Executive Summary Reducing Clunkiness of the SAP GUI When are Transaction Codes in APO Useful? Introduction I documented the IMG setups for SPP. In doing this, I have to go into and out of many screens; for this, it’s hard to beat keyboard shortcuts. I know most of us would like SAP to behave like…
Executive Summary Intermittent or lumpy demand is often thought to be better forecasted with sophisticated methods. As per J. Scott Armstrong’s research and our research, more complex methods do not work with intermittent or lumpy demand. In this article, we cover using Crostons, smoothing, and the moving average for intermittent demand. Introduction: The History of…
Executive Summary What is the history of audit firms, and how did they get into SAP consulting? What is an auditing firm, and how do they really work? Introduction In our previous post, I described how consulting firms would sometimes keep their clients in a matrix of misinformation. By looking at the businesses that most…
Executive Summary IT analysts help create a bubble about marketplaces. After they got the story so wrong, they moved on hype up other topics. Advanced Planning 2.0? During the tech stock bubble that had formed around technology companies, some companies were focused on electronic collaboration through the concept of an online marketplace. This development was…
Discover SAP SCM The book is titled Discover SAP SCM and is published by SAP Press. It provides an overview of the entire SAP SCM suite and is a good book for those new to SCM, for those who work in SCM, but looking to get a broader view. It is also useful for decision…
Executive Summary SAP has proposed that Netweaver was revolutionary. However, nothing really changed on SAP projects after it was introduced. How accurate was SAP on Netweaver? This is a graphical depiction of the content of SAP’s NetWeaver. Study it very carefully, can you see anything? Video Introduction: Did SAP NetWeaver Ever Actually Exist? Text Introduction…
Executive Summary What is SOA, and why SAP put out misleading information about SOA? SAP’s inaccurate books on SOA. SAP has some fairy dust they would like to sell you…. it called SOA. What Is SOA? SOA stands for service-oriented architecture. A service-oriented architecture is a software development model that is the complete opposite of…
Executive Summary The importance of having an honest and correct measurement or forecast accuracy or forecasting accuracy. How the error is measured. Video Introduction: How to Best Measure Forecast Error Text Introduction (Skip if You Watched the Video) The vast majority of companies are unhappy with their forecast accuracy or forecasting accuracy. However, many of…
Executive Summary Forecast prototyping is performing forecast and supply testing. Prototyping is critical to understanding how to make changes to the forecasting and supply system. Companies make a significant mistake when they select one forecasting system and trust that everything in that system will work as advertised. Instead, forecasting should be prototyped in another competitive…
Executive Summary Optimization became a prominent component in supply chain planning software. However, optimization struggles with unintelligibility, and there are major challenges in getting cost optimization to work in SAP. We cover implicit versus explicit costs, how cost optimization compares to inventory optimization, and the current state of optimization. Introduction Optimization has proven much more…