes by our starting inventory position. Whenever we see these golden cubes, SAP is telling us we have inventory sitting somewhere other than unrestricted use. So I know there's something going on here. If I'm planning my replenishment, chances are this move to block stock was not on my bingo card for today. Now it's blocked and I don't know why. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just run MB51 for this movement type and see the reason code? Oh, and look right here. I've got three moves due to the material not found. Think it's time to call the warehouse and ask for a count . Things are getting a little out of handout there. Reason codes can help us a ton with reporting and analytics. We can use them in sales orders to help further define blocks. We could use them in production reporting if an activity was not completed or an order was completed short of the requested quantity, and we can certainly use them for unexpected movement or reclassification of material . Keep the list short and intentional. You'll make it easy to get quality information with minimal effort. Now, I'm a curious person and I like to know the why. Knowledge is power, and when you see the same issue popping up over and over again, it's a great opportunity to dive in. Now, a word of caution, require reason codes only when necessary. If you over do it, chances are good that the team will just go on autopilot and that is not what we want. We want quality reasons that drive activities. The choice of reasons should be well thought out and intentional. The goal is to drive transparency on the why. And cross-functional visibility that supports quality decision making. That's awesome Jason. Thank you. You clearly had some good reasons for bringing this topic to Reveal TV. Hey, those are great examples, but as we work to improve service levels and reduce downtime, reason codes would be very helpful in unpacking and resolving the myriad of issues that we deal with every day. Hey folks, I know there's a lot of these little tips and tricks that you could probably find in some of the videos we have, but if you can find one specifically to what you're looking for, feel free to submit it below.

SAP Optimization

OTC; P2P

WE02; WE09; VA03; ME23N

Hey folks, Martin here. Getting different systems talking with one another is often a challenge. Yet there are some great benefits to being able to send and receive information, particularly with communicating with our customers and our suppliers and just other systems in our landscape. Fortunately, there's a lot of standard best practices and communication protocols to lean on. When things are going well, we can manage issues as an exception. And today we have none other than Rutul to help us talk through IDoc errors and how we should think about proactively monitoring and managing them. Rutul take it away. An IDoc error lets us know that there has been a failure in processing a communication. This is very important because it's meant to make an update in your SAP system and it's failing, There's a load of important messages that can be sent back and forth. The errors really break down into three broad categories. Application errors. Syntax errors . And system errors. As a business team member, you are likely addressing a lot of syntax errors if you are actively monitoring your IDocs. Let's go in and talk about some of these places where you can see these IDoc errors. All right, here we are in one of those monitoring tools to catch, analyze, and resolve IDoc errors. There are several options in the system for example, BD87 or WE02, WE05, depending on your role and organization you might have different authorizations to these tools. One of the most common ones that we actually go through is the WE02 or 05. It will tell you by partner number or by specific IDoc messages and so on, there are multiple filtering options available in this transaction to see the errors or processing status of IDocs in specific areas, for example, you only want to look at for customer or vendor IDocs. You can filter those messages through the selection criteria and easily narrow down your search criteria. So what is an IDoc? IDoc stands for the intermediate document and IDoc is actually SAP specific terminology ortechnology or tool that is used to bring in the data in this SAP system. The flow is that there's EDI translation happening between the two partners and APO system is SAP. The translation that comes in or goes out to those partners or customers is an IDoc format. It may sound like a little technical and boring, but many of the IDocs errors are usually data errors or incorrect partner information, and so on and so forth. As I mentioned, the IDoc is an SAP terminology and the communication between the two partners happens through EDI, which means there are set specifications that SAP expects IDoc to be in and when that doesn't happen IDoc fails in SAP system and you have to use these tools to monitor and see those errors and correct those errors. It's very important that we not only address these errors in a one-off manner. We have to analyze and see the pattern, so to speak. When we talk about the IDoc errors and, resolve these errors long term. For example, a customer is sending you an order through EDI and it's failed in SAP system. So there could be a couple of very common issues related that, for example, a material number. What your customer is sending you is not matching up with what you are expecting in SAP system and IDoc will fail and say, hey, I cannot translate this material number. That's a very common error that you have to now work with the customer to say, hey, what are you sending? Are you sending the right part number? So on and so forth. And perhaps either change the settings in the EDI specification or within your SAP system communicating with them to say, okay, this is what I expect and then you can resolve this error for a long-term solution rather than changing or fixing in the one-off situation. One of the other common situations we get is where a customer order comes in and it has the SAP cannot find a ship to location, you know, ship to partner for that order that's coming in. And this is where a customer has lots of locations that you are shipping to and you are doing business with, and you are doing EDI with, but only some of them have been set up in the system. I. So now a new location automatically tries to send in an order but there is no ship to partner in your SAP system and IDoc will fail and say, hey, I cannot determine the ship to location. Or worse, it will attach an incorrect ship to location.Those type of situations are very common but this is where you can come in here and look at those errors and correct these errors. On the flip side, let's say you are doing business with your vendors you are sending the purchase orders to your vendor and they are sending you order acknowledgements or advance ship notices and so on from their side and it's failing. On the flip side, let's say you are doing EDI and communication and sending the purchase orders to your vendors. And your vendors are sending you the order acknowledgements or shipping notifications and those type of transactions back, and you see that it's failing. One of the common reasons these transactions fail is because they're sending you multiple acknowledgements for same PO or multiple advanced ship notices for same purchase orders again and again, and this is actually the bright side . We know in advance that things are coming in, we know that paperwork will be wrong, but at the same time, you want to also make sure that these occurrence are not happening again and again. We have to correct this at the transactional level as well, and communication level as well with your vendors so that it does not happen. We want these messages to constantly deliver to their destinations. We want the IDocs to flow in automatically. That is the purpose of it, so that it processes it without any issue, and being able to have these regular communications without any manual entry every time. It does help in removing the human struggle hours and allowsour teams to focus on what matters. IDocs provides us with an excellent opportunity. For communication and collaboration. When used effectively and monitored and addressed, they reduce the burden of actually the manual entry on our teams and lower the risk of data entry errors. Think about some of the examples, from today around sales orders and PO confirmations. That's a lot of manual work that can be alleviated with the proper use of EDI and resolution of IDoc errors. If we monitor these issues daily using some of the tools that we talked about today, we can achieve a good level of process efficiency. Hey Rutul, thanks a lot. That's a nice summary of benefits, balanced with necessary care and feeding. So again, thanks for the details. Hey folks, we don't always get into the technical topics specifically around how data is flowing from a technical perspective, but we do have a few others. If you're trying to find some of those, use the AI chatbot.

Demand & Supply Planning

P2P; PTM; WM

MD04; MM03; ME23N

Hi there, Martin here. Here's today's curious question. Does your organization struggle to redeploy inventory across the internal supply network? Are your site to site transfers visible, accurate, and timely? Do you feel like there's a missing link that makes the process a little more challenging than it should be? Well, you're not alone. Many companies find managing transfers within their organizations to be a pain, but it doesn't have to be that way. This is a large topic, and we're going to get started with the basics today. I'm super excited to have Nicole here with us today. She's amazing at making the complex simple, and she's going to introduce us to how an intracompany transfer is meant to be used and how it should work. Nicole, take it away. Hello and thanks, Martin. You would think that managing transfers within our own organization would be so much easier than managing purchases from our suppliers, but there's a few things that often get in the way. First, we sometimes treat transfers with less diligence and often as an afterthought. Second, we don't set our sister facilities up for success. And third, our master data is often not as clean as it should be, and as a result, we're not playing by the correct rules. Today I'm going to give you an example of what good looks like when SAP is properly set up and we execute according to the rules. Let's dive in and take a look. An intracompany transfer is a transfer from one location to another location within the same organization, or in SAP terminology, the same company code. Today we're going to walk through what a good transfer process could look like. Let's start here in the stock requirements list. If we look at the planning situation for this material, we can see that we have a proposal for replenishment from another plant. We can see the plant number here. The way that SAP knows which plant to source this material from is because we have a special procurement key set on the material master within the MRP 2 view, indicating that it's a stock transfer from another plant. Now, there are a couple of ways that we could choose another plant as a source of supply. We could have a scheduling agreement in place, or we could have a quota arrangement in place that indicates 70% of the requirements should be sourced from an outside source while 30% are sourced via transfer from another SAP plant. In other words, there are several tools available to help with most any sourcing requirement. Today we're going to keep it simple. We have a planned purchase requisition from another plant, and according to the lead time set on this material master, it's time to place the order if we want to receive the goods in time for use. I know that it's time to place the order by looking at the release dates. Before we place this order though, I want to show that you can see this request at the other plant as well. I can change my plant within the stock requirements list to show the planning situation for this material on the source plant. The request shows up within the stock requirements list as demand, and also indicates from which plant the demand is coming from. I am going to return to the ordering plant, and let's go ahead and convert this purchase requisition this planned STO into a Intracompany stock transport order. For this demo, I will simply select it in the stock requirements list, and click the convert to PO button. When I do this, all the details from the planned transfer will copy over into the STO for me. This includes things like the planned delivery time, the goods receipt time, and the quantity or even the route if I've maintained that data for shipping . I'm going to go ahead and save. I am going to go ahead and adopt the requisition into the shopping cart, and all of that information we just discussed will copy over automatically. I will just make sure there are no errors and then I will save to create the STO. And I will get confirmation at the bottom of the screen that the STO was created. As you can see, we have confirmation that the stock transport order was in fact created successfully. If I refresh my stock requirements list, that STO will now show for that material in that plant. Now that the order has been created and saved, the source plant will see that they have an order that they can acknowledge, confirm, and ship against when it is time to ship the goods, this STO will show up in the delivery due list for outbound delivery creation. The source plant will then be able to pick and stage the delivery for shipment and when shipped, and inbound delivery can be automatically created at the source plant. Once all of those delivery related activities occur, we can then see the status change here within MD04 and know with confidence that the shipment is on its way to us. This also gives us early visibility if something is different than expected, providing a way to proactively intervene if the process has fallen behind. We will see exceptions in both plants when we're out of alignment and can look at the planning situation with our colleagues if we need to adjust dates or quantities and immediately see the impact. Through these types of conversations, we can learn a lot. It's a real opportunity to make things better and set each other up for success. We often hear. Oh, that's just a stock transfer. Here's the problem, MRP does not care and neither does ATP. That stock transfer is a valid source of supply. It has the same status as an external purchase or production order, so we have to manage this process with the same level of diligence. I know we want to help our fellow colleagues to be successful. So the next time a transfer seems like just a transfer. Double click and make sure we've got it right today. We saw the process and the way things are supposed to work. In future videos, we'll unpack where things might be going wrong and how to address common issues. Hey Nicole, thank you. Let's not forget intra means within . These site to site transfers are key to our success. The more diligent we are within our own organization, the better we are likely to be with our suppliers. There's a lot we can learn from having a focus from within. Don't let it be an afterthought or an assumption, and we know no assumptions are allowed in supply chains. We can do better with active management. Hey folks, intracompany transfers is a hot topic and we're going to have a lot of videos on that. If you're struggling to kind of list them all out, please use our AI chatbot.

SAP Optimization

DM; OTC; P2P; PTM; WM

SAP GUI

Hey everyone, Martin here. There are so many places to go in SAP. How can we make it easier to navigate our daily tasks? With so many options, how can we drive focus on the transactions we use every day and not forget the ones that we use a little less frequently? Today we're going to talk about using favorites, and here with a few of our favorite tips is Jason. Now fair warning. One of these tips may make you want hours of your life back. It's one of those you don't know what you don't know moments. It's okay, we're fixing it right now. Take it away, Jason. We get asked all the time about how to set a new team member up for success in SAP, and there are a lot of different pieces to think through. For today's example though, we're going to use favorites to help a new person mark the transactions as they learn their new processes. Now there are options for how to do this, and we're going to demonstrate two of them today. The first is finding and adding a favorite. The second is how to download a list of favorites from an existing team member and upload them for the new person. Then we're going to talk a little bit about how to organize your favorites to make them follow the daily, weekly, and monthly cadence of activities easily. Let's dive in and take a look. So as with most things SAP, there are about 37 different ways to add a favorite. Okay, maybe not that many, but there are several, and we'll go through most of them in this session. I'm going to start by adding from the menu path. So I'm going to expand this. I want to find, create purchase orders. I'm going to keep expanding down through the menus, and I'm going to get to create, so here's my transaction Code ME21N. I'm going to click on that, single click, and now I have a few options. I can right click and say add to favorites. I can use the menu path up here where it says Favorites in the add, or the quickest way is probably just to click this button that says Add to Favorites with the star. So I do that, and as you can see, it pops this up into the Favorites folder. That's option one. It's a little clunky. Option two is from within a transaction itself. So, I’m going to go to MB52 to look up some warehouse stock, and from within here, I can go to System, User Profile and Expand Favorites. And it's not obvious that anything happened, but when I go back to the main menu, you can see that now , that's in my list of favorites. So that's option number two. Finally, we're going to use the tried and true drag and drop method. You know, that works everywhere, right? But don't tell anyone, here's a bonus tip. I'm going to show you how to find your transaction code quickly within the tree. So, first thing I'm going to do here is I'm going to go up here to the binoculars and type in MMBE and hit Find. What's going to happen here, queue the jeopardy music, it's going to take a minute... Look, it took me right to it. How cool is that? And then from there, I'm going to hold down my left mouse key on it and I'm just going to drag it. Drag, drag, drag, drag, drag, and bam. There it's, so now I've got it in my folder . So that's pretty slick. Nice and easy. Now you can probably imagine that things will get a little bit cluttered if we keep on this path. So, next step is we're going to show how to quickly take these favorites and move them over to another SAP environment. So whether that be a test system that you need to work in, or if you want to share your favorites with a colleague. So very simply, we're going to go to Favorites, we're going to say Download to PC and it'going to be just like downloading anything in SAP. I'm going to go ahead and say, export, put this on the desktop to make it simple. Export, click through my Allow, and now I have it. Next thing I'm going to do is jump over to my other SAP system, and you'll see here that there are no favorites in this one. So I'll go ahead and say, Upload from PC. I'll find my export file and I'll hit Open, hit Allow, and bam. There you go, my favorites are now in this other system. So you can see that it's really quick and easy to share these with other people. Keep that in mind. You could even set up a standard that everybody gets. Save that on one computer and then just quickly upload that as you're setting up a new user when you hire new people or someone changes into a new job. All right, so now that we've done this, we also have an option of what if I want to delete. So again, multiple options. I can highlight the transaction in favorites. I can use the little star button to delete favorites. I can go up to Favorites, Delete, or I can right click say Delete Favorites. And there's also the option to just hit the Delete button on your keyboard and it's gone. Alright, so now that we've done this, you can imagine it's probably going to get a little bit cluttered in here if we just start going crazy, adding transaction codes. So the next thing we're going to about is how we can organize this a little bit more. So much like in any type system like this, like windows or something, we can add folders. So up here, I'm going to just say, let's see, go to here and I'm going to say Insert Folder. So within my favorites, I'm going to call it Jason's Stuff because that's nice and crisp. And then within that folder, I'm going to add some more folders. So I'm going to right click here, I'm going to say insert folder and let's just say, we'll call it Exceptions, and then I'm going to add another folder here, so you can get creative with this if you want to, I'm going to call it Procurement, hopefully I spelled that right. And then I'm going to do one more, call it Inventory. And I don't really like that sequence, so I'm going to drag this down, just respond, oops, I put that in the folder. I don’t want to do that. There we go now I’m in the right folder. OK, so, as you might imagine, I can then click and drag some of these. So I'm going to go ahead and drag this guy up into the procurement folder, and now he lives there. And since this is an inventory transaction, I'll pull this up here and drop it in the inventory folder. Pretty cool. Now I want to add another transaction, I'm going to go here in this folder, I'm going to right click and I'm going to say, Insert Transaction and I'm going go ZMD07, bam. That's in there now. And I’m going to add one more, let’s add MD04, those are fairly common when we're looking at exceptions, so we'll do that. Then down here, maybe I want to add MC.9, we’ll add MC42, these are some of my favorites, and we'll add NC 50 in case we want to look at that stuff. Maybe up here well, I'm not just doing PO's, I might need to create a requisition, so we'll drop that in there. Maybe, let's see, maybe to N in case I want to report on my PO's. Oops, I hit the wrong button, I made that a folder, that's no good. So let's go ahead and kill that and we'll start over. By the way, I just hit the Delete button on that to delete that folder. And now we'll make this a transaction ME2N and we're good to go. Alright, so you can see this. You can sequence these things if you want to, so maybe I want to put my report down at the bottom. You can just click and drag and move it. Maybe I want to have a different sequence here, so I want MC.9 to be up at the top. So we'll just drag and drop these guys around a little bit. You can set these up in a sequence so you can get very creative here with these. There's very much flexibility within the structure. And I'm going to show you one last thing, and I might get in trouble for this, but you can actually change the name of these things. So like here with create purchase requisition, you can say something like, let's see here, where's money let's say Change Favorites and I'm going to say, Do this first!!! See, now I know that I do that first. We can go down here, to my exceptions, because this is super important, we know this. You must do this every day before coffee!!! All right? So no mistaking this. You hire a new person, they shouldn't have any question about what they're supposed to do and when they should do it, so get creative with your folder structures and remember that you can always download and upload. Hopefully this gives you, a good idea of how to use favorites effectively and seriously don't tell anybody about that last tip, I don't want to get in trouble. Favorites are a great place to start when onboarding a new team member. We can set them up for success by driving a consistent focus across people with similar roles. By organizing our favorites, we can quickly map the transactions that we use to our processes for completing our work on a regular cadence of activities. Now as great as favorites are I want to encourage you to stay curious and continue to explore all that SAP has to offer. I knew this was going to be a favorite, thank you Jason. First of all, having a consistent, well established workspace sets a team up for success. No question. And second, I love the trick you showed on how to upload and download favorites from one person to another. That's great. Thank you, sir. Hey folks, there's actually quite a lot of these little favorites, tips and tricks that we can be using. Please check out our video catalog if you're looking for others, or ask the AI chatbot, I'm sure it'll have some ideas for you.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

MD04; CS02; MD02

Hey there, fellow supply chain superstars. We love getting questions from you. It helps us drive prioritization of our content, and today is one such video. Do you ever find that you're having trouble planning materials for the pace of production? Do you have particular materials that need to be delivered throughout the production run versus being a hundred percent available and in stock at the beginning of the production run? Well, we want your exceptions to mean something, and we don't want you to have to break down your delivery schedule manually. So who better to ask about this particular topic than Nicole? Nicole, this is an area that you are very familiar with. Why don't you share some more details on it? Hi Martin. This is such a great question. Anything we can do to make a planner or buyer's job easier, I'm in. SAP offers several tools that can help us refine the timing of requirements, and one such tool is called the distribution key. This is targeted for our longer runs of production where we may need to receive several deliveries of particular materials to properly feed manufacturing. Once this rule is in place, MRP understands what we're trying to do, and it splits the dependent requirement for that planned order. This then gives us a proper requirements date to align our deliveries to. It also helps us to get a more and meaningful material availability check based on our plan for replenishment. Let's get into SAP and take a look. Today we're going to talk about how we can use a distribution key within the bill of material in order to evenly spread a dependent requirement out over a period of time. As you can see in this example, I have a component and my stock requirements list is indicating that I need 20 million pieces of this component available on 04/10 for dependent demand. Now, that is a lot of material to use on a single day, especially if we look deeper at the dependent requirement, we can see that this planned production order is actually going to take place over a matter of years. Wouldn't it be easier if we were able to evenly distribute this dependent requirement over the period of time for the planned order? Well, we absolutely can, and we're going to do that by using the distribution key within the bill of material for the assembly. I'm going to navigate to the bill of material for the assembly, and I'm going to navigate to the line item details for the affected component, and I'm going to set a distribution key which will equally distribute that component over the dependent requirement. I'm going to save. Once the bill of material is saved, all I now need to do is rerun MRP for the assembly and re-explode that bill of material. Easy. Now, refreshing at this level is not going to show any improvement. However, if we navigate back to the component in question, we will see the dependent requirement coming from that assembly is now evenly distributed over the years of which that assembly is going to take place. This means instead of procuring a single incoming receipt of 20 million pieces, we can plan receipts across the time period that is intended for that planned production order, with just the click of one button. I love it when a good plan comes together. So let's go over a few key reminders. First, SAP and MRP in particular love rules. So the more rules that we know and can get into the system, the better MRP will do at giving us a reasonable plan for supply. Second, not only is this conversation around the right time, but also the right place. As we break down those requirements, we want to make sure we know the operation and the location where we'll be introducing that material into the process. And third, flow in parts productivity and manufacturing. Let's get the timing right so we can perform well and efficiently. Back over to you, Martin. Hey, thank you so much, Nicole. That was awesome. Love the walkthrough and I'll bet the Reveal TV folks and community love the idea of knowing how to use and align materials with the pace of production. So once again, thank you. Hey folks, if you can't find the video you're looking for and the AI is not giving you the recommendations you need, hey, please just submit the question below and we'll build some content for you.

Warehouse Management

WM

/SCWM/MON

Hey folks, Martin here. One of the things we talk a lot about is identifying alerts and exceptions and monitors within the SAP system. Today we're going to specifically focus on EWM's alerts in the Warehouse Monitor. Steve is our local warehouse management expert, and he's going to talk us through exactly how to look at the activity monitor with EWM, is this similar to the WM Activity Monitor? It is very similar Martin. But you have more functionality and options. If you have an overdue element from the time the warehouse task or order was generated, it will appear as an alert on the warehouse monitor. These need to be regularly maintained to minimize supply chain service disruptions. So let's jump into SAP where I'll demonstrate what the alerts are and how to maintain them. In this video, we'll discuss warehouse alerts within EWM. Where this lives and where you want to go is really going to be your main focal point within EWM, which is going to be the /SCWM/MON or the warehouse management monitor here. So first you'll double click the line, enter your warehouse number, specifically 1710 and SAP for my defaults monitor here. What you'll see, you'll see a bunch of the trees or folders already collapsed under alerts. Alerts , if you were a former WM user, this is going to be your focal exception, monitoring within EWM. All these elements have surpassed the order creation date or the time element that was defaulted within the system. These are going to be your default right out of your EWM system, but some may not apply, specifically if you are not in a wave environment of releasing waves, you would not expect to see anything here, but we'll drill into that one first. You have options here and filters of how you can specifically look or view for filters and specific functions if you wanted to filter more in on specific hours on waves if you have multiple waves in there that you're looking for. We have one wave that has surpassed the actual release date, which is why it's in there. You can go in there, use specifically what's going on with that wave . What's very nice about the alerts monitor is you can go in and you can take action directly from here. That's the waves. You can clear them. You have options there. What you'll find in every EWM warehouse is going to be your overdue warehouse orders. If you double click on this, you could filter by specific queues, activity areas, you have a few different filtering options there. We'll just go ahead and run it wide open. You could see again, all of your warehouse orders that have surpassed the creation time, so these orders have been created, there's a specific reason why the tasks have not been completed under the waves, you can investigate by clicking straight into there. Again, you have a one stop shop where you can go in there and you could actually perform action on any of these overdue waves. Warehouse tasks, same deal, you can jump in there. You have owners, you have different functions in areas you could filter in by activity areas. One thing that I can't emphasize enough is splitting and really establishing ownership based on your warehouse operation. So if you have specific folks or supervisors on the inbound side, the outbound side, you can create roles and filters and have them own parts and elements of this. You don't want to have someone who's picking on the kind of the outbound side, owning elements of the inbound side. That's the best way to manage and stay ahead of your exceptions, is establishing that ownership where they are just viewing specifically what's overdue on their end at the end of each ship. The goal is to have these completely clear by the end of the day because these have surpassed that time limit and is a potential supply chain service disruption. So you can click on any of these, but we'll continue, it's a inbound delivery and another one on your inbound delivery side without a goods receipt, without a warehouse pass created. On your outbound, you have a overdue outbound delivery without a goods issue and without a warehouse task. So getting pretty specific, but it goes back to what I just mentioned on splitting up that ownership and responsibility, does that for you a little here. You could own specific parts of your actual alerts and monitors. The other nice thing too is if you actually have warehouse exceptions or codes that you're utilizing, you can even drill in to see if you are using any of these functions of what that exception is and if those tasks are overdue as well. This is the alerts monitor, again, this could be everything that has been kicked over to EWM, it's expected to create or do a task. These have all surpassed that time limit. This needs to be managed and monitored every day. Welcome back. In this demo we've covered. The impacts and strategies on how to manage alerts in your warehouse. I hope this video allows you to establish ownership. And improve supply chain service levels in your warehouse. Alright, thanks Steve. I completely understand the importance of maintaining exceptions and alerts throughout the supply chain, and we talk a lot about it all the time. It's just better way to be informed and know what to do, especially when it comes to EWM as well. Thank you. Hey folks, if you have a burning question specifically related to this topic or frankly any other topic, please submit it below and we'll get back to you.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; LOG; OTC

MM03; MD04; ME13; ME01

Martin: Hey folks, Martin, here we are in the midst of a quickly changing landscape when it comes to these tariffs. It's a lot to keep up with, let alone fully consume, and come up with a solid game plan for your business. It's tough. What we thought we'd do today is help with a quick list of practical tips to keep SAP up to date with all these dynamic adjustments . As an SAP community, we're all in this together and the more we can share about how we are coping, the better for each one of us. We need a beacon and who better to guide us and ground us than Sean? So Sean, guide us through this process, teach us what SAP can do to help us deal with these dynamic changes every single day. Sean: Thanks Martin, a timely topic of course. So well, folks, it certainly is storming out there. So many changes in such a short period of time. Today we want to focus on some of the key features in SAP that can help us. Let's walk through three pieces. The first is, let's talk about master data. Very key for keeping us compliant and setting us up for success. Second, let's discuss the changing of the sources of supply for those of us trying to move our business from one place to another. And last, but certainly not least. Let's discuss whether and how we might account for those changes in pricing to our customers. Now, some of you may have TM and or GTS in place, and that opens the door to a lot more functionality. Today's walkthrough is for those who may not have access to those tools. Let's get into SAP and brainstorm. Before we dive in, here are some ideas around actions. Let's review the master data that must be in place to ensure we're recording everything as we should, so that we are compliant as a business. Now, there are two key master data elements that provide the foundation. The first is the HTS code, and this lives inside of the material master. HTS it stands for harmonized tariff schedule, and it sets out the tariff rates by category for all goods imported into the United States. And similarly, most goods traded worldwide also follow a harmonized schedule. The second critical piece of master data is the country of origin. Now, country of origin can be maintained in the material master as we see here, or it can be in the purchase info record if it varies by source and can subsequently be maintained by a batch number in cases where there is more than one country of origin in play. In that case, the batch lets you track the country of origin, where it went, and on which order as well. So both of these pieces of master data, the HTS code and the country of origin should always be well maintained in order to meet regulatory reporting and compliance standards. You may also have some other customer restrictions on which they will accept or some other commercial agreements that need to be part of it. So with that, let's get us started now. Now many of our viewers are currently working on transitioning source from one country to another, and we know that's proved difficult as the tariff rates are continuing to change and evolve and will continue to do so as negotiations unfold or as our world leaders respond. In many cases it's not as easy as finding a US source. There's just some materials that are not readily available in the US and others that are much more costly to produce tariffs or no tariffs. If you have a transition in mind, therefore, SAP can help manage the timing of the transition from one supplier to another. The source list is a great tool for supplier qualification, control and timing and can be coupled with quota arrangements and outline agreements to help strategically manage the volume splits. Not only does this help with transitions, but it can also help with temporary, additional and alternative sources. And here we can see an example as we see it here on the screen. If you have a country of origin requirement for customers or in manufacturing, that's when you want that extra layer of batch management assignment to help manage those more complex environments. Now, let's think if you're changing source and want to go to an entirely new material number, you can use tools like material determination for incoming orders to push orders to the new part number or to split customer volume by country of origin. And this is handy in particular for use up scenarios, so you want to use things up and finish them out, it's very helpful in that regard. As things continue to shift and change, you're likely to experience shifting demand patterns. So be sure to update your demand plan with the best outlook you have and get that forecast into SAP where appropriate. In that regard, then pay close attention to your forecast performance and opening remaining items to sell that you've got already in your pipeline. Now we're onto the tricky one. How will these changes affect our customers? If you're considering a change, please just bear in mind, that you do not have to make a fixed price increase. You could consider a temporary surcharge that's easy to maintain or determine with solid price procedures. And that's going to be the subject of some further conversations. So folks, as we've taken a bit of a tour around SAP, I hope we've sparked your curiosity. I think it's safe to say that you'll be seeing more on this topic with deeper dives in the future. To recap a few critical points from our time together today. Maintaining the proper master data helps us to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Now is a very good time to double check your work and make sure that you have the proper HTS code and country of origin on all of your products. This is always critical whether or not we're going through a round of tariff changes or not. And then really dig into how we can have SAP help you . From price conditions, to a reasonable approach to transitioning from one source to another, to really digging into the puts and takes of your demand plan. We can put SAP to work and managing the churn, quietening the chaos, and navigating the changes. Much more to come on this subject, folks. Good luck. Martin: Wow, Sean. Thank you. That was super comprehensive. So folks, if you are struggling to keep up or are managing some of these pieces Sean just walked through outside of SAP, I'd encourage you to phone a friend at Reveal and just ask some questions. We know that this is a challenge for many of us right now. Hey, folks, if you want to know more about this topic in particular or just other areas that you can use SAP to become more agile, please check out our video catalog or use our AI chatbot to find specific videos for you.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

CR31; CR32; CR33; CRC1; CRC2; CRC3; CM01

Martin: The best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Hi, my name is Martin and in this particular video we'll focus on using SAP's work center hierarchy to perform capacity evaluation for a group of liked work centers. A debate may take place to define one work center to represent a multiple like machines, or create a work center for each physical like machine and use a group center hierarchy with a superior work center to perform capacity evaluation. So let's get into this. Eacliffe tell us more about how do we do this specifically in this grouping of evaluations of work centers, specifically in a hierarchy. Eacliffe: Hey, thanks Martin. I have set up a demonstration to. Illustrate the functionality of a work center hierarchy and a superior work center. So while it be easier to generate a single work center, or let it represent multiple work centers, this approach can sometimes be challenging when assigning a particular manufacturing order to a specific work center, for example. Regardless of the reason for having a one-to-one definition between a work center in SAP versus the physical, uh, machine on the production floor. By defining a work center hierarchy, capacity evaluation can be done for both the individual work centers and the superior work center. So let's get into SAP and look at how this functionality works. So this is a demonstration on how to aggregate production capacity information for resources or work centers. So you have the situation where you have like multiple, resources or work centers, and the whole point is you want to see, if I combine the capacity information for more than one resource am I able to do so? So the answer is yes, and you have the ability to do this either under discreet production and with production you would use a combination of work center master data setup along with hierarchy information or master data setup, as well as under the PPPI, you would use resources and also the hierarchy master data setup. So I've set up some data to illustrate exactly how this works. First, let's take a look at the resource that I created that basically represents the superior resource. I'll come into change mode, I called it this name here, and let's just walk through some of the views. So on the basic view it's a very light version of a resource. Basically what I'm doing is really creating this object to say, look, this resource represents a superior resource. And you could see that I don't need to maintain any kind of standard value information for this particular resource. Likewise, if I come to the capacity tab, yes I maintain the capacity category because I want to see information from a machine perspective. If I want to see labor, I would create a second entry here for labor category. But again, I would not maintain any kind of formulas. The whole point is that we would obtain the information from the, call it the children resources or work center. And finally, coming here to the scheduling tab, again, there's nothing maintained because again, the information that's needed or that is used by the system would be derived, from the, resources that’s actually doing the production. So with that said let's come back out and now I’m going to come to the hierarchy. So let's look at it in change mode, I gave it the same name as I did the superior resource, the names do not have to match. Okay? So it's your prerogative in terms of what name and convention works for you. You can use the same names or you can use different names. It all depends on what works for you. So with that said, I'm going to come and click on this icon. And it's basically saying, hey, I have this superior resource, you could see the first entry here, and then we have the, what I've been calling the children resource. So we have these two packing lines, 1 and 2. The thinking is that the materials which I produce on, let's say line 1, the majority, if not all of the materials on line one can also run on line 2. So it makes sense to do an evaluation with the two of them combined, just in case I have insufficient capacity on one line, then I can say, okayoverall, do I still have sufficient capacity? And if I do, then I'm not going to worry about it. I'll just move some of the production from line 2 to line 1. So what I'm going to do next is let's take a look at the capacity evaluation itself. So here I am in CM01 and I'm going to come in here. I maintain my plan, and on the planning I'm going to go to work center and I'm going to click on this icon to work with the hierarchy rather then the individual resources. So this is the hierarchy name. I'm going to do a green check here. It gives you a illustration of what the hierarchy looks like. So here's the superior resource, and then I have the individual. I'm not aware of any limitations of how many resources or work centers you can have attached to a superior resource. And of course you can also do multilevel. So I can have SP2, and SP2 could be something, you know, let's call packing line 4 and 5, and then you could have it all roll up into, hey, give me an overall SP network. Okay, so it could be multilayers from top to bottom, and I've got multi resources work centers. With that said I’m going to green arrow back and from here you could see the superior resource as well as the individual resources sitting here as part of the selection criteria. Here, I'm going to do a standard overview. You could see that right now I am sharing that there's 0 capacity required at the superior level and as well as available everything is sitting at 0. If I scroll down we can see that hey, we have a little bit of capacity requirements sitting down here. And then if I come further down, we could see, hey, this resource it does have capacity requirements, and the red lines indicate that I am over capacity. So what I can do from this point is then come here, click on settings general, and you can see in my case, the hierarchy ID, popped in here. And I'm just going to say, okay, you know what show me the capacity, the requirements only at this point. I mean ideally we’d look at two but I want to show the fact that just by turning this on I'm going to do a green check and we can see that, all the requirements capacity required is now sitting up here in the superior. Of course, everything is red because of the fact that we did not turn on the indicator for available capacity. So of course, all entries are over capacity of each week. So what I'm going to do is come back up here and I'm going to come back and let's go back to settings, general, I'm going to turn on the accumulation of capacity. This is the available capacity now we're looking at, I'm going to green check, and you can see that, suddenly everything is white. So the available capacity for the superiors, 32 hours for the first week because of the fact that we got 16 hours coming from packing line 1. And if I come into parking line 2, we expect to see 16 hours also. So you can see, look, still looking at the individual resources, I'm over capacity. But looking at it from a superior perspective or hierarchy perspective, I have more than sufficient capacity week after week. So this tells me quickly that I can move production from one line to the next. Hey, welcome back. In this demo, we covered. What capacity evaluation looks like when we use a work center hierarchy solution in the capacity evaluation. With this approach, a finite production schedule is done to a specific work center. Hence, we would schedule to that specific work center rather than a generic one. Plus, you can specify downtime to a specific work center instead of reducing the number of individual capacities with that generic work center. Of course, the work center hierarchy would pick up all these business scenarios I just identified. Martin: Thank you, Eacliffe, that's actually brilliant. It's good to know that these kind of options exist, right? When it comes to how to set up work centers in SAP, it's not uncommon to implement a solution that works for many business scenarios, but when it comes to finite scheduling, for example, the production planner or operations requires a lower level of detail that may be required creating additional work centers. Regardless of the need for the additional work centers, using a work center hierarchy could be the compromise to bridge the gap. So folks, if you want to learn more about capacity planning, generally speaking, or in the hierarchies, there are other videos for you to check out as well. And of course, if you do have a particular question for us, feel free to submit it below.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM

MD01; MD02; MD03; CM01; CM25; MD01N

Martin: Hey folks, welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. So the best way to learn is by doing so, let's just get straight into this. This video in particular, we're going to be focused on using SAP's production planning lead time scheduling to generate machine and or labor capacity requirements to produce the required inventory. So I'd imagine I'd be preaching to the choir if I rattled off some statistics around related to being able to provide a quality promise to your customer. Making and keeping that reliable promise to a customer in many areas is a right to play and in others just purely a competitive differentiator. This of course, strengthens the integration between ATP, order fulfillment, procurement, and of course even product costing. So that's a lot. So how about we get into it and of course, tell us more about this Eacliffe, love to hear more about scheduling. Eacliffe: Thanks Martin. This topic allows production planners to aggregate capacity data to perform a relatively quick evaluation of manufacturing assets, for the short, medium, and long-term time horizon to make key decisions in honoring the commitments to providing manufactured materials in a timely manner. Production planning often occurs outside of SAP, given the existing solution needs to be fixed or takes too much effort in SAP. Unfortunately, this approach does not work well when integrating with other supply chain activities such as exception monitoring, purchasing, and finance, just to name a few. Why, of course, you should be able to promise against what you have. Why would you not be able to do that? If you are in this situation, don't worry, we are going to walk through what you need to be doing about it. Let's get into SAP. Let's explore how lead time scheduling works and let's understand its impact.What I've done is I've taken this material, put some demand in SAP or MRP as generated plan requirements. And when I ran MRP, I did not tell it to generate or use lead time scheduling. The results of that is when I double click on the plan order, I come into change mode, we can see that there are only three tabs, the header assignment, and master data. When I come to the master data tab, we can see that there is nothing related to the routing or master recipe. So that's issue number one. Okay the way this shows up in capacity evaluation is when I come over to the capacity evaluation transaction, the expectation is in this particular demonstration, we would expect requirements against this particular resource. So let me click on standard overview, and right now what we see is just 0 requirements. So even though we have planned orders out there over this time horizon the system is saying, look, don't need any capacity on the resource at this time. So I'm going to go back into the stock requirement list, and I'm going to rerun MRP using lead time scheduling functionality. So, the parameter of interest is this one down here, the scheduling parameter. When I do the drop down, there are two options. One is which is what I used before , is basically just give me timing. Based on other criteria I just need basic dates, but don't really give me capacity information versus option two. Option two says not only calculate the dates, the start and finish dates, but also tell me how much capacity I need to fulfill each of the planned orders for this material. So let’s select 2, I’m going to hit enter, enter to run MRP, come back over here, I'm going to do a refresh and now I'm going to take a look at the planned order. Let's come to this plan order, come in to change mode. What we can see is first, that there are now four tabs rather than three. But let's go to the master data tab and we can see that there's additional data now on the master data tab where the master recipe got pulled in. So this master recipe is now providing the production rate in terms of, hey, this is how many units we can produce over a certain duration of time. And then if I come to the scheduling tab we get the exact information in terms of basically what we will see is, let me scroll over or make this smaller so that we can see that basically 30 hours of time is needed. So 30.32 hours is needed to fulfill this particular, planned order. So when we convert it into a process order, that's how much time we would expect. And of course, when I come back to capacity evaluation, I'm going to do a refresh over here, and now we can see that we also have capacity information sitting over on this side. Okay, so you could see the impact of doing lead time scheduling and the fact that if the desire is to do things like work on the scheduling board, do capacity evaluation, we want to run MRP in lead time scheduling, regardless of if it's being done in background mode every night or it's being done online one material at a time. Hey, welcome back. In this demo, we have covered a few things. First, how to quickly perform capacity evaluation when performing lead time scheduling. Secondly, how to trigger lead time scheduling. And thirdly, the information required to perform lead time scheduling and strategic integration points. Martin: Eacliffe, thank you so much. Much appreciated. That's a lot of detail. So lead time scheduling allows for lengthening the runway on identified bottleneck challenges, and improving your supply chain integration. This is a topic often isolated in a spreadsheet that is poorly integrated with the remainder of the supply chain information in SAP due to data inconsistencies, et cetera. It's also going to be a journey to get us there. We have got to go from basics and kind of grow into maturity. But there's no question that this is a hot topic and can make a big difference in how we apply this to our supply chain. So folks, if you want to know more about this topic and other scheduling related issues related to SAP, please check out our other videos. And of course, if you have a particular question, feel free to raise it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; MM02; MD03; ME53N; ME13

Martin: Hi there reveal TV Community, Martin here. We are here with a video that was requested by one of our fellow consumers of Reveal TV. They submitted a request to help with the challenge they're facing to dynamically round the proposals for replenishments to make their inbound logistics and storage more efficient. We love getting these requests, how to solve business problems and challenges that you face. Here to help us with this specific topic is Jake. Jake, can you tell us more about rounding profiles in procurement? Jake: Certainly Martin. I expect most of us are very familiar with MOQ and rounding values that are used by MRP when producing proposals for replenishment. Rounding profiles allow us to take this one step further by applying logic to how we round and what value we round to. Today I am going to start off with the business challenge. Then we'll go in and define what a routing value is and how it influences MRPs proposal for replenishment and the subsequent documents. And then finally, I'll give you a quick rundown of where they're maintained. Let's go in and take a look. Sometimes our suppliers or logistic partners have rounding values that go beyond the straightforward static value. So let's explore how to answer this business challenge. Since we're discussing rounding profiles as part of our plan for replenishment, a good place for us to start is here in the stock requirements list. We can quickly review the planning situation for this material, and as you can see here, there is no rounding happening. Now, most of us are probably familiar with rules like fixed lot sizes, minimum and maximum order quantities or static rounding values. Static rounding values are straightforward and help to make sure that we're not ordering in partials where partials don't make sense. Let's say, for example, that this supplier shipped in boxes of 24, and then that was the smallest increment after we exceeded the MOQ that we could buy. It might make sense to then have a rounding value of 24. Or, let's say you had a make to stock item that was split from a monthly value to a weekly value. Now, that split might result in decimals, but you would never produce or purchase a partial unit, so your rounding value could be as simple as one. In either case, MRP will take those rules into account and apply them when generating proposals for replenishment. Here we can see the additional field for rounding profile. I'm going to add one here, then I'm going to save. Now, unlike a normal rounding value where you can enter any value you'd like, a rounding profile is configured. It's either configured with value thresholds, or it's configured with logic that rounds from one level to another. In fact, it can consider tolerances to decide whether to round up or down at all. There are some interesting options for you to set up your rounding profile. So, okay, let's save and go back to the stock requirements list. Now before I run MRP, let's make note of the current plan without any rounding. Good. Now let's run MRP. It's going to ask me if I'm sure, and I'm going to say yes. I can see here that there have been some changes to my plan, and that's good news. That's what we're after when we added that rounding profile. Now let's go back to stock requirements list and hit refresh. And we can see here the new updated quantities based on the rounding profile being invoked in the MRP run. Now this works for planned orders, purchase requisitions and delivery schedules, any supply proposal generated by MRP. Now, let's say you wanted to be more specific. You could also maintain the rounding profile on the purchase info record rather than in the material master differentiate where it matters and is impactful for you. Here's where you can find the field in the purchase info record. Since the PIR is more specific and assuming the source is relevant for MRP, it will take precedence over the material master. So thank you for following me through how rounding profiles can be effectively applied to the procurement process in SAP. Like most things in life, communication is key . Before we can add logic and reason to the system, we have to have a good handle on what the rules are for what we're trying to achieve. The good news with this particular feature is that it offers the opportunity to reduce the churn in the ordering process in an area where we may often be frequently intervening. Now that you have the basics of rounding profiles, the next job is to go identify good candidates that might benefit from this feature in SAP. Martin: Excellent. Jake, that's fantastic. My hope for all of you watching this today is that this sparks your curiosity on a feature you may not yet be using. Are you ready to round up to the next level? What is your business case for the type of functionality? We can't wait to hear how you apply this in your own business. And if you get stuck, please submit a question below or reach out to us. And folks, of course, if you are looking for more stories like this particular one, there is an entire video catalog on how to use our procurement features.

