Understanding SAP Global Track and Trace

Why do we need a track and trace solution to cover our end-to-end Supply Chain?

The risk of disruption to the Supply Chain causing huge harm to the business has increased immensely over the last several years due to…

• Rising customer service level expectations
• Fierce global competition – if you don’t get it right there are several alternatives waiting to take your place
• Rising transportation costs

Global supply chain disruption cost $56 bn in 2015 (Research from the British Standards Institute)

72% of suppliers who have dealt with a breakdown in their supply chains have lacked the full visibility needed to come up with a fast and simple solution (Study by the Business Continuity Institute)

Understanding Track and Trace – a Definition

• Track – The Present status!
  • Where is it now?
  • Who has it in their possession?
  • What is it’s current condition?
• Trace – The flow up until now – The Past
  • Where has it been?
  • Who has had it?
  • Was it handled appropriately?

What should you track?

1. Product or Objects
   1. Cartons / Pallets
   2. Product
2. Process Documents
   1. Orders – Sales Order / Purchase Orders / Production Orders / Service Orders
   2. Deliveries – Outbound / Inbound
   3. Invoices – Customer and Supplier

Servicing the Extended Supply Chain

“Deliver on your promise to customers by tracking the status and fulfillment of processes and goods in transit across your global inbound, manufacturing, and fulfillment chain. With SAP Global Track and Trace, you can get real-time insights into the availability of materials and products to reduce supply chain risks and optimize costs” – SAP’s definition of SAP GTT

Key Capabilities

Process compliance in carrier collaboration

• Gain visibility into the location and condition of your goods and assets along the entire supply chain
• Perform better management by exception through real-time visibility into shipments, assets, and processes

Real-time situational insights

• Capture business events in a business network environment
• Provide real-time insights to all relevant stakeholders as per their specific business needs
• Consolidate master data

Infrastructure utilization and goods throughput

• Ensure tight integration with other SAP solutions
• Notify stakeholders about the status of goods and processes, and adjust business processes as needed
• Perform real-time reporting and analysis for turning insights into actions

Common Business Needs for Track and Trace

These are the main areas we find delivering huge value to the enterprise:

• Order to Cash (OTC)
  • Ensure OTIF (On Time In Full delivery)
  • Integration with Outbound Logistics
    • Carrier and Freight Forwarder integration
  • Time to Insight
    • Customer Satisfaction
• Procure to Pay (PTP)
  • Inbound Logistics
    • Carrier and Freight Forwarder integration
  • Time to Insight
    • Extended Supply Chain disruptions
• Goods / Container / Asset Tracking
  • Returnable Transport Items
  • Rental Asset Tracking
  • Reduction in operational costs
• Product Lifecycle Tracking (due Q4 2020)
  • Serialization
  • Pedigree capture and visibility
  • After sales tracking
  • Customer Satisfaction

SAP Track and Trace Portfolio

SAP has several offerings that are applicable in this space:

• SAP Event Management – On-premise process and product track and trace
  • SAP GTT is the cloud version of SAP EM (NB: not all functionality is migrated)
• SAP ATTP – Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals
  • Replacement for SAP AII and SAP OER for Pharma companies
• SAP OER – Object Event Repository – Serialized item tracking
  • Centralized Serial number management
  • EPCIS compliant mesaging
• SAP GBT – Global Batch Traceability
  • Graphical batch geneology display
  • Distribution record for multiple batches

SAP’s vision for SAP GTT

SAP are looking at SAP GTT to have the following benefits or characteristics:

1. Food pedigree and Safety
2. Real-time insights in to Supply Chain
3. Supply Chain integrity
4. End-to-end logistics network visibility
5. On the go, instance-driven visibility
6. Easy partner engagement
7. Customer satisfaction
8. Proactive exception management
9. On-deman scalable performance
10. Predictive analytics
11. Consolidated master data

In my next blog I will go through more technical detail covering the following:

1. Event-to-Action Engine
2. Overdue Event Monitor
3. Difference between Business and Technical Timestamp
4. GTT architecture
5. ERP to GTT integration
6. App overviews
7. GTT and Leonardo IOT Bridge