Supply Chain and Manufacturing innovations in SAP S/4HANA 1709

The 1610 release of SAP S/4HANA brought advanced supply chain and manufacturing functionality such as production planning and detailed scheduling, advanced available to promise, and extended warehouse management directly into core ERP. This eliminated functional boundaries and allowed businesses to orchestrate end-to-end supply chain and manufacturing processes to better respond to customers’ demand for personalized products.

SAP S/4HANA 1709 continues the supply chain conversion path of the prior release by integrating the SAP Transportation Management application into the core, delivering the industry’s first truly converged supply chain and manufacturing ERP solution from planning and forecasting all the way to downstream production, execution, and transportation. In addition, logistics professionals can now take advantage of a new transportation cockpit as well as load consolidation, planning and optimization, automated carrier selection, and more. This reduces IT landscape complexity while simultaneously providing best-of-breed transportation tools to make your operations more efficient and effective. Plus SAP S/4HANA 1709 extends embedded analytics capabilities to cover transportation management.

SAP S/4HANA 1709 also allows you to leverage demand-driven material requirements planning in your supply chain and manufacturing environment. Now you can provide real-time prioritization of supply orders, dampen variability with strategic buffering, and shorten lead times.  This allows you to reduce cost with lower overall stock while ensuring high customer service levels. This new material requirements planning concept provides full demand transparency, decision support, instant insight, and immediate resolution based on lead time and consumption analytics.

Here are other notable supply chain and manufacturing innovations in SAP S/4HANA 1709:

• In warehouse management: integration of quality management processes and management for unplanned returns.
• In supplier relationship management: a new centralized purchase hub for consolidated purchase requisitions
• In manufacturing engineering: conversion of an engineering bill of materials (BOM) into a manufacturing BOM, 3D visual support for BOM items, and animated work instructions 
• In manufacturing for complex assembly: enhanced comprehensive planning environment, change impact analysis, and system-based shop-floor monitoring with automatic issue detection
• In extended production operations: enhanced monitor production orders and operations, root cause analysis and decision support for shop-floor operation issues, management of work queues and adjustments to existing production orders, and tracking and tracing of individual parts

Ask Approyo - What is the benefit of using an in-memory platform?

In-memory computing is the storage of information in the main random access memory (RAM) of dedicated servers rather than in complicated relational databases operating on comparatively slow disk drives. In-memory computing helps business customers, including retailers, banks and utilities, to quickly detect patterns, analyze massive data volumes on the fly, and perform their operations quickly. The drop in memory prices in the present market is a major factor contributing to the increasing popularity of in-memory computing technology. This has made in-memory computing economical among a wide variety of applications.

Some of the advantages of in-memory computing include:

• The ability to cache countless amounts of data constantly. This ensures extremely fast response times for searches.
• The ability to store session data, allowing for the customization of live sessions and ensuring optimum website performance.
• The ability to process events for improved complex event processing

SAP S/4HANA and In-Memory Computing
SAP  S/4HANA  delivers high-volume online transaction processing (OLTP) and high volume real-time online analytical processing (OLAP) based on a unified data model without the redundant data layers typically required by traditional RDBMS-based systems.  This reduces TCO while providing new opportunities to increase business value from existing investments.

Examples of redundant data layers are custom-built layers based on database tuning efforts such as secondary indexes, or application built-in performance accelerators such as aggregate tables or multiple general ledger versions for different managerial reporting needs. The massive simplifications of the data model and the data processing layers enable business and technological innovations on a broad scale, across all lines of business (LoBs) and industry solutions. The new application architecture simplifies system landscapes and accelerates cloud deployments on an economical scale.

SAP HANA and In-Memory Computing
SAP HANA relies on in-memory computing to quickly analyze massive amounts of data. In-memory computing is a technology that allows the processing of tremendous quantities of data in main memory to provide immediate results from analysis and transaction. The data is available for processing or analysis immediately after it is created. SAP HANA's performance is 10,000 times faster when compared to standard disks, which allows companies to analyze data in a matter of seconds instead of long hours.

Connected Products with SAP Leonardo

Business and IT leaders across industries are constantly searching for new and innovative ways to service and delight customers like no other competitor. With emerging smart assets that can be always-on, industries see a tremendous possibility to transform operational scenarios and re-imagine their business models.

The massive numbers of connected things and the explosion of data generated by connected devices (“Things”) will change the way we do business forever. The journey a company takes to get from “Things to Outcomes” is becoming the catalyst for digitization. IoT is not necessarily new to most companies. However, most are collecting and storing the data and may also have the ability to visualize it.

