Challenges in the Apparel Industry and SAP’s Solutions for them – Article 1:

By S.Suren

Challenges in the Apparel Industry and SAP's Solutions for them:

Optimizing service levels

Service levels with any industry is about servicing customer at a higher level than competitors to make them come back to you, and its no different with the apparel industry. Given the complexities of operating in a fashion conscious industry, with new fashion lines staying in stores for a week before they go out of fashion, it is only understandable on how much pressure the end retailers would have to go through, to service their customers and in turn the amount the pressure they would be passing on to their vendors to support them in maintaining a high service level.

Let’s look at how SAP AFS has been designed to help with this aspect:

Order scheduling Strategy is an additional process in AFS SD processing that helps to optimize the delivery dates for each item. You can define rules to take account of special customer requests or general business requirements.

Distribution Rules – This way you can decide on how to fulfill the multi store orders of your important customers.

Value-Added Services – Using this function in SAP AFS you can add those services or products to the final product that is being delivered to the customer as per the customer’s requirement. By having a clear cut strategy with the value additions made to the product, it helps identifying each operation that go into delivering the value added service and charging a identifiable price for it.

Multi-Store Order – Using this function you can satisfy the requirements of you large corporate customers who have multiple stores with individual requirements for different stores.

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Streamlining operations for efficiency

It is a known fact that the logistics operation involved with the apparel industry is one of the most complex and longest sequence of networked operations, given this it is extremely important that valuable time, money and effort is not used in sorting out issues resulting from operating with a such a complicated chain. Hence it is important that you have the right tools and practices built in the chain to make sure issues are highlighted and sorted out at the earliest.

Lean Warehouse Management - Use of reduced functionality of the warehouse management (WM) in simply structured warehouses without inventory management in storage bins.

Source Allocation – This tool is to optimize your procurement activities. As a supplier/recipient relation it supports the control and organization of your business-related and interenterprise procurement structures.

Vendor Capacity Planning – its just so common in this industry where you work with vendors who are located far away from your operating plants. In this case every transaction with them is extremely important in relation to the time and cost involved in procurements reaching its destination. This is where vendor capacity planning really helps this industry.

More on this post to follow soon. Hope you found this informative and interesting. Your comments and suggestions are welcome at ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day !!

On Demand not so much in Demand ??

By : S.Suren

There has been much speculation over the demand for On Demand softwares with large ERP vendors such as SAP entering the market. However it seems that now the fizz that was once there for this type of software service model is taking a step backwards.

Recent reports stated that SAP is beginning to cut short on its investements on Business ByDesign. Some say this is because they had a tough quarter and felt that they would be in a better position to curb their expenses on R&D in this section than on the SME solutions market, then again isnt SaaS meant for the SME market ??

Even ORACLE have got into the act and state that they are happy to let SAP take the lead role in this area and watch and learn from their mistakes, because ORACLE feels that SAP have a lot to do in just setting up the foundation for this service model style in an ERP Context in the SME Market.

What more, there were even speculations that perhaps ORACLE would take over a few small players in the industry to keep the barrels loaded when they enter the battle field. The way I see things, ORACLE could just be brewing another hot take over around the corner, perhaps even another ERP Vendor that fits the bill with a SOA Architectural style and maybe even moving towards to a SaaSy service model.

Time will tell I guess. Will keep this site updated on the latest happenings.

Feel free to contact me on ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day !!

SRM and SAP AFS

By: S.Suren

In my previous post I listed out a few important things about SCM and the basics that need to be followed to build a efficient Supply Chain Management model. In relation to that post I would like to discuss the importance of SRM (Supplier Relationship Management).

This is not a very widely spoken about subject simply because CRM has taken the spotlight away from this since the golden rule “customers are king” is more prominent in any industry and thats why the sources of supply have not been given that much of attention than the receiving party, the customer.

However, the impact of a good SRM model would definitely help in providing world class customer service. So then, let’s look at SRM in a little more detail in the context of the Apparel Industry.

