APO Position

[Former Member]

Hi Gurus,

I heard people saying APO is an unsuccessful tool. Is it so ?

Or is it not being properly understood and utilised ?

Thanks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Durai,

Successful APO implementation depends on lot of things - not just APO infact any planning tool.

Good master data, clean transactional data and good configuration of APO.

Below are some pros/cons of APO

Demand Planning - Advanced forecasting models (better than R/3) but lacks some techniques for slow moving products (ex : lewandowski or steven graves models etc)

Supply Planning : Heuristics - basic and simple rough cut planning, Optimizer - thumbs up for this good cost based planning engine, CTM - double thumbs up for this prioritized and categorized planning engine

But supply side lacks some lean capabilities - now a days all companies wants less inventory in the pipeline. SCM even though has some advanced safety stock calculation methods lacks inventory optimization capabilities.

Production Planning : Kinda good constrained capabilites to ur supply plan. Good detailed scheduling portion - as usual SAP's strong production planning stuff

GATP : Excellent ATP methods (allocations, rules based, event driven etc) and hot these days as integration is easier and methods are good.

One thing in general with SAP is that they make configuration little complex. A Simple thing is expressed so complicated. But good thing is its all integrated.

So its the business decisions/requirements in addition with good data and config will drive a successful APO implementation.

- Sapper

[Former Member]

Hi Durai,

Is your query resolved & clarified?

Regards

R. Senthil Mareeswaran.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Yeah. Answered.

[Former Member]

I know there are lot of APO implementations in North America. But how is it doing in Europe and Asia? I mean,

(1) what is the penetration level of APO compared to R3/ECC?

(2) how complex those implementations have gone? or how effective those implementations are?

(3) job prospects, consultants availability

By the way, does SAP release how many certified APO consultants are there, worldwide?

[Former Member]

Hi Durai,

The success of APO implementation depends upon exact mapping of all the information on business knowledge, end user training, support, effective implementation of all modules etc., If everything goes well, it leads to huge business benefits. Since APO controls the entire supply chain in terms of long term, medium, short term planning, how effectively the implementation, the user can get the business benefits accordingly.

Moreover, the complexity is associated with the number of products selected for APO. This will avoid all issues and the result will be very qualitative which can be adhered by end users. APO has got user friendly business advantageous functions like macro, planning book, planning board, Optimisation, forecasting objects etc., which helps business more effectivley.

Regards

R. Senthil Mareeswaran.

[Former Member]

Hi,

We should not blame on SAP APO tool. If you know the better functionality of the APO & having capacity to understand business process then you can map the scenario in an APO & make the tool for better use.

We did 2 successful implemenatation & now processes are also get running smoothly with APO.

Second thing is Business Users I mean Core team & end Users. If they having appropriate knowldge of thier business process & understand the concept of APO tool then consultant can map appropriate requirement with the core team.

So it is based up on diffrent factors & we are here to understand those factors & implement sucessful APO tool.

Regrads

Sujay