SAP Optimization

DM; P2P; PTM; OTC; WM

MD62; MD04; CM01

Martin: Hey, rock Stars Martin here. It's time for a chat around what happens when the integration starts breaking down. There's an inescapable truth about being a supply chain practitioner. The supply chain relies on integration and so does SAP. It is the beauty, the power, and the challenge. Getting it right isn't easy and it has both to do with people and a system. Here with the story to further explain is Steven. Take it away, buddy. Steven: Yes, Martin. Uh, the story has trials, uh, it has tribulations, it has people trying to do the right thing and a system that desperately wants to empower them to do those right things. The story revolves around the critical alignment of plan, schedule, and actual. We will seek to describe a scenario where the baton pass is, well, let's just say less than seamless. There's some confusion as to who's on first, and as we move through the process we have so much localized decision making. That we could definitely benefit from less. In short, we're not integrated, we're not aligned, and we can see that in SAP. So what should we do? Well, let's go in and take a look. The story I'm about to tell you is one that we've heard over and over again. It's a story about several individuals doing the best they can within the sphere of what they can control. It's also the story about frustration, confusion, and loss of value. Unfortunately, it's far more common than we'd like to believe. Our story starts with Rachel. Rachel's a demand planner who is the challenging job of painting a picture of what the company expects to sell over the next 18 months. She's a key player in the sales and operations process. She works with sales, marketing, product management to build an unconstrained consensus based plan. She keeps the system up to date with the best information she has and has a good process for monitoring the performance of her plan. Rachel also works with Chris. Chris is her planning counterpart. Chris provides feedback on whether it's feasible to supply the plan and attends the sales and operations planning meetings, and stays engaged with Rachel throughout the month. Now Chris knows that the demand plan is flawed and when product is not available, he feels like it's him and not Rachel that feels the heat. He constantly is fighting fires and he is rewarded for his finesse in crisis management. He works hard to align the schedule with what he sees as the priority needs of the customer, and sees Rachel's plan as information but doesn't really believe it's real. So he makes a plan based on what he thinks will actually happen. He also builds his plan in consideration of a balance of efficiency, service levels, and inventory investment. Not easy, especially since he has to redo Rachel's work in a spreadsheet, but he delivers quality plans to the shop floor every time. Now Dumebi is the recipient of the schedule. She's the supervisor for the first shift and sets up the other shifts as well. Chris's schedule is always changing and sometimes he even has scheduled downtime. He doesn't understand that her goals are all around OEE and absorption, and a lot of times his schedule doesn't prioritize those things. Plus customer service as a direct line to Dumebi and frequently asks her to intervene. Dumebi resequences a schedule and adjusts the quantities for more efficient runs based on what she knows they will need. Now meet Brent. Brent is the sorry soul who's making sure material is available to production. His suppliers think he's impossible. He is constantly making changes and asking for expedites . The things he expedites, production isn't running. Then there's unplanned consumption. For some reason, material planned for a particular run has gone elsewhere. Can't manufacturing make what they're just supposed to make? This team is actually a bunch of individuals. They're each doing the best that they can do, but when the baton is passed, they're looking at it and changing it and passing an entirely different baton onto the next person. What happens when this happens? Let's set the operational and business pieces aside. Each person, each well-intended individual is eroding the confidence of the prior person's work. There is no team, integration is broken down. We have to fix this. We have to get people engaged in conversations. We have to commit to a plan and collectively course correct. We can no longer make localized decisions the norm. We simply cannot win with that strategy. So let's engage as leaders and start making it possible for our individual superstars to become a well-functioning team. Imagine the possibilities. I wish I could tell you that this is a ridiculous overdramatized caricature of an integration breakdown. Unfortunately, it's not and examples like this are found throughout the functional areas of the supply chain. So what are our heroes meant to do? Well, first, if you see something, say something. Don't just go on your own way. But tell the person you take in the baton pass from what you're thinking and why. Let them challenge you and mutually agree on how to move forward. Second, inform SAP. Don't let the person receiving your baton pass wonder what's going on, or they'll come up with their own path forward. Thirdly, after you have a healthy debate, trust in your newly integrated approach and follow the plan until such time that another conversation is needed. Martin: Hey, thanks, Steven. Integration breakdowns are tough, and this is a good example of what happens when we let the problem fester and simply go our own way. We need to have a healthy conflict and figure out how to get back to the same page. Thanks again for the story and of course, the recommendations. Hey folks, if you want to know more about some of these Leadership Digest stories and videos, please check out our video catalog. And of course, if you're not sure or have a specific question, please submit it below.

SAP Optimization

DM; P2P; PTM; OTC; WM

MD04; MCPU

Martin: Hey folks, this is Martin and this is another installment of Leaders Digest where we are going to provide some insights to leaders in digest form. The topic we have for today is all about improving the quality of information in your system so that you can do the things like allow the system to produce realistic plans for you, or make a promise and keep a promise. It reduces noise, manual interventions, and improves clarity. It's incredibly important that we know how to foster a culture that values data as an asset that empowers decision making. Today is all about the integrity of our data. So Steven, what should our leaders know about transactional data integrity? Steven: Yeah, thanks Martin. Integrity is such a good descriptor for what we're trying to achieve with quality master data. Have you ever heard your team express that the system is lying to them? It's a common way to feel, but the truth of the matter is that if SAP's wrong, then it's because we have fed the system with incorrect or untrue data. Not the other way around. Keeping the system up to date with current information is a precursor for any digital transformation journey. When integrity is lacking, it is the bringer of chaos. And with each incremental improvement, we build trust. We shore up the foundation. And you as leaders have an awesome opportunity to promote awareness and drive focus within your teams to keep the system up to date and clean. You can build a culture that is invested in enablement and understands the cross-functional impacts, timely transactions, and visibility into upcoming demand and the requisite supply. Let's go in and take a look. Can we trust SAP? Well, yeah, it's a system, it has no bias, it only knows the facts, right? Now, can we trust the data in SAP? That's probably more of a a maybe, it depends. We hope so, and we can certainly validate the quality of the data. So if this is a right to play, a first step to conquer, to get the quality proposals for replenishment, making good on our promises and being able to drive insights from the system to make decisions in real time. Why is it so hard to get there? Well, first of all, data only gets better if you're using it. Now we're getting to it. Got a chicken and egg conundrum here, and team members lose faith when they try to keep the system up to date and there's not good cross-functional alignment in that effort. We succeed or fail as a team. It's the integrated nature of things. So here on my screen are some outdated demand elements, which are triggering exception messages for our planners and buyers. They can't hit a date in the past, so lose faith in the signal, which erodes their confidence in putting MRP to use in their day-to-day lives. Now signals lost, value gone, quality continues to decline, but the moment you can commit to using the information, the moment you focus on it and back it with daily work, so it becomes a habit, the healthier the quality becomes. If it's in use, it matters. Here. This is interesting. See this pattern of actual production in this candy cane graph. This measures our schedule adherence. All of the production seems to be happening at once. Then there's a gap and another slew of production comes through. I bet if we dug into the details, we'd find that we're batching our production reporting. There's several reasons why this happens, but I'll highlight two here. Lack of equipment or access on the floor, or reliance on a batch integration from an MES system, or lack of confidence in the ability to accurately report based on the quality of master data that supports production. This is a great opportunity to make improvements in focused bite-sized chunks, progress over perfection. There are many examples we can identify and improve the integrity of our transactional data. If you're looking for a place to start, check out our videos on housekeeping, COGI, the Sales Order Monitor, or the Warehouse Activity Monitor. These are all diagnostic tools that help us identify where we're hurting and break the work down in a way where the improvements are impactful and the team can start putting better quality data to use in their day-to-day lives. Here's one last tip. Without transactional data integrity, it's difficult to demonstrate that you have good controls in place. Taking steps here pays dividends to the integrity of your plans, financial controls, service levels, and inventory management. You can have a healthy system. We've seen hundreds of organizations achieve and sustain these gains. No one likes driving a car with dirty oil. It just never performs the way we want it to. And the worse it gets, the harder it is to clean up. When it's time to get serious about investing in data reliability as an asset, we recommend focusing on progress over perfection. Don't let your team get sidelined just because there's so much to do. Start small, create momentum. Let them see and feel the results. Show them that this kind of hard work pays dividends, not just for their desk, but for their colleagues as well. There's a ripple effect of goodness that comes from this hard work. Before I let you go, please don't make this a sprint and erode effort. Focus on the cultural shift and the move to well cadenced daily habits. That's the way to get real about data. Martin: Hey Steven. Thank you. This is kind of like the right to play stuff that we're talking about. If we don't build the foundation, then we limit our ability to grow, but with investment in the quality of data and the focus of empowering decision making, we can really make a difference and a change in our conversation. This is the path towards achieving business objectives. So folks, if you want to know more about this topic or even just some other leadership digest topics, there's a whole catalog of videos about this, please check them out and if you're not sure which ones to look for, use the chatbot.

SAP Optimization

P2P

MC$6; MC$8; ME61; FIORI

Martin: Hey there, leaders of leaders, Martin, here with a topic that is near and dear to my heart. Measuring supply performance. In our minds, measuring supply performance goes directly to the heart of setting our partners in the supply chain up for success. It helps surface important conversations, it reduces risk and recognizes excellence. They're both quantitative and qualitative components to a good conversation around performance. Today, Sean is going to talk us through some low barrier entry tools to get some of these conversations going. Hey, Sean, I know this is an incredibly important topic even in your books. As a leader, how would you help your team set up for success in these conversations around supply performance? Help us out, friend. Sean: Martin. Martin. Martin. I can't tell you how many organizations tell us that they either, A, are so busy managing their orders, that they don't have time to engage in good conversations around performance, or B, have invested heavily in developing tools external to SAP to build a scorecard, often not even utilizing the information already available in SAP. Let's get to the good stuff. We have capabilities right out of the box. The tools available to us build on one another and continue to evolve to better support, timely information that we can access when on a call or in a meeting or with suppliers. And the best news is that if we're able to get started on this journey using real time information, this can offer opportunities for gateway conversations. Gateway conversations are the ones that help to understand better the opportunities and the obstacles with our suppliers so we can collaborate with them, improve performance, and get the strategic partnership in a mutually beneficial way. Let's go now and take a look. Right, so before we can embark on a journey to improving supply performance, we must define our organization's success measures. Our goal is to understand what's happening with our suppliers, their successes and obstacles, where they are processed internally, setting them up for success, and then where we might have opportunities to mutually improve. Now the SAP toolkit to support supply performance is really robust and can tell us much about what's working and also what's not working. So before I give you the Leader's Digest version, know that there are dedicated videos that delve deeper into several of these examples, and I want to give you a quick hit on the feature and tell you what you can expect to get out of this today. First are straightforward supplier performance reports. These are standard SAP reports supporting the on time and in full evaluation and we can control the definitions of each of these via a small amount of configuration. And you can see an example of each here on my screen right now. So I've stacked them side by side so that you can view them and these supplier performance reports, what they do is they measure the supplier's performance based on a statistical delivery date in the purchasing document. This is primarily driven by the suppliers stated delivery time. And that we will have maintained obviously inside of the SAP system within the master data. In the early days of use, this report can help us understand the quality of our data, and once we're confident, represents schedule adherence and reliability with our supplies. We then get a full measure of in full, based on tolerances and the descriptions that we have configured. From here, we can then drill to look for outliers, look to see if we can find any trends, are there examples that are worth discussing? And one of the really cool things is that this information also flows through what's called the buyers negotiation sheet, and here’s an example shown here for you. It is a quick reference on what’s going on with that supplier or material? We can see things like recent purchase history. We can see pricing and terms and the pièce de résistance for today our on time and our in full statistics. So the good thing is we can pull this up on the fly to reference it in our conversations with our suppliers. The next thing I'd like to share is vendor evaluation, as different to supply performance. This is where we get the opportunity to produce what we think of as say a balanced scorecard, and it requires robust conversations on the business rules of how we want to rate our suppliers to produce a good review for them. We then need to configure those rules so that the report delivers a proper result for us. You can see here some of the selection criteria and the options right here. Vendor evaluation also allows us to rank and compare our suppliers where it's appropriate, which could be handy for business review, for awarding new business, and for recognizing them as high performers or needing improvement. All of this is coupled with a qualitative input from the folks who work regularly with the supplier or the goods or the services that supplier provides. Now, finally, the journey to S/4HANA then opens up all kinds of new ways to manage supply performance in the Fiori workspace. Examples of which can be seen here on the screen. Now, we have dashboards that push analytics to us alongside process monitoring. We've never had so much information right at our fingertips in SAP. There's so much we can dig into to generate improvements in the way we engage with our suppliers and ensure mutual success. I love a good roundup tour and I hoped that got some wheels turning. As leaders, we want to make sure our teams are armed with the best information to be successful. One of the ways we can do that is to be very consistent in our expectations. Where our expectations have been exceeded or unfulfilled, we want to attack that with curiosity. That curiosity leads us to important understanding that helps us promote goodness and protect against challenges while we work through whatever they may be. The other success factor is cadence. Being on a regular cadence of conversation helps everyone to stay on the same page and lessens the surprise. Since knowing is half the battle, anything we can do to stay informed sets us up well for knowing that the knowledge in the best way to support our partners in success. Martin: I love that Sean. You highlighted a few options that are definitely struck a chord with me and involving our conversation, reducing our risk, and figuring out how to partner with our partners well. Hey folks, if you're looking to maximize your value in your SAP investment, please check out some of these other videos. And specifically for these Leaders Digest videos, please check out our catalog.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; DM

MD04; VA03; CO09

The best way to learn is by doing. Welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Hi, my name is Martin, and in this video we are going to focus on a feature in the sales order management toolkit called fixed quantity date flag. Now I've heard two competing schools of thought on whether we use this and how to use this particular field. Some organizations use it a lot and others avoid it completely. I think we need to demystify what this flag actually does. So Kristie, can you please clarify the purpose of this particular field for us? Oh, yes, I can Martin. This is one of those fields that causes a lot of confusion and like many other features in SAP, it does so because a lot of times we're looking for a single business rule setting that we can apply to everything, all the time. This is a situational field. It's a decision point and a tool in the toolkit that is situationally oriented. Let's go into SAP and demonstrate, and then I'll recap the thought process of where this can be useful and where it should be avoided. In this demo, I will walk through three key points. First, where to find the fixed date and quantity field. Second, the impact on the transfer of requirements to MRP and how this presents in the stock requirements list. And lastly, what happens when we try to run ATP or rescheduling with the fixed date and quantity field turned on? Alright, let's go look at this contentious topic actually in the system. And this is the fixed date and quantity flag. And I'm going to go ahead and go right into the sales order here. Let's just go find it. First of all. Let's know where it is and we're going to keep working on the same availability situation that we have been working on for the last couple videos. So you may have seen this guy already. This is our P-110. It's one of our phone cases, and let's just go in and let's run the availability check. Let's see what happens here. Okay. So, what we have been doing with this guy is we've been working on this partial delivery situation, so we've been working with 11 pieces on the 15th and 3 pieces on the 22nd. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to go ahead and select this by clicking on it, and I'm actually going to just go back in here. I want to take another look. You want to take a look at the item availability, and what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to come in here and choose this guy right here. This is a fixed date and quantity checkbox. It is a little teeny tiny checkbox with a great deal of power. So right now, if we look at our MD04 screen, our stock requirement screen, you're going to see that these 14 pieces are actually showing up for that earliest date. And what we're going to do is we're going to choose the fixed date and quantity flag, and that's going to take it and say, okay, we're making this promise for 11 pieces on the 15th and 3 pieces on the 22nd. We are not repromising this. We are going to stick to those dates. We're not going to work to improve them. This customer requires stability and wants to believe with integrity in the promise that we're making above any and all things, and we're not going to try to improve these dates. They have to stay the same. Now, this does not preclude something bad from happening on the supply side of the house. The machine breaks down, mold approval gets delayed, material is suddenly short, you get bad quality. Any and all of the complications that can happen on the supply side could still happen. That's the reality of the supply chain. So once we tick this box, it means that the system is no longer going to try to improve these dates or prioritize getting inventory to this order over other orders. It's going to try to just stick with the dates that we've put in here. So we have to monitor and make sure we're basically taking the wheel. We're saying, okay, no more ATP management system, we're going to handle this from now on, and we'll monitor and make sure that it's okay. The other thing, is that if this confirmed quantity was less than 14 pieces or it was nothing at all, as soon as we hit that fixed date quantity flag, the system's no longer trying to get inventory onto the order or improve the dates. So it is not going to keep trying to find additional inventory for us. So if it says 0, then it's stuck and it's not going to pick up any additional inventory. So we have to be really careful with great power, great responsibility here. This can be a great thing. It creates stability for the supply chain. You're not expediting unnecessarily. If you're not trying to improve the dates to those customers. Let's say you're delivering to a production line or a job site. Once you have those dates locked in, that's what they're counting on. They're shaping their activities based on what it is that you've confirmed back to them, then this can be very, very effective. Now let me show you what happens when we tick this and then we go into the stock requirements list. I'm going to go ahead and save I, all right, go in here , alright, and I'm going to go ahead and hit refresh. Now watch this guy, 14710, says 12/4 right now, and you'll see it disappeared and you'll see it's down here. So there's our 11 pieces on the 15th, and if I scroll a little bit further down, you're going to see the remaining balance on the 22nd, 3 pieces on the 22nd. Okay, so that is different now. The supply chain is no longer trying to expedite to get that inventory in sooner. It's not going to work to try to bring the materials that fall into producing this in sooner. It's going to allow everything to reschedule to those dates that we have chosen for the customer. And if I come over here, the other thing to know is when we go to run something like rescheduling or back order processing, now that order is no longer eligible for processing. See, this guy here, there's an X. That means that we are no longer allowed to do anything with this, we would have to go in and literally untick the tick box before we're able to move this around in terms of priority. The dates are just going to stick and stay the same. That's what we're marching to. So this is make a promise, keep that promise no longer overdriving the supply chain to improve those dates. So really important to know what this does. It can be very, very useful. But again, please make sure that your quantity confirmation is in place before you tick that. If you tick it when you have nothing confirmed against that particular line item, you will not improve the quality of that promise and you're not going to add additional inventory onto that order until you go in and you actually untick it because it is fixed date and quantity. So the quantity and the date will stick. Really powerful, really great tool, but very important. Now if you're curious about the screen, we'll have some additional videos that walk through backorder processing and rescheduling in the future. So as we've just witnessed, turning on this flag means that we have made a promise and we intend to keep that promise and we will be running the supply chain to that committed date rather than the customer's original requested date. We are making a promise and we commit to keeping this promise when we do this we're also taking this out of the ATP run, so the quantity and dates hold. And we need to be careful when we do this because when we turn it on and there's no committed quantity available, there is no automated rescheduling to bring that inventory onto the order. This is a very powerful tool and we want to make sure that we fully explore the roles before we try to apply it. Thank you, Kristie. It's very important that we think about what our goals are and then choose the right technique in the right situation. It's also clear that we need to be very aware that when we are using this flag, we are making a promise and striving to keep that promise. SAP will not reschedule that order, so it's very important that the promise made is a good one. If you want to learn more about this particular topic or any other topic, please feel free to actually look at our video content below.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; PTM; WM

MM02; VA02; MD04

Hello fellow SAP explorers Martin here, and I'm looking forward to exploring a feature in SAP that has a strong value proposition, but also comes with some recommendations to avoid potential pitfalls. We are going to be introducing rounding profiles for SAP orders. This can be a highly effective tool for efficiencies, policy adherence, and outbound logistics management. However, like many other features that adjust an order from original entry, there are some cautions, particularly when it comes to customer schedule agreements and orders sent via EDI. The good news is that we have Jake here to tell us more about it. He is the perfect candidate to explain exactly what rounding profiles might be able to do for our organization and help us manage ourselves orders more efficiently, specifically up and downstream impacts. Jake, take it away. Thank you, Martin. I would like to start with some of the whys. What are some examples of business challenges that might necessitate the use of a rounding profile at sales order entry? And then I'll walk through the definition. What are rounding profiles and how do they work? We'll also see in how they're maintained in SAP while we're walking through the system, I also point out some of the watch outs so that our audience is informed and ready to think through how and where rounding profiles might be useful to them. So let's go in and take a look. Alright, so let's dive in. What are some of the reasons why you might consider the use of rounding profiles? Well, a recent client use case was related to outbound logistics. They were responsible for delivering the goods to their customers, and for the larger customers, it made sense to invoke rounding profile to round to the next logical unit of delivery. So in their case, it was the next tier or layer in the pallet. For another business, it was alignment with the way they set their pricing to their customer. There could be any number of good qualifying use cases. Like most good rules in SAP, the business needs to carefully consider and clearly define them. A rounding profile requires configuration, so you don't want to go too crazy and bombard IT with requests, but rather start small and differentiate where it matters. Now one of the nice things about a rounding profile for customer orders is they can be quite specific. In fact, as you can see here. It can actually be defined in the CMIR, so you could in fact have different rules applied or not applied to different customers depending on the business need, so long as rounding is allowed in the customer master, or if you wanted to apply it to everyone except those who don't allow rounding via the tick box in the customer master, you could simply maintain the profile in the material master. If you're using a dynamic rounding profile, then you may be referencing additional master data, like alternative units of measure, so those will need to be in place and accurate. Let's say for now that we do not want to use a dynamic rounding profile, we'll keep it simple and round up to the next threshold here. We enter the sales order at whatever value the customer initially requests. When we hit enter, see here, the rounding profile's invoked and we get a dialogue box with information on the adjustment that's just occurred. Now, let's change the value again and see it adjust the rounding. This is great when you're directly interacting with a customer or you have a portal that's capable of sharing this information. However, proceed with caution on EDI orders to make sure that there are not errors or discrepancies. If we do have EDI customers for which this would not be appropriate, then flagging them as ineligible for rounding and the customer master may help. Then make sure they're meeting the agreed thresholds by putting the correct rules in place on their end. It's possible to make this work and have it work well, but it does require extra collaboration, some testing and error handling for EDI customers. Still a nice tool that can provide strong value. So welcome back from the demo as we highlighted today, rounding profiles at sales order entry can be very helpful in managing through several common business challenges. We also highlighted that while sometimes helpful. They like any feature that changes key order data after order entry require clear communication and expectations with our customers and our business partners. If there are differences between the PO, the sales order, the invoice, we have to work to resolve those differences efficiently. And lastly, we want to make sure the system's up to date with our latest agreements and that we're keeping SAP well-informed and clean. Much appreciate that, Jake. There's some really important advantages and key considerations in the tidy execution of this process. I really look forward to hearing from the business community what they think about how they can be able to use this specifically in their space. We've had a few good success stories recently on this topic, and I'm so glad to be continuing this conversation. So folks, if you have more stories on this particular use of this particular feature, please submit it below, we'd love to hear about it. Or if you just have a question, feel free to submit it below.

SAP Optimization

P2P; PTM

ME23N; CM25; WPDTC

Hi folks, Martin here with another video that came from a question from the Reveal TV community. One of our leaders asked us what one of the biggest barriers to change is within an organization and how to overcome that. We love this question, but before I answer, let me ask you a question. What are the seven most expensive words in business? We have always done it that way. We may not even know the reason, but we trust that there was one and it's sacred and we hold onto it forever. So here we are today talking about this from an angle, from a policy perspective, how is that policy performing for you and when should we start thinking about changing it or even challenging it? To address this with us today is Steven. Steven, when you think about policy performance as it relates to getting things right in SAP and getting our teams moving in the right direction, what are some of the tips you have for us today? Yeah, thanks Martin. Um, yep. I've got tips. Uh, first of all, every time I hear, well, you know, that's just policy. I just have so many questions. Is it a policy or is it actually a process step? Can we meet the policy goal in another way? How do we get out of this box and back into options? A team or individual often hear a person within the organization say something and interpret that as a rule. It's not uncommon that this is something that was once said and, and may even be taken out of context, but now suddenly it's accepted as a policy. So to counter that, you have to demonstrate trust in the team by prompting them to challenge the status quo. Look for opportunities to do things differently. I'd recommend focusing these efforts on like a master data rule or a process goal. Make it something that you're able to adjust in SAP and then monitor the results. But as your team learns more. They need to apply that learning, which means they're going to need just a little space to change. I'll take you through some common policy assumptions and how they manifest in SAP. Let's go in and take a look. It's no surprise that it Reveal we're big fans of challenging the status quo, but we temper those challenges with small iterative changes and we encourage you to do the same and then also monitor the results. I'm going to give you three quick examples of how policy may manifest in SAP as something the team may no longer think about, but should. Number one, we don't change dates. Well, if you don't change dates, then you're not reflecting the reality of what's happening in the now. That means we have to go elsewhere to see what's really happening. And if our goal is a well performing system that enables process and empowers people. Well, we can't get there from here. Further, we can't make use of our rules engines. ATP and MRP are blind to what's going on. A good example of why people may believe in this policy is that they believe you can no longer measure performance if you adjust the dates, well, you can. You just need to adjust the right dates. We have options, but if it's policy, we stop looking for those options. Number two, we never take idle time on the manufacturing floor, we must fill in the schedule. This is usually driven by the KPI stack the floor is being asked to hit because you can never get that time back. But if you're looking to make the most out of your inventory investment available, raw materials, capacity, and labor, and maintain flexibility for the client, you might find that you'd benefit strongly from leaving some open capacity in the schedule. Number three, we do not update lead times. Lead times are a primary master data element that sets us and our partners up for success. When people say they don't update lead times, what that often means is that they don't want to commercially reopen the conversation with their suppliers to provide new lead times. However, think scalpel not broad sword, and there may be some important and valuable conversations to be had. Also, if your suppliers underperforming and you want to hold them to their stated lead times, then fine. Don't change them, but put some performance improvement steps in place and consider some safety time while they're improving. But riddle me this, what if the supplier is outperforming their lead times? Wouldn't it be nice to take advantage of that? Lead time is dollars in inventory, coverage, carrying cost and flexibility? We want the best ones we can reliably get. Those are three quick examples, but I can think of so many more. What can you think of that your team thinks is a policy rule but you'd really like them to challenge? I'll give you another one to think about. We always have to build or buy the full EOQ. Give that one some thought. All right. Thank you for taking that little tour with me. Uh, today we're able to go over some examples of how you might find opportunities to revisit policy restrictions that may be standing in the way of improvement. When we change something, we may not always get it right, so we want to start small, monitor carefully, and then course correct along the way. When we get something right, we want to celebrate and share those successes, and then iteratively identify the next opportunity. We want to build confidence over time and have the healthy and challenging conversations that ensure that SAP is running with the rules that empower the business to thrive. Hey, thanks Steven. You know, in matter of fact, a real company policy is a boundary that should not be crossed without plenty of debate and confirmation. However, the semblance of a policy that is no longer relevant should be challenged. Much of what flows down to the team as the policy is often not a result of a false constraint. Not just the rules in SAP, but to the way we think about the options and opportunities. That's a time for change. Alright folks, this was a Leadership Digest video. We are going to have many more of these as well. And if you're looking for some specific leadership topics, please check out our video catalog.