SRM is more likely to play a vital role in the manufacturing companies and especially those that have very complicated products, and this is exactly what the AFS Industry is all about. Given the unique fashion needs of each and every individual it’s only apparent that this leads to complex BOM Structures that go into producing the garments that caters to these needs.

Given that fact, it’s likely that there are many suppliers that the manufacturing company will need to work with in the most efficient manner to make sure that they receive the right materials at the right quantity and quality to be able to produce quality garments and deliver them to the market at the right time.

In the AFS Industry even a simple BOM (Bill of Material) Structure for a garment would have many different components in it, for example, the button, the thread, the elastic, the embroidery material, the fabric, the embellishments etc etc.

So then how does that SAP Standard R/3 and AFS Solution caters to these needs, below is a listing of some of them:

• Sorting and Vendor ranking criteria – This option in SAP AFS proposed the best vendor to assign the purchase requisition to , based on the criterias specified in here.

• AFS Specific Criteria for Vendor Ranking -These include criterias such as Factory Status, Complexity Factor and Lowest ‘FOB’.

• Ability to use Fixed Criterias (AFS Enhancement available) – Using this option you can also rank and maintain the best vendor to buy from taking into account criterias such as , vendor capacity, quotas the vendor is subject to and political restrictions placed on vendors that are from a particular region.

• Complexity Factors – using this option you can judge the extent to which the vendor has the ability to be able to produce a material that requires complex production steps.

• Route Determination (AFS Enhancement available) – Even the move time, lead time and shipping types can be maintained.

• Subcontracting – With the inclusion of being able to set preference sub. Indicator for those vendors who use provision components in the material that is supplied to you.

So there you go, these are just some of the functions available. It can be argued that the information from transactions done with suppliers can be retrieved and reported in tools available in modules such as BI and FI. Perhaps in my future posts I shall discuss on those aspects.

Hope you found this post informative. Feel free to contact me on ssurenlk@msn.com if  you have any queries.

For more information of features available on supplier management, click here.

Have a nice day!!

WOA is in town !!

By S.Suren

Just as you thought we had enough of new service delivery models and system architectural styles to help with development of Enterprise IT for the next 2 years at least, a new pops up from around the corner.

This time we are talking about WOA (Web Oriented Architecture). This is more closely aligned to what we now know as Web 2.0 and looking at it from a business systems development point of view, we could perhaps refer to it as Enterprise Web 2.0.

Given that models such as SaaS have fueled much competition and debate,(click here for a great debate between SAP Chairman and Salesforce.com CEO on the future of SaaS) Enterprise Web 2.0 could be the next best thing for top Enterprise Solution vendors to look at.

Though some would argue that WOA is actually a part of SOA, it is quite noticeable that WOA could make a path of its own when it comes to assisting with designing web services that are interoperable and user friendly for both the implementers as well as the final users.

What ever said and done, at the end of the day we would be rating the success of this architectural style based on where it stands between the 2 axis, richness of application and complexity of business processes and ease of use.

I shall keep this website updated with more info on this issue in the future.

Hope you found this post informative.

For more information on SOA click here to visit my previous post.

ssurenlk@msn.com

Truth be told...wonderful article !!

8 SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL SAP IMPLEMENTATION

Many wonder what constitutes a successful SAP Implementation. Everyone wants to have a great success story to talk about, from the top management to the implementation consultant. Success is a relative term.

You will hear: "Successfully went live on the planned date and on budget" - You should ask though whether the initial scope was implemented or did they have to take business processes out of scope in order to make it. - You should also ask how are things now that you went live? Can you ship to your customers without any problems? Is the system performing well? Are the end users fully trained and are they doing their job well? Do you still need consulting support to go through your day-to-day business?

Once you put these questions into perspective you can really define a successful SAP Implementation in many ways and many levels.

Success Factors

Here is a list of factors that determine the relative success of a project as mentioned above.

