Difference between APO and SCM

[Former Member]

Hello All,

I am new to SAP...

Can somebody tell me the difference between SAP APO and SAP SCM.....

Regards,

Mary

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Mary,

APO refers to Advance Planning and Optimizer.

SAP started its journey towards planning of supply chain thru its product know as APO. It contained the following basic components :-

1.) Demand Planning

2.) Supply Network Planning

3.) Production Planning and Detail Scheduling

4.) Global Available to Promise

It is used to carry out planning and optimizing functions as regards to supply chain area.

Over the years, SAP has been adding funcitonalities to it APO componenet and now the APO component come under the umbrella of SAP-SCM with addition of funcitonalities like

5.) Supply Network Collabaration ( also know as Inventory Collabaration Hub

6.) Extended Warehouse Management

7.) Service Parts Planning

so now APO is a part of an offering by SAP know as SCM....

Edited by: Mohit Shah on Jan 27, 2009 9:40 AM

[Former Member]

Hi

In Simple term APO and SNC are modules which comes under SAP SCM umbrella.

APO is used for finite planning ensuring optimum utilization of resources which is not possible in R/3 planning engine.

SNC is supply network collaboration where both customer and supplier aggred to share a their inventory and other transactional data like PO, SA and SO to plan effectively and efficiently and to reduce the cost.

Regards

Pravin

[Former Member]

Hi Mary,

SAP APO is the tool to operate SAP SCM. ie Advanced Planning Optimisation tool to operate Supply Chain Management. APO is the tool provided by SAP. There are also other non-SAP tools available like i2, manguistics, BAN etc., All are pointing towards improvement and managing supply chain via SCM. SCM covers Demand to Supply operations and management.

Regards

R. Senthil Mareeswaran.

[Former Member]

Hi Mary,

Supply Chain Management concept is known as SCM.

And SAP's tool for SCM is Advanced Planning and Optimizer used to optimize your cCompany's Supply Chain.

Supply Chain Mgt is used to optimize the time, costs for a finshed product.

SCM starts with Customers demand for Pdt and ends with its Supply to the Customers.

Cust(Demand)>Distribution Channel> Plant(Assembling/manufacturing)-->Suppliers(Raw Materials)

The entire flow above describes Supply Chaain Mangement.

Regards,

Bala.

[Former Member]

Hi,

SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) is the planning component of mySAP SCM, the supply chain management solution provided by SAP.

SAP APO is used to make strategic, tactical and operational decisions and supports you in performing the following planning activities:

• Demand Planning (DP)

• Supply Network Planning (SNP)

• Production Planning (PP)

• Detailed Scheduling (DS)

• Deployment

• Transport Load Builder (TLB)

• Transport Planning and Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS)

• Global Available-to-Promise (gATP)

SAP's endeavor into the advanced planning solution market was with the name SAP APO. There are other APS solutions in the market from Oracle, Manugistics, i2 and a whole host of other companies providing specialized planning solutions

Over the years SAP has brought the SAP APO solution under a wider umbrella called SAP SCM. Since version 4.0 of APO it has been called SAP SCM. So in the release strategy of SAP you will find SAP APO 3.1 followed by SAP SCM 4.0

SAP SCM is a more complete solution that covers planning, networking, coordinating and execution. In addition to SAP APO, which is still the core of SAP SCM, there are other applications such as SNC (Supplier Network Collaboration - erstwhile ICH), SCEM (Event Management), EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SPP (Service Parts Planning)

http://searchsap.techtarget.com/expert/KnowledgebaseAnswer/0,289625,sid21_gci1265382,00.html

Thanks to original inputs provided by Mr. Harish Narayan.

Regards,

Abhee.