SAP Optimization

QM; OTC; P2P; WM

LL01; VA06; QA33; MD07

Hey there, Martin here, and in this very special episode of Reveal TV, we are sharing what we call a Leader's Digest. Yes, the pun is intended. This video is meant to be a quick power up for leaders supporting teams and their success in driving value, empowerment and quality out of SAP. Today we're talking about one of the powerful concepts SAP has to offer, proactive exception monitoring. Exception monitoring exists in all functional areas of SAP, doing the hard work of highlighting where our attention is most needed in any given day or any given moment. The path to quality, exception management is not easy, but it's most certainly worthwhile. Jason, Jason, Jason. This is a big topic. I imagine a lot of our leaders may feel exposed when first trying to support a team in pursuing excellence, in exception monitoring. How do you suggest that leaders get involved and start the process? The good news is that I have been here, I've done this, and I have so many t-shirts. I'm giving them away. This is seriously tricky feeling business, but it doesn't have to be. As leaders, we don't need to know it all. We simply need to be comfortable in our team's journey, being able to support them in it. So a few things. Let's not pull any punches, when someone first gets started, exception monitoring, no matter what function it's in, it can feel a lot like panning for gold. Data's not clean or well understood. What SAP is trying to tell us is murky and suspect at best. It's easy to get overwhelmed. So let me show you a few simple ways to see what's going on and ask the right questions to support the team. Second, for the team to get good, for things to start working, they have to get in and work on exceptions daily so they can start experiencing some wins and recognize trends. Trends are what we're looking for, cause and effect. We're dealing with an integrated system here after all. So let's go in and take a look. When we're talking exception monitoring at a leadership level, it's important to remember that there are exception monitors all over the place in SAP. When things are clicking, data is clean. Big chunks of work are handled automatically, and the team can focus only on exceptions. You monitor exceptions in MRP, sales orders, quality inspections, finance functions, warehouse activity, the list goes on. Ultimately anywhere where things can get out of alignment in SAP, there's probably an exception monitor of some kind. I think there may even be one to figure out when lunch is going to be delivered, but that's neither here nor there. You don't have to be an expert in each of these, but it's important to embrace and champion the approach and show curiosity with lots of questions to reinforce to the team that exception monitoring is baked into the organizational culture. Part of baking exception monitoring into the culture is keeping it front and center and watching trends. Now, it's not real easy to monitor exception trends and standard SAP, but the people that are in it every day will have a good idea of which direction things are heading and which items are most critical. As a leader, you can use that to drive conversations and get a sense of how things are tracking. So here's how a morning standup conversation might go from a leader's perspective. Hey Steven, how's the warehouse monitor looking today? Better or worse than last week? Better, great! Tell me more. What are you focused on this week? Okay, great. If you can attack those negative stocks, it looks like you can keep the downtrend rolling. I'm really glad to hear that the fantasy football draft didn't knock you off your game there. Hey Marcy, how are we looking in sales? It's going the wrong way, huh? Okay, so what's going on? Oh, we're still dealing with those staffing shortages in quality. So stuff's not making it to the warehouse on time, huh? Okay, I see, yep, yep. Jake, I see QI is really backed up. Is there anything that we can do to try to help get you back on track? I mean, you got lots of red lights and we're just burying you with the more stuff coming from production. I wonder, here's a thought, we've got a maintenance outage coming up for later in the week. What if we move that up to tomorrow and buy quality some time to catch up and get things back on track? We could even pull some production folks over that are trained on inspections to supplement the team. Hey Wayne, how are we looking for the materials on that outage? Let's look at IWBK. I'm seeing lots of green lights. It looks like it might be doable. What do you think? Good. Okay, good. So, Jake, if we can buy you this time and you can get some reinforcements for a day or so, will that get this done? Okay, let's do it. Hey Steven, just stay on your toes out there in the warehouse to make sure we don't just shift the bottlenecks over to you. But barring any issues, getting stuff packed and out the door, I think this gets us back on track by the end of the week. So you saw me flash through five different examples of exception monitoring tools in SAP in just a few minutes, that when taken together, provided a nice end-to-end view of the current supply chain picture and allowed us to react quickly to resolve a hypothetical disruption. One that probably didn't actually sound all that hypothetical for those of you out in the real world. So what's also cool to look forward to is the transition to S/4HANA. There are a bunch of really cool Fiori apps that are going to make this process even slicker and easier. But beyond the tools, you also heard me facilitate a discussion around the information. It's not enough to just keep an eye on exceptions. As a leader, it's crucial that you demonstrate the critical thought processes needed to collaborate up and downstream to solve supply chain challenges. Developing those critical thinking skills, that's really the secret sauce to taking things to a different level. Alright, now here are the words of advice post demo. First, if you do nothing else, show interest. If you're interested, the payoff on the time and the spark to the flame of curiosity become very real. It's the single most important thing you as a leader can do. And second, after hearing a team share a bit, you'll get a feel for some questions. Ask them and ask with an eye towards getting to an improvement objective, a knot you can help untangle. And when you find that golden thread, affirm your interest into commitment by driving some actions based on feedback that has come from the team with or without your influence. Show up for them by delivering on something they need and they might be surprised you would offer. And here I have one more parting word of advice and it may sound a little strange, but here it goes. Stop rewarding your everyday superheroes and rather reward and acknowledge the folks who are managing the business of the day only occasional superhero capes needed. Hey, thank you again, Jason. Supporting our leaders in supporting their teams is critically important. I love the points you've made today, they are just absolutely spot on. There are reasonable reminders that we can apply across the supply chain, so thank you. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about exception monitoring, we have quite a few topics on this particular related area. Of course, if you are not sure where to find them, feel free to use our chatbot.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM

MD04; MM03

Hi there, Martin here, and welcome to the only video series where we unlock the secrets and reveal the magic behind your SAP system. In this video, we're going to highlight a feature that nearly every client is looking to solve for, SAP consumption based forecasting. This is such a hot topic. I actually can't wait to hear more. Ed, please introduce us to this consumption based forecasting. I think for most people, the question really is, can SAP do that? It's such a great question. Yes. I'm very pleased to share that SAP actually can do that, and there's no additional software required to get started with a basic statistical forecast, driven by consumption. In today's walkthrough, I'm going to focus on a few key things. First of all, I'll show you that yes, SAP can actually do this. Second, I'll explain the basic building blocks that help to get a statistical forecast off the ground. And lastly, we'll explore options for where the right place to start might be across your product portfolio. This is one of the best kept secrets in SAP. So let's get in and take a look. Alright. Here we are in our favorite place for planning the stock requirements list. Let's talk a little bit about the makeup of a demand program. Our demand program can be made up of several different demand inputs. We might see sales orders, stock transfer orders, and requests for transfer or requirements for use in manufacturing. In addition to these elements, we may also see a forecast, and that forecast can find its way into SAP in a variety of ways. But what if you are just getting started and you'd like SAP to produce a forecast for you? Yes, SAP can actually do that, and the limitation is the limit of predictability and statistics, but that's really about it. We've got some really good bones to work with here. Now notice the requirements type on this material. It may be different from what you might be used to seeing. We can tell by the MRP type that this is a consumption based forecast. See here, the MRP type is vv. This is also the requirement type that lets us generate a statistically driven safety stock. And that's an exciting feature for another day. Now let's look at the periodic totals and let's see the monthly view. We can see that this forecast is still considered a planned, independent requirement, and we can see the quantity we have open remaining to sell or what has not yet been consumed. This is also compatible with the total requirements display for help in exception monitoring and quality checking. So how is this happening? In your material master, let's get there by double clicking on the material. Let's go to the tab where all the magic is happening. Okay. Really it's where the math is happening. One of the nice things about this flavor of forecasting is that it's not a big scary black box. This is the forecasting view. Here we see the history, and you can see that there's options for adjusting or correcting outliers. This is what the stat engine will use to create the forecast. So we want to start here if something looks out of place. We can also see we have options for forecast type and selections, time horizons, and more. There is plenty of functionality that we can go to and use to get started. I'm going to make a quick correction here so we can see how MRP will respond. Okay, here are results. See the change in the forecast and the response of the plan. We can produce forecasts that follow a constant, trend or seasonable model. But where to start? Look for items that have reasonable history. We're looking for a detectable signal here to base a forecast on. If that's not happening for you at an item level, is there a product group that makes sense to forecast together? Should we be forecasting at a different level of the bill of material where there is a common subassembly or component? This does require some data maintenance, thinking through your planning hierarchy, focusing on horizons that make sense, and then tuning results. But folks, this is a great place to get started and let SAP do some of that heavy lifting for us. There's so much to talk to here in terms of how SAP gets this done, and this is one of the many videos. So please make sure you check the other ones out as well. Thanks for taking the tour with me. We love talking to folks about the feature, especially if they're just getting off the ground with getting demand into the system. Or are struggling with variability or volatility driven by finished goods forecast to components with stable consumption. Today we reviewed. Where to go to set up your consumption based forecast. The different types of forecasts available. And discussed some of the care and feeding required to get started on this journey. Consumption based forecasting on items that have stable history is a very powerful tool to have in the planning arsenal. I hope this information will help you become curious and explore what SAP offers in this arena. Thanks, Ed. Consumption based forecasting on items that have stable history is a very powerful tool to have in the planning arsenal. I really appreciate that you've shared with us today. It was a great food for thought, so thank you. Okay, folks, if you want to learn more about this topic and specific topics related to forecasting, please check out our catalog. And of course, don't forget our chatbot. You can ask any question you want.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; WM

ME22N; MD04; ME2N

Hello to the curious, we are here to feed your appetite for change and improvement. Martin here, ready to dive in and explore how SAP can empower your processes. Today we're going to explore a situation that none of us love, but all experience, the need to send product back to our supplying partners. There are a few ways SAP can facilitate this for us and in this video we're going to start simply and explore the return to vendor PO. It's the most basic approach, and once in place we can continue to build from here and manage more complicated scenarios. Today we are Patrick with us, who has lived this life by supporting supplying partners and helping them improve. He's very data-centric and takes a very pragmatic approach, so I'm very keen to hear his introduction today and how to manage the returns to vendor process. Patrick, you seem like you have a lot of experience in this space. Take it away. I would love to. Martin. No one loves having to do this, but sometimes we do have goods we have to return. We've all been there. The product didn't meet spec, there's an issue with the quantity , it doesn't meet minimum shelf life requirements, or maybe you have an excellent and flexible partner who will help you mitigate excess inventory. Bottom line, supply chain stuff happens and it's a matter of when not if. So we want to be prepared for that and make it as easy as possible on us and our partners. As Martin alluded to, there are a variety of ways for how we can initiate the return, and today we're tackling it as if the buyer has been notified and is issuing the return. Last but not least, I'll point out some ways that we can keep an eye on the return and encourage progress. Since I hear the best way to learn is by doing, let's get into it. So off to SAP we go. Now a return to vendor facilitated via return to vendor PO looks really just like a normal PO. We'll see that this PO looks strikingly similar to any other PO and that's both a good and not so good thing. It's good because we understand it. It's easy to use and it falls within all the normal reporting structures that we use to working in that makes it easy to work with. And by the way, I didn't mention it, but I'm in the ME23N transaction. Unfortunately, the not so good piece also lies in the similarity. Sometimes it can be confusing or easy to miss that it's a return to vendor and to make that easier, let's look at some of the telltale signs that will clue us in that this is indeed a returns PO. So first of all let's acknowledge that this PO is very old, October, 2018. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon when it comes to less common processes like returning goods to a supplier. It should get a ton of focus because it is less common and there is a reason why you're returning these goods, so that could drive to a corrective action in the process, and at the very least, represents time and money that we don't want to have tied up. So, as I said at the header level, this is a standard PO, if we scroll over to the right though on the item level down here, in this case way over, we're going to see that it's a returns PO. And how do I know that? There's a little text checkbox next to the info record here, if I hover over it, you'll see that this is for returns item. That controls the rest of the process change. Now you can totally move this column over. Right, move it over to the left so it's closer for you to see. You can expand the width so it's harder to miss, I'm going to actually expand that column right now. Here you go, so you can see returns item. Do all that stuff and save this as a default view so that next time you can see that little checkbox. But let's go highlight a couple other ways to keep our eyes on these return PO's. We can also see this in our stock requirements list, so as you know, we're going to go navigate to MD04. All right, here we got our material number, I'm going to execute that, and one of the things I want to point out might stand out, might not, but if you look at the PO that we were just on, it actually has a negative quantity, so it has a -5. This is showing us that we plan to ship 5 pieces of this material back out to the vendor. So that's not something you'd normally see, right? With a purchase order, you usually see a positive value, like 1 piece, 9 pieces, those are regular PO's bringing product in. While this is a PO for 5 pieces getting shipped out. So MRP plans to send those 5 materials out and then replenish what's needed. We also have an exception message here letting us know, right, that this activity was supposed to already happen. Message 07 tells us the finished date is in the past, so that's another way to monitor and manage these and let us know if something is falling short in the process. But that's a little reactive. What else can we do? Well, we have other options. One great option is to put our list displays to work. We can use something like ME2N or ME80FN, to keep an eye on these PO's and track them through the process. So let's start with ME2N. So here, let's set up a variant that's going to include the characteristics that we want. So in this case, you could see I have a purchasing organization populated, I have a best scope of list, selection parameter of WE101 to show us the PO's that are still open for processing, my plant, all that normal stuff. But now we need to go find that little tickbox. So this is a little tricky, but let's give it a shot. We do this by adding a field from the dynamic selection criteria. That's the multicolor sort of traffic light looking thing up here, you could see it's popped up, dynamic selection. So I'm going to click on that. Now we've got two options. Our purchasing document, header and purchasing document item. As we saw on our ME23N transaction, we want to go down to the item level, and also like before where I have to scroll away, right, in this case, I'm going to have to just scroll down until I find that returns item flag. So bear with me while I do that. Okay, so I scrolled down and now I found my returns item. I'm actually just going to double click on that and it's popped up the dynamic selection over here, right? And what we're looking for is we're looking for returns item where we have an X. So if I've got an X here, I can now go and save this as a variant, and once I save it as a variant, I'll be able to look at my return to vendor PO's pretty easily. So I'm going to click save for this one, I'm going to save it with a variant name of our RTV, let's do that and as our description, we'll call it RT PO's. Okay. And let's save this and run it. Okay, so it's saved, let's go and execute and there we are, right? You see up on the screen, we've got our return to vendor PO so if we had more than one, unfortunately we just have this old one from October, 2018, the other ones would show up here, but now we can track the status and make sure that we get these PO's fully processed in a timely manner. Welcome back from the tour on how to recognize and create visibility around your return of vendor PO's. By using some of these techniques, it helps us to stay connected to the process. Monitor progress and watch for trends. If we have recurring issues, then that's a strong indication that there's an issue and we need to look deeper into what's happening and how we can set up the supplier for success in the future or look for better performing alternatives. Thanks for spending the time with me today. That's some great stuff. Patrick. Thanks so much. We need to commit to closing the loop on these processes. Yes, the PO is a good start, but we need to make sure the goods move and the credits come in as well as preventing issues from recurring in the future if the need to return becomes excessive. Thanks again, Patrick. Well, this was a good topic guys, there's plenty more on this PO processing side that you can check out on our video catalog. Otherwise, please submit your questions below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM; PM

CO24

Hey there Reveal TV community Martin here, and we're about to get into a tool that should be embedded into your cadence or planning and setting the shop floor up for success. This particular feature of SAP is excellent for bringing planning and procurement onto the same page. Today we're exploring the missing parts list, our last chance to address missing materials as we queue up our orders for the shop floor. As a shop floor works to manufacture products to the customer, we need to make sure that we are setting them up for success in doing so by not releasing orders that are unexpectedly short on materials, and we need to make sure they can get the job done. We don't want to waste time, effort, or materials or capacity if we don't have those things in place. So Patrick, you are probably the perfect person to introduce us to this particular topic, the Missing Parts list. How should we be thinking about this key feature of SAP and how can it support our cross-functional integration and processes better? Hey, Martin, you know what? The pool can quickly get a little deep when we venture into the topics that surround material availability and the rule sets that govern it, when the checks should be made, how the rules change from the plan to schedule to release or delivery. It's a lot, and we have a plethora of videos on those topics. Today we're zooming in on just one tool that offers the opportunity for key conversations, prioritization, and specific actions. Today we'll focus on three very basic but very important things. First, we'll look at some of the selection criteria, options for producing the missing parts list. Then we will review the information available once the report has been run. And lastly, I'll give you some things to consider as you work to maximize availability. I can't wait to dive in. Come with me and we'll go take a look at the missing parts list. Here we are in SAP. You can see in the lower right hand corner of my screen that we're in the transaction code CO24. This transaction accesses the missing parts information system, which then carries us into the resulting missing parts list. The selection screen is simple but powerful. The top selection is geared towards the materials required in production and may resonate most with buyers. If I'm a buyer, this is where I can go to see where my materials may be short. I can dial in on the list based on the criteria you see here. A few items of note, we have our MRP controller field here that allows us to focus on our area of responsibility. The other one that I like to pay close attention to is the requirement state. As a planner, if your buyers warned you of a supply disruption or shortage, you can quickly put those materials in here and see what orders look to be impacted. This can only be done once since they've made sure SAP is aware of the change. The second set of selection criteria is from the perspective of the semi-finished or finished goods that require the component that's down here. This is perhaps a little more suited from the perspective of production or maintenance planners and schedulers focusing in on their area of responsibility. Again, we have the ability to hone in on our MRP controller or even select high priority orders. Note that we're gonna see the needs associated with maintenance orders and production orders here. So what we're seeing here should be shortages that we should be concerned about and that need attention as the order may need to be rescheduled. Our checking rules may need refinement if the shortage is not something we would want to action, or if there are shortages happening on the floor that we're not seeing here. Also, of note is that if you're looking to proactively check material availability on a planned order that's another critical stage in production planning and happens in another transaction by the time it's showing up on the missing parts list, in CO24, we've done those pre-flight checks and our expecting materials should be available. This is a list for exception management. Okay, let's run it. So tell me where I need to focus SAP. In most cases I should know about these from exception monitoring and working with the orders themselves. But this tells me which issues are still open and also helps to highlight the criticality of the issues. You could see here that we have so many fields available to make this layout really valuable. These are the ones that I've selected. We can also leverage sorting and totals or subtotals to help organize our thought process and decision making. If I were working with this list, I would also have the stock requirements list open and also my schedule. With this list, I can see partial commitments, consider redeployment, rescheduling our changes and prioritization, and connect with the buyer and what the options are. Obviously you can see the requirements state and the requirements quantity in here as well. If there's a shortage, I want to use the material we have to its best advantage to serve the customer. So this is a great way for me to find out how to actually use that material. One last note, this is an exception report. If we've done all the pre-steps to the point of getting here, we should be seeing only exceptions. Now we have things show up for a lot of reasons, delayed deliveries is one of the main ones, other disruptions, lost or missing, materials corrected via cycle count, unanticipated scrap and yield issues, things that get hung up in quality. Whole bunch of different reasons. One, we should also keep an eye out is overproduction, re-sequencing or pulling ahead. There are a lot of ways the deck can shuffle and all of a sudden we're short and addressing those issues is a very worthy pursuit. Man, does life get easier when we start to address some of those issues and get into a standard case of communication and success? I think it does . We tackle some big topics and concepts on Reveal TV. I really appreciate the opportunity today to give you something. That helps to promote connection across teams and highlight where there are shortages, or to say it another way, needs that require action. The missing parts list provides actionable intelligence that promotes quality decision making when regularly reviewed and brought into the regular cadence of work. This is one of the last chances we have to catch issues that can impact execution on the floor. Super important and worthwhile work. If we're holding Ops and Manufacturing accountable for excellence and in particular for schedule adherence, we have an obligation to catch issues before they reach them and avoid wasting that effort. As a buyer, you may find that you have a pile of requests to work through. This is one more tool to help you drive focus and work through that pile. Patrick, thanks again for sharing. Folks you want to learn more about this and other ways to find your missing parts, please check out our video catalog, and of course, if you have a specific question related to this, submit it below.

Warehouse Management

WM

MM02; LX04; LS09

[00:00:00] Hey folks, Martin here, and we know the best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Today, we're going to focus on a fixed bin stock removal strategy within the warehouse. Steve, I know that this is one of the many stock removal and picking strategies. I'm sure there are many benefits that come with the fixed bins. Please share. There certainly is, Martin. Fixed bin strategy also can come with a lot of maintenance, such as minimum quantities, maximum quantities, and replenishment quantities. These additional features to fixed bins are an extra layer of goodness. And if used correctly, can dramatically increase the efficiency in your warehouse. So let's get into SAP, where I'll demonstrate how these additional layers work with fixed bins. The first thing we'll do with fixed bins is identify the storage types where it allows fixed bins. From previous videos, you'll find out LX04 is where we want to start. [00:01:00] LX04 is titled the capacity used per storage type, but we're going to use it for something a little different. So I'm going to use my default warehouse as 001. Just go ahead and execute that, and you can see it just gives you the breakdown of all the storage types, the names, the percentages, kind of how many bins are within each storage type. But the real reason we're here is to find the rules behind there. You can see here, 005, just from the description, is fixed bin storage. But to find the rules behind that, just to verify, you'd select it here, hit storage type details, and then you can start to see the actual rules behind that storage type. So in this case, it does have a F or fixed bin put away strategy, and then a actual fixed bin removal strategy here. So, it's fixed to a material, it's going to allow a specific material to be assigned to a bin for picking and for stock removal. So [00:02:00] what we see here is we have 6 total bins, 4 are empty, 2 are occupied, and we know it's storage type 005. So let's find the materials that are in there, we're going to go ahead and hit the back arrow, back arrow, and we're going to go into LS09. LS09 can be used in a few different ways. If you have a material number and you just are curious if it has a fixed bin or not, you can go ahead and enter that there. It defaulted to my warehouse, we just found out storage type 005 is our fixed bin, so we'll just go ahead and populate that there. And then we just have our warehouse number, storage type, and let's execute this. What this does is shows you, in my warehouse 001, here's my materials that I have there. They are assigned to that fixed bin storage type, so they are allowed to be signed in that fixed bin storage type. They're all right here, 005, and if they have an actual bin specified here, [00:03:00] that means that is the fixed bin for that. There's additional data, which we'll touch on in the next couple screens here. You'll see you have your max, your min, and replenishment quantities. That is not populated, but if it was and we wanted to use that for replenishment purposes or really to kind of enhance our fixed bins, you would see that data there. So, let's just go ahead and pick this material, we know it's now assigned to this particular bin, A-02. I'm going to select that material, let's do a CTRL Y to bring up the plus, and now we have our material selected I hit CTRL C and then, just to view, this is going to be very critical for fixed bins, we'll go into the material master. In this case, I'll just go into the change view of MM02. We have our material populated there, 100-600. Then, the only relevant information that we really want [00:04:00] is the WM tabs, the Warehouse Management 1 and 2. So, go ahead and select both of those. we have our plants , warehouse number. The most critical part of a material master for fixed bins is, I'll show you very quickly, if you just enter, so we have our material here, we have our plant and warehouse defaulted, if I just hit this without selecting the storage type, it drills in on the WM1 tab, you see your information here, the stock removal, bulk, bulk. Warehouse Management 2, you only get this amount of data there. So, it's kind of taking a default, view of just a material in a warehouse view. So go back in there hit both, and now you'll populate your warehouse number, and we know storage type 005 Because this is what you'll want to do when setting or doing any information with fixed bins. [00:05:00] So, 005, now it brings up a different set of criteria. See this little box down here that did not exist before? Well, there's our fixed bin assignment. So, for any bin that you want, you would assign right there. If you wanted to assign a maximum quantity to it to say, hey, I can only fit 200, pieces in there, you would set that. A minimum quantity we'll talk about in a few replenishment videos coming up here. Rounding quantity, you get all these additional fields that you can enter that, that enhance your fixed bins. If you just want to leave them blank that is completely fine. The stock placement and stock removal strategy will still drive it to this bin but without this additional information, you won't enhance or really get those replens, all these additional levers work in conjunction with other fixed bin storage types or rules and or replenishment quantity. So that is fixed bins, [00:06:00] they're specific and really used for high velocity materials because you really want to be specific with where you actually place them because again, you are, you're picking the singular bin for that stock placement and stock removal. They're also used many times in the manufacturing realm for close to a production supply area or near like a work center where you want to keep that close, keep all those components close, that's another way fixed bins are typically used. Welcome back, in this demo. We've covered not only fixed bin strategy. But a lot of the additional features that come along with it. Especially the replenishment strategies. Yep. Thank you, Steve. Much appreciated. This was, of course, very informative, and I love learning about the additional layers of fixed bins and how they can drastically improve the warehouse efficiency. So, folks, if you want to learn more about warehouse management videos and SAP, please check out our other videos, but just general features and functions that [00:07:00] exist. And if you have any specific questions, please submit it below.

Quality & Batch Management

P2P; PTM

MD04; ME22N; MIGO; MMBE

[00:00:00] Hey, welcome back supply chain aficionados. Martin here with a brand new topic. Hot off the presses and built off a question from our client community. We've had a lot of interest in getting started in quality and batch management recently. And as we start to pick up momentum with managing multiple suppliers for parts that are largely the same form, fit or function, there's been a lot of additional interest in the vendor batches and how we see those in SAP. This is not the same as traditional batch management, where the batch assignment has many characteristics. This is rather an external reference of vendor provided information of an internally determined point of reference. However, if you aren't yet up and running on full batch characteristics, this might just be a place to get started. So to answer that question, we have Jake, who will give us a quick how to on finding the vendor batch number and a couple of places where it can [00:01:00] be seen. Jake, take us away, my friend. Hey, Martin. I love the intent behind this question. This question comes from someone who has a hurdle that they're trying to overcome in order to get their sourcing strategy into action and supported by SAP. It's a simple question, but we hope it'll have a big impact. So in today's walkthrough. I'm going to show you where and how a vendor batch can be referenced at time of goods receipt. I'll also then show you a couple of the places where we see that information for quick reference to create some needed visibility that persists across SAP. So let's jump in and have a look. Every once in a while, we have an opportunity to answer a quick question and today is that day. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to receive some goods. We have a purchase order that has an ASN against it. And that's great. We love advanced notification. So let's bring up trusty MIGO. I've got the inbound delivery right here. I'll enter that in, and now down below, we can head on over and put in the batch number if it didn't already pull [00:02:00] in for us from the inbound delivery. If they were really, really good, it may already be there for us, but if not, we can enter it here. The other thing we can do is enter in a date of manufacture or expiration. Once we've saved, we can now see this shows up for us in a variety of places. This is super helpful because sometimes we need very specific compliance or regulatory information associated with that lot, and sometimes we just need a simple reference that helps tie the batch to that particular supplier. For example, maybe I have a production run coming up, and I need to use up a batch from one supplier or data manufacturer before starting another. And this is a great way for me to build a foundation toward more robust characteristics. This could eventually lead to being able to automatically search for and select batches. Most importantly, though, this allows us to trace what came in from whom, where it is at this moment in our facility, and how it was ultimately used. And that is so very important. As you can see from our walkthrough today, vendor batches don't have a high [00:03:00] barrier to entry, but they do provide useful information that can help us with anything from compliance and regulatory concerns to simple informational cross references that can be a way point towards or be used in conjunction with a full set of batch characteristics if batch management is a path that you want to go down. They're quick to enter. Easy to reference. Have loads of use cases for recording and differentiating, where it matters. Over to you, Martin. Thank you, Jake. That's a good answer to a great question. Thank you, sir. If you want to learn more about this specific topic and other batch management topics, we have quite a list of videos around that. And of course, if you have a specific question for your business, feel free to submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

PTM; P2P

MD04

[00:00:00] Welcome back, folks. Martin here. And today's the day we're taking a closer look at one of SAP's features that is so underutilized that it must be hidden. Well, we're here to walk you through value that's been hidden in plain sight. We're always looking for tools that highlight integration, good conversation and enable further data backed decision making. So many times the answer to a question that could be a great conversation is a side note, and I'll look into that. We believe that getting more of these conversations happening in the moment and in the room promotes integrated thinking and is more effective in problem solving. Monique, you are probably the queen of the brief, the promoter of the aha moment, and a huge believer in the importance of context. What is this tool? Tell us more about it. What are some of the things you can inspire us regarding this particular tool? Way to tee it up, Martin. [00:01:00] That was like a legit Paul Bettany in a Knight's Tale moment. And I love a good moment. So, okay, I'm going to rise to the occasion. So the question is, can we do it? This sometimes can give us a good idea of whether we are in a position to say yes or no, and why. It can help us to understand the impacts of changes and the ripple effect of our decisions. What it doesn't necessarily have is the insight for what cards we might be holding that will open up the door to the yes. Being able to use a tool like this to drive conversations. Gets us engaged in the room and thinking about solutions as a team and over time, this lets us recognize patterns and get to the outcomes more efficiently. So let's get into SAP and have a quick briefing on the anatomy of the order report and the good stuff we can get from it. So here we are again, friends, picking up from our home base, the stock requirements list. Imagine for a moment that we needed to reschedule an order to meet a pressing customer [00:02:00] need. If that's not currently our plan, there are a series of checks that we need to go through to evaluate the availability of capacity, labor, and materials. The job of a planner or scheduler is not an easy one. It's our job to balance service levels with inventory performance and efficiency. That can be a delicate puzzle that requires sometimes difficult conversations. But by the time the shop floor has a scheduled order that will be released and executed, we want to make sure all of our ducks are in a row. So how do we get started? We have a bunch of options. The order report is special because it's a quick validation in the room that can open up the conversation to problem solve and find solutions. Now, while we're talking, I'm doing a few things. First, I found an order that needs to be expedited. I've selected that order by clicking on it, and then I've clicked on the icon for the order report. This [00:03:00] has opened up a new section on my screen here, and I have options for how I might want to see this information. I like it at the top of the screen so I have more real estate to display the columns. And still have a good portion of the stock requirements list visible below to interact with. I can also control how much real estate on the screen this information is allowed to take up by setting a percentage in my user settings. Now this information is interactive. I can navigate to any of the materials we see here by double clicking. And their planning situation is going to display for me in the stock requirements list below. It's easy to jump between materials and take actions interactively. Refresh and see the impact in the order report. Now I want to highlight a couple of important features for you here. Consider them to be a few of my favorite things. First of all, we can see each of the levels of the BOM and what's needed to produce each. Then we can see the requirements date [00:04:00] compared with the current plan availability date. We'll also see the associated exception message and the date it needs to be rescheduled to in order to support this run. We can also see, and this is my favorite part, what kind of MRP element we are counting on here. Do we have an order in motion we can expedite, or is it just a planned MRP element like a planned order or purchase requisition? Do we have stock and may need to redeploy? This helps us to ask questions and seek out opportunities. Two other points to be made before we head back into the studio. First, this does not replace the full production plan and cycle of material availability checking, capacity evaluation, and finite scheduling, or calling a supplier to see what can be done, or working with the customer experience team to discuss priorities. But it helps to get the conversation started in the room and actions agreed upon. [00:05:00] This speeds up the conversation. Second, another great use for this tool is if you are working on your use of the exception messages in SAP, is to see the impact of realigning activities through the BOM. It can really help the team see how we can resolve several exception messages all at once. Now let's get back to the studio and wrap this baby up. I hope I was able to deliver some helpful context and a few aha moments in this walkthrough. I believe that was my end of the bargain after that great introduction today from Martin. So a couple of quick things before you go. This tool is a great jumping off point to explore not only can we do something, but should we? Many times when we're entering this conversation, it's because something hasn't gone to plan and we're looking to see if we can meet a need. Having the conversation cross functionally in the room promotes integrated thinking that can lead to a good decision on next action. Which may involve redeploying of [00:06:00] capacity, labor, or materials to meet an urgent need. And this helps to build a context for that question. Ah, all right, Monique. That was pretty good. And if this conversation sparked your interest, especially the points about evaluating options and impacts, you may want to check out another video that's coming soon about the companion of the audit report, and it's called the pegging report. Integrated system, integrated supply chains, that's what we're striving for. We need some collaboration to support that integration for sure. So once again, Monique, thanks a lot. So folks, if you want to learn more about this topic and the pegging report to come, you will see this in our video catalog. And of course, if you have some specific questions on these topics, feel free to submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM

MD04; MM03

Hey, everyone, Martin here. If you're all about maximizing the ROI in your SAP system, you've come to the right place. In this video, we're going to delve into the forecast consumption. And in this case, specifically backward and forward consumption. So often we hear from clients, well, if we could only get the forecast fixed, everything will be just fine. The truth is forecast is all about knowing the risk in the forecast and being prepared to manage it. Today, Patrick is going to take us and introduce us to one of the key features that can help us with this. Okay, please, Patrick, tell us more about what the forecast consumption mode of backwards and forwards offers us. You bet, Martin. I know from personal experience just how tricky demand management can be. Even with a decent quality forecast, it can be challenging if you don't have the right settings in place to help you deal with variance in either time, quantity, or both. So, let's [00:01:00] dive in and take a look. Today, we're going to touch on where we find the consumption mode and how to select it. Discuss how to set the number of days, in this case working days, to deal with that variability. And how to think about choosing the consumption mode based on the demonstrated bias. Let's go in and take a look. Today we are going to talk about some forecast consumption parameters. These fields are often misunderstood and they can make a significant impact on your supply chain if used incorrectly. First, I want to show you where to find the consumption mode so I can explain it in greater detail. I almost always start on the MD04 screen when evaluating planning parameters. So let's start there and do a quick overview of the data before we jump into the material master. We can see that this material number has a planned independent requirement loaded to represent the forecast. It looks like the forecast is roughly 23 pieces per week, April 1st, April 8th, April 15th, and so on and we can also [00:02:00] see a sales order for 100 pieces on May 2nd.Now, let's switch our view to summarize this data in weekly periods. We want to do this because we're going to make some changes to the system down the road, and this will give us an idea of what it looked like before we made those changes. So, here we have the planned independent requirements at a rate of 23 or so per week. We have requirements of 100 pieces on week 18 for that sales order that we looked at. And as MRP does its math, it says you need 23 this week, 23 this week, 23 this week, 22 this week, and then all of a sudden we need 23 pieces for planned independent requirements and 100 pieces to cover that sales order. So a total of 123 pieces there in week 18. So MRP is actually adding the customer demand to the forecast. Are we sure we want to do that? Let's leverage some built in functionality by letting the system [00:03:00] know how we want our forecast to be decremented when we get orders. Finally, we are ready to talk about consumption mode. So, the consumption mode controls the direction on the time axis in which the system consumes the forecast. Let me show you what I mean and then you can start using it as you see fit. So, from the MD04 screen, we're going to double click on the material number and then, we're actually going to navigate to the MRP3 tab. Maybe a tab that you don't use too often. So, in this case, we want to scroll and look into the planning section and there it is, consumption mode. So, before we start changing numbers, let's look and see what consumption mode does and we're just going to click into the field and look at some of the standard options. So, here we are, let's click, and let's see what the system is telling us. So, today's topic is actually going to focus on one of my personal [00:04:00] favorites, option 2, backward forward consumption. But before we can get to that one, I've used SAP in many industries, and it's always hard to predict when the orders are going to come in. If you have a steady flow of orders throughout the week, or if you have a month end push or a quarter end rush to hit sales quotas, these options can be extremely valuable tools and the reason that I said backward forward consumption is one of my favorites is it actually gives us some flexibility. So, let's start with a quick overview of backward consumption. With backward consumption, sales orders consume forecasted quantities that lie before the requirement state. And with forward consumption, sales orders consume forecasted quantities that lie after the requirement state. So naturally, with backward forward consumption, sales orders consume forecasted quantities that lie before the requirement state. And if the actual demand is not satisfied, the sales orders [00:05:00] then consume forecasted quantities that lie after the requirement state in order to satisfy the remaining demand. Too confusing? Let's try it out. So, the idea here is to start with backward forward consumption and then see how it changes that view that we looked at on our MD04 screen. So, let's quickly go over to MM02 and go into change mode and go to that MRP3 tab and then go to our plant and from here we're going to actually go in and we're going to update our consumption mode. Again, I'll show you the examples, backward forward consumption is the one that we want to use. But, this doesn't work by itself. Just defining the mode doesn't work by itself, you actually have to go in and tell the system how many periods backwards, how many periods forwards, you need to populate so that those orders can be [00:06:00] consumed. So, before we jump in there, we take a quick look at backward consumption periods and just show you all that this is populated in work days. So, when we populate our consumption periods, backwards and forwards, we want to make sure that we populate it in work days. So if your company works five days a week and you want to consume a week of forecast, you should populate five. Whereas in some other SAP date fields, we use seven calendar days to represent a week. So it's always best to double check before you load the data. Now, let's go take a look at those numbers, backward consumption, forward consumption and look at what happens when we actually populate them. So again, these are in work days. So we'll start with 10 work days backwards. So when a sales order comes in, it's going to look back two weeks to see if there's forecast. We'll do 10 work days forward, [00:07:00] so if it sees demand 10 work days in the past, it will delete that, and then it will look forward if it hasn't consumed all of the independent requirements, it'll look forward 10 more days, two more weeks to decrement the forecast. So I'm going to save this, I'm going to execute MRP , we will run the MRP , and then go back to our MD04 screen, and double click on our material number again, enter, and I'm going to go just refresh the screen. And take a look at that summarized view to show our weekly demand. Now, what you'll see here, is you have that forecast, 23 in week 14, 23 in week 15, 23 in week 16. Now there's nothing in week 17. There's nothing planned in week 18. There's nothing planned in week 19. And there's nothing planned in week 20. Because this 100 piece [00:08:00] order, when it came in, SAP said, Oh, we have a 100 piece order? Let's go back two weeks and remove the forecast, but the forecast there wasn't sufficient, so it deleted roughly 46 pieces and then it said, okay, well, I deleted 46 pieces in the past backward. Then it looked forward and said, let me go delete whatever demand I have in the next two weeks. And it deleted more so that weeks 17, 18, 19 and 20 were all zeroed out. And now, instead of planning for 123 pieces in week 18, the backward and forward consumption has allowed us to not overplan. Because we have this 100 piece order, while we were expecting to get orders at a rate of 23 per week, we can't always tell when those orders are going to come in. So, thankfully, by changing those parameters, MRP will now, again, replan for us, and we're not [00:09:00] expecting orders in week 17, 18, 19 and 20 because we just got this one order for 100. And it actually looks pretty good to me, right? I don't want to bring in my forecast and sales orders inventory. I want to just aggregate the whole plan and figure out how to proceed. So, one more thing that I think we should talk about is forecast bias. I'm not sure if you've experienced it, but generally speaking, forecast bias can be described as a tendency to either over forecast or under forecast, leading to a forecasting error. If a material is typically over forecast because the sales team is overly optimistic, I would probably weight my forward consumption periods more heavily. We don't know if those sales will materialize, so let's start reducing the future forecast as those orders come in. However, if a material is typically under forecasted, I would do the opposite and weight my backward consumption periods more heavily. Let me come back into MRP3 and just remind you where we're talking [00:10:00] about. So, when we see that, you want the system to keep driving in material to support those sales that will inevitably exceed the forecast because of that bias. So, I'm actually pretty confident that knowing how to properly leverage these fields will help you to smooth variability when you don't know exactly what day or week your orders will come in. And it gives you an opportunity to leverage standard SAP functionality in the best way possible for your specific business patterns. Whew! Okay. Welcome back. In today's chat, we covered a lot. We discussed the options for forecast consumption, and as a reminder, if backwards forwards consumption, the demand will be matched with the current period. Then work backwards. And lastly, work forward. We discussed how this helps to smooth the variability in timing and quantity. And, before I leave you, I just want to note the importance of thinking about consumption and maintenance, or the reorganization of the forecast. Both as key parts of [00:11:00] facilitating your demand management program. This is a great topic, and all that was just the tip of the iceberg. Okay, Patrick, thank you so much for taking this robust topic and really breaking it down for us in actionable steps. This is such a good start, guys. Go forward, be curious, and explore. Speaking of exploring, feel free to go check out our video catalog of all the different videos that exist. And of course, if you have a specific question, feel free to submit it below.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; PTM; DM

CO09

[00:00:00] The best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Hi, Martin here, and in this video, we will be discussing checking rules as a part of ATP scope of check. Now, this is a definition video on focusing on one key term within ATP process that holds a lot of power and is often misunderstood. This can lead to a lot of chaos and confusion as organizations work hard to begin their ATP journey. And understanding or believing in those results actually. Kristie, I know this is a really hot topic. But checking rules, kind of the basics of ATP, take it away. Wait. Who said this was important? I'm only kidding. Yes, checking rules are very important. As we progress through time and march closer to physical execution of the process, it's critically important that we find the right check for the stage it is applied. So for example, in a sales order versus a delivery or created production order versus a production order that's ready for takeoff. [00:01:00] These are important stages in the process and our promise or pre flight checks will likely change as we move through them. What I'd like to do with our demo time today is to. Show you the difference as I apply different checking rules without changing the checking group. I'll show you where you can see this. And some of the common examples of what might change as we go. A couple of key definitions in the background that help us to understand how ATP is functioning circle around the scope of check or what we are allowed to include, what we are not allowed to include in terms of supply, and what we should consider or not consider in terms of demand. Our checking group, which is really the availability check that we're choosing to assign to a grouping of materials, and then what we're exploring today, which is the checking rule. And you can see I'm here in CO09. This is the availability overview. And in this [00:02:00] screen, I can actually go through and look at a material from different perspectives, so different checking rules. So think about this in terms of how we are flowing through our sales order or our production planning cycle. And especially when we have competing demands for manufacturing, for stock transfer, for sales orders out to customers. We can have kind of a collision of rules that can come into play here. And so if you think about it, something like a sales order may be allowed to go through and look at things like confirm production. So production that is out there that's in the scheduled horizon has been released. You may have purchase orders that have been confirmed and on their way and that you would want to consider. But by the time that sales order is going into delivery, or in the case of production, before that production order is being released to the floor, we may narrow down [00:03:00] what we are allowed to consider as relevant supply. That's how we get to the scope of check. So our checking rule helps us to invoke the right scope of check for where we are in the process. And so if we choose one here, we'll go ahead and here just choose sales orders. I just want to show you one thing. We can come in here and we see the availability. We can see our quantity that we have on hand, less what we have for a sales order that's going out, adding to that the production and then reducing that further with the next sales order that is going out after that production is planned to be received. So if we look at that in conjunction with our scope of check, that's going to tie back to the rules for what we are allowed to include or consider at that stage in the order cycle, so for a sales order. If we do something like this, watch, these are all going to disappear here. I'm going to change to a different checking rule, and this is going to be for a delivery. Now I'm going to change this, [00:04:00] I'll do the drop downs that you can see. I'm going to change this to a B for a sales order delivery. I'll go ahead and come in here and you'll see we no longer see the sales orders because in our scope of check for delivery, for our outbound deliveries, we are not including our sales orders that we have confirmed in that scope of check. Now we are competing only with the other deliveries that are out there and we are only including very specific things. You'll see here the production order that we were counting on to promise our sales order against is no longer here. We are only considering the stock that we have on hand. So as we go through and we start to get more real about the physical activities and the cost incurred with moving a sales order either into manufacturing, out the door on a stock transfer order, or out the door on a delivery for a customer, we may narrow what it is that we are choosing to include in that scope of check based on where we are in the process. And the checking rule is what makes that connection for [00:05:00] us. In today's demo. We illustrated the stated definition of a checking rule and demonstrated where to find it and how to see the results. We chatted through some of the common evolutions that may happen as you march forward in time with different activities, getting different levels of commitment . And we discussed some of the most common pitfalls that relate to checking rules. Okay, great. Thank you, Kristie, much appreciated. This makes a lot of sense if you're thinking about it. We have different expectations for the state of our supply chain, depending on where we are in the process. We should have different levels of firmness and commitment and flexibility. So again, thank you for that, I appreciate that a lot. You know, a picture is worth a thousand words and the best way to learn is truly by doing. So folks, if you want to learn more about ATP and checking rules, please check out other videos related to this topic. And of course, if you have a specific question, please feel free to submit it below.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; PTM; DM

