SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a tightly integrated suite of applications that automate various processes inherent to the enterprise supply chain.
For retail, logistics and manufacturing industry business cases, I think SAP Supply Chain Management is very well suited. GATP backorder processing, forecasting, scheduling, product availability check, rule based ATP checks are specific scenarios in which it is well suited.
Availability of different statistical forecasting methods covering different patterns i.e. Trend, Cyclical, Seasonal and Irregularity.
Different modules to cater to different business requirement ranging from long-term need (Demand Planning), Medium Term (Supply Planning), Short Term (Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling).
Easy integration with core ERP for transfer of master and transaction data. Planning specific functions can be executed in SAP APO while execution can still be carried out in core ERP suite.
When moving from non-SAP to SAP solution for Supply Chain Management-APO, it may take some time for business users to get use to, as solution provided in user interface sometime seems complex.
For track and trace solution within SAP Supply Chain Management has scarcity of good resources especially when you want to track custom objects with complex use cases.
SAP provides an extensive product suite with its SCM and has functionalities to cater to different industries. Supply chain planning is divided into several steps, some of which are executed by components in SAP ECC and others by components in SAP SCM. It is possible and advisable to integrate these two systems and to use them together for planning. System integration takes place using the Core Interface (CIF). Even though As/400 remains a critical part of the computing infrastructure for many of the global organizations, ease of scalability, integration with cloud, advanced planning and analytics functionality and availability of strong talents make SAP SCM a better choice.
SAP Supply Chain Management provided suitable solution for promotion planning, forecasting, life cycle planning, VMI replenishment etc. Business team started seeing benefits of those in no time.
For collaborative planning, business team had few dis-satisfactory points when compared with previous non-SAP solution.
