How to Optimize Your Supply Network with SAP SNC

[DoreenBaseler]

From supply chain to supply network

 

With traditional supply chains being expanded into supply networks, the cooperation between businesses and their partners is becoming more important. The basis for good business decisions, support and cooperation in the manufacturer’s network of suppliers is quite often having easy access to inventory levels and consumption. Distributors or retailers on the other hand would like to concentrate on their core business by delegating the inventory responsibility to their vendors.  If managed right, these activities and communications within the supply network turn into a form of collaboration.

 

QUESTION: Is there a solution that turns supply network collaboration into a more value-oriented activity by…

• Improving real-time and automated collaboration and increase shipment accuracy?


• Delegating replenishment planning and execution from you to your suppliers?


• Increasing cash flow through reduced inventory?


• Accelerating order-cycle times and fill-rates while improving customer service levels?


• Enhancing visibility through the supply network to anticipate supply delays and respond to demand changes using predefined processes and exception-based alerting?


• Reducing lost sales by preventing stock-outs, especially during promotions?

 

ANSWER: Yes, there is!

 

SAP now offers two collaboration-related rapid-deployment solutions - which can be implemented in weeks - that address both the supplier and the customer side within a supply network:

 

(1)    SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SAP SNC) rapid-deployment solution for supplier collaboration.
If you aim at improving efficiency and visibility of ordering and shipping information by exchanging it with your suppliers, this is the solution of your choice. It provides you with a fast and predictable implementation of the most commonly used processes of SAP SNC application for supplier collaboration: Purchase order processing allows you to more accurately execute purchase orders and shipments between your company and suppliers by collaborating directly on purchase orders and their confirmations.  Release processing facilitates accurate execution of scheduling agreements between your company and your suppliers. With every new forecast delivery schedule created in your system, the scheduled agreement is processed from informing your supplier about the update down to delivering and confirming the received goods. Supplier-managed inventory delegates the single-sourced replenishment planning and execution for your inventory to your suppliers.  They use gross demand and current stock balance data that you submit to calculate replenishment plans based on minimum and maximum logic.

 

(2)    SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SAP SNC) rapid-deployment solution for customer collaboration.

If you as the vendor desire to improve your vendor-managed inventory (VMI) relationship with your distributors and retailers, this is the package to go for.  It allows you to perform a more responsive replenishing and execution to take better control of inventory at customer locations. This solution provides you with a quick and reliable approach to establishing the most commonly used functions in the SAP SNC application for customer collaboration: Demand forecast collaboration helps to compare and establish consensus between a consumption-based forecast and a customer-transmitted forecast. You improve overall replenishment accuracy and eventually establish and maintain the inventory levels needed to meet customer demand. Responsive replenishment supports a real-time, demand-driven replenishment scenario between you and your customers, identifying up-and-down shifts of orders and shipments in the short term while optimizing truck loads and managing promotional items separately. Minimum–maximum replenishment leverages minimum and maximum stock limits at a customer’s ship-to-location as drivers for replenishment.

SNC processes supported with rapid-deployment solutions

 

 

Go live in only a few weeks

Leverage the value across your supply network by deploying a pre-defined best practices implementation approach, that will take you live in only 10 weeks (SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution for supplier collaboration) or 14 weeks respectively (SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution customer collaboration) - delivered quickly to solve your immediate business needs.
These rapid-deployment solutions are targeted to both new and existing customers, providing implementation content and services to reduce complexity and implementation risk. The packaged offerings can be considered as a baseline implementation with a phased approach- get a jump start with these predefined fix scope and fix price offerings, but have the flexibility to grow and expand to cover additional SNC processes if your business requires it.  Make use of SAP’s proven best practices at your fingertips to improve collaboration in your supply network.

 

Where can you find more information?

Specific to the solutions mentioned in this blog:

On SAP.com:

• SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution for supplier collaboration (more information to come soon)


• SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution for customer collaboration

On the SAP Service Marketplace (NOTE: Requires appropriate authorization [S-User]):

• SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution for supplier collaboration


• SAP SNC rapid-deployment solution for customer collaboration

 

General on SAP SCM rapid-deployment solutions

To learn how SAP SCM Rapid Deployment solutions offer you predictability, integration & choice and can help reduce implementation time & risk, read this blog.

 

You can post your questions, here and we will try to monitor the blog questions through September, 2012. For immediate assistance go to SAP.com and click the Contact Us link.



 

Follow SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions on Twitter: @SAPRDS