MM03; CO09

[00:00:00] Hey folks, Martin here. Welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your system. And as we know, the best way to learn is by doing so let's jump straight in. In this video, we're going to be defining what the checking group is. Kristie, tell us more specifically about this checking group. It seems complicated. But I feel like you got a better shot at helping us understand this. I will give it my best shot, Martin. A checking group lives in the material master and that, in combination with the checking rule, defines the scope of check for ATP. And whether that material is even eligible for ATP or not. In today's session. We're going to go in and look at where it lives and what it impacts. This is a grouping technique for materials with like behaviors that should follow the same logic. It's a very important rule and requires good cross functional support and alignment. Let's go in and take a look. There are a couple of definitions that are really important for us to understand because they're the building blocks of how we get to that particular material availability check. [00:01:00] One of those, I would say that there's three we really want to make sure that we understand because they work well together. You've got scope of check, you have your checking group, and you have your checking rule. Today, we're exploring checking group. And if you found yourself on your ATP journey and really struggling with where to apply availability checks or how to apply your availability checks, this checking group, this concept of grouping materials under a particular set of availability rules is one of the key things that we should consider and that's really at the material and plant level So I'll show you when somebody refers to the checking group really where you're seeing that is where you would see it in the availability check field. So if we're on the planning and buying and scheduling and material management side of the house we are used to seeing that right here in the MRP 3 view. Now if we're in the customer experience or sales order management side of the house, we are used to seeing it here under sales, [00:02:00] general and plants. And I can come in here, I need to drop in my sales org and I will need to drop in my distribution channel. I'm saying this for my supply side friends who maybe aren't hanging out here as much and we will see our availability check right here. We can see this one is assigned to a 02, that's an SAP standard availability check. That is for individual requirements. And when we think about our materials, our materials have different behaviors, which would cause us to assign a different checking group to them. For example, if you had materials where batch determination was in play, you may have them assigned with a CH availability check. This all works in conjunction as well with your planning strategies and with other elements of configuration and rules that come into play. One other thing to be mindful of is if you have ever felt like when you go to run your confirmations on your sales orders, all of a sudden something goes hinky and the material that you thought was available is suddenly not [00:03:00] for that sales order. There are a couple of key reasons why that can happen. One we've seen quite a lot recently at clients is that your accumulation settings may be incorrect. So if you don't have accumulation set, there's no accumulation going on, that can cause challenges when your supply plan shifts around, it can cause your sales orders to lose their place in line and you would see that you might be promising inventory that was destined for one sales order to another. Other places where this can happen are really related to your checking groups and to manual behaviors and interventions that come into play when we're doing things like rescheduling or robbing from Peter to pay Paul. So we will have little discussions on each of these topics, but in terms of your checking group and the configuration associated with it, this is another place to call out. Remember on your journey to ATP, you are making those assignments at the material and plant level. So think about your checking group and the assignment of those rules based on a grouping of [00:04:00] materials that are all going to be validated or verified in the same way as you're going through the confirmation process. So in summary. A checking group is assigned in the material master, and it reflects a group of materials that is subject to the same flow of rules for ATP. A checking group works in conjunction with a checking rule to make up a scope of check, and this is one of those master data settings where cross functional consideration and collaboration is essential. Not only does this apply to materials sold to our customers or transferred to our sister facilities, but is also applicable to manufactured parts that need a pre flight check on material availability prior to scheduling or release to the shop floor. Over to you, Martin. Okay, roger that, Kristie. Appreciate it. Sometimes it is helpful to get a clear definition on some of these critical data settings, and also to get a good sense of how they can be applied. I'm sure we've got many more and many more to review. So thank you. Folks, once again, if you're looking [00:05:00] for more data on this particular topic or others, there is a whole video catalog on this website. And of course, if you have a particular burning question, please suggest it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

MD04; ME21N

Hello and welcome future SAP supply chain experts. My name is Martin and today we're going to explore how we can tap into the untapped potential of SAP. So if you're curious, let's get started. In this video, we're going to explore the topic of subcontracting. Subcontracting allows us to expand and flex our supply chain to accommodate the needs that may not fit easily within our own existing capacities, our manufacturing footprint, or even our capability. We love flexibility. So, let's turn to Jake to share more. Jake, why don't you share subcontracting functionality with us? Specifically, how do we issue a subcontracting PO to a subcontractor. Definitely, Martin. You hit on a very important point there. And that is the ability to add flexibility to our supply chain footprint through the services provided by a subcontracting service provider. In this example of a traditional subcontracting PO, we're providing the subcontractor with at least some of the components. And then when we receive the product back in, it's coming in under a new material number, and that represents the sum of the parts plus the value that was added by the subcontractor. So let's go in and take a look at how we set up the PO and what happens when we receive against it. Let's get right into it. So we find ourselves in MD04 and we have a semi finished good that a subcontractor is going to supply for us. Let's keep it simple today, and in this scenario, the only source is a single subcontracting partner. Now MRP has the capability of handling multiple sources, so if that's a need for you, ask our chat assistant to help you find some other helpful videos to navigate multiple sources of supply. So there's a couple of things to notice here. First of all, we know who the vendor or the supplier is, even for the future plan replenishment. I can see that by clicking on the vendor. This means that we have maintained the source list. We have a fixed source and the record is relevant for MRP. Now, let's double click on the material number. This takes us into the material master and let's go to the MRP2 view. And if we look here, we've got a special procurement key in place. Special procurement key tells us that this item is following a special process in procurement, which in this case is subcontracting. The other thing that's in place for this item is a subcontracting purchase info record. More on that and other variations of the purchase info record in another video. Okay, let's go back out to the stock requirements list, and from here I'm going to grab one of these requisitions that's due or past due for release , here we go. This looks like a good one. Now I'm going to convert this requisition to a PO. This has automatically taken me to the create PO screen. Now it's time for everyone's favorite activity. It's time to go shopping. Let's toss this requisition into the cart. This means that the attributes that are already in the requisition as a result of that master data setup are now being inherited into the PO. So, the PO knows the source, it knows what we need, how many we need, and by when we need it. It also knows that this is a subcontracting item. It knows what the lead time is, and it'll now warn us if we're ordering inside of lead time. Let's see what else. It knows the price and the destination. Most importantly, if we've set our master data up correctly and there's a valid bill of material in place for this guy, it knows the components that are needed. This is critical. The components list drives the requirements from the top level finished good or semi finished good to the materials we need to provide to the subcontractor so that they can add their value and return the finished product to us. Without this transfer of requirements, we won't set our subcontracting partner up for success. This is another critical piece. Now, we also have the ability to reread the BOM from the PO. So if there's been a recent change or correction, you can make that update from the PO. Another critical importance of the BOM is that the material provided to the subcontractor sits on our books until we receive the semi finished or finished good back from that subcontractor. This step controls the back flush and we get one more chance to true up usage so we have an accurate account of the material used. This is everything to creating a smooth process, and this is our happy path. Otherwise, we're scrambling, the supplier is not set up for success and we have inaccurate inventory balances. What's really nice is that SAP provides a whole suite of tools that will help with this process and we know this is a growing need in many industries. We hear stories all the time from customers that need some extra love and support in this area. So, if that's you, we're recording a whole track of videos dedicated to subcontracting and be sure to check them out. I appreciate you coming along on this tour of a typical subcontracting PO. Today, we discussed some of the data prerequisites to successfully issue and receive against the subcontracting PO and we saw how those prerequisites made it easy to issue the PO and then receive against it. That is the happy path. So if you're finding that you need to enter information manually, it's good to review the master data. Lastly, today we spoke about a variety of ways that subcontracting as a service can add flexibility to the supply chain and diversify the products that you're delivering to the market, respond to the changing requirements, or simply to increase capacity temporarily to compliment your own internal process. Okay, Jake, thank you. That was a great summary of the subcontracting PO process. Hey folks, there's a lot about this topic on the videos that are linked on our catalog. And, of course, if you are not sure what to ask for, use the chatbot, it'll recommend some videos.

Warehouse Management

WM

MM02; LX04

Hey folks, the best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Martin here, and today we will focus on the stock removal strategy M, which utilizes control and rounding quantity functionality. Steve, I know that control and rounding quantity is used in other areas within the supply chain. But is this feature and function in the warehouse the same thing? It absolutely is, Martin. This is one of a few stock removal or picking strategies that we used in the warehouse that I was running. This is an excellent strategy for faster velocity materials. Where SAP will automatically control and propose which bin to remove stock from, based on the quantity being called upon. The intention is to prevent your fixed bin from running low, and saves you a potential replenishment. So let's jump into SAP, where I'll demonstrate how this strategy works and show the required material master data. In this video, we'll cover stock removal strategy M or according to quantity. We've touched on some of these aspects in different videos, but really what we'll talk about is when to use this. I personally use this when I was managing a warehouse in a distribution center, and it is actually perfect for that. If you are in a high velocity type of building or environment, and really you have different picking modules or picking avenues per your materials. You also really need to know your carton quantity, your pallet quantity, and each's. So if you have all that and you meet that criteria, according to quantity might be your go to. So first we'll go into LX04 actually, and I'll just show you, it doesn't have to be a fixed bin per se. But I'm going to go into LX04, look at this storage type D02, look at the details behind it, and you can see, my removal strategy is set to M, or large, small quantities. And really, all that means is it's going to respect the control quantity and look for rounding quantities. My putaway strategy, however, is add to existing. So that's D02, but it's going to utilize additional information. So we'll talk about now the material master and that means, so I'll go into MM02, our default material that we've been using 100-600. We'll plug in WM1, WM2. Since this stock removal strategy is asking for specific materials, our, additional information, the control and rounding quantity. You have to enter that storage type here, similar to the fixed bin videos that we've touched on. So I'll enter D02. Without that, again, you wouldn't get this additional tab, this box here with this information. So really the way, according to quantity or the stock removal M strategy works is it looks at these two things. Control quantity, which we've again touched on in the fix bin videos and replen videos because one of the replenishments looks for control quantity threshold, but then it looks for this grounding quantity. So the difference really again, control quantity is going to look and set a threshold of plus or minus a certain quantity for a pick. And if it is below that, it will pick from that storage type. If it is above it, it will bypass it to a different rounding quantity. However, it will always pick in those increments of the quantity that you define. So really, if you know your carton quantities or like interpacks, you'd want to define that there. So the way we used this strategy in our warehouse, which was excellent, we had three different picking modules, as I mentioned, a mezzanine, which had a conveyor system running through it, which was really for your each's or kind of your your smaller picks. We then had case so bulk of our warehouse right in the middle was all racking where we pick case quantities or carton quantities. And then we had a floor stack area for kind of the bulk or the larger quantities of that. So if you have a pick come in, how do you define where it picks from based on the quantity? That's exactly using this strategy. So the way that we set this up is you would use those three storage types in a sequence. So your first storage type that you would do is just go here in your control quantity, and you want to define if you know your carton quantity, let's say it's 25, you'd want to do one less than that. So anything of 24 or less than a carton will drive from this first storage type. Our second storage type that we would define in our sequence in, let's say, now that we knew our palette quantities, so we knew that our carton is 25, and so we'll put in 25 as the carton quantity, and now our pallet quantity, let's say is a 100, so there's 4 cases of 25 on a pallet. You want to do again, one less than that. So we would do 99 here as our second storage type in sequence. And what this will do is since we would have saved our control quantity of less than a carton on the first sequence, any picks less than that carton will drive from that first storage type. So in our real life example that I went through was the mezzanine. It would drive all picks less than a carton there. The second sequence, if an order dropped for 25 or greater, 25, really up to a pallet quantity, it would then pick from the rack or in this case, so it would pick in increments of 25. So the strategy behind this is you don't want to break pack and that's really one of the biggest advantages of using this, is now you're reducing all that processing time, the cutting open the boxes and picking this, because it's going to round always and pick in increments of 25. And then again, you're controlled quantity of 99. And your third and final that you would do, no need for a control quantity there, right? Simply all you would do here is you would enter your rounding quantity as 100 or cases. And in this case, we were the hub of the Midwest, so we did a lot of transferring to other distribution centers. So this was fantastic because we would do all of our buying into our distribution center and then redistribute it back out via an STO. But the system then automatically, in those STOs would be in large quantities, would just pick those based on these palettes So that's an excellent use case and way to use this strategy for picking, if you have this type of environment. Welcome back. In this demo, you've covered how. Stock removal M, which uses a control and rounding quantity works. What master data is required. And some possible scenarios on when this may be used. Thanks Steve. I certainly see a lot of value with this picking strategy and how it proactively saves us replenishment from occurring and of course keeps your primary bins full and healthy. If we can do more of that and learn more about that in other videos, please check out our catalog. And of course, if you have a specific question or suggestion, please submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

ME5A; MD04; ME53N

Hey, welcome back fellow SAP explorers, Martin here. And today we're going to be looking and exploring a feature in SAP that has a strong value proposition, but is often overlooked. What we're chatting about today is the importance of the release date in driving the procurement process. What drives your PO placement today? Do you run off the release date or the delivery date? So today, Kristie is with us, and I know you love the process cadence, so have at it. Tell us more about the value of release date in procurement. Cadence keeps the chaos at bay, Martin and yes, the release date is one of the many dates in the procurement process. And it is one that is often overlooked. But it really represents a critical milestone. It is what helps ensure we're setting our suppliers and ourselves up for success by smoothly running through key process steps with the right amount of time to get them done. Today I want to show you how the release date is calculated and where we can find it. Let's go in and take a look. I love making a Reveal TV video on something that I have done wrong in the past and have found so much value in once I learned what it was for. And I remember in the early days of setting all of this up not knowing exactly when I need to get a purchase order to my supplier and being really worried that I could be past you and passing that ball to them and then not set them up for success and not get what we need when we needed it. So enter math on the part of SAP and enter this lovely field called the start or the release date. The start date if it's production, it is the release date if it is purchase orders or purchase requisitions that need to be converted into purchase orders. It is the starting line for the procurement process. It lets us know when we need to start moving that purchase requisition onto the next stage in order to be able to get that purchase order delivered on time based on all the master data that we have maintained in the system. So if you cannot see this column right now in your stock requirements list, it is hiding from you. And there are a number of columns here that are sometimes missing. Sometimes you'll be missing opening date. Sometimes you'll miss start and release date, and sometimes you'll miss rescheduling date. It's fiddly, but you just have to hover over the fields until you can see you'll see actually a double line arrow appear and then you have to drag that out in order to be able to get theparticular column exposed But this is a good one. And so it lets us know when we need to release. So in order to have this purchase order here on time, we have to start the process or get that purchase requisition converted into a purchase order no later than 08/27/2024 in order for it to get here on September 23rd. Okay, and if I double click in here I can even get a little bit more information without even having to leave my stock requirements list. So I can see the goods receipt processing time for this is 3 days, so the date that it is planned to be available. So the material availability date is the 23rd of September. That means we have to receive it from the supplier so that it can go through all of its stock to stock activities, receiving, quality inspection, etc. We have to have it by the 18th of September, okay? So that means that we have a weekend in there because those are our working days, subject to our factory calendar, and in order to make all of that magic happen so that the supplier can be set up to deliver on time, in order to start our process and get through it, get the purchase order out the door and over to them on time, we have to release this by the 27th of August. And if we go into the purchase requisition, we can further look at those details and see the planned delivery time. Okay, so all of that math is happening for us, we don't have to look at a calendar, it's right here and then all along the way it's letting us know if we have any exception messages. So you can see this is some old housekeeping that needs to be taken care of because not only is my start date in the past, but also my finish date is in the past too. So we really missed the boat on that. So how do you make sure that that doesn't happen? Well, you go to List Display of Purchase Requisition. So you might be using any of the ME57, ME58, ME59 transactions to move through your procurement process. You may be working in ME21N and pulling a list of requisitions. This is another great place to look. This is ME5A, you can see right down here. And when I was coming in here previous life, I would run this based on delivery dates and then try to estimate my lead time offset. Don't need to do that. Come in here, put in the release date. This is everything that you would want to go and work on. So your release date up to whatever the date is that you're working with. So you know, today, tomorrow, if you're about to be out of the office for the holiday break, you might reach out a little bit further than that, but it should be very, very near term. And then you would go in and pull a list of purchase requisitions that were standing out there that needed to go through, be released, and converted into a purchase order. This should not be reaching far out into the future. When we release things to our suppliers early, we can no longer get a good read on their performance or their ability to deliver on time and in full. Because we've released it to them early, we're giving them more lead time than what they asked for. And we also are limiting our flexibility. So the one thing we know about demand is that it changes. And so if we have trouble being correct in terms of time or quantity, we want to make sure that we maintain that flexibility for as long as possible. If you're struggling with that and you're trying to give your supplier more visibility, so maybe you're releasing really early, like this case, this is way out into the future. We don't want to do that. We want to have our dates be nice and tight to what we should be working on today, tomorrow, this week. If you find that you're needing to do that, then chances are you need to explore other options in sourcing such as scheduling agreements or other ways to get a good forecast to your supplier. So make sure you check out some of those other Reveal TV videos and they'll help guide you through that. But this release date is here and it's present in many of our purchase requisition related transactions. Extremely helpful for helping us to produce a list of purchase requisitions that we need to go through and work and get out to our suppliers in purchase orders. So, release date. It's a very, very helpful field available to you in SAP. Welcome back from the demo. As we highlighted today, Release dates represent the date we need to act to give our suppliers the time they need to successfully deliver to us. They can be a leading indicator of process adherence, improvement, or challenge. We can work with them in variants and we can use them to select our requisitions and convert them into POs. And we no longer have to do the math around lead time to determine if it's time to cut that PO or not. And I totally used to do this. I had a calendar at my desk and I was figuring out if it was 63 or 91 days of lead time and what date I needed to release it. Now we even have Google and other tools to help us get better, but why use those when SAP is already doing this work for us? Time marches on Kristie, thank you so much. The release date sounds like an asset to the process that gets us the right signal at the right time. Win win. Thanks again. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about other particular topics related to procurement, we have a whole section on procurement that you can look into. And if you're struggling to find a video, feel free to use the AI chatbot.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; WM; P2P; PTM; DM

MD04; VA03

Hello there SAP aficionados, Martin here. I'm coming to you today with another topic that we hope will help move you closer to your business objectives around service levels, making and keeping a promise and delivering on time and in full. SAP provides us with loads of opportunities to effectively plan for the time it takes to execute certain activities and shipping time to our customers or between facilities is no exception. This is efficiently managed through a function called route determination. Today, we are fortunate to have Jason with us in the studio, ready to help us and understand more about this key piece of functionality. Jason, tell us more about what we need to know about route determination. Hey Martin, like many topics, this is one I expect we'll see featured in more than one installment of Reveal TV. Today, I hope to provide the basics and get everyone thinking about how to further leverage this key feature in today's demo. I'm going to cover three things. First, we need to cover off on the definition so we're all speaking the same language. Then I want to show you where we see the route determination and a sales order or stock transport order. And lastly, I want you to see the results. Let's put SAP to work and see what happens when we apply the route to the order. Let's go in and take a look. You know what? Sometimes we just don't set ourselves up for success. We miss opportunities to let SAP in on how we conduct our business, and the result is we end up working harder than we need to and feel like we're serving SAP rather than the other way around. Here we are in a stock requirements list. See this sales order here? The date that we see is the MAD date, or the material availability date, also known as the date that we're shooting for so that our customer doesn't get MAD at us. This also applies to the components we need to manufacture and stock transfers that we're sending to other facilities. It's an important date. It's basically the sales order gateway into the supply chain. The MAD date is fed by the PGI date, plus some other get ready to ship times. That PGI time is fed by our logistics arrangement with our customer. If we're planning the shipping, then we can invoke the feature we're here to discuss today. To make sure that we have the right PGI, otherwise known as post goods issue date, or the date that it leaves our facility. When we're planning and prioritizing and expediting and carrying inventory, every day counts. And when we're there trying to achieve excellent reliability with our customers, every day matters. To get those dates roughly right, we need to know our mode of transportation and where we're shipping to. Based on the options we have, SAP can determine a route for our sales order or stock transfer orders and get the rest of the dates in alignment. Let's look a little closer on this sales order. On the shipping tab here, we can see that it has a route and if I drill down a little further, into the schedule lines, I can bring up this shipping tab. So the route has driven many of these things. For today, you can see how we plan this order, and we can see our transit time driving the PGI time, and then the pick, pack, and load driving material availability date, or the date that we're trying to hit an MD04. Now, if we weren't accounting for this shipping time, guess what would happen? We'd lose two days of our lead time and already be behind in our planning. We may need to manually intervene, which would cause a lot of churn, but with route determination in place, we're able to properly account for that time and give ourselves a fighting chance in reliably making and keeping that promise. I really hope this was helpful for you. Today was the basics and I look forward to coming back to this topic and taking it to the next level. Here's a couple of reminders before we go. Route determination benefits the customer by setting the appropriate timeline of activities up for the order to reach its destination on time. This is key to getting us to the correct PGI date. Which takes us to the correct MAD date, which is truly the gateway into supply planning. Lastly, when planning your routes, we recommend starting simply with a few different transportation modes and geographic zones that allow you to differentiate where it matters most. Hey, thank you Jason. Supply chains operate based on dates and quantities. With improved clarity of signal, it helps all of us improve and promise with integrity. Appreciate the walkthrough. Thank you, Jason. Hey folks, if you want to know more about route determination or other ways to improve your customer service to your clients and customers, hey, please check out our video catalogs. If you have a specific question that relates to this topic or others, feel free to submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM

MM02; MD04

Hey folks, Martin here. Are you ready to tackle uncertainty and challenge? Are you comfortable with confronting the level of risk and uncertainty in your forecast head on? Well, today's the day. Today we're talking about forecast error and bias, and how to put the consumption horizon to work for you in managing your way through the risk that is inherent in your forecast. If this is a challenge for your business, you're in good company. Predicting customer behavior is a challenge for most organizations, and it's a topic that we're going to continue to build upon over time on this channel. In fact, if you search, you'll find other videos on monitoring forecast performance, working with consumption modes, and choosing a planning strategy that addresses different kinds of variability, volatility, and risk tolerance. Check them out. But specifically for this topic, we're going to be talking about forecast bias. To help us today on this topic of forecast bias, we have Kristie. Kristie, I know this is something that you love tremendously. This is something you deal with all the time. You may get even excited about this. So take us away. Yes, it's true. I do love a good demand planning puzzle. And while we may hit temporary plateaus in improving the quality of our forecast on some of our individual materials or products and in some of our segments. What we can do is get really great at managing the risk. And that is what I want to chat with you about today. I remember exactly when the shift in perspective hit me. I was in an IBP meeting that was well on its way to becoming a post mortem on forecast quality, and I remember hurting for my team as they tried to explain all the things that they were doing to try to get the forecast "right". And all the blame that was coming their way for our failures as an organization to deliver to the customer. Our cost to serve is ridiculous and our suppliers are tired of it. Forecast. The shipment was late and the customer is upset again. Forecast. Precious time, materials, and capacity gone because. Forecast. Now I'm a manufacturing gal at heart that also happens to love demand planning. So you know what? I know that SAP and supply chains salute all too well. It looks like this. And it's not helpful. So let's stop doing that. Baby steps are a good place to start. So let's focus the conversation. Supply chains are made up of quantity and time. So today, we're going to focus on time as an ally in dealing with the volatility in quantities. We'll also address our bias. Are we dealing with a bull or a bear? And then we're going to talk about the importance of differentiating where it matters and setting the appropriate rules in place as we consider our plan for every part. One of the tools that we have that can really help us is to understand the bias in our forecast and that is if we are consistently under or over predicting. What the demand will be for a particular item, and this is for those of us who are working on the supply side. We look at this at the material, the plant and potentially even the MRP area level. So it's very granular in terms of how we are observing that forecast. There are a ton of videos to help us to understand and unpack the different tools. I want to bring a couple of them together, though, today in the context of bias. And I'm going to talk specifically about consumption and the way that we can manage our consumption parameters to help protect us against some of the risks that's inherent in our forecast process. Here are a couple of other tools, though, before we go there. The first is we can take our average daily consumption. So that is what we have been using over the last X number of periods and compare it to our projections, our average daily requirement where those are wildly different, that gives us a great way to have a conversation with our counterparts. In demand planning and they can help us to understand the reasons for why that may be different. We want to make sure that we do respect the demand plan, just like when we say that we can't get production done by a particular date or we can't get supply in by a particular date the demand planning team the customer experience team has to trust that we are doing everything in our power to get it there when we see the demand plan and we have the conversation we ask the question at some point we have to say we've done everything in our power to get the best prediction that we can on this particular item. And it's good to ask the questions and certainly if you see something to say something. But at some point I do want to emphasize it is important that we start to work the process and commit. What we're talking about today can help us to manage through the inherent variability and volatility that we're going to experience with demand over time. One of the other things that we can get a quick line of sight on is how our forecast that is in the now is performing. So here's a good example. This is our remaining balance open to sell. It is December right now. We have nothing left and we have requirements for 45 units. Looks like that is a pretty typical demand. You can see November has 48 pieces remaining open. Looks like we might have had a timing issue there. The demand came in in a different time bucket than what we were expecting and we have 36 pieces projected for January. Looking like that's a little less than what we are seeing in the months that follow. So this is where we start to say, okay, what's going on? Are we over under forecasting? Is there some predictability to that? And if so, how can we set our consumption rules in place to help set us up for success? So, let's go in there and take a look. I'm going to go into the material master. This all lives on the MRP3 tab. Now my colleague and friend Patrick has put out a couple of great videos around consumption mode and forward consumption period and backward consumption periods. He's gone through and he's demoed as you change those settings what happens. So I will let him speak with you about that. What I want to address is the consumption based on bias. So how do you think about that depending on if you tend to over or under forecast? Now it's important to note that your consumption mode and the way you're consuming your forecast and what's eligible for consuming your forecast does tie back to your planning strategy. So there is a tight connection there and that is a big topic to explore. But when we're talking about consumption mode, think about it like this. So your sales orders, for example, are coming in and they're eating away at the forecast that is out there, the demand plan that's in the system. I think about them like Pac Man. It makes me less angry when things are wrong. So I think about it like Pac Man. We are coming in, that sales order is eating away at the demand plan. Now sometimes, that Pac Man gets too full and it just stops eating and then we end up with extra forecasts out there that's just hanging out like that November forecast we just saw. Sometimes, in a particular period, it may overeat. So, for example, the December time period that we saw that was completely consumed and now we're moving into January. When we know that we are maybe not right in terms of timing, but we are roughly right in terms of quantity, that is where the consumption mode can really help us. And really that's what it's saying. This is how much or how far out I am allowed to consume that forecast. So at some point, if I tend to under forecast, my demand plan is not high enough. I may want to allow those additional sales orders to sit on top of the forecast that we've put in. So it's going to stop eating away, it is additional incremental demand on top of the forecast. If I tend to under forecast, backward consumption and then controlling or not allowing, or controlling the horizon of forward consumption becomes my friend. So I don't continue to add to the problem. I'm not in a position where I allow it to continue to consume forward to January or February when I know I'm already over my forecast in December. I don't allow that problem to continue because I restrict how far forward I'm allowed to consume that forecast. If I am, over forecasting, so I am in a position where I am planning too much, this is where I really want to lean into that backwards and then that forwards consumption and I might allow myself to go a little bit further back and a little bit further forward in order to smooth that out because that might mean that I am a little bit off in terms of when that forecast is hitting. But if I'm roughly right and I'm confident that I'm going to consume it within the next couple of periods, then I might allow those days to go further out. Your consumption periods are in work days, they are subject to your factory calendar. So make sure that you're aware of that. A lot of times people come in, they put 30 days, they assume it's a month. Depending on your factory calendar, that may not be the case. So that's something really important to be aware of as you're going in and you're adjusting those dates, so you really want to think about whether you tend to under or over predict that demand and then use that to help you to choose the correct consumption mode and the period that you need for being able to smooth out that forecast. So look at your risk buckets and figure out what those bands look like and then adjust the timing so that you're getting the smoothest demand signal to your supply partners. Very, very helpful to be able to come in and fine tune this and make sure that we have the right rules in place so that we don't compile or add on or complicate the situation by allowing that forecast consumption to go too far out and allowing those sales orders to overeat into future periods when we really want to restrict that in if we do tend to under forecast. So whether you're overly optimistic or if you're pessimistic with your forecast, there is help for you here and it really surrounds the consumption mode and the consumption periods and how far out you allow that Pac Man or those sales orders to eat that forecast. You know what all good demand planners have in common? Radical candor, excellent storytelling, and intense curiosity. They live in a world where the good jobs are rare and the criticism is high. So to get better at all this, the first step is to know thyself as a person. As a collective that builds a consensus plan and as products, product families, customer and customer groups, whatever is the right level for you to get to a roughly right picture of demand. We have to be champions of risk and attack it heads on. If we can acknowledge and address where we're most likely to be wrong and historically how wrong without outliers and in which direction we tend to be wrong in, we can evaluate what we need to borrow from and how much time we need. Most importantly, the bias doesn't go away if we ignore it. So we need to work with it, rather than against it, and have SAP help us make it work. We are supply chain stewards, and good ones make it work with the cards that we have, while we are working on getting to a better hand. Much more to come on this particular topic. Okay, wow, Kristie. I mean, you were off to the races on that one. I can't imagine where this is going to go next. Hey folks, I'm sure there'll be plenty more videos to come if you're looking for those other videos we mentioned earlier use the chatbot, it will recommend them for you. If you have a specific question for us, please submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

MD04; MD03

Hey, welcome back Reveal TV fans, Martin here, and I really hope you're thriving. Although I suspect that if you're watching this particular video, you have either trouble on the horizon or in the thick of it right now. If so, we're here to help. And you know that if you're dealing with constrained materials and facing being put on allocation is not a new challenge. Although, the cyclical nature certainly makes us feel like we're running an ultramarathon. As soon as we get one sector of the regional supply chain stabilized, it seems like we just have another one firing up. Now some of that is just normal supply chain life. But notice of allocation is certainly at the more extreme end of the spectrum. It's not fun for anyone. But there are some great tools to help us deal with the situation. And here to help us navigate the world of allocation today is Kelly. Kelly, you're quite the negotiator, I'm really interested to hear how you can introduce these tools to all of us. Thanks, Martin. No one likes to be told they can't have something, or that they are limited in what they can have, even if it's the best, most fair approach for the market served. For a lot of us, our response to the constraint of allocation has been alternate sources, often at a premium. Sometimes we've had to hedge our purchases and work with the burden of inventory carrying costs. Potentially expiring materials if we hedge too much or purchase from a less strategic source. And loads of other fun stuff. You're right. It's no fun. Even for someone who enjoys problem solving through negotiations like me. So here's a few things to know. We're on allocation when a supplier is managing priorities across customers in a limited or constrained environment. This can then limit sales potential to our customers and also result in a much higher cost to serve. I think in difficult situations like this, it is important to know that you're not alone. There are a lot of organizations going through this and comparing notes may be very helpful. For our demo today, I'm going to explain how three tools can work together to help you navigate the challenge of being on allocation. Let's go in and take a look. Sometimes it helps to bring the big picture together. I'm starting here in the stock requirements list. And if you look in the lower right corner of my screen, you'll see that I've asked SAP to show you the transaction code I'm in. This should help you as we go along. This is the current planning situation for a material that I've been told will be on allocation for the "foreseeable future". If you can't tell, I used air quotes for the foreseeable future part. I don't like that. I want a date. So here's what we're going to do. It's August right now, and my lead time is 90 days. I'm going to put a restricted plan in place for the next six months, and we're going to revisit this with the supplier monthly. My normal supplier has told me that to maintain the maximum allocation of X units per month, I need to guarantee a certain volume. I've pushed them, and we've agreed on a target quantity of the units you see here over the next 66 months. I've told them we will pull based on demand, but at a rate of no more than this many units per month. In addition, I am introducing a second source that will take my remaining volume, but at a price that makes us say, yikes. I'm going to have to chat with the sales, customer experience, and product management to see if we will weather the increase or pass some on. We hate to do that, but we may need to have that tough conversation to achieve customer tolerance time. To make this work, we're using several techniques. First, is a scheduling agreement that provides a forecast outlook for our supplier that has us on allocation. They have an idea of the pace of our demand and also an agreement that shows the total target quantity. In this document, I can also work with alternate master data related to lead time or pricing. I can update my source list to see this as the relevant source for the next six months, with a return to normal after that. I am also using firm and trade off zones for the commercial obligation of the information I'm sharing with them. Firm, they are cleared to produce and ship. Trade off, we will take it, but timing is not guaranteed and we've got a generous time horizon to meet our obligation. Second is a contract for my secondary supplier with specific information on the terms of the agreement. We've been eyeing this supplier for quite some time now. This may be an opportunity, if we can get them to give us better pricing and terms. I've asked for scaled pricing, which I will reflect in the price scales of the contract. This contract will also go into the source list as a valid source. Last but not least, I have a quota arrangement in place that's managing the split for me and restricting the volume that can go to my primary supplier. The one that has issued the allocation notice per month. I could base this on all kinds of different periods, but this month is good for now. The final product is in the system rules. That produces a balanced plan within the constraints. We have right now and a relatively easy exit to normal if normal arrives again. I can work with this. Today you were introduced to a few tools that can work together to help you manage the challenge of allocation. We have several other videos that go deeper into these tools and can help you get started. Without a doubt difficult situations require creative solutions. Sometimes people have great ideas for how to navigate rough waters, but the practicality of executing the plan can be daunting. I'm here to say that it can be made manageable. If you have an idea, let's explore how to get SAP to empower you to deliver it. Things change and when it's time, all of these tools we're talking about can be expired or discontinued , offering you a way out and back to business as usual or better. I love a good negotiation. Thank you, Kelly. Great insight. I too love a good negotiation and trying to turn what starts as a seemingly losing situation Into something good for the future. Out of a crisis comes innovation. So navigating tricky waters is a great time to see what you have to work with. This is a good starting point for a conversation. Well, folks, if you want to learn more about how to use some of these tools to be able to deal with suppliers and customer allocations, please check out our other videos as well.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; MM02; MD03

Hello and welcome future supply chain experts. My name is Martin and today we're going to be exploring how we can tap into the untapped potential of your SAP system. Ready to dig deep? Let's get started. In this video, we're going to explore two different flavors of reorder point planning. Now I know we hear often a lot of confusion about reorder point planning versus safety stock and the reluctance to use reorder point planning because the demand disappears. So Sean, I know this is a topic near and dear to your heart. Tell us more about reorder point planning and specifically the perceptions that come along with it. This is such a great question Martin, thank you. And the great news is that we're not boxed in and we do have options. Today I'm going to give you a brief definition of two distinct categories of reorder point planning. And dive into how we define each and then show some examples. I know that I've personally dealt with some hesitancy in using reorder point planning as a standard part of the toolkit, but this is a decoupling technique and decoupling techniques can often help overcome significant volatility and variability when used correctly. So with that said, let's go and take a good look. Welcome to the discussion and demo on reorder point planning. So with reorder point planning in SAP, we set a quantity level or a reorder point below which the system will reorder or create an order for us. And getting to that level requires consideration of things like safety stock, like average consumption, replenishment, lead time, and so on. And SAP then will calculate from the sum of the plant stock and the firm receipts the replenishment that's needed to meet the demand Now there are two types of reorder point planning, the first is manual reorder point planning and here that reorder level and the safety stock level are manually maintained inside of the material master. The second is automatic reorder point planning, and here that reorder level and the safety level are determined by integrated forecasting programs, and we'll deal with it in a future video. Today, we're going to focus around the manual reorder point planning. And so with that said, let's just remind ourselves, how does reorder point planning work? And if we look in this diagram, we can see these consumption lines where we are consuming material and there is a reorder point, which once we breach that and go through it, the system will look to replenish so that we come back above the reorder point. And it will allow us in terms of lead time, normally we allow sufficient time to get down to a certain point and that then the replenishment takes us well above so we can continue the cycle on down. So that's really just high level, you know, some of the theory that goes with this. And what we're going to do today then, is we're going to focus on the manual reorder point planning. And that manual reorder point planning, what we're going to do there, is we are going to look at the VB and a V1. So we'll look at a few materials to get a sense of what happens in the world of reorder point planning and I'm going to go into my stock requirements list which you can see here in front of me, having found those materials and we can start to look at what's going on. If we look at this particular material, we can immediately see what is my stock on hand is 17 , we can see out there that there's certain demand, the forecast is driving, we can see some supply elements, and we notice that this particular item is set up as a PD, it's a P3 in this case here, so it's a plan on demand. And those plan on demand MRP types in the S4 environment, which this is, is PD and then it's of course P1 through P4 and this material is set up as a P3 material. So there we can see what that looks like. Now let's go and change this up and let's look at a reorder point material. Let's take a look at what that looks like. There we go. So in this case, we have a reorder point material and what you can see has happened here is that we have disconnected or decoupled if you want to call it that, this material from the rest of the system. And so there's nothing out here that tells us what's actually going on. The VB shows us that the moment the stock falls below the reorder point, it will set something in place. So the business case is that based on being a predictable material, probably with low cost, and maybe can be somewhat automated, we're able to minimize some of the touch points. So why don't we have a bit of fun with this particular one here. We can see that it's a VB, it's simply got 37 on stock and if I go and have a look inside of the material master, what I'll notice is that my reorder point is 10. So I'm going to have to drop from 37 to below 10 before this triggers anything. So I'm going to change this and I'm going to make this 40 and we'll save that, and once that's saved, I'm going to come back and say, well, here's our current environment, let's run a MRP against this. So we're going to run the MRP, there it is, and now I'm going to refresh this material and boom, there it is. SoI've come below the threshold of 40 with 37 therefore, I now have a replenishment of 5 that it's looking for. And that 5 is built off the rule set that we put in place and you'll notice that the rule set here was a minimum lot size of 5. And because of that what has happened is I've breached the reorder point of 40 and it's given me a minimum lot size of 5 so I'll be back to 42. So that's really what we see happening as far as the ROP now I hear a lot of hesitation sometimes around moving to reorder point planning. And often that hesitancy comes from the perspective of, well, you know what? We just need to see more of the demand drivers. And guess what? The good news is yep, that's possible and we can consider a reorder point MRP type, which is known as a V1. And that includes external requirements. So let's change up on this particular material here, and I'm going to share with you another one. There's my material, and I'm going to refresh that , and so now I see it is a V1 material, which means that it includes external requirements. That's how it's been structured. And as I look down here, I see the forecast demand. In this case, the forecast is within the replenishment lead time. Here's my replenishment lead time. And so that's considered along with the reorder point. And we will then see that the supply elements here have also been created. So there's a planned order, and here's another planned order. These supply elements, the system is putting in place in reaction to the demand that is landing and that is coming down the pipe. And so that's what those planned orders are doing for us. And so we can watch and manage progress in a decoupled environment that meets the same business case requirements that we spoke of with the VB manual reorder point. Now, the slight contrast in favor of V1 is where it is common for order reservations, for argument's sake, to be increased or added and where we might have a little bit more unpredictable usage, then we have a good opportunity to use the V1 and it's going to help us to prevent shortages. So folks, reorder point planning is an exciting option for us as we determine whether and how our materials to be planned. I really enjoyed that demo. So in summary folks. We took a look at two different options of reorder point planning The use case and prerequisites for each. How to tell if reorder point planning is performing and what kinds of changes should trigger a review and recalibration of that reorder point. This is a great technique that should be part of our toolkit. Thanks, Sean. I can see how that could be super valuable for most planners out there. Thank you. Folks, if you want to know more about some other planning techniques, we have a whole catalog on MRP planning, please check that out. And of course, if you have a specific question, feel free to submit it below.

