It can be a real challenge for companies, to respond to customers that often make “last minute changes” to their orders. Companies operating in for example High Tech- or Consumer industries, often have difficulty servicing those customers that tend to: “change order quantities”, “change order dates”, “cancel orders” or “place rush orders”, on short notice and at a regular basis. To stay competitive, the same companies are on the other hand also forced to keep their inventory levels as low as possible.
SAP now offers a fully integrated network planning solution for effectively responding to such short term changes in demand; through its partner solution SCRM. SCRM stands for: “Supply Chain Response Management” and the partner in question is Icon. SCRM is specifically strong in:
- Matching Demand and Supply, in the short term,
- Allowing companies to define their own “Demand – Supply matching” priority rules.
- Allowing planners to make “what if” and scenario comparisons, on the fly.
- Comprehensive root cause analysis, for identifying (and resolving) material- and or capacity bottlenecks, within the supply chain network.
- Quick, intuitive and friendly user experience.
Integration with SAP ECC, SAP SCM Demand Planning and SAP SCM SNC “Supply Network Collaboration” is ensured, using a number of (near) real time Idoc & text file interfaces and a “full load” report, for the initial load of master- and transaction data.
As such, the SCRM solution is complementary to the SAP SNP “Supply Network Planning” solution, which is aiming more at “Matching Demand and Supply” for the mid- to long term horizon.
Is your organization already equipped for responding to short term changes in demand ?
For more information on SCRM, please go to the following link: http://www54.sap.com/lob/scm/software/collaborative-response-management/index.html
Michel van Zwol
Principal Consultant SCM
SAP Nederland B.V.