1. Communication:

For a successful SAP project implementation the number one factor is good communication among the project team members. Everybody claims that they are good communicators and we surely have the technology to maintain constant communication with land-phones and cell-phones and email, but it is true that they are not used to their maximum ability.

For example, when there is an issue, which needs to be communicated to multiple people, usually one will email to a number of people who should really be involved. It is extremely annoying and brakes the communication chain when somebody replies only to the sender of the email without including the rest of the members.

SAP is such integrated software that has constantly touch points among the modules. As such, constant integration among the teams is of paramount importance.

Not only constant communication is important, but GOOD communication is important. People must be very clear about what they are talking about. There is a little phrase: "Mary had a little lamb" - these five short words can create such confusion and result to numerous different meanings;
• Mary used to have a lamb but does not anymore
• Mary had a little lamb which now has grown into a big one
• Mary "had" (i.e. ate) a little lamb
I am sure you can make a lot of other meanings out of this small sentence

Now imagine, if this little sentence can cause such confusion, what mess would be created when dealing with complex business processes, spanning through several departments within an organization and involving anywhere from fifty to thousands of employees, end users, managers, consultants.

So the key is good, accurate, specific and timely communication. Clarify things several times. Explain them as if you were talking to little children.

In order to achieve this type of good communication team members should have their workplaces physically close together. I have seen in many recent cases where the Consulting firm in order to "minimize" costs for the client, they outsource much of the Development ABAP programming work outside the USA and in most cases to other continents.

Based on all the things mentioned above, how can good communication be achieved? It is not possible to simply create a program spec with a description in writing and expect a programmer located on the other side of the planet to figure out what the Business Process is, and what would make the program work according to the client's requirements.

Some consulting firms that do this practice will argue that "it is possible and they have success stories to tell". Well, remember at the beginning of this article what we talked about "Success".

We have witnessed this type of "success" when we went in to resolve the issues of such implementation method. We have witnessed the never-ending consulting hours that the client has to pay because of this implementation method. Often the client is made to sign a contract which says something like "…when the program is complete (but not really working as per the client's requirements - this is not stated anywhere) any change to it would be considered change of scope…". Such practice force the client to either abandon the effort of making the program work because of the extra scope-change cost or keep paying more, in order to try make the program work.

These tactics are unfair to the clients and give a bad name to the Consulting industry.

The client needs to take charge of these situations. Make the rules of good communication. Make the rules of the type of consultants you want to have. Provide the physical and technological infrastructure for the basis of good communication. Do not allow "consulting" companies to hide behind a "Big" corporate name.

Clients deserve the best for the huge amounts of money a SAP Implementation cost. Communicate well, take control of your project and do not be sold on "air-talk".

2. Full Corporate Management Support:

Nothing will happen, nothing will move, unless Management supports it. There must be full and utter commitment and support for the project. If Management does not show both in words and deeds that the SAP Implementation is important than the team members, end users and so on, will not be on-board, will not be dedicated. Without dedication the project is bound to fail.

The ways management provides support for the project is by actively participating in the planning and management of the project. Proactively getting involved not only in the high level plans and decision making, but also in the lower level and just as important activities of the day-to-day activities of the project. Get in touch with the project team members, know and be interested about their job and where they stand. This will motivate and keep people committed.

When management is involved then issues get resolved easier, conflict is overcome faster, because the management know the details of what is going on. How is this achieved? By keeping weekly status and communication meetings (remember communication?) These meetings are not to judge or interrogate anybody. They are done so that all members are informed as to what is happening keep the pulse of the project.

The management should help the project move forward, not hinder it with too many bureaucratic procedures. Keep meetings short and to the point. Maintain one status report, not 15 different reports. Have procedures but do not overdo it to the point where the project becomes inflexible and time consuming to make a decision or take a corrective action. Manage the project and provide people enough freedom to do their work. This will be appreciated.


