tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53619663829003733662024-02-21T23:37:33.485-05:00Views and Ideas of a traveling SAP supply chain optimizerSAP Mentor, supply chain management enthusiast. Advocate for science as a basis to optimize the SAP supply chain. Active in Europe and North America. Sailboater, private pilot, motorbiker. At home in Tribeca, NYC.
The opinions expressed in this blog are mine!Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-55347270375275392032022-01-03T07:40:00.001-05:002022-01-03T07:40:38.671-05:00Getting Value and Results (5) out of an ERP System Part 5 (of 5): The Big Picture In the last part of this series, I’d like to begin with the
original question these blogs are trying to answer: Have we forgotten that an
ERP system implementation or roll-out is supposed to provide us with value? Or
are we simply content if the system is up and running and ‘kind of works’? Specifically,
when ERP systems are rolled out to plants or distribution centers globally, we often
Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-39133688269626485722022-01-03T07:35:00.002-05:002022-01-03T07:41:41.923-05:00Getting Value and Results (4) out of an ERP System Part 4 (of 5): SAP Value Stream Mapping Part 4 of the series addresses our ERP value stream mapping
techniques. With it we go beyond traditional value stream mapping, in that we
combine the material and information flows with specific settings we have to
configure in the ERP system so that it can support the flow we intend to obtain.
Since we often implement or optimize SAP ERP systems, I’d like to demonstrate
SAP value stream Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-6556987881472054182022-01-03T07:22:00.003-05:002022-01-03T07:42:34.496-05:00Getting Value and Results (3) out of an ERP System Part 3 (of 5): Achieving Clarity for a Roadmap to Success In the following, we’ll discuss part 3 of the series on
getting value out of your ERP system. Once you clearly stated the problem and
carried out a thorough and useful analysis, you should then clearly define your
goals and the desired effects you’d like to get out of a rather expensive ERP
system, that looked so promising when you purchased it.
To develop a roadmap with all the Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-54002115041397931492022-01-03T07:10:00.003-05:002022-01-03T07:43:53.327-05:00Getting Value and Results (2) out of an ERP System Part 2 (of 5): Assessment and Analytics In part 1 of this series, we asked the question about
getting value and results out of an ERP implementation or optimization. In this
part I’d like to present the tools and analytics we apply to assess a current
situation in terms of productivity, efficiency, automation and inventory
performance.
Naturally, if one wants to improve an unsatisfactory
situation, one must have a clear picture Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-11686774731842212872022-01-03T07:03:00.005-05:002022-01-03T07:46:00.923-05:00Getting Value and Results (1) out of an ERP System. A new Concept? Part 1 (of 5)Do you know the story of the company who decided to acquire
and implement an ERP system? It was sometime between 1990 and 2020 that their
leadership wanted to modernize their process landscape and participate in the
global quest for digitalization. A task force was put together and Requests for
Quotation were sent to various System Integrators. Then, in elaborate meetings,
the consultants Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-15901551598529256712021-07-25T17:53:00.003-04:002021-07-25T17:53:45.571-04:00Inventory… how much is too much?Have you ever talked to a materials manager who was content with their inventory holdings? I didn’t think so. Have you ever met one who can tell you why they’re not content? They can probably tell you that they have too much inventory (and still the occasional stock-out) but when you ask them how much is too much, they’re sometimes getting a little fuzzy. In my personal opinion there are tooUwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-26767471677011039312020-05-18T04:41:00.003-04:002020-05-18T04:41:49.538-04:00Rule-based Planning for the Exception-minded BusinessUwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-48456991805061091052020-01-31T11:40:00.000-05:002020-01-31T11:40:01.641-05:00It's a new day... let's fix our inventoryHow do you go about inventory optimization on a daily basis? I hope it's nothing like the following...
Unfortunately, for lack of a rule-based system, this kind of planning and behavior can be observed more often than not. Of course, it is not quite so bad as described in above flow chart, but there are many close variations to it, in many plants and DCs around the SAP (or other) ecosystem.
Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-82370262021318560032019-11-02T14:56:00.000-04:002019-11-02T14:56:00.153-04:00Rule-based Planning and why SAP often doesn't deliver the results we expectMost organizations consider the planning of their sellable products and materials an important part of their business strategy, but the way it's being executed makes one feel that the outcome is rather coincidental or random.
If you, as a planner, have to resort to massive expediting, fire-fighting and constant responding to rush requests from sales and / or production, then chances are you're Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-83546032161876747912018-11-05T15:05:00.003-05:002018-11-05T15:05:45.918-05:00Why digitalization can't fix your supply chain problems
There's a pretty good chance that when you asked for a solution to your supply chain problems, someone brushed you off saying "don't worry, we're digitalizing soon". Just look at all the software vendor's marketing pitches, browse discussion groups and networks on the internet, listen to analysts and consultants... more often than not digitalization is perceived to be the holy grail. While Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-70332295242528204452018-10-05T04:28:00.000-04:002018-10-05T05:00:19.826-04:00...and then I wonder why my plan doesn't work out!Taking the noise out of the planning process improves delivery reliability and therefore fill rates to customers and production lines. I don't believe that many people would disagree with me on this. But why? Because when you send your suppliers (internal or external) an even demand, chances are that they deliver regularly and more reliably as well. Therefore, when we engage in a supply chain Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-86914730513398451132018-09-02T09:55:00.003-04:002018-09-02T10:09:11.074-04:00What's wrong with this picture?Just this week I came back from an analysis on how a very large, global company is planning their replenishment of purchased raw materials and manufactured goods. We've looked into many functional areas and interviewed most of the users in that plant. Then there was one thing that really stuck out to me. You can see it in the following graphic:
The graphic shows one of their highest mover's Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-20602792295876649542018-06-21T06:28:00.002-04:002018-06-21T06:28:34.473-04:00Info Days - SAP, Alkyone and bigbyte in New Orleans
Join us in New Orleans to discuss Productivity, SAP Add-On Tools and the Theory of Constraints on SAP
Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-87866254498964388132018-06-14T08:32:00.004-04:002018-06-16T05:04:42.370-04:00The incredible Power of a Material Forecast
What is a material
forecast? This is not to confuse with sales forecasting or a master plan where
finished good's demands are forecasted through product groups. A material
forecast relates to the anticipation of future consumption of purchased parts.