Scheduling & Shop Floor

PTM

CO02; CO03; CO11N; COHV

Hey there fellow SAP detectives, my name is Martin. The topic today is around the status of TECO. As it relates to our orders and manufacturing. The shorthand for statuses related to manufacturing orders can feel a little bit like an alphabet soup. And TECO is perhaps one of the ones folks are most passively familiar with. Everyone knows it's an important step and is part of keeping the system clean and is very important to support the subsequent activities related to settlement. To provide a quick definition and drive clarity on this topic is Tom. Tom, what's the scoop with TECO? The scoop is, I got the boring topic. That's what the scoop is. But, it's one of those everyday things we often don't really understand and should. So here we are. Today, I'm going to define TECO as a status. I'll tell you what the implications of setting an order to TECO are, and what limitations are associated with that status. And, just in case you need to, I'll show you how to set it and reverse it. Let's go in and take a look. So today we're going to talk about TECOing a production order. Remember, when we TECO a production order, it means that order is complete. When we technically complete the order, or TECO, it means we no longer expect for any actions to be taken on that production order. We're passing the baton. That production order is done. It's complete. There'll be no more transactions, whether that's a scrap, confirmation, anything. All transactions will cease and nothing will happen. So as we get into the system, we're looking in a production order here. We have the option to manually TECO a production order. So as we go into the production order in this example, we've delivered 100 pieces of the 129 total. We're saying we are not going to produce the rest of this production order. As we can see, it's been partially confirmed and delivered for the quantity of 100. So for us to say now this is complete, we know we're not making any more, there's no more transactions going against this production order, we can manually TECO it. Manually TECOing, we go into functions, restrictive processes, and then we can technically complete. As we can see, the order status here switches to TECO immediately. When we save this, then if we were to go back in to change that production order, it's going to tell us change is not allowed. Again, the TECO status means we are done, there are no longer any changes happening to this production order. So as we go into it, all our fields will be grayed out now. No ability to change anything in this production order because we've TECO'd the order. That's why we have to be very sure when we TECO a production order that we are complete and we no longer are going to action anything against that production order. Now, there may be a time where you accidentally TECO an order or mistakenly TECO the order and then production does proceed. Production will not be able to confirm that final 29 pieces of this order because we TECO'd it. In that instance, we'd have to come back into the order, just like we are here, come into this status again, and go up to function, restricted process, and revoke the technical completion. Again, it'll go back to the release status, everything comes back to changeable status, and we save it. So now in this example, once we saved it, we go back in and it allows changes. So in this instance , if production now decides we're going to run the last 29 pieces of this production order, we have the ability to go in now, enter our production order, our operation, yes, it'll give us the option for those last 29 pieces to be completed against this order. Once that would be completed, and we would make that confirmation if that's what we want to do, we'd go back into the order and we'd have the ability to TECO it again. Now, we can TECO orders a number of different ways. A lot of companies will have a batch job that runs overnight, that look for a completed order. Quantity has to be completed, confirmed, delivered and the batch job will TECO their order saying everything's settled and we're good. Or we can also use a tool like COHV, where we can do mass TECOs, if there's some large error or large issue that comes up where we need to TECO orders on a larger level. Most commonly though, again we're going to come into the production order itself, Restricted Processing , Complete Technically, then save. Now that production order is TECO'd and no longer able to have anything else changed, added to it, or adjusted. So I have a question for you all. What's your cadence for TECOing? How often do you review orders and make sure they get moved out of active status? And, who does it? It should be an operation oriented activity, sometimes with the support of planning. When you think it's time to TECO, don't miss the check to make sure you're ready to proceed to that next status. And lastly, we always recommend looking at how many orders are being TECO'd because they never went into production at all or were significantly underproduced. If that happens, there are other pieces of the upstream process that need to be looked at. It's worth a review, you might be surprised what you find. Hey Tom, I don't believe I'm saying this, but I think you've taken a dry topic and sparked my interest. Thank you. Specifically for adding a little life to something that is indeed worth understanding a little better. We want to get this right, folks. So if you want to know more about this particular topic and others related to it, check out our video catalog. Also ask the chatbot and you will get some recommended videos.

Warehouse Management

WM

MM02; LP21; LP22; LP24

The best way to learn is by doing so welcome to the video service that reveals and unlocks the hidden value in your SAP system. Martin here, and in this video, we're going to focus on fixed bin replenishment options within the warehouse. Replenishment is a big part of the supply chain and can take form in many ways, such as replenishing specific plants, storage locations, and in this case, we will touch on how it occurs in the warehouse. So Steve, what are the different transactions you can use to replenish storage bins within the warehouse? Yes, Martin, there are a few different ways, and replenishment is one of my favorite topics within WM. It's one of my favorite topics because replens in my warehouse were critical in our environment to be proactive in keeping our storage bins full and healthy in our fast paced, high volume bins that maximize efficiency. What I wish I knew before was the different options and scenarios, what transactions to use based on what scenario I want replenishment to occur. So let's jump into SAP where I'll demonstrate how replenishments work. Which transactions to use. And what material master settings to utilize for your specific situation. In this video, we will cover the replenishment options that you get with fixed bins. In our previous video, we touched a little on just assigning a fixed bin and some strategies of when you would want to utilize fixed bins. In this will jump into how the replens work with fixed bin. So we'll first go straight into the Material Master, MM02. This material was our fixed bin material that we used last time. So we'll go with it on 100-600. I'm going to only select the WM1 and WM2 tabs. Really our replen data lives in that WM2 tab, but it's good practice just to populate both when dealing with WM data. Now, at the very minimum, you need your plant and warehouse number. Now, if you know your storage type for fixed bins, you have to enter that here. So I know it's 005 and now I'll go ahead and select it. It'll default to WM1 tab because we selected both. But again, that data lives on the WM2 tab. If we did not select that storage type, you would not get this additional tab of the fixed bin data in there. So from our previous video, all we did is we entered that storage bin for it, which is A02, now we could talk a little bit more about the quantities and the replen quantities behind there. So, I went ahead and put a maximum bin quantity of 100 there. So obviously that bin will not exceed 100. Put in a minimum quantity of 5. So anytime it drops below 5, it will then be eligible for a replenish, which there's a multitude of reports, which we'll get into here shortly. There's one additional tab here that we'll talk about right now is the replen quantity tab. So here you could enter data here and what that'll do is it'll replen in quantities or increments of this quantity, so in this case 5. You'll do this really, it's a good strategy if you know the case quantities, or if you don't want to break pack. So if I were to enter 5 there and it dropped below 5, it will then replen in increments of 5 to our max quantity. So it really takes that replen quantity and multiplies it until it reaches that max. You do not need to use this replen quantity though. If you just kept that as a blank, well now it'll take your current stock situation in the bin, so let's say that there was 10 in there, and it'll just fill it up to 100. So it create a TR and TO for 90 to fill the maximum quantity of a 100. So that's how the replens work with the replen quantity, your min, your max. The final thing I'll touch on is the control quantity. So control quantity is simply a plus or minus. So if I put a 50 control quantity in there, what this will do is if there's a open pick for this particular material in this bin for 49, it will pick it from this bin because it's below this control quantity threshold. If it's 50 and above, it will then go to a overstock bin to not deplete this fixed bin for a pick. So that's how control quantity comes into factor as well. So again, that's the replen quantity and and information that you get and options with fixed bin. So we'll jump into now the reports of how to generate some of these replens. So the first one that we'll touch on is going to be LP21. And LP21 is probably one of the most flexible ones because you get your storage bins, you can enter a range of bins and or materials and what's nice is this considers your open picks and put away. So it takes into consideration, if you have like a 916 or it registers those interims that are going to be put or picked from that bin, and then it will execute those replans. It'll create TRs first, and then obviously your TOs. It's nice to do this again in the foreground before, because you have that option of seeing those bins and then you could see all that information before you actually execute. So that's LP21. LP22 really takes into consideration planning and deliveries. So you can see here, you get some additional information, really that integration from SD. You can enter shipping points, and the biggest thing here is going to be your picking and GI dates. So it takes into consideration your future deliveries or picks, if you know your picking date and goods issue date range, and it'll replen those bins based on that as well. The final case here, two little bubbles are on your control quantity. So we just touched on control quantities, that plus or minus. So if you include this bubble on control quantity, it will take the consideration of those deliveries and that control quantity and then make the replenishment recommendation based on those two factors. If there's a pick there in the future and a replen. If you hit ignore, it will actually ignore that delivery and control quantity if it is there. So really LP22 is a good report to run proactively and really you want to do this probably after you're picking or,overnight before those deliveries or the picking begins, because then it's taking into consideration those bins, the transfer requirements are then created, and you want to execute those replens before that picking actually starts for this delivery. So that's LP22. And the final one that we'll touch on is going to be LP24. LP 24, is really good if you are using auto TO, it creates replens straight to the TOs. LP24 does not actually consider picking or put away. So it doesn't touch those interim storage types. It's just going simply off of your data in that WM2 tab, your min, your max in your current stock situation. So that's LP24. Covered a lot here in short round on replen options, they're LP21, 22, and 24. Depending on your current situation, will determine the best replen situation and report to run for you. Welcome back. In this demo, we've covered all things replenishment within a warehouse. I hope this video clarifies a lot of questions that may be out there. With and when to use which transactions. What master data to populate. And how to maximize the use of replenishments. Thanks Steve, it certainly did for me. And I can now see how these critical replenishments are within the four walls of a warehouse. So folks, if you want to learn more about this video and other videos, please feel free to check out our video catalog. And if you have a particular suggestion or something you'd like to know more about, please submit it below.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC; P2P; PTM; WM

MM03

Are you interested in creating a more seamless customer experience with less churn and manual intervention? Okay, good, me too. Martin here. And are you equally interested to hear about three fields in the material master that might be helpful? Whenever we have an opportunity to set a rule in place, and that rule matches the behavior that's real, we're in business for improvement. So Kristie, I only have really one question for you today. Actually, three questions. What are the three fields in the Material Master that we need to know so much about? Take it away. That's all I have today. We've got loads of opportunity to leverage master data to make the process flow better. Make it easier and less disjointed when it comes to serving our customers. Today I wanted to just offer up three possible fields. That's three of the many. Today we're going to walk through the value opportunities around sales MOQ, delivery unit, and wait for it, sales unit of measure. And you know what? Since you gave me such a hard time, I'll throw in not one, but two bonus fields. And I'll pick really, really good ones. Let's go in and take a look. I love a good challenge and I love some tips and tricks. So let's get right into it and see if we can't locate a couple of fields that can really help us in making sure that we're getting the behavior we would like out of SAP and maybe simplify some of the things that we are currently doing when we have to go in and manually intervene with our sales documents. So I'm here in the sales org. 1 view, which means I had to specify my material, my sales org, and my distribution channel. And this is MM03, you can see the transaction code here in the lower right hand corner. And a couple of the fields I wanted to point out today that we tend to find very useful in troubleshooting and problem solving. So the first one here is the sales unit. So your base unit of measure, in this case, is pieces. When we sell to the customer, we've decided we would like to sell in palettes, and we are able to specify this based on the material, the sales org, and the distribution channel. So the other thing we can do is we want to make sure that that is consistent, or the same across all sales documents. We can choose the sales unit, not variable. Now, if we wanted the flexibility of having that to be different, then we simply would not choose to tick that tick box. But that can be very helpful if you're trying to make sure that things are the same across all of your sales documents. You may have a compelling business case why that should not be true. And in that case, we would not want to tick that tick box. Now let's come down here a little bit more. We have another field here called the delivering plant. So if we want to default a particular plant onto our sales orders, this is where we can come to do that. Now maybe we have a couple of plants that we could choose from and we want to go in and specify this based on the sales org and distribution channel. We can come in and maintain that field accordingly, and that can help to direct where we are landing that demand. And we can also choose it to help us inherit if we have materials that are available at a couple of different DCs, and we really want to direct those sales orders to a particular delivering plant. There are other places we can also maintain this master data with more specificity. So the lowest level we can maintain it here is at that material sales org and distribution channel. Another one that is really important. See, I'm already up to three. I'm going for bonuses now. Material group and just a comment on this. Material group is a cross functional field. So this is one where we really want to make sure that we are aligned with our friends in finance, and with our friends on the supply side, and particularly our friends in procurement, and how we are categorizing these materials and make sure we have a good understanding of where that is landing. Now, often overlooked, because you do have to scroll down to find it, we have a couple of other quantity stipulations that can really help us. We can specify a minimum order quantity, in this case we chose 12 pieces, a minimum delivery quantity, which could be the same, or it could be less, so let's say you allow for partial deliveries, maybe your minimum order quantity is 12, and your minimum delivery quantity is some multiplier that is less than that, so 8 or 6 or something like that. We can also specify our delivery unit just like we do above for the sales order units. One last thing here if we aren't sure what that conversion is from pieces to pallet or we'd like to see that information in a different way. We can come in here to additional data and simply move to the units of measure. This is where we can see that quantity conversion from pieces to pallet or any other unit of measure that may be helpful to have maintained. So in this case , we have four pieces per pallet, so perhaps on our delivery, we allow for eight, if we allow for partial deliveries, whereas on the sales order itself, we may be requiring a higher quantity. So those are some of the things that we can do to help make that sales order entry a little bit easier and a little bit more consistent to help us to differentiate where the business rules should be different based on the distribution channel and the sales org versus where we want it to be consistent across all of the distribution channels and the sales work. So a couple of different alternatives there. And again, most of this data can also be maintained more finitely or with more specificity as we get into the customer master data. But from materials management perspective, what we can maintain within the material master, this is some governing master data that we can have in place to help ensure consistency and lessen the load of that manual maintenance. Okay, whew, I think I made it with some bonus ones, and I think we hit five fields. So today we had the opportunity to explore some of the key master data fields that live in the material master and support sales order management. Much like our procurement or production related fields, there may be more specific records that take precedence over the material master. A basic principle in SAP is that it loves specificity. And in at least most of the cases. The business rules we looked at today were chosen because they are often options that come up and become useful as a part of problem solving. And that's how we learn how to best put them to use. And remember, as we're exploring and changing and evolving, we must make sure that we have a coordinated approach, especially if what we're working on directly impacts our partners. This is very important. Ah, I can't believe you caved to the pressure, Kristie, and added two more fields. Okay, seriously, five? Okay. We can work on it. But Kristie's right. There are so many more to explore. Taking the time to explore the definitions and the use cases for key master data fields is central to being able to deliver real and lasting value out of SAP. So again, thank you, Kristie. Hey folks, if you're looking more to maximize other features and functions in your SAP system, please check out our video catalogs. And of course, feel free to use the chatbot if you can't find something.

Scheduling & Shop Floor

PTM; P2P

MDVP; COOIS; COOIS-PI; CO24; CO09

Hey production planners and schedulers, Martin here. This is an interesting topic. Typically when we talk about freeing up inventory for orders, we're talking about sales orders. However, today is the day that it's time for the production side of the house to get their time in the sun. Today we're going to explore how to proactively assess material availability to make the best use of the limited materials. Our guide today is Tom. Tom's going to lead us down this path to show us how we can actually prioritize orders to free up materials. Take us away, Tom. When we build our production schedule and release it to the floor, we want to clear three hurdles. Labor, capacity, and material availability. Today, I want to walk through how to identify material shortages, and specifically materials with limited availability where you have some but not all of what you need. We'll look at the pegging of those constrained components to the planned production and see what the maximum is that we can make. And then I'll show you how to deallocate materials from one order and apply it to the order you want to make sure that you are able to produce. Let's go in and take a look. Today we're going to take a look at material availability checking inside of SAP. We will start at the beginning of the process by looking at material availability checking on planned orders. The transaction code we're looking for in SAP is MDVP. This is our collective availability check against planned orders. As we enter into MDVP, we can see there are lots of search criteria where we can sort what we're looking for to be more specific and not look at every possible planned order. So typically we're going to load a production plant that we're looking to check materials against. Hopefully we have an MRP controller that's specifically looking for their materials to check material availability for and I would also suggest using a date range, so we're not just running this wide open for every planned order in our horizon. As we limit our search criteria, we can execute , this will pull up all of our planned orders that match that search criteria we entered. As we can see here, we've got a yellow traffic light indicating that material availability has not been checked on these planned orders. So as we highlight select all, we can go in and now select what we would like SAP to do for checking our material availability. We also have the option here to firm our planned orders. Typically, if we're looking at a longer horizon, we would not want to firm planned orders as MRP then is unable to move or make changes to dates. If we're looking at a shorter horizon, firming that planned order can lock it in place and allow us to have a stable planning situation. So depending on the horizon you're looking at, you may or may not want to firm your orders. In this case, we're not going to firm these planned orders. Now as I execute this material availability check, we're going to see that the status lights change. So now we're going to see green lights for everything we have available and we can run, but we're also going to see red lights everywhere we have a material issue. By quickly looking at the screen, we see a few things. One, we can see that we have some orders that are partially committed. So this first order that we're missing materials on, we can commit to 2,205 of the order quantity of 2,625. This is letting us know that if we choose to, we can run a lower quantity against that order. So we can update the order, we can release that to production. The other thing that we'll see out here is a committed date. Whenever you see a committed date of 99/99/9999, that means that SAP does not see a supply element in the future to confirm against. So it has no date, it has nothing it can confirm against, there is no recovery date on that order. Typically you will not see that, you'll see the next PO date, or the next production order date, depending on what the supply element is that we're waiting for. But from time to time you will see it this way, saying that SAP cannot find a supply element. Now, going back to selecting all, we can select our missing parts, and we can filter just by those missing parts. This allows us to look at the entire list, very quickly, to see where our pain points are, and where we're missing materials. As we can see here, we have some recurring missing materials. The material 100-410 is missing on several orders within our availability check. We can also see that we've committed a partial quantity to a large order, which is leaving everything else short. In some instances, we may want to run a partial of the large order or, we may want to deallocate those materials from the large order and run the smaller orders instead. So as we walk down that path, let's go back , now we're going to unselect everything and I'm going to take that one order, that one large order that's committing all of those raw materials and I'm going to reset the availability on that one order. So, again, I'm just resetting the data, which will deallocate those orders and those materials so that will no longer be consuming those raw materials. Now I can click on some of the orders that were after that in my horizon and again, same process, I can come in here. It's going to reset, I want it to execute the availability this time , an ATP check , now those materials are committed to those new orders that we can run and we can fulfill completely. So as we look at MDVP, it's a powerful tool to not only let us know what we can run , how many we can run when we have partially available materials. But it will also allow us to deallocate those materials and reallocate those to other materials all at the planned order level. This is very important when we talk about giving the production a schedule they can actually execute and achieve. There are other tools in SAP that will also help with this function, like COHB, Collective Availability Checking, CO24 Availability. So there's many tools in SAP that do this, but MDVP starts it from the planned order level and lets us arrange things right from the beginning of the process. Dealing with limited material availability can be tricky and frustrating, and a lot of planners don't know that they can control where the materials are allocated. We have the ability to review proactively and choose where the use of those limited materials makes the most sense. It is very important that we're evaluating availability, using the right checking rules, so the signal is clear. And appropriate to the stage of the planning horizon. After all, our goal remains to deliver the shop floor a schedule that is actionable. We don't want to waste their time or energy, and we want to make sure we've got our customers needs at the heart of the decisions we're making on the use of limited components. I hope this helps. Hey, thank you Tom. There is so many considerations for a planner to work through and it's nice to see how SAP can make reviewing information easier. And then carry the decision through to execution. We want to make sure that we're setting up our partners for success as best we can and make the best use of our investments. So folks, if you want to learn more about how to maximize your investment in SAP, please check out our video catalog and of course, if you have a specific question for us, feel free to submit it below.

Quality & Batch Management

QM; PTM; P2P; OTC; WM

MD04; MM03; MIGO; BMBC

Hey folks, Martin here. So good to see you guys again. Are you ready to dive into SAP and put it to good use? Well, let's get going. Is your organization challenging itself with ESG performance goals? Well, the good news is that there are many, many ways SAP can actually be a helpful vehicle of enabling achieving these goals. Today, we're going to explore a simple but effective example. We'll be dialing in on SLED and BBD. This is one of the many tools to support making the best use of our available inventory, keeping us and our customers safe and reducing waste. Our guide today is Ed, and he's going to introduce us to SLED, or S L E D and BBD, and show us where and how they are determined. Ed, what would you like to tell our audience today? Thanks, Martin. A lot of good can come from a simple concept, and the SLED and BBD dates are just that. The SLED, or the Specified Limited Expiration Date, and the BBD, or Best By Date, can be tracked at the material and batch level. Tracking these dates in SAP also produces another very important piece of information called the Remaining Shelf Life. This requires a few simple settings, which we'll review today. With these key pieces of data in hand, we now have a few of the foundational building blocks to ensure that we're rotating and moving through our inventory efficiently. We're able to meet customer specific requirements through batch search strategies. And, we can monitor, prioritize, and make usage decisions with our list displays. Let's dive in and go find the places where SLED and BBD live and review how the remaining shelf life is calculated. Where is that shelf limited expiration date, or SLED date? How is it calculated? What does it mean to us? Well, we can answer two of those questions with a look inside the Material Master. These settings live on a tab you may not visit very often. We're headed to the Plant Data Storage Location 1 tab. You can see a bunch of settings at the top around rules for storage. Let's say you're not running full warehouse management, and you need some basic things in place at the storage location level to manage the storage of that inventory. This is where that data lives. Now, if we look a little further down, we have a section on shelf life data. Let's walk through some of these fields. The first one we want to concern ourselves with is the total shelf life. This is the total time the product can expect to be of best quality and eligible for use without restriction. This is measured from the date of manufacture, and that could be our own production, or in this case, it's our supplier's date of manufacture. The next field we would want to consider is the minimum remaining shelf life. This is the rule the system will follow when receiving the goods. A supplier may have shipped us a lot from a while ago. That's okay, so long as we have the designated amount of time remaining. This would also apply if we transferred goods if the information was set appropriately in the receiving plant. Another important field is the period indicator. Here, we can set days, weeks, months, or even years, depending on the nature of the expiration and the associated storage requirements. We can also set a max storage period, restricting the amount of time that we would want to let the material age from goods receipt without review. Interestingly, the time period for the max storage period can get quite finite, down to minutes, seconds, even microseconds. Okay, let's see how this is applied. Let's go into MIGO and go through the receiving process. So here, we'll enter the manufacturing date and tick the item, check it. Okay, and now let's try to violate the rules and change the date. It's not within the allowable time, so we get the message and can work with that. We have several clients in the food and beverage industry that work with the byproducts of other processes. When the milk is coming, ready or not, or the harvest is coming, ready or not, you have to be very smart in what you choose to do with those products to maximize shelf life and meet different requirements for different customers. I'd say no one likes moldy cheese except for when they do. All right, now that we know where these settings are set and referenced, we have some of the foundational building blocks to reduce waste, prioritize use, and support customer specific requirements. Simply tracking this information and reviewing it consistently gives us a jump start, which opens up options and opportunities that we would not have without this additional visibility. SLED and BBD are useful for both procured material and manufactured goods. And through regular monitoring, which we'll explain in another video, we can proactively work to review expiring material and reduce the number of decisions required around disposition of expired materials. Thanks for joining us and I appreciate your time today. As do I. Thank you, Ed. There's no time like the present to put additional focus in this area and explore how SAP can help us meet our ESG performance objectives. This is but one of many pieces of functionality that can help set us apart and set us up for success. Thanks again, Ed. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about these particular topics or other ESG performance goals, please check out our videos or submit your questions below.

Procurement & MRP

QM; PTM; P2P; OTC; WM

MD04; MMBE; MB52

Hey there, welcome back Reveal TV community. Martin here. Today we're going to talk about the topic that no one really wants to talk about. Today we'll be discussing how to clean out the proverbial SAP junk drawer, also known as blocked stock. Now blocked stock in SAP is pretty straightforward, but we regularly see unconventional uses of this important stock status, leading to unnecessary exposure, tie up in working capital, and incorrect planning and promising to the customer. The bottom line of blocked stock is this it's an intermediary status that requires decision making and action. Here to add a little bit more context and clarity on this topic is Jayden. Jayden, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the better use of blocked stock and where to use it appropriately. Hey Martin, thanks for having me. So there's two things we need to keep in mind about blocked stock. First, it's a valid status that indicates that we do not expect to be able to use that product without another action occurring. By standard definition, it's not meant to be valid for use or relevant for planning. Second, if we don't stay on top of it, it can quickly build up and because it's not expected to be usable material, that can result in financial exposure in terms of over procurement or production. The thing with blocked stock is that it has a tendency to sit and we don't want that to happen. We want to use this status with its standard definition and rules and then make decisions that are followed with action. So let's go in and take a look. Here we are in SAP. I'm going to walk through a couple of transactions today. You can see where I am at by looking at the transaction code in the lower right hand corner of my screen. First, I'm going to head to MB52. This is a great transaction to see our perpetual inventory, and we can see loads of good statistics from here. This is one of the most commonly used transactions for inventory management, so many of you are probably familiar with MB52. It's a good one. Okay, now we're going to sort by materials that have blocked stock associated with them. Martin mentioned that we are making this video today because we've recently answered questions for a few organizations that have redefined the stock status. What I want to point out to you here is that there are so many options for how to classify our stock status and each has its own definition and rule set. We would recommend using blocked stock as it is intended. Do you have a situation that just doesn't allow for that? You can always reach out to us. We have a good material here and let's head over to the stock requirement list to take a closer look. Here we are in MD04 and we can see that we have the golden cubes up here in the corner. This means that we have stock and classifications other than unrestricted. By clicking on the cubes, I get a pop up that tells me what's in the blocked stock. We can see here that we have unrestricted, quality inspection, blocked, and several other options. Blocked stock is not meant to be relevant for planning use or promising. There is a clear difference between quality inspection, which is expected to have a positive outcome. It is expected to be available for the use in the future, and often has a date associated with it for the release of that lot. Blocked stock is assumed to require an action before being made available for use, such as rework or not to become available at all and require disposition. Let's go back to the golden cubes one more time. I want to show you one more place that is often helpful. From here, or from the Goto menu, We can click on the stock statistics, and that will take us to MMBE for more detailed information on this material, including things like batch number, storage location, MRP area, and many others. When we think about blocked stock, it is really intended to be a short term stopover. We want to keep an eye on the aging, so looking at something like MB51 to see how long that stock has been sitting is also very useful. From there, we can track the material movements and see where the stock came from, who worked on it, and how long it's been hanging out there. This, in addition to value and criticality, can help us get to the decisions flowing because the inventory, while in blocked, is definitely not. Blocked stock is an interim step. It's a white point. And sometimes, when we don't focus on keeping it moving, it can become a junk drawer. This is not where a cycle count write off from three months ago should be sitting for further verification. This is not where material that has failed inspection with no plan for rework should live. This is not where non conforming materials you intended to return to your supplier 18 months ago should still be sitting. We need to keep it moving through regular review and consistent monitoring. Blocked stock is a deviation from plan, schedule and actionable. If the blocked stock is reintroduced into the process, that is also an unexpected action, even if it's a positive one. So let's keep an eye on the blocked stock process and make sure that the decisions are constantly flowing and the actions are being realized as a result. Thanks, Jayden. I really appreciate you kind of weighing in on this and kind of sharing the topic of blocked stock and bringing some key insights to the table. So thanks. This is inventory that is not performing for you, folks. We know it's hard to say goodbye, but don't shy away from disposing it if that's really what's needed. And make sure we're communicating cross functionally with our partners in procurement, manufacturing, quality, engineering, warehousing ops, and of course, finance. You'll find what you need to make the right decisions for your organization. Hey folks, I know this is a hot topic so feel free to use our chatbot and you'll get a recommendation for other videos that are relevant to this particular topic of inventory planning.

Procurement & MRP

PTM; P2P; DM; OTC

MD06; MD05

Hey there Reveal TV community. Today we're going to go back to basics and produce a quick video to sure up the foundational understanding on the planning engine in ERP called MRP. Now we have loads of videos around MRP, but this one is for those of you who are not really using MRP today and want a little level set. First of all, I want to clear up confusion around the acronym. MRP stands for Materials Requirements Planning. Second of all, we commonly hear organizations say that they don't run MRP. Most of the time, this is not true. MRP is merely running along in the background. You've just never had the opportunity to find the value in the results. This is an epic journey filled with value. And today we're going to start with some inspiration. It is in my opinion that there is no better human in this world to get you excited about MRP than my friend, Sean. He has helped dozens of organizations come to grips with the journey and quality of MRP and has seen the outcomes for the business and for the people time and time again. So Sean, please tell us more about the definition and the purpose of MRP. Like many things we encounter in life, getting MRP up and running and delivering great value can be challenging. However, at the core, it's very simple. MRP's purpose is life to the supply, the demand, and it does so by determining what is needed. How many are needed. And by when they are needed to be there. It's time and quantity, it's primary school math, at scale, running on a set of rules, which are discussed in some of our other videos. It's a plan for every part in each location. Now then, let's go and we take a look. Well, welcome to the demo on what is the purpose of MRP. Now, in his introduction, Martin addressed MRP as an acronym and acknowledged that MRP stands for Material Requirements Planning. This is important because it is a good descriptor of what MRP does. However, what we want to do this morning is to use a transaction called MD06, and we are going to look inside of a plant at what does the MRP list look like in terms of the last run when MRP ran. And we'll take a look at that out there and you can see here there is a date at which the last MRP ran, which tells us this is the last time that MRP went to work to produce a plan for replenishment. Now we already know that MRP is responsible for determining what materials need replenishment, how many, and by what date. And that's all according to the rules that we've set. Now, most organizations run MRP on a regular cadence. And so even if you don't trigger it yourself, it's out there producing replenishment plans and managing the balance of supply and demand. It's a really, really good communicator. So let's look at our find in lists, which is really a material finder. Let's just focus ourselves for a moment on the group 4 messages where MRP is telling us what has happened. And we'll notice down here are my group 4 messages on the side. The first one, it's telling us is that these are the new proposals that we might want or need to review and to act on. It then also tells us that these are proposals that have been changed and we might want to look at that in case we've already acted and sent out an inquiry, whatever the situation might be, but we may want tolook at that because it has changed. It can even tell us that the replenishment has been triggered by the explosion of a bill of materials. Now, this last one is important to mention because MRP came about to allow companies to scale effectively as product assortments became more diverse, BOM's became more robust, and with more changes MRP could follow the rules and start letting us know if we had inconsistencies or if there were any other challenges that were out there. Now if you've ever wondered about these messages here that MRP is sharing with you and want to get some more background, I'll close this for the moment, you'll see here's an information tab. Inside of that information tab we get to see the groups, the messages, and what their definitions are. And I would encourage you to go and watch some of our other videos where we've done a ton of work around specific messages in terms of understanding and giving you insight into what they are and how you might want to respond. But if we go back to the Group 4 that we were dealing with, maybe let's just see from the highlights some of those exceptions that are coming out against those materials. You'll notice that it highlights them for me and if I go in to take a look at each one, I start to see my Group 1 messages. Here they are down here. This is a new requirement that came about from the last MRP run. And I get that opportunity to look, here's a good one, it's got plenty. All these new requirements have suddenly hit us, and we're going to have to respond to this, and make sure that we bring those materials in on time. Because often these messages , they get neglected. And we really need to guard against that. We spoke, for instance, earlier on about the message 42, which is the second one. So the proposals have been changed. Likewise, we allow the system to do the heavy lifting, we can get in and we can find a material that has now been changed, where the message is telling us it's been changed and we may want to act on that. And as we just go through, we'll just look at a few of those and you can start to see where these changes are and determine whether that's going to have an issue for us. Now, lastly, what I want to do is just to go back to all the exceptions and look at what's known as Group 8. So we look at these Group 8 messages. This is really telling us that MRP was unable to run, and you'll see there's quite a few of these that are out there, that it was unable to run and we need to fix or address the issue or the master data that is preventing MRP from running these materials. If we were just to take a look at it, here's an example for us, this one says it's in status blocked for procurement, warehouse does not allow for planning. So there's a rule that's put in place, but we still have an MRP type that wants to be planned, and therefore there's a conflict, and we need to take a look at trying to resolve that. Okay, so once more, if we go back to our exceptions, and we just look at a couple of materials, and I'm going to pick one or two. I'm going to pick this material, 1417. I'll say find that material, there it is. And when I start to look at it, here I start to see all of these new requirements that are out there. So I can see a number of new requirements which is message 01 for replenishment. So it's seeking supply for the demand and it's following certain rules. And so we don't have to do the math ourselves. Instead, we can focus on managing the process and then proactively intervening with exceptions as they occur. We saw it earlier on with some of the message 42, the new proposals. That is exactly the same thing that we would want to take some action and make sure that we stay ahead of the game as far as looking at business operations Now, the truth is there are probably tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of parts of several locations to plan across. And we quickly lose the ability to scale when only people are involved. And so MRP, it really is our next best friend, provided we have the right rules set in place to enable accurate replenishment proposals. And so folks, I would encourage you to explore what MRP has to offer. It can be a bit of a hill to climb initially but it gets easier as we go and the view from the other side, I can tell you, is great. MRP is a highly effective approach to managing replenishment at scale when it's set up and running well. It requires the discipline of daily cadence to stay relevant and move from the theoretical to the practical and operational. To recap our conversation today MRP is a rule based engine that produces a proposed plan for replenishment. Its job is to supply the demand. And when it's really humming, it puts us in a position to proactively manage by exception, alerting us to deviations from plan so that we can make decisions on how to best move forward and assure quality of supply. I'm a fan, Sean, that is amazing. Thank you for telling us more about MRP and thank you for showing us the power and the purpose of this particular functionality. Thanks again. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about MRP, there is an entire video catalog on MRP and all the exceptions and results related to that. And if you have a specific question, please feel free to submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

PTM; P2P

MM03; MD04

Hello there SAP gurus, Martin here with another episode of Reveal TV in which we're going to be talking about early deliveries. I mean early sounds so much better than late, right? It's less to contend with, less impact. Sure it's not on time or in full, okay. So have you ever found yourself without space at the line or incoming to a warehouse or even a storage silo? Then early is not really as good as we think. So there you go Jason, I've already given you an example right off the top that shows that early might not really be as good after all. But could it really be that bad? You take it away. I think you just gave a great observation on when it's obviously not good there Martin. What I would propose is that the cumulative impacts of being early do impact our supply chain in significant ways, but perhaps, even more importantly, offer us opportunity. I'm a glass half full kind of guy who hates to see potential wasted, and early deliveries give us something we can go after. The not so good news is the cumulative impacts of early delivery in constrained spaces, unplanned burdening of resources, and tied up working capital. We're going to talk through some examples today, and then we'll wrap by how we can look to reward the right behaviors. So let's go in and take a look. Okay, so let's prove this out a little bit, because it feels somewhat counterintuitive. When we say a person is always early, that's a tick in their favor for reliability. I remember my band director from high school always used to say, "to be on time is to be early". So sometimes we view always early as better than always on time. Now, here we are talking supply chain and I'm telling you early isn't always better. Let's look at a couple of things. Imagine you have a plastic injection molding department, or maybe you're a chemical company and you have a tank farm. You've got SAP set up to manage the replenishment of those tanks, and you're watching carefully to make sure that your schedule is in line with what's actually happening. You can see here we've got a max stock level of 44,000 on this particular item. But if your supplier shows up early, there may be nowhere to go with that delivery and so then what do you do? Here's another example. You have some labor and equipment constraints in your warehouse, you've done the hard work to level load some of the inbound shipments from key suppliers by changing over to a planning calendar that allows you to manage the volumes delivered by the day of the week. You'll see in this case that our planning calendar says we're only going to take deliveries on Wednesday through Friday. If your supplier shows up early, it may disrupt the labor and equipment allocation and get in the way of the unloading or hot loading One more. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team lead on the shop floor decides to pull ahead in order. You can see this guy here has already started even though it didn't need to start until next week on the 21st. So they may not be aware of a priority for custom orders and may have inadvertently used material that you really needed elsewhere. Or maybe producing that order early was at the expense of pushing another order back, making it late, for example, these guys here needed to start two days ago in order to meet this 11/15 date and they have yet to begin production. Sometimes an order will also be early if the floor doubts that material will arrive in time, so they move one order forward and push that order out. There's nothing worse than paying for expediting and then finding the line occupied when the expedited materials are ready to roll. There are always knock on effects to being early, and you need to define exactly what early, on time, and late mean to your organization. I would be remiss if I did not mention the cumulative impact on inventory and carrying costs. Take a look at your cumulative goods issue and receipts diagram sometime and see what's happening. I wholeheartedly agree that a supplier, sister facility, or manufacturing floor that is chronically early is better than one that is chronically late. Much better, in fact. But I do want us to start thinking about the next step, which is dialing in on time and focusing on making that the chronic behavior of all of our partners. Let's reward the right behavior. Early may be good in some situations, but it's definitely not really good. Early sounds good, especially when our supply chain is struggling and we're chasing demand. But the very best thing that we can do for our supply chain is make it predictable by adhering to the schedules we have put out for supplier deliveries, manufacturing, or stock transfers. When we want to set our expectations for early and late, clearly communicate them to all of our partners throughout the supply chain. And where there is consistent and reliable opportunity to reduce lead times, especially for those of us who haven't done so since the pandemic, we should update SAP with revised rules to stay more firmly in line with the behaviors. Thank you, Jason. There's some really important things to consider here. We want to make sure that we have consistent, reliable schedules that are up to date and well formed by the rules we have in the system. That keeps us investing time, space, and working capital on the best flow of materials to meet our customer needs. So once again, thanks a lot. Hey folks, if you want to know more about whether something's good or bad, please check out our other video catalogs. And of course, if you have a burning question, feel free to submit it below.