3. The Project Plan and a Methodology are Guidelines - Not Rulers:

Make a good plan. Make a Realistic plan. Most projects do not have a realistic plan. People think everything can be done really fast. They do not allow enough time for the unforeseen parts of the projects. The vendors delaying to deliver the hardware, running out of disk space, actual training time takes a lot longer that thought, users need more training or they are overloaded with their every day job that cannot attend training and much more. The Master Data are corrupt and we need a new SAP Client. We can make a copy. We plan one day for the copy, but why is it always that a SAP client copy always fails the first time resulting taking two or three days?

Remember, if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Allow enough time in your plan for travel time, for public holidays, for vacation. There are so many project managers planning to go-live on January 1 - how foolish, inappropriate and disrespectful to the work and dedication of the people. As soon as Thanksgiving comes around things slow down dramatically and especially the last two weeks of the years are down to a crawl. Take these times of the year into account.

If you cannot go live as per the plan then do NOT go live. It is better, cheaper and safer to delay the go-live and being able to serve your customers. Better than going live just to make a big corporate announcement that we went live as planned but then everybody runs around like headless chickens trying to fix problems, help the users, correct errors, serve your customers.

Allow time for errors. Always have contingency plans. What if the go-live fails. Make sure you have a way to regress to the legacy system to be able to function properly as a business.

the most known SAP Implementation Methodology is ASAP or Accelerated SAP. Consultants should be Certified by SAP. Following this methodology can be very helpful and really accelerating your process. It can also be a inhibitor and delaying factor if it gets overused. ASAP contains a huge amount of tools, templates and instructions of how to implement SAP. Use common sense. There is no reason to try to use one hundred percent of the ASAP methodology. Use only the parts that help you. There are excellent templates for documentation, BPP documents, Training and testing documents, which would take a lot of time to create from scratch.

4. Make a proper Scope:

Which parts of SAP will you implement. Often team members get too excited and want to implement a hundred percent of the processes SAP offers. Not possible. SAP should be implemented according to the Business needs and processes. There was a team member once that wanted to use Classification in the Material Master at a time that it did not make sense for their business. There was another team member that wanted to implement Evaluated Receipt Settlement or ERS for Vendor Invoicing at a time when most invoices did not much the Purchase Orders. These members were warned that these processes were not appropriate. They did not listen. The process failed.

Be realistic. Because SAP can do almost everything it does not mean that you should implement almost everything. You must make sure that your users are technologically advanced, computer literate enough and that they understand the business processes, which will allow them to comprehend and manage the change that such an implementation will bring.

5. Motivate, Appreciate, Reward your people:

It may sound a cliché, but it must be done. Do not do it just to be politically correct. Do it because you mean it, put your soul into it, make it personal. This is one of the few things someone should take personally in business!! People will work twice as hard when they are appreciated. In order to be able to know what you are rewarding people for, you must be involved it their day-to-day business - here come back again the Full Corporate Management Support point mentioned above. A "thank you" goes very long way.

6. Manage Change:

One of the most important factors is how the organization handles changes. This is one of the riskiest part of this business. To make your people understand that change is a good thing. To make the embrace change and make it happened.

This challenge is accomplished with all the above points mentioned, i.e.
- Full Corporate Management Support
- Communication
- The Project Plan and the Methodology
- A proper Scope
- Motivate, Appreciate, Reward your people

If these are followed and executed successfully, people will appreciate and embrace the coming changes. Admittedly, very, very hard thing to achieve for many reasons. Human nature is to avoid change. Therefore, going against human nature is starting off the wrong way. People are afraid of business change because often they are afraid of their job security - unfortunately often rightly so.


7. Politics:

Every project has them (politics) to some degree. Make sure politics and hidden agendas do not derail your implementation process. Stay focused and bring out in the open differences sooner than later. Do not allow people with hidden agendas mislead the project to the wrong direction. Stop this soon and stop it hard. Politics should not be tolerated and should be dealt with firmly and tactfully at the same time.

