"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments. The term was popularized in the United States by Mark Twain, who attributed it to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli . For all the surveys and statistics available via the internet, the best proof points come from actual practitioners and users of systems. Over the past few years SAP has invested considerable time in interviewing our customers through the SAP Benchmarking services.
Both at recent and future events, SAP Customers continue to present their success stories to showcase their companies and the benefits they have achieved through SAP solutions:
- HP spoke at last year’s SAPPHIRE NOW about the benefits of “Planning and Execution With SAP SCM GATP at HP”
- Bose recently presented at the SAP Insider event (March 31st) on “Next-generation planning at Bose: An inside look at the company’s deployment of SAP Sales and Operations Planning, powered by SAP HANA”. If you missed it, there will be an encore performance in Prague on June 1st.
- Hallmark presented at the SAP Insider event on March 31st about “ How Hallmark Cards improved production planning and partner engagement for its specialty products”
- Laprino Foods presented at SAP Insider on March 31st about ”How Leprino Foods reduced overhead costs and streamlined the planning process”
- Colgate will be presenting at SAPPHIRE NOW on May 5th on “How to Improve Collaboration through Integrated Business Planning”.
- Medtronic and Naturesway will present at SAPPHIRE NOW on May 5th about how to “Transform Your Supply Chain into a Customer-Centric Demand Network”
- Weir Minerals will present at the SAP Insider event in Prague on June 1st on how “Weir Minerals expands its global S&OP initiative using SAP Integrated Business Planning
- Adidas will present at the SAP Insider event in Prague on June 1st on “How Adidas is driving business transformation with its SAP SCM on SAP HANA migration”
- Joy Global recently recorded a video explaining how through “improved forecasting and optimizing service levels” they met 95% customer service level targets for higher volume stock keeping units and achieved 40% inventory savings with 38,000 parts and locations modelled.
So there are lies, damn lies, statistics, and actual users talking about their experiences. Who do you believe?
And if you would like to hear some factual results from the 100’s of benchmarking service studies we have conducted, here is a snapshot:
- “Companies that have S&OP enabling tools link company's business strategy with tactical and operational deployment of plans across all internal functional areas as well as external supply chain have on average 57% lower Inventory Obsolescence Cost”.
- “Companies with what-if modeling capability and ability to evaluate multiple scenarios based on multiple changing parameters have on avg. 42% lower Expedited Transportation Spend”
- “Companies with exception reporting and analytic framework in place and shared/ used across multiple disciplines within the enterprise, and sharing performance data with key suppliers on a frequent basis have 62% lower Warehouse Management Costs”
- “Companies that extensively use what-if scenarios to evaluate different problem resolution approaches have on avg. 4.6% higher on time delivery performance”
- “Companies where distribution planning is triggered by approval of demand plan have on avg. 33% lower Inventory Carrying Cost”
- “Companies with order promising enabled by dynamic sourcing and integration with key trading partners to confirm availability, pricing, and delivery commitment have on avg. 61.4% lower revenue loss due to stock – outs”
- “Companies with high Forecast Accuracy have on avg. 59.8% lower Inventory Carrying Cost”
- “Companies where forecasting is performed for different combinations of SKUs and inventory locations have on avg. 47% lower Overall Supply Chain Planning Cost ”
- “Companies with formal, globally applicable constraint based supply planning process performed at a regular intervals have, on average, 28.4% lower transportation spend”
- “Companies where supplier managed inventory is managed via automated signals, have on avg. 41.3% lower days in inventory”
