Search Results for: supply-planning

  • The Problem with Being Trapped by ERP

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … be Remediated
    Let us take the topic of forecasting software. Some companies were told their forecasting would be covered in ERP. That was never true. There are great forecasting applications out there that can be used that actually allow the forecast accuracy to be improved. Let us take MRP and supply planning. Doing MRP in ERP is a ticket to adverse outcomes, which we covered in the article. Why Do Companies Use ERP for MRP?. That functionality can be migrated to a custom solution on AWS at low cost with vastly superior run times and outcomes in Real Time MRP …

  • Our Experience with Migrating the Brightwork Explorer Application to AWS

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … of working with MRP systems, they have had poorly optimized parameters (things like safety stock, reorder point, and economic order quantity) MRP systems (usually executed within ERP systems) do not have good ways of managing these parameters.

    We consider the application developed to be a “Jiffy Lube” for forecasting and supply planning systems, allowing for an external analysis in a flexible tool that can then provide values that help those supply planning and demand planning systems work better.
    Because of our SAP background, the Brightwork Explorer was first targeted towards companies that ran SAP ERP or SAP advanced planning tools …

  • How to Use Information Provided by SAP for Software Selection

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … Made in Marketing Literature
    Software vendor marketing literature can take the form of pamphlets or website copy and can be quite easy to get hold of. This literature is very influential in software selection but, depending upon the vendor, often contains false information and is unreliable. For example, I had read numerous marketing documents that explain how a product performed “inventory optimization” (a particular set of mathematics for supply planning), when the software discussed did not possess this functionality.
    To provide further examples and explain what I mean, I have extracted quotes from some marketing literature. Below are some lines

  • The Brightwork Research & Analysis TCO Method Not Methodology

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … mode of proceeding. A methodology is not a method, and many people who prefer to use a more sophisticated word rather than the accurate word confuses these terms. For instance, in supply chain planning, optimization is a “method”; it is not a methodology. A study of the methods employed in supply planning would be a methodology. A methodology is a
    “design process for carrying out research or the development of a procedure and is not in itself an instrument for doing those things.”
    One of the criticisms from Alan MacCormak’s 2003 study is that many TCO studies simply include …

  • How to Understand the Brightwork Explorer File Formats

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … Something to know, the Brightwork Explorer will only accept the date format of MONTH/YEAR. The reason is that even if one produces a forecast weekly, it will not be used in the Brightwork Explorer for the following reasons:

    It makes little sense to feed a weekly forecast to a supply planning system.
    A weekly forecast error cannot be used for supply planning.
    A weekly forecast error is not useful for forecast measurement and forecast improvement.
    A weekly forecast error is not useful for setting MRP parameters.

    For this reason, the Brightwork Explorer file format is in a monthly bucket …

  • How SAP IBP aka "Zoolander" is Going All in on Trendy

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … I have performed extensive testing with more granular (daily vs. weekly, weekly vs. monthly, monthly vs. quarterly), and the test results don’t support this highly granular and short time bucked forecasting. Furthermore, pewho that focuses on demand only leaves out ordering within the lead and the order batching in supply planning. See the article Test Results: Monthly Versus Weekly Forecasting Buckets, and Test Results: Quarterly Versus Monthly Forecasting Buckets.
    Collaboration…..Oh Boy, No More SNC Please
    APO was/is a deeply non-collaborative application. It was a tool for internal planning that had a module called SNC that did …

  • How to Understand Brightwork SAP Consulting

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … Lead Time Component

    Combing Company Exposure and Writing for Our SAP Consulting
    We have been able to gain exposure to many clients and see how they run MRP and perform forecasting, and we have a strong appreciation for the common shortcomings in how companies employ MRP (as well as other supply planning methods like optimization) and forecasting in SAP. We combine this real-life exposure with the theory around SAP demand planning and supply planning. Our observation is that most consulting work in SAP is in either systems or very much from the business perspective.

    Our backgrounds combine both of …

  • Introduction to SAP APO TM

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … smaller section of the application and covers transportation forecasting, strategic transportation management, and the assignment of individual deliveries to aggregated shipments. Vehicle scheduling is also focused on sequencing the deliveries and mode, carrier, and vehicle resource selection.
    History of TM
    SAP TM is one of the early SAP SCM applications, but it is installed less frequently than the more popular applications such as DP, SNP, and PP/DS. This may have something to do with how ancillary transportation is often viewed to the business compared to demand or supply planning. But what is often missed in this view is the

  • Introduction to SAP APO PP/DS

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … more companies need SAP DP and SNP than need PP/DS. The output of PP/DS is the production plan and the necessary planned production orders sent to the execution system to make this happen. At the highest level, PP/DS receives requirements that can come from SNP or other supply planning applications. This is the requirement side of the equation. The other side of the equation is the capacity of the factories. PP/DS takes these requirements and compares them to the capacity to arrive at planned production orders that meet constraints or capacity leveled. A 100% SAP solution …

  • Brightwork Explorer and Intermittent Demand

    ByPrimary Researcher

    Executive Summary

    Common Question: Why Does Our Product Database Look Like a Service Parts Database?
    Our reaction and the rising tide of unforecastability.

    Introduction
    Due to constant marketing pressure to grow the product database with new product introductions, demand histories are becoming increasingly intermittent.
    Common Question: Why Does Our Product Database Look Like a Service Parts Database?
    After analyzing many product databases from customers, it is apparent that companies are being saddled with “service parts” databases. This causes a fundamental mismatch between many forecasting and supply planning applications designed to work with non-intermittent demand histories.
    These factors of product …