8. Find Excellent Resources:

The client, the management, must be involved in the consulting recruitment process. Do not simply trust the Consulting firm. Make sure the consultants know their stuff. Make sure the consultants do not have "layers" of intermediaries before they reach you - the final client. The more layers, the more the Consultant's rate is reduced, which in turn it means that the consultant who are willing to work for the lower rate are usually the least knowledgeable. In life you get what you pay for - and even though you as a client might be paying dearly for the consultant, too many layers reduce the consultant's rate and therefore the quality.

The next time someone says "we had a successful project", analyze the facts first to determine the degree of success. Some consulting firms (not to mention names) when their relative success of a project is pretty low, they "declare victory and leave the project"!! They announce to the world of the "success" of the project and then they move on leaving the client to suffer the consequences both in business and cost terms.


(Thanks to Evolutionary Consulting, Inc)

Being SaaSy has its challenges!!

By.S.Suren :

We have some top ERP vendors entering the SaaS ring with their set of application suites, however though many analyst and experts in the field regard this to be the next most important area for software vendors to concentrate, they also emphasis the challenges it bring with it.

Though most of these challenges have been related to technical, service standards, licensing revenue, I feel that an important issue that needs more attention is the client’s acceptability of a solution where they are ready to let their sensitive data reside in a server that they might not have complete control over.

With CRM solutions (e.g. salesforce.com) and certain other business solutions having being operating in SaaS environment, it’s quite understandable to think that since clients have accepted this type of a solution architecture with modules such as CRM which is likely to have more sensitive data, they will not have many concerns with doing the same with their ERP application or will they ??

I guess it would differ based on the clients loyalty to the ERP Vendors, if they have been using the system for a long time and are happy with the solutions provided they would perhaps accept to the decision to operate on a hosted solution, but the level of service standards and solutions given would be the responsibility of the consultancy provider who was involved, so in cases of vendors like SAP, the push to move from a standard locally maintained solution to a hosted solution should come from the consulting partner I would guess.

However, we should not forget the cultures of data ownership in different regions, yes I did say region, its is likely that in some regions clients are more comfortable with being able to see their servers physically and would surely be a bit skeptical about accepting for the vendor to hold their data elsewhere, though there are always likely to be exceptions to this. I believe that this could be because of the laws on data ownership and misappropriation and the lack of strict adherence to them in these regions.

Well, I am sure this subject could well be debated and could very well prove to be wrong with the increasing use of data applications and the impact that globalization is having on these regions, all this I am sure will lead to improvements in all other related aspects, hopefully having a greater impact on the laws as mentioned earlier.Keeping the above in mind, the following is small lists of other issues I feel could not help encouraging being SaaSy:

• · Technical implications of hosting a core business solution.
• · Service Standards – being a hosted solution residing at vendor site, clients will be expecting the service standards to be high.
• · Data Backups coordination with vendors.
• · User licensing considerations
• · For clients, it would be convincing certain stakeholders of solutions such as this.

Hope you found this post informative and useful.

Feel free to send me your comments and suggestions to ssurenlk@msn.com

Have a nice day.

Business Intelligence & Warehouse solutions with SAP AFS

By: S.Suren


Its fair enough that SAP AFS IS in mainly built into modules such as MM, SD and PP but what about the business intelligence modules, such as SAP SEM and SAP BW. It is arguable that these are standard modules and its relevance in the AFS Environment would be determined by the method in which it is used to access the relevant information and project it on a management dashboard; however given an AFS environment what would be the norms of generating such information from SAP SEM and SAP BW?

Let’s look at a few of the areas in which SAP Business Intelligence Modules could be in relevance with SAP AFS IS installations:

Manage Strategic Planning

Given a manufacturing environment SBUs are normally the factory (plants). Therefore critical strategic business level information can be set as KPIs of these plants and can be monitored, analyzed and controlled.

The KPIs measures that are devised can be turned into financial relevant information, such as SBUs Revenue/ Cost of Production of a particular sales order style etc. This information would form the base for calculating ROCE and making comparisons possible with target rates.

Based on the planning and forecast of possible sales order the user can use this projection to compare information such as SBUs ROCE, RM Efficiency Usage with targets and the future trends of the type of production activity that will take place for the next 10 years etc.