Production & Capacity Planning

PTM; DM; OTC

CM01; CM04; CM05

The best way to learn is by doing, so welcome to the video service that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. Hello everyone, Martin here, and I'm thrilled to engage with you on some of the information insights that you can draw from capacity evaluation in SAP. This powerful area of SAP is often underutilized. So today, we'd like to show you some ways that it can be used to help with answering questions in your organization. To lead us through this walkthrough today is Tom, who has a ton of practical information and experience in this area. So, Tom, take us away and share a lot about capacity evaluation. Hey, Martin. Well, when we think of capacity evaluation, it's often around the challenge of either being over capacity or figuring out a run plan for a work center or resource that are not fully booked out. Both are good uses of this functionality. But today, I want to take it a little further and hopefully show something that is new to you. First, we'll go in and look at our work centers that have a current backlog that needs addressing. Next, I'll show you how to accumulate capacity and requirements to see what the planned recovery date or next bookable date for that work center looks like. And lastly, I'll extend the time horizon and change to monthly buckets for a longer term outlook. Let's go in and take a look. Now we're going to dive into SAP and look at capacity planning and how we can understand our current state of what's happening, and also future state of what's going to happen. We'll begin our journey today by looking at CM04. CM04 is going to show us any backlogged production that we have on a work center. So this list, if we come in here, I'm going to put in my work center, which is already limited in my plant. When I look at this work center in this plant and select the overview, it's going to pull up any backlog work that's on this work center for me to see. Now as I click deeper into this, just by double clicking in, I can see the requirements of what's out there that what my production is behind on. This allows me to focus on these orders first, knowing that we're behind in its tying up capacity that we did not plan for today because these are past due orders that have not been completed. So using this CM04 tool, we can understand where we're truly behind and what specifically the orders that we're behind on to get caught back up in production. Once we understand and know where we're behind and what's affecting past dues for capacity, we can now turn our attention to looking at a current state of capacity. For that, we'll go in and look at CM01. CM01, again, gives us the same sort criteria as we can look at a work center in a plant, or we can look at all work centers in a plant, just to know that is also an option. As we look at the standard overview for this one, we're going to see a much different picture. So instead of just showing us what we're past due on, it's going to show us current and future requirements as well. So as we can see here, clearly anything that's red shows that we're over capacity. That's a concern for the shop floor. We need to understand why we're over capacity and how we can overcome that situation. Whether that's going in and looking at the details again and understanding can I move any of these orders out to lighten the capacity load. Or do we need to work overtime to overcome those capacity requirements? The other thing I can do inside of CM01 is I can break it down into different buckets. Currently, we see we're looking at it in a weekly bucket. However, if I were just to go up to the general settings, I have the option in here to change the capacity into any buckets that I prefer. I can see right down here I have a selection of different periods. First we'll look at it in a daily bucket. If I look at it in a daily bucket, this allows me to understand on a daily basis how am I utilizing my capacity. It could be that I'm over capacity on Monday, but fine on Tuesday and Wednesday, which then I know I can smooth those requirements to the other days of the week. In this current example, we can see here we're over capacity on most days in the current periods, but I can go out and look and see, okay, what's the next day I can actually put orders in where my capacity is open again? And in this example, I can see out on 12/9, I have 88 percent of my capacity remaining. So again, I can possibly move orders out into these dates, or new orders can go in those dates because I have capacity. In the short term, if I can't move orders out, I'm going to need to work some significant overtime or possibly hire more employees. But this gives me a picture of when I can recover and when I can actually add new orders into my production. The other thing we'll look at now, as we look at longer term planning, we may want to look at this again in weekly buckets, which we already saw an example of, but if now I pull it up in monthly buckets, I can start to look out to the future to see, okay, how are my monthly buckets of capacity looking in the future? This allows me to have more of a long term planning picture of what's going on in my production environment. As I can see here I only have three months showing with loaded requirements. So when I go out to the third month, I've got plenty of capacity and I can add tons of orders and lots of production in that, and I'm getting a little tight in the month of December, but my current month is way over capacity and I need relief. But this allows me to have a picture as far out as I'm holding a forecast or customer orders, any requirements I can see in the system, I can evaluate how that looks on a long term basis. So when we look at capacity in SAP, we not only have the ability to look at past due requirements, current requirements, we can also look at it with future requirements to understand our capacity situation and what we have to do about it and what we have to do to resolve any issues. So I have to confess, today we only hit three features on my favorites list. There are more, but this is a good start. With the features we looked at today, we can start to draw some insight of capacity evaluation. Are we ahead, or are we behind? What is our current lead time to put more work on that work center or resource. And we can proactively identify challenges or opportunities as we look across the broader horizon. There's a lot here, and I hope you'll go back and see what you can find. Thank you, Tom. That's such good information, and it's really easy to navigate. But folks, the challenge is making sure that we have the right rules to give us the right information. If capacity evaluation isn't SAP's part of your process, there a number of other videos that you should explore. This is a great gateway between S&OP and S&OE. So folks, if you're looking to maximize the value in your SAP system, please check out our chatbot that will share with you what recommendations can provide, specifically on capacity evaluation as an example. Or if you have a specific question, please submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

ME5A; MD04; ME53N; ME38; MCBZ

Hey there procurement professionals, I am Martin, and we're thrilled to have you join us as we work with you to help you set up your suppliers for success. In today's video, we're seeking to provide clarity around how you might provide a forecast to your supplier. Now I'll start by saying this, when you share information with your suppliers for the purposes of planning, it's very important that everyone's on the same page with how that information will be used and what your commercial obligations are or not. This is very important piece of conversation to have with them. Okay, folks, so let's hand this over to our ever diligent, Rutul. Rutul I'd love for you to walk our viewers through specifically how to use some of these tools and techniques that will actually allow them to successfully provide a forecast to one or two of their suppliers. Hello everyone. This is a common request and fortunately we have a few options to achieve the outcome we are looking for. Let's start with clarity on what sending a forecast really means. First things first, are you providing your supplier with your forecasted demand or their forecasted supply? These are two very different things. Most of the time, we would recommend sending their forecasted supply or your expected goods receipts. The good news is that we have a few options to get to this information and I'll walk you through three of those options today. Let's go in and take a look. All right, we talked about multiple ways where we can share the information with our suppliers about forecasted supplies or demand. Let's take a look at a few ways that we can see this information in SAP. First one we will go to is called transaction ME5A. This is a list of all purchase requisitions, they are not firm, by nature purchase requisitions are only a pre step for firm purchase orders. So we're going to take a look at this here in this transaction, where you can see all the different purchase requisitions for different criterias. We can put in purchase material, specific selection criteria, the vendor number. But what we are going to look at here right now is everything in the plant and then I am going to change the scope of list as a layout for ALV. I want to see this list in a little bit better format. So I'm going to put the plant as 1000, one of the plants that you want to look for and the scope of list. And when you click on execute, you have all of your purchase requisitions by material, sorted out that you can see and perhaps communicate to vendors in terms of forecasting. Please be careful here that purchase requisitions again are not firm requirements yet. Another way you can look at the purchase acquisitions is also through MD04. So we're going to go there. We have this material, we are looking for, 100-130. And then the material requirements list, stock requirements list shows everything from all the exceptions and the purchase requisitions, sales orders, reservations, those things. We can easily filter the information in this requirements list to say I only want to see receipts. So you click on this display filter and that standard display filter is showing only receipt. So you click on the SAP only receipts and here it tells you what your purchase requisitions are. You can see the number and you can see the date that is coming in. We can also navigate from here to purchase requisition itself and you can see the information about when it's supposed to be coming in, delivery date of July 8th 2024. That's when it's supposed to come in. So that's a couple of ways that you can see and communicate with your vendors on the forecasted supplies. Another way you can do if you have scheduling agreements in place, then you can see that information at the delivery schedule level. So we will go ahead and look at that. For that, we will navigate to transaction ME38 and enter the scheduling agreement number. Here it shows what the material number we are scheduling agreements for and then when you select the line and click on delivery schedule it will show you all the different delivery schedule for this material that is agreed upon with the vendor. Now you'll see one of the things that you want to see here in the scheduling agreements additional feature is in scheduling agreement is what they call the firm zone and trade off zone. What the firm zone means is that vendor can ship against those schedule lines and delivery lines that is communicated with them. Firm zone falls within certain time frame that vendors can without any further communication, it's ready to go, ready to be shipped versus there is also called trade off zone. And if the scheduled delivery lines fall under and mark as a trade off zone, that means there may still be room for changes to the delivery schedule for that. So that means vendor should not ship against that request yet until it goes into the firm zone. How do you know, or how does the system let you know which is firm zone versus the trade off zone? You'll see that each of these delivery lines has this indicator called firm zone versus trade off zone. Let's take a look at that. You'll notice that when the delivery line is indicated with 1, that indicator means firm zone, which means the suppliers can ship against this quantity requested for that material. If the delivery schedule line was marked with 2, that means they cannot, and they should not, ship against that request yet. All right. Now, there is another, scenario and another way that we can look at the past and even future goods receipt and goods issue information. For that, we will go to transaction MCBZ. You can put in the plant information and we will look at this material again We are going to expand the date period, that we are looking the data for so that we can see goods receipts and goods issues in the past or in the future. So we will go a couple months back and we will go all the way out to the next year. We're going to look from March of 2024 till August of 2025. We'll see what the goods receipt and goods issue picture looks like for this material. Now by default, it does not bring in that information. So we will bring in that additional information and we will look at goods issues, MRP, and goods receipt, MRP, and we will bring them over. Now standard SAP functionality, you can select this line and we can drill down by, and then we look at them by month and now you are looking at what your total goods receipt, and goods issue, projected goods issue and projected goods receipt for this material from March 2024 till August 2025. These are the projected goods issues that's already assigned, which is these are the projected goods receipt assigned and projected for this material. We can look at this graphically, we can select the two goods issue and goods receipt information that we want to look at and we can expand this view a little bit, and we can certainly also look at the options, configure the 2D options as lines and you can see the projected goods receipts and goods issue for this material. This will help you communicate with your vendors or for you to know how much is going to be issued and received and then contractually contact your vendors to make any adjustments that they need Excellent. So to wrap up our time together today, a few key reminders. First, sharing a forecast of your anticipated goods receipt plan with your supplier is meant to help them with the pre planning. Second, there needs to be upfront conversation and clarity around which signals you are sharing with them, and for what purposes? This leads us to the third and very important point, and Martin highlighted this earlier. It is very important that you align with your suppliers on what the commercial implications of acting on that signal in advance of a firm PO or a delivery schedule really means. Hey, thank you Rutul. Always a pleasure to hear your perspective on things, and walking through the options with you. I feel like there will be many more discussions to come out of this video. And I kind of look forward to part two. So once again, thank you. Hey folks, you're going to learn more about this topic or others and even part two, please feel free to check out the video catalog we have. If you have a specific question for us, feel free to submit it below.

SAP Optimization

P2P; PTM; FICO; OTC

MC.9; MB52; MC49

Hey everyone, Martin here. Today we are diving into a key field that is critical to reporting and analysis. It can be used for flexible planning, It can be used for allocations, supporting PO placements, and may even be used in financial reporting and analytics . In other words, it's a little field with a big impact and loads of cross functional implications and ownership. As such, it's often not well understood and people are afraid to make updates. We want you to feel confident in diving into some of those conversations and of course, here to help us today is Sean. Sean, what should we know about material groups so that we can make better decisions and better use of them? Sure, Martin. Any time we run into cross functional impact the conversation can get a bit tricky. Here's a few things to be aware of. First of all, as the name implies, material groups are meant to represent a logical grouping of materials. There should be a common characteristic that make that grouping make sense and drive value. This becomes exceptionally important for reporting and analysis. You'll see material groups show up in many of the selection criteria for reports in SAP and as a characteristic for drilling down into the details. And this is in and of itself the best way to see how your material groups are performing. If you have a little to no activity or crazy amounts of material and activity flowing through the material group, it may be time for realignment. You want the insights coming out of the data to make sense and empower processes. This requires regular review and alignment. Let's go and take a look. Hello and welcome to our demo on data insights material group. I want to give you a few examples of where you might use the material group in your day to day work in SAP. Let's start with material analysis, which folks are pretty familiar with. This is MC.9 and as you can see, there is a material group selection criteria that I can adopt if I wanted to focus on a particular material group. But let's go inside and take a look and notice that once we're in the transaction, we also have a characteristic. So if I was to switch my drill down, I have a characteristic, material group, that can help us break down our analysis. And so there is my material groups that are out there, and this is a great place to come and to review how the material group distribution works for us. The questions you might have is, are you getting good intelligence out of these groupings? Are there some that need to be broken down further? Or are there others that maybe need to be consolidated? Now since this field is used cross functionally, the proposal for any realignment should also be reviewed cross functionally. Interesting enough that the material group is one that is persistent across our inventory reports. So if we take this here, our warehouse to stock display, here we have material group, and we can see what those look like. And in our previous analysis of materials, we had a plant 1000, we saw the chemicals was quite high, and I think that was 004, so let's take a look at that and see what we get. So now we're able to see, in the warehouse stock analysis, a particular plant and that material group with which we are interested at the moment. And some of the other reports, if we continue on to our average inventory for argument's sake. If I was to look at the average inventory, and let's assume I wanted to do the same thing, I've selected my plant, I know what that is, I have a material group, there it is 004 and I select that, and what I find is that over the period of my analysis here, I have 153 materials in the chemical group, and that stock value is in the region of 310,000 euros. So back in our materials, if I was to go back to the original, analysis that we did, and I was to take a look at this, I'm able to, from the sorting and descending order, see which particular materials, and there I can see my chemicals right on the top. So if I wanted to, let's go back to our material group, once I'm inside chemicals, there it is. I might want to take a look and say, now show me only those materials that are inside the chemicals, and boom, I get a list of exactly what they are so I'm back to that particular group that I'm wanting to take a look at. Now we could apply this kind of thinking even as regards our procurement spend. So let's take a look at procurement spend. We'll take that same plant, and we'll run that. And now what we'll start to see that this is the Plant 1000, I'm looking in my materials and I'm looking at the purchase order values that I have out there that's been placed against these different materials. There's my top chemical right there of 43 million and I've just sorted them down descending order and that's where we notice that the chemical one is at the top of the list. Now here's something I want to just point out, it's not on my screen but if you were to see, for argument's sake, a line at the top here that was blank, then that would be an indication of my non material spend, which is really, really helpful. And so the question is, again, do we see an intelligent breakdown of our spend into logical groupings? Are we seeing that? Does the information aid my supplier evaluation? Does it aid risk management? And what about my overall sourcing strategy? And are we using the material groups well enough for our non material procurement process as well? Now we said earlier on that, material group flows through for use in procurement as well when we create our purchase orders. So let's take a look at some of our requisitions that are out there for the same plant. So if we look at our plant and we have a material group, we're interested in our chemicals, and let's run that report. There we get the list of requisitions. So, these are those that will aid us in constructing our purchase order. But we need to ask the question of non material or free text and take that maybe further. Because here, we can assign that spend to a material group in the purchasing document and then based on that material group assignment, we get things like proper account assignments, and this ties back to finance, ensures that we're properly planning and landing our transaction activities into the correct accounts. To close off this discussion today, material groups are often part of our sales and operations planning structure and can be leveraged in allocation, pricing conditions, and even material determination. So there are many great uses for this one field and I want to encourage you to look into your system and see how material groups performed. Material group is such a goodie and well worth the investment of time in making sure we've got the right groupings and assignments. If we achieve good quality of groupings and consistency of definition, then we can start to get great value using material groups to analyze our spend. We can then use them to manage, PO placement, and the selection of materials to move into a PO. And as you're thinking through these things, continuing the conversation with finance, demand planning, and customer excellence remains key, especially as we think about financial reporting and analytics. Hey, thank you Sean. I think you've really exposed some good nuggets there. Something that's really well worth our attention. OK folks, if you want to look into some more of these kind of thinking and processes that we're talking about today, please check out our video catalog. And of course, if you have a specific question for us, feel free to submit it below.

SAP Optimization

P2P; PTM; OTC

MC.9

Hey folks, welcome to the video that unlocks and reveals the hidden value in your SAP system. This is Martin, welcome back to the conversation. Today we're going to dive into the tricky topic of KPIs. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. We've all heard that before. It's about intentionally managing and improving what we have. In this Leaders Digest demo today, we're going to discuss what it takes to put KPIs to good, productive use. When we are looking for the right KPIs to drive our business, we have no further to look than our friend Sean. He is the master of balance and focusing on the widely important things. So Sean, can you help our leaders find some productive KPIs to dig into as we're looking to improve our teams and the use of SAP and ultimately have a path to achieving business outcomes? Sean, tell us more. So Martin, did you know that SAP is always talking to us? It's giving us so much information that sometimes it can be overwhelming. Oftentimes we don't know where to find what we're looking for. So as leaders, we actually force the team out of SAP and into an online report or spreadsheet. We ask them to spend time on pulling data out. And I'm here today to talk about driving activities back into SAP. There's no one metric to rule them all, but there are important KPIs that can be brought together to drive our improvements. As leaders, it's critical that we look for conflicts and help the team understand how to approach outcomes in an integrated way. The other point I'll make before we jump in. It's very important to target set the focus on getting metrics that are trending in the right direction. For some of those KPIs, it's not the discrete number that we're going after, rather it's a time phased incremental improvement. Right, so let's go in and take a look. Now my intention today is to spark some curiosity as to what some of the KPI summaries look like in SAP. For this, I'm going to look at the material analysis tool key figures that are available in one of our report options, MC.9. And so here I'm going to run this report, and we'll get some results in a moment. And from that for this exercise, what I'm going to do is I'm going to focus on a single MRP controller and let's choose 008. There it is, so we've highlighted 008. And what we want to do is open the key figures that are available to this report. So if I go to extras, show me all the key figures. There we go. Look at that. Now, before we look at some of the details, let's remind ourselves as leaders, we need to use KPIs productively , to focus the business on collaborative outcomes that are going to bring balance, direction, and buy in. And in that way, try to minimize or avoid competing KPIs. Several typical competing metrics within the supply chain management arena often arise due to differing goals between various departments and functions. Think for a moment on inventory turnover versus customer service level. So higher inventory turnover aims to reduce stock levels, while high customer service levels requires that we maintain a sufficient inventory to meet that demand. And if we take a look at these particular measures that are out here, down the bottom here, we can see the stock turnover. So the valuated stock turnover here is running at about 13.2. Wow. I would argue that 13.2 is a pretty good turns rate that we've got. So inventory turnover seems to be doing quite well here, but it is potentially one of those that runs into conflict with the customer service levels. Then you can think for a moment around production efficiency versus flexibility. Or we could argue cost reduction versus quality improvement. Maybe order fulfillment lead time versus manufacturing lead time. And then of course, the capacity utilization versus on time delivery, and in that regard, we see that quite often that maximizing capacity utilization can also lead to lower flexibility, and then that runs into conflict in ensuring a high rate of on time delivery and getting to those rates. Okay, so I think we get a good sense of the potential and how we can run into conflicting KPIs. So if we continue to look at some of the key figures here that are used to inform, direct, and report on around what these KPIs look like. Let's consider the valuated stock coverage, for instance, you see this one here, valuated stock coverage, that's our days of supply. Now, very often we have a days of supply metric that says we want to carry X number of days. And this is where that opportunity exists for us to check how well we are doing or how badly we might be doing against it. Are we achieving those goals? Are we way above? Are we down below it? What is the situation? Because we one, don't want to carry too much, but we also don't want to affect service levels at the end of the day. The second one we might want to think about is the link between total consumption, and let me take you up there. If we look here, total consumption, there it is. So we've got 63 million and against that, the valuated stock coverage. So where's my valuated stock coverage down the bottom here. Value added stock coverage of 36. So we can start to see a relationship between that and if we take it to the mean valuated stock value, which is this up here, mean valuated stock value of 1.2. That 1.2 against the total usage of 13 million. That's almost showing us the turns rate. Think about it. Consumption divided by average gives you a turns rate. So that's the 13 divided by the 1.2. Then of course we have safety stock. So safety stock we need to say well is our strategy correct? Are we running too high? Are we running too low? But we have an opportunity to use these key figures to tell us that. What about the number of cancellations? If we look up here, number of cancellations 876 cancellations. And so we would ask, were we unable to make it on time or meet the full demand of the customer? Do we need to have a metric where we're going to look at reducing cancellations? Those are part of the conversation that we need to have as we go forward. An interesting one as well here is around the valuated stock receipts value. So if we look here, our receipts value is at 17.863 and our issues value at 17.8. Well, that looks pretty good. Because it means that which we're receiving and that which we're issuing out is very close to one another. And if that's true, then it could suggest that we are not building excess inventory. And we might then want to say, well, hang on, is excess inventory a metric that we want to track? In some cases, very definitely, we want to track excess inventory. But this here shows us that those two seem to be in a similar place right now. What then about the unplanned quantities? So if we look over here, there are two measures in here. There's an unplanned quantity usage and there's an unplanned consumption of about 9 million dollars. And that starts to raise some questions. Why have we got unplanned consumption? Is this a reflection of a breakdown between my plan and my actual, and is this going to be something that we need to consider in terms of a metric going forward? So as we consider productive KPIs, an example that's been top of my mind recently is the challenge, or maybe it's the fun, of being a production scheduler. Now think about it, as a production scheduler you're charged with balancing service levels, inventory performance, and efficiency throughput. Not an easy ask, is it? By a long stretch. No, it isn't. But as a leader, what we need to do is we need to help in the conversations that guide our teams along all of these metrics that are out here. We need to encourage them to work hard, to improve the quality of planning and the use of SAP itself, not getting outside the system. And in that process, we need to empower our people to to make the right decisions for business improvement and then work with them to ensure KPIs are aligned rather than in conflict with them. And so folks, as a final thought, let's suggest that rather than just have a fixed target, that as leaders, we work with the team on the trending in the right direction and on incremental percentage improvements. I think that's the key. Incremental percentage improvements. And this will give them a gliding path to the desired outcome. It will increase motivation and certainly build success in our organizations. Wow. I really enjoyed that. Now here's some closing tips for those of you who are trying to lead and support your team. First, create good daily habits and find the impact on the metrics. Celebrate the small wins and be curious on how the team achieved them. Work on the problems and be curious about how you might remove the hurdles and support the team in their success. Watch out for stagnation though. It's likely means the daily habit hasn't yet landed where it needs to be. Your job, provide clarity, support, and be to the team showing genuine curiosity in their journey as evidenced in KPIs that are productive and drive to the outcomes that you're looking for. Hey, once again, Sean, thank you so much. The importance of getting this right is often undervalued and it's a big missed opportunity for a lot of organizations. I'd wager most folks listening to this could uncover hidden opportunities in the organization simply by reviewing some of the highlights from this video in their business. Can't wait to hear about some of these outcomes. So folks, if you want to listen to more Leader Digest related topics, check out our other video catalog. And of course, if you have a specific question, feel free to submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM; P2P; PTM; OTC

MD04; MD13

Hey, hey, welcome back supply chain superstars, Martin here. We've got a good one today. Did you know that there is a tool in SAP that will allow you to visualize the connection between a supply element for a component at the lowest level of the bill of material and the final demand element that is planned to serve? Now, we'll acknowledge that it's not the prettiest graphic that you'll ever see, but for the purpose of impact and analysis and connection, it's a very powerful tool. We have two videos on this topic. One on the visualization end product, and the other goes into detail around the pegging report. What we're talking about today is the end result known as the ripple effect. To take us through this excellent feature in SAP, Sean's going to be sharing with the team about how this specific report can actually help us. Sean, take us away. Well, well, well, Martin. How the tables have turned, my friend. Usually, it's Martin who talks about the ripple effect. Today, I get to put my own spin on it. This is exciting. In our walkthrough today, I'm going to focus on three key things. First, I'll carry on the definition Martin started to frame up on what we mean by the ripple effect. Second, I'll show you how to navigate to it and zoom in and out once you're there. And lastly, I'll give you some insight as to why this is so useful. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words. So let's get in and take a good look. Right folks, so here we are and what we're going to do is we're going to go into a transaction called MD04, which is your stock requirements list. And in this stock requirements list, I've chosen a material PLA-BLK, so this is 3D black printing and it is for plant 1000 and it's going to open up the stock requirements list for me and we can see the details that are currently in there in terms of the requirements and so on. And what I want to do is I want to select one of those supply elements. So here is a planned order at the top and we'll look at that planned order and go to what's known as the pegging report. If you notice down the bottom here is a button called pegging requirements. It has the upward arrow. So I click on that and what it does, is it opens up the pegging requirements for me that's related to that particular planned order. And what I then want to do is I want to say, well, show me this geographically , how does this look from a graphical point of view that portrays what's happening in the pegging report. And on the top button here, there's a graphic. So if I click on that, there it opens it up. And what it's doing, and just simply put what the ripple effect is about, is having a visible view that sees the connection and the links from the supply element component, which is here, all the way through to the intended purpose to which it is supplying and supporting. In this case, it's a forecast. So the intended outcome here, or the support that it's for, is for this forecast, but it could just as well be for a sales order or for a delivery. And in between it, we notice all the layers and levels of production in between where that requirement is coming from and what the supply is trying to supply to. Now, one of the neat things inside of this report is that when you get a much more complicated view than the one that I've got here, which is pretty straightforward, it's pretty simple, it's a great example to show graphically what this looks like. You have this functionality of zoom in and zoom out. And so let's just assume if this was a very complicated and dense, you can hardly read it. If I was to hit the zoom in button, see what happens? It increases the size to the point that I will get to, to say, I can see now what these other elements are in terms of the links between the elements from the supply all the way through to where that demand is coming from. So in this case, as I said, it is a forecast. Now we get to stages very often that it's far more complex than this graphic and that's why we need the zoom in capability. So let me show you a quick example of that ripple effect, now take a look at this one. How detailed is this? Oh my goodness, it really does have multiple layers. There are multiple drivers of demand in between the supply element and the demand element. There's all these different production pieces that are part and parcel of the process. And so what this is showing us that where it is way more complicated, it's very useful for us to be able to use that zoom in functionality so that we can understand the ripple effect. We want to understand inside of this, what is it that these are all touching? What is that ripple effect so that we can get to the point of having debate and really looking to improve things. So if I go back to my example, in this case, now I was going to zoom out. There I have, in this case, fortunately, the entire example. And I can then look at what are all of these pieces of the puzzle that make it up. Now, here's a really cool thing that one can look at as well. The real value of doing this analysis and seeing this graphically is when it comes to the quality of the conversations that are going to direct us towards what that outcome looks like. That's really what the whole notion is about. What is the quality of the conversations that we can use these graphics for? And it's going to help us to uncover issues relating to, say, good or bad forecasts. It may be overdue sales orders. Maybe there's missing materials, incomplete production orders, deliveries, and so on. But it really helps us unpack that. And just by way of a quick example, if I look at one of these planned orders in between. If I was to double click on that planned order, look what happens. It opens up the details that are behind it. And so when I get into that conversation as a team, when I get into that conversation as a production team or as a purchasing team, whatever it might be, I can start to look at really what's going on. I can understand the links that are inside of that and it makes things so much more easy for me to understand. And I can see now from the links, from the supplier all the way through to that demand picture. So it really is a phenomenal opportunity for us to have those conversations. And I want to encourage you, that as you get out there, take a look at the ripple effect that you're seeing on your business and use this graphical functionality to enable you to get to a point where you can have good conversations. And with that, we're back in the studio. I hope you found that walkthrough helpful. Today, we wanted to give you a little bit of how you can be curious and explore in your own system. A few key things to keep in mind. One is the visualization of the ripple effect helps us to get a picture of the magnitude of the impact when we're dealing with a wrinkle in the supply or we're working on changing priorities. Two, this is a visual infographic that can be quickly brought up in meetings to answer questions and demonstrate concerns based on that magnitude of impact we just mentioned. And three, this is the visual representation of the pegging report. We have a lovely video on that for you to check out and it walks through the full anatomy of that report. So there's more to come. Thank you, Sean. And thank you for taking one of my favorite topics on the ripple effect. This is just one of those areas that actually just help us with cross functional understanding and just really understand the impact of up and downstream supply chain challenges. So folks, if you want to learn more about how to apply some of these tools, please use our chatbot that will actually help recommend some videos based on your specific questions. Otherwise, if you have a question for us, feel free to submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; MD03

The best way to learn is by doing, so welcome supply chain practitioners. Martin here. Ready for another topic to ante up the value of your SAP solution? Okay, today we're diving into an important topic around how to buffer and protect against disruptions. Today's topic is an introduction to safety time. Now SAP has a variety of safety techniques from traditional static safety stock, either via entry or by letting SAP calculate it to dynamic safety stock that moves with demand based on coverage profiles assigned to them. Now SAP has a variety of safety techniques from traditional static safety stock, either via entry or by letting SAP calculate it, to dynamic safety stock that moves with demand based on coverage profiles assigned, to safety time, which seeks to address challenges with the timing of demand or delays in supply. Each has their uses, and we have a series of videos dedicated to the exploration of each. For a topic like this, we need a solid tour guide, and we didn't have to look far to find a good one. Today, I'm pleased to introduce you to Luke. Luke, why don't you share your idea specifically on the topic of safety time. I will take that baton, Martin. While I'm just getting started in my supply chain career, I do know that the one thing that is always constant is our need to work with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. We need a really solid toolkit to address these conditions and prevent disruptions. And I find safety time to be an interesting way to protect and problem solve. It literally seeks to buy us time. And yes, that time does come with a cost which we need to be aware of. On our tour today, I'm going to show you how MRP responds to safety time, and how we can toggle it on and off in the stock requirements list, so we can check our planning and evaluate what's happening. And while we're there, I'll walk through some options for settings. Let's take a look. Well, if the best way to learn is by doing, we should get right to it. What we can see here is a planning situation which we're going to review from our home base, the stock requirements list. Whenever we want to explore a new feature or even master data value, it helps us start with a simple or familiar planning situation and then build up from there. We can see that this material has a demand plan and a simple plan for replenishment that uses a lot for lot size procedure. Let's take a look at our planning settings. We can bridge the material master via change mode because I do intend on making an adjustment. If I was not planning to make an adjustment, I'd be going in with display only. That's an important habit. Okay, here we are in MRP1. You can see we're using an MRP type that is deterministic in nature and follows the demand plan. Here's the aforementioned lot size procedure that is matching the demand, lot for lot, and I've not added a MLQ or rounding value. We'll come back and play with those in a moment, but let's head over to MRP2 for now. Here's where our procurement type, lead time, and GR processing time lives. Let's take a look at our safety options. Okay, picture this. You have a supplier that is struggling to deliver on time, you are working with them on their challenges and want to continue holding them to their stated lead times, but also want to protect the shop floor and ultimately the customer from your supplier's performance. This is a specific and temporary condition that aligns well with the use of safety time. So let's add some here. I need to do two things. Choose how much safety time and set the safety time indicator. We have two options for which demand we want to include in our offset. Independent demand only or everything. We're going with everything today. Okay, so let's save. Now using my handy navigation profile, I'm going to ask MRP run. But before I do, let's take a second to look at the current timing of supply. Confirm we like the settings, and here we can see that there are some changes. Okay, now let's go back to the stock requirements list and refresh. Here we can see that offset. A good way to make this really easy when you're getting started or sharing this technique with the team is to toggle safety time on and off. It makes it really easy to see the offset. Now last thing, let's go back to the Material Master and add a periodic lot size. Let's add a MOQ and a rounding value as well. Now we can save and let's go run MRP one more time. Confirm we like the settings. See, those are some pretty big impacts. Now, as we see, this is a very important tool, but it does firmly demonstrate that time is money. Thank you all so much for taking a tour through Safety Time with me. I think this is an interesting tool that should be a standard part of our toolkit. Now before you go, I do want to mention a few Surgeon General Warnings. First, it's worth saying one more time. Although this is a time buffer, it does reflect a commitment and inventory investment. Second, Safety Time should be used in specific and temporary situations like the example we walked through today. Lastly, please be careful to avoid stacking safety techniques. Choose a path, define a well and make it transparent to the team. Thank you very much. Hey, Luke, I appreciate your guidance and your perspective on this. Thanks for the tour. I know that we have another video to share on the additional features of dynamic safety time. So be on the lookout for that and explore it when it's available. That'll be a great way to continue this conversation. Also, if you're struggling to find videos, feel free to use the chatbot or if you have a very specific question just for us, please submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

MD04; MD03

Hey there supply chain enthusiasts, Martin here with a topic to help you tackle a beast of a challenge. SAP offers a variety of ways to tackle variability, volatility, and disruptions in the supply chain. From conventional static safety stock, to dynamic ranges of coverage, to safety time, they all have their place and purpose. And so long as you're not stacking them on the same material, all have a place in the planner's toolkit. But did you know that we also have something called dynamic or time period dependent safety time? This is an opportunity worthy of conversation. Hey Sam, I know you're here to talk us through time period dependent safety time and some of the ways it could be useful. Please help us understand what exactly it is and how we could use it. Yep Martin, it's a good question. We're always going to be dealing with challenges in the supply chain. The question is, what we can do to provide practical protection and risk mitigation without sacrificing inventory performance. So, we want to protect, but not be overprotective, and one of the things we need to consider specifically with safety time is that there are rules for when it should and should not be used. First and foremost, it should be specific in purpose and intended to be a temporary solution. With time dependent safety time, we can go a step further, and when we want to apply it, pre plan for a known temporary constraint, and then return it to normal. It does require a bit of setup and configuration, so think of this as a pre planned events or known time dependent constraints. And for those of us on S/4 and living in the Fiori world, there's an app for that that makes things easier. This is the beauty of solution for some of our most beastly challenges. Let's dive into SAP and explore, I'm excited to give you the tour. Let's go to homebase. Here we are in the stock requirements list and we're looking at a material that has had some challenges in consistent delivery. It currently does have some safety time in place. I'm going to go into the Material Master, head to the MRP2 tab, and scroll down a little bit. These are the current safety time settings. Having safety time in place means we want to follow the demand and not add additional inventory on shelf. But we want the inventory to appear to be due earlier. Now, we may be protecting against variability in demand, in which case we want it on the shelf early because we're not confident in the timing of the demand but we don't want to bring in more than what the demand plant states. Or, we have a process performance issue that we're trying to address. We know it may be late and we're working to improve the performance with that supplier. Safety time should be here for a specific reason and should be intended to be temporary. We can put a note in the material memo for what, why, and how long. The other thing we can do here in the stock requirements list is that we can toggle the safety time on and off to understand the impacts. Speaking of impacts, sometimes we know we've got a tricky situation coming up. Think port congestion at peak times, holiday season, Chinese New Year, things we would proactively go in and try to plan around or pull orders forward for. Well, when we do that, A, it's a beast of a job because we have to do all that manually or get creative, which can be risky, and B, MRP doesn't know why we're doing what we're doing and we get a ton of exception messages. Now, whenever we change key master data, which includes all safety stock , we're going to get some exception messages. There's always a transition period. But you don't want your exceptions firing up and telling you to delay something you've intentionally sped up because you need safety time in place. That is counterproductive. Now, you can see as we've been talking, I've been adding in time dependent safety time. And the beauty of that is that going to plan for a temporary beast of a challenge and then return planning to normal after it's through. It's candy season in Chicago and we can't get trucks. So, I've set this for November 5th to December 5th. Let's run MRP just to get a nice, refreshed line of sight on planning. Yes, yes, I'm sure. Run, baby, run. Okay, good job, MRP. Now, I'm going to go back to the stock requirements list , and let's take a moment to toggle safety time on and off. There we go. Hopefully a new trick to add to your toolkit. We live for aha moments and contemplative looks around here. I really hope this gives you some ideas around how to keep the system and the planning engine that is MRP up to speed on known periods of challenge. It is no fun having to go in and manually manipulate dates or expedite a process off cycle. This gives us an opportunity to plan in advance and meet the challenges in a more elegant way. After all, in supply chain, all we truly have to work with for planning is quantity and time. Hey Sam, thank you so much. I'm a big proponent of MRP running with a full deck of insight. So this is an interesting tool to add to the toolkit. It's a different way to rise to a common challenge. So thank you. Good stuff. Hey folks, if you are looking for some more details on this topic or others, feel free to use the chatbot to recommend some videos for you.