In SAP ECC, for example, you can assign a material forecast as a policy. In
that case you would use the MRP type VV together with a lot size Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-85884939425422300642017-11-19T14:19:00.000-05:002017-11-19T14:24:21.707-05:00What's the Difference between a Buffer and a Shock Absorber?Lately, in industry publications and social networks, you can read a lot about shock absorbers and how to apply them in supply chain planning to reduce variability or absorb it. Apparently, many thought leaders have been replacing and complementing buffers with these shock absorbers… at least in theory. Not wanting to get into anybody’s conversations but I do have my own view on the topic. In my Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-40969094301810734042017-11-10T07:04:00.001-05:002017-11-10T07:04:08.903-05:00Who needs a rough-cut capacity check anyway?
Just recently I was
visiting with a manufacturing company that builds parts for the automotive
industry. It’s a repetitive business and they use Make To Order and Make To
Stock strategies. The problem is that there is a humongous backlog, because
there isn’t enough capacity and there is too much of the stuff nobody requires
and too little of the stuff they desperately need.
I do not want to Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-58568112938469254842017-10-27T15:42:00.002-04:002017-10-27T15:42:31.259-04:00Takt-based scheduling? Yes, but just not really…Takt is a German word. It’s used in the music world. A conductor uses a baton primarily to regulate the tempo of the music. So why would we use takt to schedule production? Well… maybe to regulate the tempo of production? I see managers everywhere, trying to regulate the flow of production lines. And we intuitively know that when things flow we get better results as when things get stuck. And Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-42202763245819678872017-10-22T16:29:00.000-04:002017-10-22T16:29:01.317-04:00A Perspective on Supply Chain Optimization
For a long time there
has been a search for the perfect planning system. I have been looking for it
too but after many years of trying, I've come to the conclusion that such a
thing only exists for very specific situations. What I mean by that is that as
we try to generalize, package and roll-out solution to the general market, I
have seen nothing but either failed, misrepresented or Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-52737434602672658012017-10-13T18:37:00.002-04:002017-10-14T08:55:50.712-04:00Absorption Based Planning There is – and actually has been for a long time – a lot of talk about buffers, safety stocks and de-coupling points in supply chain planning. Let me add another term to this: shock absorbers. “Oh my”… you might cry out “Not another buzz term or theory!” I’m with you… too much confusion and buzz around this subject. But please allow me to take a shot on simplification and order in this area.
FromUwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-36589834847173762512017-09-10T05:14:00.006-04:002017-09-10T05:14:35.105-04:00SAP und bigbyte Info Days, October 11 & 12 in DetroitUwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-85040243948134078552017-06-19T20:24:00.004-04:002017-06-19T20:29:23.776-04:00Working ON the system instead of IN the systemAs we're optimizing inventories, implement new production scheduling methods or improve our forecasting, we're working in or on a system... a system where individual parts make up a whole and feedback loops and certain dynamics take place. What defines a system? First, they have purpose. An automobile has the purpose to move people. However, its purpose is a property of the system as a whole and Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-47131921403098905782017-05-25T19:40:00.004-04:002017-05-25T19:40:52.217-04:00Capacity Planning with SAPWorking for more than 20 years with companies from many different industries, I took a stab at writing down my thoughts on how SAP's functionality might help to make more sense out of production scheduling.
Capacity planning, sequencing, leveling and scheduling of orders is a topic that often is neglected and carried out in Excel spreadsheets and third party tools. With this writing I attempted Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-24955113454158749622017-04-27T08:44:00.004-04:002017-04-27T09:38:30.534-04:00Why do you sacrifice yourself to save the safety stock?
Here is something I never understood: why do so many people plan without the safety stock? and why is the safety stock taken out of the planning situation (at least in the standard configuration in SAP-ERP) I know... everybody claims to use it when its needed but until then you have introduced a kazillion rescheduling messages, new order proposals and canceled purchase orders.
I know the Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-42246174772065608462017-03-06T11:31:00.001-05:002017-03-06T14:24:25.691-05:00Deterministic planning and safety stockLast week I visited three manufacturing companies. One from the medical device industry, the other one producing fresh and frozen foods and the third in the business of musical instruments and electronic components. they are of very different size, one being a huge, global manufacturer, present almost everywhere in the world, the other one still in the billion dollar revenue range. the third is aUwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361966382900373366.post-37255550930670191842017-01-26T17:28:00.003-05:002017-01-26T17:28:51.312-05:00SAP Add-On Tools Info Days in Florida, February 15th and 16th Uwe J. Goehringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14928083861356992076noreply@blogger.com0