Since in AFS the inventory management function plays a key role, information on stock value and working capital management is crucial. Using information such as stock holding days, lead time in receipt of payments etc, and SAP BI tools could perhaps provide a clear guide on the current efficiency of these functions and help in analyzing problematic areas.

The SBU information can be analyzed together and therefore form company wide figures to make it possible to keep track of strategic goals set company wide. Keeping this in mind lets move on to the area of Analyzing operations.

Analyze operations against strategic goals

The operations in the relevant SBU need to be maintained. All issues such as supply of raw material to the plants can be monitored and strategic decisions can be made.

SAP BI tools could help to obtain a timely insight into making strategic decisions. This is brought to the attention of senior managers via dash boards etc. Using this output the top management have a snapshot view of how the strategic decisions made have contributed towards the results achieved.

Monitor KPI

As per the present needs in the AFS Industry, BI tools could serve the purpose of monitoring KPIs on a regular basis and project those using Management Dashboards.

KPIs from Production Floor Operations to lead times of receiving payments from customers can be monitored and projected using the Management Cockpit option. The definition of KPI’s, Performance Measures & Objectives is what would reflect the usefulness of the SAP BI solution.

Business critical information such as :

• Write off values occurring at SBUs.
• The Idle time of Raw Material and its relevant holding costs can be monitored and controlled.
• Quality Defects % or Numbers per cluster of garments produced can be analyzed in comparison to target rates.
• On time deliveries done at SBUs can be monitored and projected on management dashboards using speedometers, graphs and/or tables.

The main criteria that would determine the successful implementation of a proper SAP BI solution would be the ability to retrieve relevant data using the various data sources available in the organization.

Respond to business needs

If you are the seller you can identify the sales for the different regions and different product lines perhaps based on the type of style sold and the different stature groups. As in AFS the statures can be maintained in many age groups, this could also be used as a measure in determining the target market and identifying trends.

Hope this post gave you an introductory insight into the potential of a SAP BI solution in the context of a SAP AFS installation, however, more importantly as the KPI’s and Measures that could be setup in an AFS environment are in abundance, its all about identifying and prioritizing them accordingly.

Also note that this post is just to emphasis on the different potential areas SAP BIW could add value to the SAP AFS solution, the best approach and method to do it; I will leave it to the technical experts in the subject.

Your comments are welcome at ssurenlk@msn.com

Have a nice day!!

S.Suren

Dying Applications !!

By: S.Suren

The phrase "Dying Application" is something that most often is discussed by ERP Vendors in seminars and workshops as a method of getting customers to upgrade or do a transformation from their legacy systems to the ones being proposed by the ERP Vendor.

In my previous posts, I had mentioned how the general analysis on the ROI of ERP Implementations has been and how much of the actual life of an ERP System is used at its potential by the business. This article would fill in some of the questions of how you might classify a dying application and decide that its time to review the existing processes and consider new one.

I've listed below some of the symptoms of a dying application :

• Users begin requesting for reports that have no base KPI attached to it - This normally happens when the higher level user in charge of the operation that needs to be performed in the module is not directly involved and hence leaves it up to the lower level users to request reports. This costs previous time and money for the business, which could have been used elsewhere more productively.

• The latency of converting raw data entered in the system to structured data for analysis is in days - It is very important for the user of this data to also on a regular basis consider the latency in generating his/her information needs from the system.

• Reports and data grouped as MIS haven't been generated for sometime - It is quite usual during the implementation phase for the user and consultants involved to categories some reports as very important MIS reports and create separate groups for them in the system and special permissions for relevant users only to generate these reports. Once that is done, a formal handshake a sense of achievement rests in everyone, but if you keep a close eye on how often the information in these systems will be used it could be surprising.

• Users spend more time on related applications in generating MIS than in the system - Its understandable that to some extent users will always revert back to excel to organise their information needs, but its important that information that would be reaching higher level users should not be done through excel since it tends to motivate users to use more numbers and details, which shouldn't be the format of reports reaching higher level user.

