Revolutionizing Annual Planning with SAP IBP
Goals
The customer decided to move its Sales and annual Planning processes from a self-developed solution into a modern, harmonized Integrated Business Planning system. In the previous design planning was spread out across different software and platforms. This made data collection challenging and introduced room for error. There was a need for a one-point-of-truth solution, which would be at the same time customizable and user-friendly.
Solution
SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) was chosen as a platform to run this process. Thanks to the out-of-the-box interface, the ERP integration could be set up in a short period and fully automated. Excel-embedded environment enabled a seamless transition for all end users, as they were already working with Excel sheets. To accommodate Sales & Annual Planning the following SAP IBP modules were chosen:
- IBP for S&OP
- IBP for Response&Supply
Challenge
Providing consistent master data was a big challenge during the project. As the production of their products includes several subcontracting steps, stock transfers between production locations and joint production, depicting this in IBP required a substantial amount customization and of testing.
The process also required a calculation of costs to support proper decision-making. For that purpose, e.g. the cost rates for machines and labor have been integrated to complement the existing data model.
It was also necessary to review the responsibilities flow and to re-fit the planning process into a cloud-based solution.
Benefit
By introducing SAP IBP the planners were able to reduce their system landscape complexity. The manual workload was significantly reduced due to automation and the implementation of sophisticated algorithms. One example: The handbook for the process could be decreased from 44 to 4 pages.
The integrated process also allows for simulation of the results of the quarterly sales planning process on the production capacities and estimate the cost impact.
