Unsatisfactory forecast quality and business development are in many cases due to a lack of communication between the areas of the supply chain. Typical causes are gaps in the information and planning process. Cloud-based Integrated Business Planning (IBP) creates transparency about requirements, inventories and capacities along the supply chain. Innovative forecasting methods and planning algorithms for production, distribution and procurement support targeted inventory optimization and thus ensure delivery readiness across the entire value network. Simulations of various planning scenarios also help users to maintain an overview of the consequences of changes and decision alternatives as part of what-if analyses.
But how difficult is the implementation of IBP and what should you pay particular attention to in order to keep the effort as low as possible?
Across all integration projects, it is clear that the hurdles in implementation are to be found primarily in the master data and here in particular in the areas of production versions and network and capacity planning.
Technology plays no role
From a technical perspective, integrating IBP into the existing system landscape is child's play, as IBP is decoupled from the on-premise world thanks to its cloud architecture. This not only eliminates the need to import large software packages, but also the need to observe special release statuses. What's more, SAP automatically updates the SaaS solution and also provides permanent function updates. This makes maintaining the solution very convenient.
Data exchange with external systems is ensured by an ERP add-on for SAP ECC and S/4HANA as well as various interfaces that are already included in IBP. In this way, for example, important data for planning - such as sales history - can be merged in IBP.
To do this, special extractors access the ERP system, APO, external tools, a business warehouse (BW) or even tables directly. The data is then transferred to IBP. The extent to which the user uses the internal functions of IBP for further processing is an individual decision - for example, whether to create the forecast models in IBP or to include the forecasts from other programs in further planning.
Versioning is mandatory
In-house production without production versions is not ideal, as it defines which alternative BOM is used in conjunction with a specific task list/scheduling recipe to produce a material or create a production plan for the material. Nevertheless, in practice it is clear that many companies have some catching up to do here. Often, production versions are only available for certain materials and products, while they are missing for others. IBP is uncompromising in this respect, because fully created and maintained production versions are a must for integration. The same also applies if production planning with PP/DS or a transformation to S/4HANA is planned.
Companies should therefore take a close look at their master data and complete it if necessary so that they can ultimately answer the following question with a clear "yes": Do I already have production versions for all my in-house manufactured materials/products that I want to plan in IBP?
Maintaining transportation relationships
In a global market, many companies rely on distributed production for economic and logistical reasons, in which goods, materials or assemblies circulate within the plant network until completion. Planning within the group requires a correctly mapped intercompany process. For example, goods with a special procurement key can be ideally moved within a company code in the case of single sourcing. (Intercompany) purchasing info records that contain a vendor mapped to a corresponding plant in ECC are used across company codes and/or for multisourcing with regard to supplying plants.
If these requirements are met, the entire network can be integrated into IBP in full compliance with the standard, without any additional developments or other workarounds that map the transportation relationships in the network.
Ensure delivery capability
To avoid production bottlenecks, a realistic assessment of capacities is necessary. An important building block for this is the quality of the work schedules. In practice, however, it is all too often the case that in many companies the capacity data does not fit due to incorrect target times or poorly maintained shift models. This becomes apparent in finite planning at the latest, as it is based on the available resources. Before introducing IBP, it is therefore advisable to carry out a quality check of the routings to clarify the following questions: Are there alternative production versions for alternative lines on which I can produce, and are they maintained? Was or is there reasonable available capacity on the individual lines? Are the correct standard times entered in the routings?
Expenses are controllable
Technically, the integration of the IBP cloud solution into the current system can be realized at any time. Experience has shown that the existing master data causes the most effort, either because it is not of the right quality or because it has not been consistently maintained to date. However, companies can drastically reduce the expected effort here by taking a close look at their master data in advance and rectifying any inconsistencies.
Experience has shown that the most time and effort is spent on the existing master data, either because it is not of the right quality or because it has not been consistently maintained to date.