• The vendors account managers hasn't contacted you for sometime regarding an upgrade or to keep you updated on the latest deliverable of the application - Lets face it, though the blame game is not suggested here, vendors will have to share the blame for a dying application if they have not made any effort to inform the users of the inevitable.

The above points are just a few, I shall update more on this topic in my future posts.

Hope you found this post useful. Have a nice day.

ssurenlk@msn.com

The Big Event this MAY !!

Those interested in watching the big names in the ERP Industry going against each other in one day, make sure to book your seats for the ERP Shoot OUT !!

www.erpshootout.com

I'm promoting this event on behalf of one of my friend who will be involved with this event.

Fashion Conscious !!

By S.Suren



Fashion is one thing that will never stop changing, there are designs being churned out just about everyday, a new design needs to go through the entire cycle from design to development to delivery at the shortest time possible to make sure the market is still there for it, that’s how fast paced this industry is.

What more, with the complexity of having different customer demands from different regions and to match and satisfy this, it just makes the whole process more cumbersome and to say the least, close to creating a chaotic situation.

The many demands of the AFS industry places a crushing strain on the IT system that is to support it, which is why it is very important that the right IT System that can withstand this pressure is selected for the job.

With the general perception that any IT system that would cater to this requirement is likely to be complex too, let look at what SAP has to offer with its unique Apparel & Footwear solution.

First of all, we need to understand that SAP AFS Solutions in itself is a new addition comparatively to the other SAP Industry Solutions available. However, it is one of those solutions that have come through leaps and bound to cater to the requirement of an industry that demands a lot. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to many when SAP AFS Consultants are in high demand out there, especially given the demand for SAP AFS.

Enough of the pep talk I guess, lets get to the facts now!!

Take for example a NIKE T-Shirt which has 3 different fabrics, more than 3 colors, many NIKE swooshes (by the way this initially cost the NIKE Founders $35 to get it done) with an excellent finish to it, a cool hang tag, a stunning heat seal and of course, the price tag attached to it.

Remember, all these items in the Nike T-Shirts were miles apart from each other, perhaps in different continents to say the least, just maybe a few days before it arrived at the store.

Now imagine the amount of coordination and commitment that would have gone into producing this finished good, that’s where SAPs AFS Solution comes into the picture.

The SAP AFS Solution provides the right tools to manage your entire supply chain from the initial purchasing of raw material to the final delivery of the finished product.

It supports the large amount of transaction processing in the system that is only normal in this industry. The Bill of Material would have at least a 6 level hierarchy for a simple one piece garment with no designs or maybe even no buttons, I’ll let it to your imagination to guess the structure of a BOM for the Nike T-Shirt mentioned above.

SAP’s AFS Solution helps in maintaining the right on time coordination with suppliers and customers, the different agreements laid out with them and the most effective purchasing and payment integration.

It is also of utmost importance that the right planning tool is made available in this environment so that production and procurement are done right on time to meet the deadlines, using SAP AFS PP, with the flexible master data structure it is simply a matter of defining dimensional matrices with an unlimited number of dimension combinations for purchasing, production, and sales.

Inventory & Warehouse Management are other 2 very important areas in which the SAP AFS Solution stands out, given the nature of the industry where a low value item as a plain white button could be eating up a high amount of overhead and holding costs, it is only obvious to make sure that these items are brought in only when they are needed, if this is just for buttons, how important would it be to track 100s of layers of fabrics brought in for production, that’s precisely where you would want a system to keep you on the dot !!!

With world famous brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Fornari and Triumph in their customer lists, it just goes to show how highly the SAP AFS Solution is regarded.

References:

An analyst at Gartner Inc., said “no other major application vendor offers a packaged suite for the apparel industry.”

In my future posts I shall discuss on how Customer Management and Business Intelligence Management is catered to in the SAP AFS Solution.

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to mail me on ssurenlk@msn.com.

Have a nice day!!