Quality & Batch Management

P2P; PTM; QM

MM03

Hey there, fellow seekers of quality, Martin here. Managing a supply chain requires the right product, at the right place, at the right time, at the right price, and more specific, at the right quality. So let's talk through one of the key features SAP offers to support us in getting there. It's called skip lots in quality management. skip lots offer an incredible effective technique for building efficiency into the quality management procedures where demonstrated quality is in place. It allows us to focus time and attention on the areas that is the highest risk while permitting more flow where the risk is less. Today, Tom is going to talk us through skip lots. Tom, tell us more and help us understand what skip lots are. Hi, Martin. Let's start with a couple of quick things, and then we'll dive right into the system and see where the skip lot setup happens in the material master. So here's the deal. A skip lot is a sampling procedure whereby we are sampling only a fraction of the goods coming in. It allows us to keep an eye on things without checking everything and can be very useful when the demonstrated performance is high. Or, we don't have regulatory reporting requirements for a full inspection and the risk is not very high on the material that is subject to inspection. There needs to be a solid proven track record from the source and for the material. Let's jump into SAP and take a look at our skip lot procedures. It's important to remember a skip lot is simply a procedure that SAP allows us to skip inspecting certain lots instead of inspecting every single lot. This is particularly useful when the quality of the product is consistently high. So as we can see, we're in the material master in SAP on the Quality management tab. We're going to focus our attention on the inspection setup. When we go into inspection setup, down here it shows us skip lot allowed, which is currently checked on. The other important factor to this, when we're looking at skip lot procedures, is our dynamic modification rule. The dynamic modification rules are what actually dictate the procedure we follow with skip lots. So as we hit our drop down menu, we can see the available options for our skip lot procedures. We would focus our attention on skip lot procedure Z02. We can see we would inspect 1 lot, then skip the following 3 lots upon inspections. If we would shift our focus to the Z03 skip lot procedure, we would inspect 5 lots and then skip the next 10 lots. This is the procedure that SAP will follow when we set up skip lots. Setting up a skip lot in SAP increases our efficiency. It reduces the number of inspections required, leading to decreased inspection time and cost. It can also help us focus on risk management. It allows the quality team to focus their resources on the lots that are more likely to have quality issues based on our historical data. It'll improve our quality throughput. It speeds up the process, by minimizing inspection delays for lots that have high probability of meeting our quality standards. The key factors we have to remember when setting up a skip lot is our historical data. A skip lot procedure should only be based on a robust history of quality , to ensure the only lots with proven consistent quality are skipped. Using skip lots effectively can lead to a significant improvement in our quality management efficiency, but it should only be implemented with careful consideration of the quality risk involved. Thank you very much for taking the little walk through SAP with me. Let's take a moment to highlight the importance of what we just ran through. Skip lots are an effective technique to prioritize our time and energy towards the materials that represent the highest risk. Because we are only sampling some of the materials and not every good receipt. We need to keep up on the sampling, it must be timely. We also need to be vigilant in monitoring the results. If something comes back out of spec, it's very important that we take a decision on upping our inspection procedures for that material or supplier. We need to constantly monitor and stay on top of what's happening. This is a great technique when used correctly and offers flexibility to meet specific business needs. Hey Tom, thanks again. Much appreciated. Skip plots are an important tool in the quality management arsenal. I'm glad you were here to help us discuss it today. Thanks again. It really is going to help us focus our prioritization in both control and flow. Hey folks, if you want to learn more about quality management or even some of these additional features that we talked about today with Tom, please use the chatbot. And of course, if you have a specific question or suggestion for us, submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; WM

MIGO; MMBE

Hey folks, welcome back, Martin here. Today we're introducing a topic that falls into the category of seems like a good idea, but also a lot of work. It's worth it. Today we're introducing the concept of vendor consignment. This is a great opportunity to work with your strategic partners to share in the responsibility for carrying inventory. Organizations who do this well are able to negotiate terms with their suppliers that are fair, equitable, and reasonable to manage. I'm going to hand it over to Dave, who will give us a high level orientation to vendor consignment and provide some insights into how we might get started with this program. So Dave, take us away. No time like the present, Martin. In today's dive into SAP, I'm going to take the time to provide a simple definition of vendor consignment. I will introduce you to one of the key concepts that help us identify consignment materials in the form of special stock. And I'll briefly outline what the typical consignment process might look like. All of this to be further explored in later videos. Today is just the start. Let's go in and let SAP assist with bringing this introductory orientation to life . Processing the MIGO goods receipt MIGO 101 goods receipt for the document I just created quantity I'm going to receive the full quantity in, this is going to be put into my consignment warehouse, check the item is OK, and, document is OK Item is posted. Now, I can check my inventory level to see where this item is, it's been receipted into my vendor consignment inventory, you can see it's sitting in unrestricted, but it's in vendor consignment, so at this point, it is unvaluated. Now I am at the point where I want to use up this material, I am ready to consume the material in my warehouse or my operation, I'll execute a transfer posting. The transfer posting does a 411 movement type, K. The material again, FG13, I can change the destination, what material is going to be posted to, or I can leave it the same, I can indicate what location I want to move it to, all in one transaction, so 1710. You go from location 71A, I'm going to keep it in the same location to keep this simple presentation. And I'm going to indicate who was my supplier. So at this point, I need to just insert the quantities that I'm going to consume, I don't have to consume the full quantity, but I'm going to consume it. And once I have completed the 411k, I can check my movements, and as you can see, the vendor consignment has now been moved into my own stock in location 171A. There are some significant benefits to a vendor consignment program when properly designed and qualified. It helps us to share in the burden of inventory risk and holding and brings our suppliers into deeper strategic partnerships. However, we need to carefully consider the materials we select and the terms we agree to. Consignment programs require diligent care and feeding to ensure that we've been great stewards of both our suppliers and our own investment. We need to make sure we're all on the same page for how much risk we're willing to take in terms of inventory stocking position, expected turns and associated terms of ownership and payment. Spending the time up front to focus on preparation sets the program up for success and eases the burden and anxiety of starting something new or expanding a fledging program that has yet to find its wings. That's awesome Dave, thank you. The importance of getting this right is often undervalued and it's a big missed opportunity for a lot of organizations. I'd wager most folks listening to this could uncover a hidden opportunity in their organization simply by reviewing some of the highlights from this video in their own business. Can't wait to hear about some of these outcomes. If you want to learn more about this particular topic or other videos about how to exploit your SAP system, please check out our catalog, and if you have a specific question, feel free to suggest it below.

Scheduling & Shop Floor

PTM

COGI; MMBE

Hey, welcome back supply chain superstars. Martin here, and today we're going after a super glamorous topic. Resolving errors in goods issues. Okay. Okay. Okay. I know it's actually is not the most glamorous of topics, but it is truly an important one. Having a clean and healthy system that reflects timely and completed transactional postings is a big part of having a system we can trust. Accounting for our inventory properly and knowing where it is located opens the doors to better quality and ATP. Our advisor for today is going to lead us on this quest, and to tidy our system is our friend Tom. Tom, tell us more about COGI errors and how we can actually use them to improve our system accuracy. Well, as it happens, Martin, not only are we going to talk about how to resolve COGI errors as they occur, but also how to reduce the number of errors we're getting in the first place. Like all cleanup after the problem has occurred, the investigation and cleanup is easier the quicker you get to it. In this case, sooner is much better. If you have a COGI error, SAP can't find the balance of materials that was to be issued to the manufacturing order in the place that it was supposed to be looking. So, we need to see if the quantity or location is incorrect and then get it pointed in the right direction. Let's get in the system and look at some examples. I'll tell you a story or two as we go. Now let's dive into SAP and take a closer look at COGI errors. We'll start by looking at the SAP menu and finding the transaction code for COGI. We start at the top in the Logistics folder. We drop to Production, drop down to Shop Floor Control, drop down to Confirmation, drop down to Reprocessing, and there you'll find the COGI. The other simple trick for finding COGI is just go into your menu, type in COGI, off you go into the transaction. As we enter the COGI transaction, we can clearly see that there is a number of search criteria we can do to limit the search for specific errors, specific plants, specific situations we might be looking for. In this example, we're going to just look at plant level COGI errors and make sure we understand the status of our COGIs for the entire plant. So we're going to go into plant 1000 and execute to look for COGI errors. As we enter, we see there are two COGI errors. And it's important to remember that we want to make sure our COGIs are up to date because there's impacts on the operation in our organization when COGI errors go unchecked. We have data accuracy issues. We'll have inventory discrepancies. We will have operational inefficiencies and we'll have a financial impact if we try to close our books at month end and COGI errors haven't been processed. So as we dive into this situation here we can see we have two COGIs. We'll highlight the first one and we'll discuss the details. As we can see here we have 300 pieces in our requirement for this error. It's also looking for these materials in storage location 1. So SAP expected there to be 300 pieces of this raw material in our storage location 1. Now as we dig a little deeper, we can look in the stock location situation for this material. As we look here, we can see we're in plant 1000, storage location 1, and we see we only have 12 pieces in unrestricted use. That means we did not have enough raw materials in the proper storage location for this confirmation. We can also see we seem to have plenty of raw material in other storage locations in the same plant. The issues we're facing here is that we've consumed 300 pieces but we haven't accounted for them in SAP. So now our raw material quantities are inaccurate. We also have the inefficiency of needing to go back now and fix this error, fix the process, and understand what happened. Was it a simple transactional error, or was there a process issue involved that caused this issue? Root cause analysis on that will be very important because as we fix those root causes and we understand what's causing these issues, they will not reoccur. Meaning, if we fix our process of transferring the right materials at the right time, this COGI error doesn't happen in the first place. So as we dig in and we look at these COGI errors and we need to understand why they happen in the first place, it'll help us prevent future COGI errors from happening in general. In this situation here, we may ask for a cycle count to determine, were raw materials taken from one of these other storage locations and brought to our storage location 1 without doing a transactional piece in SAP? If so, we do a simple transfer in the system to clear up the issue and the COGI will go away. So that's a simple example in the system how one COGI error can affect us in many ways. To recap, we needed 300 pieces, we consumed 300 pieces on the production order, yet SAP did not consume those materials. So now we're sitting here with 300 pieces inflating our inventory that aren't actually there because the situation wasn't resolved. So it is vastly important as we go into COGI that we make sure we have timely execution of our COGI errors, because it's going to keep our data system integrity accurate. It's going to help us by not wasting time chasing in root cause analysis, these errors and these issues. It will also help our financials closing at the end of the month, not having stuck processing errors that we need to correct before we can close our books. Listen, I know the after the fact cleanup task in SAP are no one's favorite. But if we make COGI cleanup a shift by shift or daily practice, we can start to get the value out of the messages. This is a type of exception monitoring and it's letting us know that we either have a process issue, a transactional timeliness issue, or a master data issue. Looking for trends leads us to making corrections that go beyond just that one error in processing. We can reduce the noise and improve the quality of our process flow and our data at the same time. We all benefit when the system is neat and tidy. And I can tell you, that as a planner, I want to know that all of these transactions went through and the system is clean, clear, and under control. Thanks for that walkthrough, Tom. No one wants to see stranded postings, especially as we cross periods. Let's make sure we act on these quickly and resolve them with process or data fixes to make things better over time. Thanks again, Tom. Hey folks, if you have more questions related to how to keep the house clean, please use the chatbot. It will recommend some videos for you to watch. But if you have a very specific question for us, please submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; WM

ME21N; MIGO

Hello, SAP supply chain aficionados. Martin here, and today we're on a quest to unlock the hidden treasures within your SAP system. Ready to reveal some full potential? Let's jump straight into it. Today we're going to dig into a topic that has been popping up for several of our clients. How does SAP support taking possession of goods at a port or origin? How can you readily see that the supplier has done their part, but the goods are not physically at the location, physically inspected, received or put away? Today, we're going to have a brief overview of this important capability in SAP. Dave's going to tell us more about what we can do around standard procedures to allow for this process and the associated information and the statuses to flow in SAP. Dave, take us away. Hi Martin. Yes, this is an area where we've seen some very creative workarounds. But this is not an uncommon practice, and there is a standard solution. It's a two step goods receipt process, which allows us to acknowledge the transfer position, kick start the payment terms, and still have visibility into the stage of processing we're in. For example, if you take possession at port, you don't want to show the goods as fully received and available immediately for use. There is an expected process to facilitate this arrangement. So today, we'll go in and get an overview of the basics. I will show you a PO that's in flight and how the movements which trigger the changes in status, which enables the different activities to occur. Let's go in and take a look. This demonstration is going to show how we take ownership of a product at the shipping location. It could be external, it could be international. We have to create a purchase order. purchase order is created and, once we receive the goods, in fact in this case, we take ownership of the goods almost immediately. purchase order number ends in 284. So what I want to do is now process a MIGO 107. So I'm gonna do a goods receipt for purchase order and the goods receipt movement type is a 107. 107 puts it into goods receipt block stock. 107, here we go. Quantity that I need to put in 450 units. What's on the delivery note? I'm putting it into my, block stock. On completion of the 107. These goods are now owned by my company. The next step is now to process the goods receipt. Once the goods arrive physically at my warehouse, I now actually want to put them into my unrestricted stock so I can use them. This could take a number of days, but when the goods arrive, I am ready to process them. I can indicate what quantity was received at the dock. So I'm putting in the same quantities. I can indicate where I want to post it to, in this case, it's going to my store location, finished goods store location, and I can then close that receipt and these goods now belong to us and are actually in our warehouse. Welcome back from our little basics overview. Today we saw how the 107 and 109 movement types, triggered by the way we set up the PO, facilitates a process where we acknowledge the supplier has sent the goods. It's now in our hands to handle the logistics of getting it to our facility and the subsequent process of making it available for use. This creates much needed visibility. Allows us to meet the payment terms as agreed without additional math or manual intervention. And still allows for subsequent processing if an unexpected situation pops up upon goods receipt. So this is the standard process. Give it a try, and see if it meets your needs. Thanks again, and as always, great inputs. We've seen some really interesting ways to facilitate this process. It's nice to get an idea of how SAP is already prepared to handle this for us. So folks, as always, if you have a specific question, please submit it below. And of course, if you have different thoughts or questions around what you want to see, check out our video catalog.

SAP Optimization

P2P; PTM; OTC; WM

SCAL; MD04; VA02

Hey there Reveal TV community, welcome back. Thank you for finding the time to join us today. We love sprinkling a little SAP goodness into your day. Every new thing we learn or confirm, we want to teach you and give you more confidence in the use of the tool. So this is our adventure with you. Every once in a while we pose what may seem a simple foundational learning objective that just offers tons of opportunity. Today is one of those days. In today's demo, we're going to explore none other than the factory calendar. Our sherpa is Tom. Now Tom lives this every day, and I know from his experience that he knows exactly how to make the most out of this mundane and uninteresting thing called the factory calendar. Is it truly that mundane? Tom, tell us more. I can see how you might think that, Martin. I mean, how often do we really interact with the factory calendar? You define some work days, extend it now and again, and off to the races as you go. And for most of us, this happens in the background. The only time we think of it is if it hasn't been extended, and when we get an error. But here's the thing, the factory calendar has tentacles into so many of our activities that support planning, procurement, logistics, and customer experience. It's well worth a conversation, and all the things it influences might surprise you. In today's demo, we're going to. Locate where we can display the factory calendar. I'll then show you a couple of key places where the planning calendar is referenced in our processes. And I'll close out with a couple of good examples of where the factory calendar is defaulted. But we have the option to either choose which calendar to use or to apply the more specific tactic like shifts and intervals to your process. Let's get into SAP and take a look. Now let's dive into SAP and take a look at our factory calendar. We can access the factory calendar by accessing Tcode SCAL. As we enter that transaction code, you'll see an option on the bottom for factory calendars and to view factory calendars. You're going to see as the initial list pulls up, we can have a factory calendar for every different location that's deemed a factory in SAP. In this example, we're going to narrow in on our factory calendar Z2. As we look at our factory calendar Z2, it'll pull up every year that this factory calendar has been in SAP. Right now we're going to focus on the current year, 2024. When we get into our factory calendar, we're legitimately going to see a calendar. What you're going to see on the right hand side is we have public holidays, which are deemed non working days in our factory calendar. We can also see that we have Saturdays and Sundays marked as non working days in our factory calendar. What this does is it blocks certain activities from happening on those days, whether it's production, sales orders, or possibly deliveries, receipts. It's telling us that these are non working days and those transactions or those functions can't happen on those days. We can also add extra days into our factory calendar if we know we're going to be shut down, have a special circumstance happening, or we're not going to be available to perform certain activities. We can mark those out as non working days in our factory calendar and SAP will avoid using those days for those chosen activities. Now, as we look deeper in our factory calendar, let's look to see what this connects to and how this affects our everyday planning life. For this example, I'm going to pull up transaction code MD04. I'm going to look at finished material P101 and plant 1000. We can see in this example, we have several sales orders and several production orders for this finished material. We're going to select one of our production orders, go into change mode, try to change our production finish date to a non calendar day in our factory calendar. We're going to change this to a non working day in our planning calendar. And a very simple non working day in our planning calendar, in most instances , will be Christmas Day. So as I switch this to Christmas Day, and try to schedule this production order to run on Christmas Day, you can clearly see I get a message that says 12/25/2024 is not a working day. The previous working day is 12/24, so this will not allow us to pick a non working day in our factory calendar for this production order. And in fact, the system will override it and push that out to 12/26. So here we can see the factory calendar has prohibited us from production on a non working day in our calendar. Let's go one step farther. If we take one of these sales orders that's also affected by the same material number, go in to change the sales order, take sales order number , 14710 and let's say the customer did want this sales order to deliver on Christmas Day. Again, very clear example of what typically is not a working day. So we're going to select December 25th to move this requested delivery date. As I enter through, you're going to see a typical message , no goods accepted on 12/25/2024. It's going to tell me my next possible day is the 27th of December. Again, this is another clear example of where our factory calendar is overriding what we would type in. And if I try to push my way through it, it will not allow me to save this on 12/25. So let's look at one more option of a factory calendar. Let's go in and look at a sales order in VA02. We're going to look at sales order 14710. As we enter this sales order, we're going to attempt to change the requested delivery date again to Christmas Day. As I select Christmas Day for my sales order and enter through, I receive the same message . No goods accepted on 12/25, the next possible day is 12/27. So this is yet another example of how our factory calendar will not allow us to change dates to a non working day. Now you might say there are times where we want to override the factory calendar. Let's say we're going to work a weekend in a certain work center and we want that weekend to become a working day and not abide by the rules of our factory calendar. We can change this or override it by looking at the work center level in SAP. As we enter the work center, in this example, we'll look at Work Center 1721. What we want to do is go to the capacities tab and we look at the capacity default, SAP, our capacity requirements are defined by our calendar, so when we get into SAP, it's going to say our available capacity is based on our factory calendar, meaning that's the amount of days we have available to produce. But in this instance where we want to work a weekend and we want that to be available to capacity, we have the options for shifts and intervals to override our factory calendar. Inside of shifts and intervals, you see we have a lot of different options in here for shifts and intervals, but on workdays, if we hit the drop down menu, you can see we have the choice, working days according to the factory calendar, which is what we have in there at a default, or we can override the factory calendar for non working days as well. So in this instance, in our shifts and intervals option inside of the work center, we can override the factory calendar and consider non working days to be work days for this particular work center. So there are opportunities, as we get deeper and deeper into SAP, and know exactly where we need to override our factory calendar, we have the ability to do that on a work center level. So as we've seen in this example, our factory calendar is something that's pushed out by IT. We often don't give it a lot of consideration, but it does have a major impact on the planning world, both production, shipping, receiving, and customer orders. Never could have imagined that there is so much to the factory calendar when I first heard about it. I thought, cool, that's our working hours, IT looks after it, and that's about how far I took it. Now I know how powerful it is, and how to put it to good use. I know that it can't just be an IT exercise to extend, but we need to think about when we're open for which activities, and set up the appropriate rules and review them regularly. We need to plan for deviations based on the activity we're executing and keep SAP informed of those deviations. Last but not least, SAP loves the most specific information. So knowing we are in control when we need to override for a particular situation is key. We have the power. Hey Tom, thanks very much. We just love your ability to put things into perspective and help us focus on what's important. I have a new appreciation for the power of the factory calendar, so thank you my friend. Hey folks, there's a lot of other topics like this one in particular, if it's hard to find, please use the chatbot and it'll actually recommend some videos for you to watch. But if you have a specific question, feel free to submit it below.

Procurement & MRP

P2P

MD04; MM03; ME33L; ME84

Hello fellow supply chain spelunkers, Martin here. Ready to dive in with you and get an introduction into just in time releases to facilitate replenishment from key suppliers. This is a feature of SAP that is more widely used in some industries than others, but has much broader applicability than people realize. It's an effective way to communicate needs to your suppliers and manage a forecast to plan versus a release to ship effectively. Now we've talked a bit about it in the past, about firm and trade off zones in scheduling agreements. We're going to try and take it to the next level today in more formal arrangements and a higher degree of control. Here to introduce us to this topic is Patrick. So Patrick, what do we need to know to make this feature work for us? Yep Martin, it's a good question. As you said, a lot of folks aren't familiar with this option. Once we get out of specific industries. Automotive, I'm looking at you. And that's unfortunate because it does have a high value proposition, which we'll explore together today. So, I'm going to cover a few things today to get the wheels turning. It should always start with the why, when we're talking about new to you functionality. So that's a thread we'll explore throughout. We'll also see an example and some of the setup required. This leads us to a few points around communication and making sure we're communicating effectively. Are we all receiving the right signals for success? Let's dive into SAP and explore. I'm eager to see what we can find. Okay, so here we are in SAP and you can see that I'm on the MD04 screen, obviously most of you are probably familiar with this. What I wanted to show here was some scheduling agreements, if you aren't familiar with them, they look like any other purchase order and they have exception message and reschedule dates. So we should probably be thinking about how we're going to address those. But for today, we want to actually get some more details on the just in time indicator. So I'm going to double click on this material number. And that's going to bring me into MM03, which is to display our material master. The section we want to go to is actually purchasing, and in the purchasing tab, if we scroll down into the other data slash manufacturer data section, we'll see the JIT scheduling indicator. And I'm going to click here just to show you guys what the options are. Here we have an option to do no JIT deliveries. We also have an option to automatically do those deliveries. So let's keep that in mind because when we go look at our scheduling agreement, this is going to be an important piece of information for you. So, let's actually go to that scheduling agreement, and let's go to ME33L. That brings us in to display our scheduling agreement. You can see that it's pre populated the scheduling agreement number here. Now, I'm displaying our scheduling agreement, and as stated, we're on the ME33L transaction. What we want to do is we actually want to go look at this little magnifying glass up here, which is to display additional data. So I'm going to click on that. I actually have to highlight the item first before I click on it, now that the item has been selected and we're in the additional data section, again, we're going to scroll down to the bottom to see some information about our JIT deliveries. So, you can see in the output controls section of this,additional detail, we have some information related to just in time indicator. And this is, again, the same one that we looked at on the material master, being populated on the scheduling agreement. It's best practice to set this on the material master so it can be automatically populated here. In addition, we can see a few other things here in the output control section. We can actually see the next forecast delivery schedule transmission date, which is September 3rd. This is when the next forecast delivery schedule is going to be transmitted to the vendor. We can also see the next just in time delivery schedule date and this is when the next JIT delivery schedule will be transmitted to the vendor and that's important to us. Our just in time delivery schedule involves releasing specific quantities at precise times according to a schedule line. So it's pretty important for us to make sure that this is accurate and you can see here, the next delivery is set for August 7th. Now, let's do one more thing before we wrap it up. Let's use the ME84 transaction, and we can use that to see the parameters that are used to create releases. So, here we are, we can see the parameters that are used to create releases. We have a lot of options here that specify the types of scheduling agreement releases that need to be created. In this case, we're going to create delivery schedules but you could do forecast, you could do, JIT, you could do forecast and JIT schedules. So, our default is set to forecast and JIT, so we're going to do that one. But there might be other options that you prefer for your particular business. And we have the ability to execute this as a test run, just so that we can see the results, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. So, down here, If I scroll down, I can see that we have test run selected, which means nothing's actually going to get transmitted when we run this. We're just going to see the results. So let's see what it tells us. Here we are. We have our test run and we have green lights, which is great. Obviously, yellow lights and red lights mean something different, but at the end of the day, we should remember that JIT releases help streamline shipping for our vendors and help them optimize their processes. So if we can help them streamline, it will benefit all of us. Diving into SAP really is the best way to learn by doing. Thanks for joining me today. Before we wrap, just a couple of key points and reminders to take with you as you contemplate the use of just in time delivery schedules for your organization. First, do you have a practical need that could be addressed? We talked through a couple of use cases today and there are certainly others. With this change, will you see value? Is the information now clearer for your suppliers? By providing a forecast and a firm delivery schedule, does it set up your suppliers for success and get you the deliveries you need when you need them? And last but not least, based on how you are able to send requests to your suppliers today, can they reliably receive and respond within a time frame that meets your expectations? This is a really nice tool, and I think it's underutilized. Hopefully this preview will spark a desire to learn more. Hey, thank you so much, Patrick. That was such a good summary of just in time releases and how we might think about them. I too hope people will be inspired and go and explore more. Thank you again. So folks, if you want to know more about this topic and some of the other topics that exist within this particular area, please check out our video catalog, and if you have a particular question, feel free to submit it below.

Quality & Batch Management

QM; P2P; PTM

QA33; MD07; MD04

Hey there Reveal TV community, Martin here. And today I believe we have a quality topic for you. One of my favorite things to see when we're out walking the floor is what's happening to the world of quality inspection. It's such a critical function and often so overlooked. Many of the times the challenge we see in quality isn't the actual defects. It's the efficient movement of material through the inspection process and having the right people, equipment and partners, et cetera, to keep it up. It actually turns into a physical backup on the shop floor, often exploding into exception messages, status confusion, and queue shuffling. Hey Jason, I know this is a tough topic, but such an important one. Tell us more. I completely agree that while quality is central to our processes and while everyone understands that it's a critical step, we really do struggle to keep tabs, keep up, and remain sufficiently resourced. So I can't wait to get into this. Today, we're going to explore how we as planners and buyers and MRP controllers can support our quality colleagues in prioritizing the inspection backlog. In today's video, we will. Identify some past due usage decisions and lock closeouts. Figure out which items have red lights by generating a work list. And use days of forward coverage in our exception messages to help prioritize a list to discuss with our partners in quality. Let's go in and take a look. You'll hear us talk a lot about integration and learning how to work collaboratively across the supply chain using exception messages to direct our actions to the most critical items. It often seems, though, that the quality team gets left behind a bit in this effort. They're off in their own little world, trying to figure out which inspections are most critical, often just taking them in order of start date without really knowing which ones are the most critical to keep the flow of production happening. Other than maybe getting an angry email or phone call when things go off the rails, they're pretty much on their own. Well, out of sight, out of mind is never a good approach to managing critical supply chain functions. So I'm going to share a couple of simple ways that we can help the quality team have better visibility to where they should focus their efforts. Here, you see the selection screen for QA33, which allows us to view inspection lots. We have a number of selection options here to choose from on the main screen, but I want to share a little inside pro tip to expand options. At the top left, you can see a red, green, and blue button. I thought surely this must be someone's flag, however my search proved to be frustrating and I was not able to find it. So, if someone knows out there, I'm curious. Can you send me an email and just let me know which country this belongs to? Or town, or county, I don't know. Whatever. Anyway, this is called dynamic selection options and, when I pop it up, you can see here that I get a bunch of different options that weren't there before. So for example, maybe I want to search QM Lots based on a specific purchase order number or specific purchase org. Those are options that I can use just by clicking here and then I can put my document in and run the list by that. So just a cool little tip that maybe a lot of people don't know about. You can explore this and take note that that button's available in a number of other transactions, so keep an eye out for it, and you might find it can help you refine your searches. Okay, enough of that, for this demo, I'm just going to keep it simple, I'm going to look at plant 1710, and I'm going to use only inspection lots without a usage decision. Now, this can sometimes run a little bit long, so I've already brought the information up on a different screen , and so here we go. First off, I have sorted these on the start date, earliest to latest. Now this is a perfectly logical way to prioritize the list and is often the approach when we're not collaborating as effectively across the supply chain as we possibly could. But how might we use other information in SAP to find out if there's a better sequence to support critical cases? So in this case, I'm going to use the old CTRL Y trick and highlight these guys and then I'm going to CTRL C to copy it to the clipboard and I'm going to pop over to MD07 and upload that list of materials. So I'm only looking at exceptions for those specific materials that I pulled from the QM monitor. So let's run that , and this is a pretty short list, but there's still some good info to be discovered here. If we just went by the dates in QA33, we would inspect one of the lots for QM001, then all four of the lots for this EWMS4-03 material. And then finally, FG129 and the final lots for QM001. But is that really the right approach? Take a look at the three columns that show here the stock days supply, the first receipt days of supply, and second receipt days of supply. What we can see here is that both QM001 and FG129 have red lights over here on the traffic lights, which means that they have a negative supply situation. While the third item is green, meaning that it basically has unlimited coverage. So in this case, if we just follow the dates from QA33, we'd be inspecting four lots of this material here that has no supply disruption and no current demand, while these guys that are having a critical supply situation wait. So that's most likely holding up production and could delay shipping to a customer, which is probably not the best plan. You can do this check very quickly in a daily stand up meeting and provide clear guidance to the quality team on what is most critical for them to complete right now to keep the process flowing. And this is even more crucial if, as we often find, quality is a bottleneck where optimizing the flow is vitally important. So there you have it. A simple way to use the red lights and days of coverage information in the MRP Exception Monitor to better prioritize quality inspections. And I am very serious about figuring out which country that flag belongs to. So help me out, send me an email, let me know what you find out. If it's not obvious, I am passionate about this topic. We so often see quality departments with good procedures that are just struggling to keep up. We need to partner well to provide some perspective on prioritization when there is a backlog. So a few points to take with you. First, Cadence keeps the chaos at bay. Trademark. Regularly review and help your colleagues to review delayed usage decisions or critical incoming inspections. Second, there are all kinds of work lists for status monitoring and QM. Make sure the team knows where to look so that all lots are appropriately addressed. And third, and I can't emphasize this enough, identify and feed your bottlenecks, but don't overfeed them. Work the constraint, look for the pacing that's possible, and adjust your inspection times to reflect reality, then improve that reality. That's what we do to make things better. Hey, thank you Jason. I knew that would get you fired up. Quality both feeds the processes on incoming inspections, and is the last leg in the relay before a product is ready for our customer. We focus on so many of the surrounding processes, but often quality inspection and how we work is prioritized and process is underserved. I'm really glad we're discussing it today. So thank you. Hey folks, you want to learn more about quality management just generally speaking or specifically, check out our chatbot, it will help recommend some videos for you.

Demand & Supply Planning

P2P; PTM

MD04; MM02; MD03

Hello supply chain aficionados, Martin here. And in this time, we're going to explore how SAP can help us when we have so much space for a material, and we want to take full advantage of that allocated space by replenishing to the max stock level. Let's say, for example, that we have a tank, a silo, a shelf of dangerous goods or storage area, available for storage, and we want and need to control the amount on hand. There are a couple of ways to limit the replenishment to a maximum, but today we're going to specifically explore how to take full advantage of the space available by combining the max with an instruction to MRP to replenish to the max as well. Sean Elliffe is the king of inventory optimization and I'm going to ask him to help us talk through what this looks like and how to use the replenishment levels of maximum stock to be able to get what we need. So Sean, take it away. Thank you, Martin. Encountering a physical or regulatory space constraint is a definite challenge. Did you know that SAP can actually help you to pre plan to have the right level of inventory? Think about it as filling up to the max fill line. But planning to stay at or just beneath, depending on the other lot size rules that you may encounter. Now, you may choose to work this in conjunction with a reorder point, which gets you closer to physical reality due to a delayed trigger, or you may choose to plan in advance to the demand and then continue to refine as you get closer to replenishment time. You might then combine this with a schedule agreement and distinguish between a just in time release and a forecasted schedule. We can get quite sophisticated with this, that's for sure. So to get started today, let's keep it simple. Let's jump into SAP and we'll look at replenishing to max stock level using appropriate lot size key, a minimum lot size, a rounding value, and a max stock level so we do not exceed it. After all, the best way of learning is by doing. We are so spoilt for choices on the ways in which we can set up our planning. There are options to fulfill almost any business scenario and today we're going to produce a simple planning situation that will allow us to readily see the impact of three key master data fields and their settings. The large size key, the maximum stock level and a minimum order quantity. So let's jump into our stock requirements list and what we've done is we've set this up for material PLA black in plant 1000 and this material is our black plastic and supports production of our seasonal phone holder. Now we are storage constrained on Gaylord boxes at this particular facility and so we want to make sure that we have 1, 300 pounds of plastic resin in this facility at any given time. Now, we could use reorder points or deterministic planning to achieve this, depending on our requirements. And to keep the focus on lot size, let's keep the PD MRP type in place. From our stock requirements list, what we can do is we can easily go and make the changes and update the material master. A good way to try out this new technique is to just change one thing at a time, not everything at the same time, just one at a time and to check the results. So that's what we're going to do today. We'll build on our planning results as we go. So first, let's simply change the lot size key, which is over here, from two weeks to HB that's replenished to max, and then of course we have to put in place a maximum stock level, which is 1,300 pounds, which we spoke about. And what are we going to do is we're going to save that so that the master data is now correct. And then we're going to run MRP and just see what's happened and how things have changed. So good. Let's go and take a look at that and see what's happening. So here's our MRP, we're running it , off she goes, yes, we have. And this is what we looked like before we made the changes. Now I'm going to just simply refresh and then let's see as an outcome, what has changed. And there you have it. So we can see now based on the rate of demand that we're getting and the proposals that we need, it's taken us to the 1,300 max that we want. And that's really cool, isn't it? But maybe, maybe I'm not quite happy with this. I think we'll add a minimum order quantity, maybe, and a rounding value. So how do we do that? The same way we did early on, we go back to our material master. So I go to environment, change the material, I can see there's my max stock, which I changed my HB, which I changed as well. And this time, what I'm wanting to do is I'm going to add a minimum lot size. So my minimum lot size here is going to be 300. So that's the MOQ minimum order quantities. And at the same time, I'm going to put in a rounding value and the rounding value is going to be 100. So it's going to say, rounded off in hundreds. Now before we go back and run MRP, think about this use case. Maybe you have a Kanban in place, but you aren't yet fully taking advantage of SAP's Kanban board. To get started, you could set a maximum stock level that reflects the total value of your cards and a rounding value of a single card value. Pretty cool, right? Okay. So I've got one more for you. You have a silo that you want to replenish when it hits its footer. So you change your MRP type to a reorder point, we let it replenish to the maximum stock level to fill it up. You may still need some physical control. But this will get the orders in place for a just in time call off and provide a forecast for your suppliers So, so many good options. So let's do the following. Let's save what we've done now. Once again, let's go and run MRP, there's our MRP run, made the changes in the background and now let's see what's happened. If we go back to the stock requirements here is our snapshot of what it was before we made the changes, and if we hit the refresh button, you're going to see the changes that got made. You'll notice those changes that got made down the bottom because we brought in rounding values and minimum orders, these dependent requirements in terms of new supply have adjusted themselves. And you can see that they won't plan to replenish over the max with the introduction of the minimum order quantity and the rounding value, we've further throttled it back until we have planned to have enough room. And so my friends, that is how to build up a planning situation. Get curious, explore, and make it happen. Welcome back from our demo. Before we release you into the wild to go about your day, I want to give a couple of key points. First, as with all planning related settings, the settings controlling your replenishment to max stock level require regular review. And if you find that you need to be more precise and the supplier is nearby, well, consider moving to a reorder point MRP type with an HB lot size key. Second, this feature has many alternative uses and there are also alternatives to achieving a similar result. If you're trying to achieve a pseudo Kanban, that's very possible with container sized rounding values and a max stock level that represents the number of cards. Or using the actual Kanban functionality in SAP might provide a more accurate status for the stock for your use. Last but not least, this process requires management, space is critical constraint, and someone is going to be struggling if the goods are not flowing as you would expect them. Stay in close contact with the floor and be prepared to refine as necessary. Good stuff, Sean. Thank you. Those are some great insights and wonderful ways to engage and be curious. Thank you for the walkthrough and of course helping us brainstorm through this. Hey folks, if you want to know more about this particular topic, feel free to check out our video catalog. And if you're struggling to find a video, use the chatbot that will help you actually recommend a video for you to watch.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; QM; WM

ME22N; VL31N; ME23N; MIGO

Hey everyone, it's time to dive into a useful piece of functionality to support your business. This video specifically, we're going to tell a story to help illustrate how you might take foundational piece of functionality and use it in a slightly less known feature to take the benefits further. Whether the story fits your exact need or sparks your curiosity, enjoy the ride. Rutul is here to show us how we can take an inbound delivery and introduce a batch split to the process to meet a pressing business need and make the process easier on the receiving team. Rutul. Tell the story. Hey Martin. The story goes like this. We have a client in the food and beverage industry that has shelf life requirements on incoming goods. They need this information to make sure the supplier is abiding by the standards they have in place to meet customer requirements and for compliance reporting purposes. It's very important and very visible. So in their old world, the receiving team had to put the shipment to the side, then have the compliance team go in and perform the receiving and the split the batch so that the vendor batch was properly notated and shelf life and the other attributes were also properly referenced. We showed them an alternative wherein they could split the batch at the time of supplier ASN via the inbound delivery. This does a couple of things for them. First, they know the goods are coming. Second, the split is done in advance and is part of the inbound delivery. And third, the receiving team can go ahead and receive the goods and has a reference to physically inspect against. It saved them about three days in getting the goods processed and on the shelf for their customers. Let's go in and take a look. All right, let's take a look at how we can create an inbound delivery when suppliers notify us through ASNs, and further, we can also create this inbound delivery with the batch split to show us that there are different dates of manufacture, vendor batch, or shelf life dates. For that, we will need a PO, let's find one ,We can expand item detail to show us all the details, we can see that there are no confirmations yet entered for this purchase order line item. So, let's go ahead and create an inbound delivery for this purchase order line item with the batch split. Now, of course, ASNs can be part of EDI, but we will create this inbound delivery with manual process here. We are going to go to transaction VL31N to create inbound delivery. We're going to put in the purchase order number and the date, and we will have the information pre populated. Now to do the batch split, you have to go into the line item and click on the batch split tab. And here we have two batches already set up. So we're going to enter those two batch numbers here and you can also look it up in your system and then based on the batch quantities that you want to split, you can assign the quantities. You can see that the system automatically assigns the shelf life date based on the batch. This batch is expiring on July 8th of next year, and this one is expiring on May 1st of next year. Now, let's go ahead and save this and we have an inbound delivery number that we want to make sure we save.The next step and process would be to issue a goods receipt on this inbound delivery. But before we do that, let's go ahead and look at the purchase order number again. We are going to expand the item detail and now you can see that the two delivery items are created, the system automatically assigned the inbound delivery number to the purchase order. It also assigns different batch numbers as well and item numbers and batch numbers and the quantities that are assigned from that batch. All of that shows us which batch number has which quantity we are going to assign and what are their shelf life dates are. Alright, let's go ahead and try to put postcodes receipt on this inbound delivery. For that, we can go through VL32N and, make sure you put in slash N from here, but you could certainly do a postcodes receipt on VL32N. Thank you very much for taking that little walkthrough SAP with me. Let's take a moment to highlight the importance of what we just ran through. First, we saw what happens when we can take data and have it in place and ready for processing. Second, with the data in place ahead of time, we can check for any issues. And third, if there is any problem or a deviation from what's expected, we can easily identify it and issue a return to vendor if needed. Thank you, Rutul. Wow, what a good story. I appreciate that a lot. More than anything, I hope this encourages our viewers to be more curious and think about maximizing the use of standard SAP to encourage flow, information quality, and decision making. So once again, my friend, thanks for joining us. If you want to learn more about this topic and others, we do have a chatbot that can help you find the videos more readily. If you have a specific question for us, feel free to submit it below.

