The Professor’s Notes

SAP spruces up its supply chain software | CNET News.com:

“With the package’s new tools, the company said, retailers can strike a better balance between increased customer service levels and lowered merchandise inventory, SAP said. They can replenish products with long lead times and at the same time handle seasonal products and introduce new products with short product-lifecycles using historical information on similar products to forecast demand.”

This is, perhaps, the state of the art in true Supply Chain Management software. I would recommend anyone interested in SCM that they start looking at this sort of software for managing their chain. I find perhaps the most interesting line in here is the one about managing long lead times, and seasonal products.

I am curious myself to get my hands on this. I fervently believe that for a software package to truly support SCM, they need to incorporate not only a good information system for the sharing of information, but it also needs to in some way provide a way to encourage shared decision making.

The infusion of collaboration in the supply chain will of course be THE way firms are able to be fully empowered and can reach nirvana, satisfying customers and have very low inventories.

Perhaps SAP is willing to let this professor of SCM play with the software a bit…