Supply Planning with MRP, DRP and APS Software Screenshots and examples from JDA, SAP, Demand Works and Barloworld, PlanetTogether, and MATLAB (PlanetTogether is not a supply planning system, but is used in the book to demonstrate heuristic adjusted optimization. MATLAB is used to illustrate the use of an external optimizer.) Reviews “Enterprise software solutions for…
Executive Summary Areas that roll into forecast accuracy should be separately measured. Forecast errors can be used to provide a direction for improvement. Video Introduction: Forecast Improvement Estimation Text Introduction (Skip if You Watched the Video) There is a lot of poor quality advice on how to improve forecast accuracy. For example, software vendors tend…
Executive Summary Why hierarchy combination can be important. The importance of keeping the hierarchy in the receiving demand planning system. Introduction In several articles, I have described the importance of recognizing that many very popular enterprise demand planning applications are not good enough at aggregation and disaggregation to make it worthwhile to attempt to perform…
Executive Summary The SNP optimizer has two types of methods of deployment. The deployment optimizer has major problems with the second method, which is called cost optimization. The deployment optimizer cannot fair sharing stock to locations. This topic is hidden by SAP and SAP consulting companies from customers. Introduction to Optimization in APO In its…
Executive Summary Demand sensing and demand shaping are two methods that are often promoted to improve forecasting. However, one of these methods is barely ever applied. The other is not a way of improving the forecast but is presented as one by vendors. Introduction Demand planning always has new terms in supply chain forecasting that…
Executive Summary What is the downward slope for SAP Solution Manager or SAP SolMan? The changing story of SAP Solution Manager or SAP SolMan. This article was updated as of October 2019. Solution Manager has now moved into decommissioned status. Introduction SAP introduces products with great fanfare but does not do an excellent job of…
Executive Summary SAP outsourcing its support to low-cost countries with English as a second language has significantly degraded SAP support. SAP is reaping an enormous support margin but providing inferior quality support. Introduction SAP’s support has dramatically degenerated, with low-skilled support personnel and ever-increasing margins. SAP support resources are trained to gaslight customers, so they…
Executive Summary The SNP overage alert view is available in APO. The SNP overage alert enables the target stock level and the safety days supply. We cover how the TSL or target stocking level is derived. We cover the best way to populate the TSL value. Introduction The alerts under the Supply and Demand Planning…
Executive Summary Capacity resources can be constrained in SAP SNP. There are tradeoffs in inaccuracy in the various approaches to storage capacity. There is a better approach than the standard functionality in SNP, which is little used at actual customers. Introduction This document describes the current design of the storage capacity view and recommends what…
Executive Summary Cases Where There Is No GR Processing Time Intermediate Resolution Introduction This document is designed to explain how the planning book displays the GR processing time and how to work around it. This issue arose when Dawn Richmond pointed out that there was no discrepancy in the Planning Book Between the End Date…