With SAP Leonardo, SAP provides a highly innovative IoT portfolio which extends the digital core with adaptive applications, big data applications and connectivity to enable:

• New business processes
• New business models
• New work environments

Connected Products - Enable end-to-end visibility to product-centric operations and ability to optimize compliance visibility and service availability
As the demand for information and insight increases, we are seeing a
significant increase in the design, manufacturing, and delivery of smart,
connected products across all industries. R&D can utilize data from sensors,
connected products, and other Big Data sources, to support the development
of more reliable and desirable products that meet target requirements.
This leads to increased demand and opportunities for you in the market,
and increased access to information for both you and your customers.

Goods and Equipment: Connect, monitor, and control a large number of customer facing products
Connect smart devices and products with core business processes and back-end systems. SAP Leonardo enables you to easily collect and analyze data from IoT devices from smart products e.g., coolers, coffee machines. At the same time, you can bring back-end business context and processes in real time by converging it with digital twins of physical product within IoT smart applications to improve efficiency, automatic replenishment – and create new product-as-a-service business models.

Product Insights: Design, manufacture, and distribute smart products to leveraging sensor data by manufacturers and consumers
Streamline and orchestrate your design networks with intuitive design and collaboration tools to enhance product and project delivery. Manage internal and external development teams, capture their ideas, and reuse your product and project data throughout the enterprise. Increase efficiency in engineering and manufacturing with a single platform for design tool integration to provide a 360-degree product view (with total transparency across engineering disciplines) through a harmonized and intuitive user experience. And master product cost potential and transparency – at a time when it counts.

Supply Networks : Manage, control, and respond to changing conditions with a digital operations center for response
Reduce planning cycle times and inventory levels and increase service quality by extending the supply chain to the business network. Connect more easily with suppliers, customers, and outsourced manufacturers for enhanced collaboration across demand, supply, and inventory. Optimize service and cost through collaborative planning of inventory, supply, and demand, while establishing a collaborative network with B2B connectivity for proficient supply chain collaboration.

SAP S/4HANA reaches 1,000 Customers

SAP recently announced an important SAP S/4HANA milestone with More Than 1,000 Companies Now Live on SAP S/4HANA. This announcement came at SAP Tech Ed. This news further supports our mission to help companies realize the full benefits of SAP applications and help them move to the cloud. Customers are starting to see the many new benefits that SAP S/4HANA has to offer. Approyo is proud to support companies of all shapes and sizes move to SAP S/4HANA. We continue to have move and more customers move to SAP S/4HANA hosted and managed in the Approyo Cloud.

Announcement from SAP:

SAP S/4HANA, designed specifically for SAP HANA, the market-leading in-memory database, is the digital core that provides broad functionality and a high degree of flexibility for businesses of all sizes, in all industries, and can be deployed on premise, in the cloud or with a hybrid approach.

The latest release of SAP S/4HANA (1709), available earlier this month, aims to make it even easier for companies to run live with intelligent ERP. It includes machine learning capabilities and predictive analytics–enabled core business processes, landscape consolidation, and industry and line-of-business innovation.

“The momentum of SAP S/4HANA, the fastest-selling product in SAP’s history, is ongoing, and there are now 1,000 live implementations illustrating our continued market leadership in ERP,” said Uwe Grigoleit, SAP S/4HANA Go-to-Market general manager and senior vice president at SAP. “SAP S/4HANA has helped customers worldwide realize benefits including improved employee productivity, real-time access to information using in-memory technology and support for the realization of new business models driving our digital world.”

Learn more about SAP S/4HANA in our new Whitepaper; 9 reasons to move to SAP S/4HANA right now.

• Improve order fulfillment
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Reduce manufacturing error rates
• Reduce procurement costs
• Respond to market fluctuations faster than ever
• Streamline your supply chain
• Improve your manufacturing cycle time
• Streamline your supply chain
• Reduce unplanned downtime

Download the Whitepaper today....

IT Simplification with the SAP HANA Platform

Today’s companies are looking to cloud, mobile, social, and Big Data technologies to make everything smarter, faster, and simpler for their customers. But for IT, these technologies can be disruptive – upending the status quo, requiring change, and complicating operations on the ground. The SAP HANA platform can help you simplify IT so that you can realize more value from your investments and achieve the breakthroughs that drive success.