Order Fulfillment & ATP

OTC

VA06; VA03

Hey, welcome back. And of course, to you customer advocates and ambassadors, Martin here. We're excited to help you unlock the next level of daily habits to support an excellent customer experience, gain a broader context to the support quality decision making, and truly begin managing by exception. We have a highly effective tool to introduce you to today, where we have found it to be a game changer for those of us who have not yet made the journey to S/4. If you're in S/4, then unfortunately this tool is no longer for you, but the principles still apply. So there's no wasted time if you're about to embark on that journey. The practice you'll gain here will help you on that path. Today, we'll be introducing you to the sales order monitor, an exceptional and often unknown and unutilized opportunity in the world of order to cash. Monique. You are, again, the perfect person to tell us more about the sales order monitor, share with us how we can use this to achieve better quality, better promises, and, of course, improve our customer service levels with our customers. Monique, take us away. Yes, sir. So, I don't know about you all, but I'm a big fan of one stop shopping. I also am a big fan of being able to keep a finger on the pulse of a lot of different things at once. And as the people on the front lines of creating a great customer experience, I bet you are too. You got a lot of customers, a lot of orders, and a lot of line items to look after. And sometimes it feels like we have to manage every order, every line, every time. The sales order monitor helps us to clearly identify which orders need attention and manage by exception. It allows us to gain an expanded perspective on what's going on with our area of responsibility by helping us to rise above the transaction. And it really does become the place to be and our easy point of reference as we go through the day. So come on, let's go take a tour. So when I say one stop shopping, I mean one stop shopping. Here we are at the sales order monitor. The transaction code as you can see here is VA06. Now some of you may see that this is not available yet for you. It may have to be enabled in your SAP environment. If it is not yet, don't worry, let's take a look here together. And that way you can see if it's something you're interested in pursuing. Obviously, I'm a big fan. When we think reports in SAP, we usually think list displays. Well, this is not that. It's much more along the lines of the exception monitoring tools that help us sort through issues with the supply plan's ability to meet the demand. You can see here that there are loads of options for selection criteria to help drive focus on specific hang ups in the order cycle and or specific subsets of orders relevant to your area of responsibility. There's so much more here that we'll definitely need another video to deep dive into the options and opportunities. The other good news is, is that you can save variants. So once you have selection criteria you're happy with, you can use it regularly and update as needed. Once we've run the report, we get this overview of order status broken down by the various points where an order can potentially get hung up. At the top is the header level information with all the various attributes and statuses. This lets us move through a work list that allows you to search, sort, and apply totals. When you click on an order, the item information for that order shows up at the bottom of the screen. We can also change up the layout to make it easy for us to work through. You'll notice all the sales orders are hotlinks so you can move right from the sales order monitor to work with the sales order. Or you can display other associated documents like a delivery that should have already moved. One of the things I like to do is to have this screen up and then another session open and ready to go to help with any of the hiccups or exceptions. Sometimes I may need to liberate some inventory promised against one order and get it over to another. With the sales order monitor, ahead or behind conditions are clear. Whether the order is incomplete, missing, blocked for credit or delivery, or simply falling behind in the process, I have what I need to get to work on resolving these challenges, and hopefully, before the customer has to reach out and inquire. We have so much to discuss about how to put the sales order monitor to work. There's a ton of great opportunity here. So we've seen the sales order monitor change the daily way of working for many teams. Our ability to rise above the transaction and see what and who needs attention and specifically what the issue or problem is to solve, let's us become truly exception minded. We're set up to be able to quickly take action by navigating right to the sales order or line item that needs attention. And we are all equipped to advocate for the customer and encourage conversation with our warehouse ops and supply partners to help orders move through the system and get the product and services delivered to our customers. Thank you, Monique. Wow, what an amazing tool. We talk so much about exception monitoring tools in SAP. I'm really happy to see a focus on such a nice one for our teams that are taking care of our customers each and every day. It's an opportunity, an exciting one for sure. Thank you again. OK team, there are so many other areas to focus on when you look at customer service. Please check out our videos. And of course, if you have a specific question, and how this may relate to S/4, please submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

PTM; P2P

MD04; CM05

Hey there folks, Martin here. One of your guides to making the most out of your SAP system. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, today's video is designed to reveal functionalities that might just be a game changer for you. Let's dive right into it. In this video, Jake is going to introduce us to some tips and tricks for decision making when we find ourselves spoiled for choice and have to decide whether we will be making, buying, or transferring. Jake, this is an interesting topic, something you're very familiar with. Take it away. Definitely, Martin. The decision point on whether to make or buy is a classic. Today, we're also suggesting that it could be make, buy, or transfer. So when you're planning a material, the primary responsibility is in deciding how to supply the demand in the most effective way possible. So in today's introduction, I'm going to focus on a few key things. First, is the procurement key. This is the master data element that indicates that there is a choice to be made. Next, we'll talk about the different options that might be available. And then lastly, we'll highlight a few ideas on how to define the rules that guide that decision making. So let's go in and take a look. So here we are in everyone's favorite transaction to support critical planning decisions. MD04 or the stock requirement list. As a planner, we have a ton of different responsibilities when it comes to making sure that our materials are living out their best and most productive lives. And one of the most critical is determining how we're going to supply the demands. MRP gives us proposals for replenishment and exceptions for when we're out of balance. Most of the time these proposals have a clear source and MRP knows this based on the rules or the master data in the system. However, sometimes we have flexibility and while we do have a preferred source, we also have options. This helps to reduce risk in the process and provides for some flexibility. If we have an item that can be either made or procured, we'll have a special procurement type in place, look, we can see that right here. E is for internally produced and F is for externally sourced. We also have an option for X, which lets us know that this item can be either internally procured or externally sourced. A choice may be baked into the MRP run via a quota arrangement if we have some splits that we want to facilitate. That's great when that can happen as we see here. However, sometimes we have to make the decision. Let's imagine, for example, that demand suddenly goes up and the next plan's replenishment is from the supplier. They're not going to be able to expedite, so now we would want to look and see if we can transfer from another plant that has a less immediate need, or produce if we have the capacity and the components on hand. Now the opposite could also be true. Maybe we find ourselves overcapacity and we need to find some relief. That may be a great opportunity to do some cross plant rebalancing or get some capacity relief by deploying some of the replenishment requests out to the supplier. This is a great proactive activity that should be part of the midterm planning and the supply review or as a lead time intervention as part of the S&OE cycle. So a few tips. Make sure your picture in SAP is up to date and clear as possible. Look at your capacity overloads via CM05 and look for those opportunities to backfill for production. Understand the response time from the suppliers, or even the subcontractors, and review placement across the supply network to help each other out when the times get tough. It's really great to have choices, and I hope this opens up the conversation for future exploration. It's a real privilege to be in the driver's seat for planning, but it's not easy. And choices are awesome, but can also add complexity to the planning process. So it's really important that we can have the information we need, on tap in order to make smart and efficient choices. I love the flexibility that comes with a multi source environment and knowing that we can provide relief to whichever source is struggling is an awesome advantage. Thanks, Jake. That was amazing. Breaking it down like that. That was perfect. Thank you. So folks, if you want to know more about that topic, please check out our video catalog. And of course, if you have a specific question, our chatbot will be able to help.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM; PTM; P2P

MD04; MD62; MD74; MD73

Hi there folks, Martin here and welcome to the only video series where you get to unlock the secrets and reveal the hidden magic behind your SAP system. Intrigued? Okay, let's stick around. Let's get into this. We're going to talk about a very important maintenance step that is part of the care and feeding that supports a healthy demand management program in SAP. The step is called reorganizing the forecast and this activity helps to keep the demand signal clean, clear, and under control. Steven, reorganizing a forecast is a really tough subject. Take it away and tell us more about it. I certainly can. We can all appreciate how challenging it can be to produce a reliable forecast. Particularly, to be the humans who manage that process. The forecast can be off in two ways, time and or quantity. There are a variety of tools in the toolkit to help manage this. One of them is by reorganizing the forecast on a regular cadence. It helps to address when we want to drop, keep, or roll forward the remaining forecast to sell into a future period. Reorganizing the forecast addresses the former, and today we'll look at some options. It's important to synchronize the watches, make sure this cleanup activity aligns well with your S&OP calendar. Let's venture in and take a look. To keep or not to keep? This is the question. Let's dive right in and take a look at this material in our stock requirements list. We can see here that we have an ongoing forecast that goes out in weekly buckets for the next three periods, and we can observe that the forecast goes back to the beginning of the month of April. We're midway through the month and then in monthly buckets for, let's scroll, 15 months after that. This allows for a total visibility horizon of 18 months. Now some of you may see your planned independent requirements. The MRP element that represents the consensus demand plan or the forecast that's been released for execution. Those PIRs might be neither weekly or monthly buckets and stay at that level for the full horizon. SAP is happy to take daily, weekly, or monthly buckets and is fine with mixing horizons. So you can differentiate where it matters most. Let's say, for example, you were managing a specific promotion, event, or planogram. You might enter a forecast for a very specific period of time and also give it its own requirement plan number. You'd watch that very carefully, and then as the orders came in, check to make sure the orders match the expected quantity. When the orders are all in, you might then go in and remove any unused balance because you know that temporary specific need demand was now fully received. How do you maintain that? Well, you may have an advanced planning solution where the reconciliation will happen and the reduced values will be loaded into SAP as a change. Or, you might maintain it manually, like we're showing here. Double clicking on the forecast line to be cleaned up. Then going into MD62 to lower the quantity to what has been received. But what happens if you have a lot to work through? Well, you might want to put SAP to work and reorganize that forecast. Let's head there now. We can see here that we have some nice, healthy selection criteria. We can choose a plant or multiple plants, material or multiple materials, and then get far more specific. In this case, we're going to specify the requirement plan number, and I'll go ahead and specify the key date. Please note the text here on the screen around for plants without a reorganization period. Because this is key for regular maintenance. And we'll revisit that option here in a moment. Now one of the things I really enjoy about this activity is we can run it in test mode. Let's do that so we can see the results. We can see here that we have some allocated quantities. These are the quantities that are soft pegged to the forecast as pending consumption. We will have SAP net to those quantities and not below so we can keep the demand pegged to the period it was planned for. When we take off test mode, it's going to go ahead and clean these up. So back to our original question, to keep or not to keep? As a part of our monthly S&OP cycle, we need to evaluate what we want to keep, leave open, or roll over, and in this consideration, we also need to think about our consumption modes and the number of days for both forward or backwards. We also don't want to have outdated forecasts hanging out getting old and moldy. Here are a few things to consider. First, set your conversation around drop or roll forward to occur as you go into the third week of the month. If we're rolling forward, the volume gets added to the next period or the period we expect it to come in if we have new information. Second, consider breaking your forecast down into weekly buckets and running the reorganization as a regularly scheduled batch job, dropping a week at a time instead of an entire month. And again, work this in conjunction with your consumption mode and period. Third, think about the communication and collaboration opportunities when transitioning from S&OP to S&OE to keep everyone aligned and moving in the right direction. We have the tools to make this easier. Fantastic! Now let's review some highlights. Reorganizing your forecast on a set cadence can help relieve that feeling of a monthly reset. It's that sentiment of a big change at the beginning of each month when the forecast drops. When this activity is synced well with the S&OP cycle, the changes become more predictable and can even be taken in bite sized adjustments throughout the month. Lastly, we like to keep the planning clean in SAP, and this particular tool helps to maintain a clean sweep so we know exactly where we are and what we're aiming for. Thanks Steven. Maintenance is very important to a healthy system. No one wants to waste precious time and resources working on an incomplete, overstated and outdated plan where we can help it. Great tips today. Thanks again. Team, if you want to know more about forecasting and other related topics, please check out our catalog. And of course, as always, submit your questions below.

SAP Optimization

DM; P2P; PTM; WM; OTC; QM

MC.9

Greetings from the SAP supply chain universe. My name is Martin and today I'm your guide in helping you unlock and reveal the hidden value in your SAP system. Curious? Let's dive right in. In this video, and this is part two, we're going to be looking and discussing at one of SAP's best usability tools in SAP, called Layouts. Now, there are two different ways, and as I mentioned, this is a Part 2 to a Part 1 that we already discussed. And Jason's going to talk to us about this one. It's a little less known and a little less frequently used, but a tool nonetheless. Jason, tell us more. Martin, layouts make life so much easier. In today's walkthrough, I'm going to highlight a few key things. First, we're going to review how to get your data into an ALV grid display where available. Then I'm going to demonstrate how to add, remove, and reorder columns. Lastly, we'll work with some sorts, totals, and subtotals functionality that can really add value. So let's jump into SAP and take a look. Today we're going to jump into MC.9, which is part of the Logistics Information System, or LIS family of transactions in SAP. If you're not familiar with that, it's sort of like a mini data warehouse inside of SAP that allows you to quickly analyze large volumes of data. If you don't know about MC.9, this is an extremely powerful analytical tool that will change your life when you understand how to use it. Today though, we're going to focus on the basics of how to manipulate the layout, a technique that will work in most of the LIS reports in SAP. Here's the default layout that you'll likely see if you've never run the transaction before. It has inventory quantity and value and consignment stock quantity. Now I'm not sure why those were chosen as the defaults. If you didn't know how to find the other available fields, you'd probably be severely underwhelmed at first glance. All the goodness is buried, but fortunately we have a shovel. So I'm going to click on this choose key figures button. If you're used to ALV controls, you're going to take a little bit of time to get used to this because this is a little bit different, but once you play with it a little bit, you'll find it's not that difficult. So the first thing I'm going to do is get rid of consignment stock because we don't do that here and I really don't care about it. Next thing I'm going to do is we'll explore some of these key figures that are available. You can see they're a bit cryptic, so maybe play a little trial and error to get what you're really looking for. But for me, I'm going to grab a few that I know I like to look at. So I'm going to start with average total usage, then I am going to pop that over here using the arrow and then I'll grab a few more. All right, so we're going to grab average value added stock coverage , we're going to grab mean valuated stock value, which really just means average, I don't know why sometimes they say mean and sometimes they say average, but it's SAP, so we're going to forgive, and then we're going to grab the number of evaluated stock issues. That's pretty good, I'm going to save that and move on. So now you can see the field, the screen looks a lot different than it did before. So let's explore a little bit, we've got totals at the top, so all the dollars sum up at the top, we've got some averages. One thing you want to be careful of here is that the unit of measures are mixed, and so this total on the stock quantity is a little bit misleading. Just keep that in mind if you have mixed unit of measure. You'll see in a minute, it really doesn't impact the value of the tool , but a couple other things we can do. So sort, I would like to see which items have the most number of goods issues within this time frame that I ran. So I'm going to just click on this field and I'm going to use the sort largest to smallest , and we quickly see that this MAT1 material has 19 issues within the period of time that I have analyzed. Now, a couple other things. I'm a little bit annoyed right now because I can see the material number, but I have no idea what they stand for, and as luck would have it, there's an easy fix for that. So I'm going to go up here to settings , and characteristic display, and I'm just going to change this to key and description. Now, notice nothing changed here, it's because my field's not wide enough. So I'm going to change my characteristic field to, we'll call it 50 characters, and now I can see both the material number and the description. Alright, maybe I want to see things a little bit different. So I'm going to go up here and I'm going to reorganize some of these columns. Now this is a little bit clunky, but let's say I want to move the number of issues, I'm going to move it up to here. So I highlight the fields and then I can just do a little switcheroo and so now you can see that my valuated stock issues have moved up in the screen. So there's a few other ways you can manipulate this I can move fields out. One quick way, if you want to put it in where you want it. So you can highlight over here and instead of putting it down here at the bottom, it slides it right in the list where you want it. So that's a cool thing if you're moving things in and out and you don't want to have to use this button to move things around. So just play with it a little bit, there's a ton of really good information in here. We'll do other demos on MC.9 specifically that'll go into a lot more detail around which of these fields are most valuable and how to use some of the other cool features here. But for now, we're going to call that good. One thing that you won't see here are things like subtotals. So we've got totals up here, but there's no way to do subtotals on this screen. But what MC.9 does have, and most of the LIS transactions do that, are things we call switch drill down or drill down by. I'll quickly show that there's going to be a full video just on those functions. So, switch drill down is going to adjust this entire list based on some other characteristics. So, let's say I want to look at MRP controller. I'm going to select that and it's going to reorganize. So now it's lumped all those materials that we saw before into just grouped by MRP controller. Now if I still wanted to see the materials, I can use drill down by, which is this button up here. And so I want to see what materials are in MRP controller 002, so I'm going to drill down by, I'm going to say material, and now I have all the materials within that MRP controller. So switch drill down and drill down by really are your subtotals and your way to slice and dice the data inside of MC.9. But again, there's going to be a whole video on that, so I'm not going to go into any more detail. All right, so as luck would have it, I skipped a step and now I've got to go back in. I forgot to save my layout. So if you see I go back in and I have this beautiful layout that we started with. Uh oh. Alright, so let me quickly reset it. I won't grab everything, I'm just going to grab a few fields here and pull them over here. So, in order to not frustrate yourself, after you've set everything the way you want it, I'm going to change this back, and I'm going to change the column width to 50 again. Alright, we're back to where we were. We have to remember to go in here and save it. So I'm going to save settings. I'm going to save the key figures, the characteristic display, and the column width. This drill down I'm not going to save because I didn't really do any of that, but the key thing here is I want the fields in the sequence that I have them and I want the display settings in the, field width. So I'm saving that and now if I go out and come back in, it saved everything. So I'm a happy camper now. So often Excel is a planner's favorite tool. But by working with layouts, we can organize our data effectively. This allows us to perform more of our work directly in SAP as a single source of truth and be able to draw information and insights in real time. Being able to answer or sometimes even just ask a great question real time in a meeting is priceless. Thank you, Jason. Just another way to look at our data and really understand what we're looking at. Divide the information into something that we can actually make of it, and make some good decisions. A good layout can make all the difference. I know what you've shown today is probably a little less familiar to most, so I hope this will spark a curiosity and exploration. So folks, if you want to learn more about this one, and remember there was a part one to this video, please check out our catalog, and of course if you have a burning suggestion or comment, please list it below.

SAP Optimization

DM; P2P; PTM; WM; OTC; QM

VA06

Welcome back, everyone, Martin here. And today, we're all about revealing the untold capabilities of your SAP system. We're going to unlock some real value. So let's get started. In this video, we're going to be discussing one of the best usability tools in SAP called layouts. Now, you'll commonly see two different ways to interact with layouts. Today, Jason is going to take us and provide us with one of those options. The most common one, actually, as a matter of fact. When you are in some of these reporting tools, you'll see a different format for managing layouts, which we'll review in another video. But today, Jason, tell us more about this successful layout technique. Martin, layouts can make life so much easier. In today's walkthrough, I'm going to highlight a few key things. First, we're going to review how to get your data into an ALV grid display, where available. Then I'm going to demonstrate how to add, remove, and reorder columns. Lastly, we'll work with some sorts, totals, and subtotals functionality that can really add value. So let's jump in the system and take a look. Okay. So here I am in VA06, this is an ECC only transaction. It was too good for S/4 so SAP took it out in favor of Fiori apps. But don't worry, in this particular video it's not about the specific transaction, but more about how we can work with ALV controls and these are good just about anywhere in SAP that ALV exists. ALV stands for ABAP List Viewer for those of you interested at home. So let's start with something simple. Let's assume someone was nice enough to set up some layouts for you ahead of time. I'm going to click over here on this button that says Choose Layout and we'll try this reveal header for now. And so you'll see that it changed the layout of the screen a little bit. This particular transaction is really cool because it has a split screen and so we can actually manipulate both of these views individually. The controls are exactly the same but there's certain things that in this case it's header at the top and item at the bottom. So you might want to see things differently. But for now, we're just going to manipulate the top, so we can do some basic things here, so for example, let's say that I would like to see the document date in a different place. So I'm just going to move that over here and I can click and drag it, much like you would in Excel. I can also expand and collapse columns, so I can't really see this customer thing very well so I'm going to pull it out, so click and drag, or I can just use the old double click and it expands it to the max width. So now let's look at some other options for how we can rearrange the columns to our liking. I'm going to go up here again to this button, but on the little arrow and I'm going to say change layout and the first thing I'm going to do, there's a lot of fields over here you can see that are available to be displayed, but they're kind of random. So I'm going to click up here on column name and it's going to sort them alphabetically. So now if I know exactly what I'm looking for, it's pretty easy to find it in the list based on the alphabet sort. But I'm going to try created by. I'd like to see that and I'm going to pop it over. Now you can see here that it popped it in the list right here , I don't really like that, I want to move it, so I'm actually going to just drag it down one level, and I'm going to put it here. So I've got my document date, my created by, and customer. Similar to what we've seen in other places we can manipulate that just based on where we put it. So let's say I'd rather see it back up there, I can slide it in the list there. Again, here I can, click and drag things, if I double click, it'll take it out. So you can see that took distribution channel out by double clicking but I didn't mean to do that. So I'm going to put it back in. Alright, so we've manipulated our columns, we've added our field right here, and everything's set. So let's talk about some numbers now, because everybody likes numbers. In this particular transaction, we can do sorts, we can do subtotals, we can do totals. So we'll start here. I'm going to highlight the net value field and I'm going to hit total and you can see now, and I'll expand my field, you can see that it is totaled, this net value field at the bottom. Let's add some sorts. So, I would like to sort this by customer. So, I'm going to highlight my customer field and then you'll see you have sort in ascending or sort in descending order. So, I'm going to do sort in ascending. And it's now grouped these orders and sorted based on the customer. Now that's cool if I just want a quick sort, but what if I want to use multiple sort criteria? So in that case, I'm going to go back in here to my layout and I'm going to change the layout and you'll see here there's a tab that says sort order. So much like manipulating the layout in general, I can also add fields over here to the sort and make it multi level. So I'm going to do my sort alphabetically and let's see, I've got customer, so that's great. I would like to have my date. I'm struggling to find the field that I want, so there's a cool little feature here, you can see the binoculars. So I'm going to do a find, and I'm going to say document, because I know that's in the name, but I can't seem to find it and it shows me a hit. Oh, there it is. It's sales document, not document number. So I've now found what I want. I'm going to drop it over here and sort. Now you'll see that I've got my sort on customer, I've got my sort on document date, and then the order numbers are sorted top to bottom. That actually looks pretty good, but I want to see some subtotals. So let's go back in there and in the field here, you see we've got these selection indicators for subtotals, so let's just add those, this should be fun. All right, so we've added our subtotals. This is looking pretty cluttered to me, so I think I'm going to tweak this a little bit and so you see over here, we've got the subtotals button. I'm going to grab on this. I'm going to grab this. I really don't care if I'm subtotaled by a document and date. So I'm going to just subtotal by the customer. I'll change it, take those check boxes off and there you see now we've got a better view. So I've got my customer, my dates, and if I scroll down I've got my net value subtotaled by customer. So that's sorting and subtotaling. One last thing that I want to show is the find function here. So I am great about remembering where my customer is for some reason, but I can never remember their name. So I'm going to do a quick find on a city, we'll pick San Antonio , hit enter, and it found Oh, yeah, that's right. It's Holden Associates, that's the one I was trying to think of. So again, find, you can do that with just about anything on here if you're having trouble finding things.And one last little trick that's fun, we're going to look at filtering. So I would like to know how many sales orders I have in this list. So I'm going to click on this field and I'm going to click this little filter button, if you've ever put oil in your car, that might look familiar and then I'm going to do a search on this field, and what you'll see here is, look, 104 entries. So now I know I've got 104 entries in that list. It's a little trick I like to use if I'm just trying to get a sense of the volume. But you can also set those filters within the layout. So if I go back into the layout, I've got a filter tab, and let's say that I want to filter on a customer I can do that by popping that over here and then clicking this filter button and then I can enter my customer here and then save that as part of the layout. Now you want to be careful about that because sometimes when you set a filter in the layout, you might forget it's there and then you'll start looking at the data and you'll not see what you think you should see and then at some point the light bulb will go on, oh that's right I have a filter on. So always be mindful of that if you have a filter, it's going to manipulate the view. So last thing, I don't want to forget to save this. I'm going to go in here to save and I'm going to change this to, we'll call it Jason 2. We'll call it Jason's view and I'm going to click user specific, which means that this is my view, and no one else is going to see it. Now, sometimes you will see down here a button or a checkbox that says default. You probably don't want to check that if you see it because what that does is change the layout for everybody. So when they launch the transaction, they're going to get the layout that you created and that can create chaos. I remember doing that accidentally one day and it generated much volume into the IT help desk and they were a little bit angry with me. So be aware of that, always check user specific when you're in here and you'll save yourself some headaches. So that's it. That's manipulating an ALV layout in this particular case in VA06, but this will apply just about anywhere that you see these settings. So, COOIS and production planning, MB51 has this capability, you'll see this all over SAP and it's super powerful. So practice with it, get used to it, and you'll find it'll be one of your best friends in SAP. So often, Excel is a planner's favorite tool, but by working with layouts, we can organize our data effectively. This allows us to perform more of our work directly in SAP as a single source of truth. And be able to draw information and insights in real time. Being able to answer or sometimes just ask a great question real time in a meeting is priceless. Jason, that is really cool stuff. Especially the way that information is displayed on the screen and laid out for us. It's so easy to find quickly and different things and help us understand and derive value from seeing the information we're looking at. It's a great input. Okay folks, if you want to hear about part two of this video, please go check out our video catalog and of course for any kind of videos that you want to look for. And if you have a specific question, please submit it below.

Demand & Supply Planning

DM; P2P; PTM

MD04; MM03

Hey, welcome to the ultimate guide to maximize your SAP system. I'm Martin and today's video will help you unlock functionality you didn't even know existed. Okay, so shall we? Okay, in this video, Patrick is going to be our guide as we dig into another one of our forecast consumption modes. Today it's going to be backwards consumption only. I'm excited to hear more about this, when this particular consumption mode should be used, and how we should think about setting the horizon. Patrick, what do you have for us today? Outstanding question. Our forecast is never perfect, and while we should always be working on improving accuracy, we need to accept that we are likely to be wrong in either timing or quantity. The forecast consumption strategies that help us with demand management are a great way to help deal with this challenge. Today, we're going to explore. The consumption mode, backwards only. We'll discuss how to think through the number of days back we might want to allow. And for this consumption mode, we would want to think about materials where we have a tendency to under forecast, and we do not want to allow future periods to be consumed. A picture is worth a thousand words, so let's go in and explore together. So today we are talking about backwards consumption mode. Let me show you how to get there so I can explain it in greater detail. And if you ever worked with me, you know that I start virtually all of my SAP conversations from the MD04 screen. So let's get a quick overview of the current state on this material number before we start making changes. This specific material number has planned independent requirements loaded to represent the forecast. It also has some sales orders loaded. But let's switch our view to summarize the data in weekly periods. So here we can see in weekly periods that we've got a forecast of 22, 23 per week. It spans weeks 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, so every week's got a small forecast of 22 or 23. But then in week number 18, we have a requirement of 100. That's from our customer order that we saw on the previous screen. And so MRP is actually going to add that customer order to the planned independent requirements that are loaded and when MRP runs, it's going to try to bring in enough inventory to cover 123 pieces for both the forecast and the customer order. And in many cases, we don't actually want that to happen. So something we can do is we can actually go get into that consumption mode field and define how our forecast should be decremented when we get orders. So, let's get right to it. The first thing I want to do is I'm going to go click on the material number and move over to the MRP 3 tab, which is maybe not used as much as some of the other ones, so here's an opportunity for us to see what's here. The consumption mode that I've been talking about is actually populated down here and it controls the direction on the time axis in which the system consumes the forecast, and by that I mean it can look back and consume forecast, it can look forward and consume forecast, it can do both. So actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you the options. You have backward consumption only, and that's obviously a very good option, we're going to review that one today. You have the opportunity to do backward and forward, there's actually another video out there if you want to read and hear more about that. We can do forward consumption, which will consume demand in the future and you can do forward and backwards. So combining these fields in the right way for your business is obviously something you're going to want to evaluate. But for today's session, we're going to focus on backward consumption only. So, along with consumption mode, we want to make sure that we properly populate the consumption periods. So if we're using a backward consumption period, we want to make sure that our backward consumption period is, populated and the number that you put in there is critical to how the system works, obviously. But one main thing to be thinking about is that it is defined in work days. So when you define something in work days, you actually have to think about how your business runs. So if you run 5 days a week, if you put 5 days in there, your forecast will be consumed in the past for a week. If you put 10 days in there, your forecast will be consumed in the past for two weeks. So it's something to really carefully consider before you decide what number to put in there and honestly, your business practices and how things work will determine the right number. I've been with companies that use one week, two weeks, or even a month. In this case, you have to do what's best for you. So, let's actually go see what happens when we populate the backward consumption period for this material number. So, I'm going to navigate to the MM02 screen, change mode, then we're going to go to the MRP 3 tab, and we're going to go to the plant that we were just looking at, and we're going to go define the backwards consumption period. So let's start with one week or 5 days, let's save that and check through and once I've saved it, I want to go run MRP, which is again, just the best practice for me, I tend to run MRP after I make master data changes, and once that's done, we'll go right back to the MD04 screen. So here we are, MDO4, let's refresh the screen and look at that summarized weekly view again. So what we can see now is before, right, week 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, all had some planned independent requirements. Well, now week 18, because we just put in that consumption mode backwards and a week backwards, it's actually decremented the planned independent requirements for that week because the forecast can be decremented for a week because we have requirements of 100 or a sales order. Let's make one more change just to show you how this worked, and now let's go change it from 1 week to 2 weeks. And same exact process, go right back here, we're going to go into our backward consumption periods and we'll change that to 10, so now we're looking back 2 weeks. Once it's done, we'll go run MD02, MRP again, just changing our settings, execute, execute, and now back to MD04. When we're finally back on MD04, let's take a look at that summarized view for weekly buckets, and what we see now is weeks 14, 15, 16 still have a forecast, week 17 is gone, that has been consumed by the order of 100 pieces, as has week 18. So as you can see, when we decremented 1 week, we took 23 pieces out of the forecast. When we decremented back 2 weeks, we decremented 46 pieces. If we wanted to go back 3 weeks and 4 weeks, the system would decrement the demand from planned independent requirements up to the quantity for the sales order. And so now that we've made those changes, MRP is not planning those sales orders on top of forecast, they're planning those sales orders in conjunction with the planned independent requirements that we just set. So one more thing that I want to discuss before we wrap it up is forecast bias, you've probably heard of it. So a forecast bias is the tendency to over forecast or under forecast. If a material is typically over forecast because sales is too optimistic, you might want to look at forward consumption periods and weighting them pretty heavily. But in this case, when we're talking about backwards consumption, I would probably, for materials that were typically under forecasted, I would want to weigh my backward consumption period heavily enough to leave future demand in the system so they can keep driving in material to support sales that will inevitably exceed the forecast. So the consumption mode will allow for a little flexibility in how orders come in, but it can truly help ensure that future periods will remain intact. So hopefully you found that helpful. I encourage you to go out there and try to use that consumption mode yourself. Hopefully you'll find that picking the right number of working days in conjunction with the right consumption mode will get you what you need and if not, we are here to help. That was a peek into how backwards consumption can be used to help manage volatility and variability in demand. We know we might be right for quantity over a period of time, but we might have trouble being exactly right in a particular period. This key feature helps us to manage risk that allows for roughly versus precisely right. Timing is everything, so it's important to think about your consumption periods in relation to your forecast split and the timing of your decisions around rolling forward or dropping forecast. And last but not least, we learned that this consumption mode is meant to allow for some slip in time, but vigilantly protects the next period's forecast. Hey Patrick, thank you. When you talk about this, I can hear the legacy of living it in your voice. It's nice to learn from someone who has been there and done that. I suppose the only question is whether you also bought the t shirt. Managing variability and volatility in the demand signal is a challenge for most organizations. However, when we look, we often find consumption is more predictable than not. Isn't that interesting? Okay, Patrick, thanks again for doing that. Okay, folks, if you want to learn more about this particular forecast consumption mode, there are quite a few videos on that, please check out our catalog. And, of course, if you have a specific question, feel free to use our chatbot.

Procurement & MRP

P2P; PTM

ME2ON

Hey everyone, Martin here. And every once in a while, we have a transaction to share that surprises a lot of folks. And today we're talking about the evolution of the subcontracting stock monitor. This new version, which adds finesse and utility to raw functionality. I'm so excited to introduce Rutul to you, who will walk us through why this transaction is sometimes not present, and will share some of the key differences between both versions of the subcontracting stock monitor. Rutul, love to have you here today, take us away. Hello, Martin. Yes, I really like this new version of an always powerful, but not always flexible transaction. It's an excellent evolution. This transaction is the new place to be. People will like it much better and it has all the same fundamental elements. This is still a strong cockpit transaction. And it's great for supporting and achieving process adherence. Let's go in and take a look. Okay, I am in the subcontracting cockpit transaction ME2ON. I am going to run this transaction for my plant 3000. You could do that for multiple plants, or a single plant, or a vendor. You can choose how you want to run it. For this one, I am going to run for plant 3000 , click execute and right from the get go, it's a very different look and very different, feel from the subcontracting monitor. It's much better, much cleaner, and easy on eyes, right? But it also has a lot of additional information. So, first of all I am going to expand this line item here, and you will see that in addition to the material information and stock information and overage, where we are short, it also tells me the PO number. So, in cockpit monitor you do not have that information. Now, it also hassame functionality as monitor, but it has even more. You can still create deliveries, do post course issue, delete, reservation, stock overview, go to stock requirements screen that's also there in the monitor. But one of the cool things is that now you have PO number, a line item number, and so on as well. In this transaction, you can select a particular PO line item, and actually when you create delivery, click on create delivery, now you have, hey, you have this information already filled out. But the additional functionality here is that you can change your movement types, you can change your plant, storage location, shipping point. Those pieces of information you can change and make a decision on whether we need to change that or not, and then create before creating delivery. What it will also do is that it will tie this delivery directly into the PO,for the purchase order line item history. So now you can directly, quickly take a look at it, right? Then, you can also change your layouts, for example, if you are running for multiple plants, you can change the layout let's look at how you can do sort order. In a sort order, I want to look at my plant summation at the plant level and then I want to have the plant, the vendor, and the material. So I'm going to select the summation level subtotals as plant, I'm going select it, and I'm going to move it on top. So now you'll see the subtotals at the plant level, then the vendor level, and then at the material level. I'm going to click OK, and then you can have that. Then in addition, you can do the refresh list quickly. So if you are in this transaction for a while and you are taking a lot of different decisions and a lot of different actions, you want to refresh the data so that it actually refreshes the information for you as the other members are also making decisions and making changes you have the most up to date information as well. You can also go to the stock requirement list. Just like the monitor, you have your stock requirement list, all the information is already passed from the cockpit to the stock requirement list and now you are in your stock requirement list transaction . Okay, You can go to the stock overview, so the material number 2156, stock overview, and now you have 2156, the plant is 3000, and then how much quantity do you have on order, in unrestricted use, you have that information directly. you also have post codes issue capability, just like the other one. You can select, again, it will allow you to change the information, if you need to, and make the decision on the fly, rather than the fixed information that you have in the stock subcontracting monitor. Alright, these are some of the key differences. Cockpit transactions are all encompassing transactions that will allow you to do much more things than the subcontracting monitor. Welcome back. This new version of the subcontracting stock monitor. Really packs a punch. It acts as a single source of truth. Helps keep us on track, and closes the loop on the entire process. That's good stuff, Rutul, thank you so much. Subcontracting is a valuable and much needed opportunity for many organizations. So much so that we're actually releasing a whole series of videos to support this specific conversation. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and experience with us today Rutul. So folks, if you want to learn more about the subcontractor monitor and this whole series of videos we're going to have around this, just check out our video catalog. Of course, you can always use the chatbot for any kind of help you need.