Simpler Data Footprint
Highly compressed and requiring no aggregation, SAP HANA removes the need for data duplication and reorganization. And because data is managed in active memory, insight can be delivered at extraordinary speeds.

Simpler data processing and operations
No indexing. No extract-transform-load (ETL) transformations. For IT, life is easier. For users, access is faster.

Simpler landscape
SAP HANA consolidates online transaction processing (OLTP), online analytical processing (OLAP), text analysis, and spatial data functionality in a single platform. This simplifies your environment and drives down your total cost of ownership.

Simpler code and application development
SAP HANA and Approyo simplify development as well:

• Rapid development tools
• Concise data model
• Extensive use of views
• No aggregates or multidimensional cubes
• Libraries of pre-configured analytical functions
• Embedded application server with user interface services

Simpler user experience
SAP HANA delivers data faster – with real-time responsiveness for instant insight and fast action. And applications built with the SAP Fiori® user experience are role based and persona centric across lines of business and devices.

How can SAP S/4HANA 1610 impact Manufacturing?

Unlock the next wave of productivity with the latest release of SAP S/4HANA. The next-generation ERP suite offers immediate insight, intelligence for better decisions, and integration within your organization and beyond. SAP S/4HANA provides the digital core you need to succeed in today’s digital world. Built on SAP HANA, the industry-leading in-memory computing platform, SAP S/4HANA can help you transform your organization, delivering a customized product or service to an audience of one, at global scale.

Use the digital core for greater insights on the shop floor.

Managing Production Planning in Your Digital Core
Cover product requirements with internal and external procurement proposals, and reduce total costs through optimal-order-for-shipment functionality that automatically optimizes orders to take advantage of transportation and capacity types.

Production planning and detailed scheduling has been integrated with SAP S/4HANA, allowing you to create production plans without relying on a separate planning instance. You can now optimize and plan resource schedules directly in the digital core, taking into account bottlenecks and other production challenges.

You can also speed and simplify production planning cycles with the use of the production scheduling board, a Web-based graphical scheduling tool that harnesses the power of production planning and detailed scheduling while simplifying and providing a visualization of the work effort.

Advanced ATP
Take advantage of the in-memory computing of SAP HANA to find mass product availability for sales, planned, and production orders, giving you new levels of visibility. Use advanced ATP for scarce product allocation based on almost any attribute – including underlying sales order, material, plant, or customer – to help ensure you maximize customer satisfaction according to your individual business rules.

You can complete back-order processing with new SAP Fiori apps utilizing requirement classifications that help you identify and fulfill the most critical orders in a timely fashion. The results can be aggregated at different levels and drilled into with complete granularity for easy identification and resolution of issues.

Helping Ensure Quality
Use integrated quality management to meet quality targets and exceed customer expectations. Quality inspection professionals including technicians, engineers, managers, auditors, and others are supported throughout the entire quality process. The simplified inspection process is integrated within the digital core to provide a seamless process throughout the value chain.

Read the full post on www.approyo.com

SAP Releases SAP S/4HANA 1709

SAP released the latest upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA 1709, on September 15. The latest release of SAP S/4HANA delivers new intelligence and innovations to help companies run live in an ever-more-dynamic and fast-paced digital world. SAP S/4HANA 1709 integrates new intelligent applications that bring SAP Leonardo capabilities for machine learning and predictive computing directly into the digital core.

Architectural evolution
The SAP S/4HANA 1709 release is now generally available. This release runs on SAP HANA 2, the second generation of SAP’s in-memory database platform, which supports scale-out and usage of active-active for added performance. This enables customers to benefit from the latest innovations in the database system.

Intelligent ERP for a Flexible Enterprise
SAP S/4HANA 1709 empowers every corner of your organization to deliver business results. SAP S/4HANA is the foundation for businesses to deploy machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios based on SAP Leonardo capabilities, unifying transactional and analytical workloads in real time and helping you stay ahead of the competition.

New Applications powered by SAP Leonardo
SAP S/4HANA 1709 integrates new intelligent applications that bring SAP Leonardo capabilities for machine learning and predictive computing directly into the digital core, providing real-time insights and business context while simultaneously freeing resources from repetitive tasks. Examples include the following:

• SAP Cash Application software learns matching criteria from your historical financial clearing data to automatically match invoices with incoming payments, allowing for greater scaling of shared service centers or redeployment of finance professionals to more strategic activities.
• SAP Fiori apps for use in contract consumption predict contract expiration or goods consumption ahead of time, supporting more effective supplier negotiations and relationships.