•  - Procurement Teams
•  - Production Teams
•  - Warehouse Teams
•  - Supply Chain Teams

Day One
7:30 – 8:30 Registration and Continental Networking Breakfast

8:30 – 9:30
Where are you burning money? Diagnostics for procurement, planning, inventory, warehouse, production, and fulfillment activities
This session examines common and costly inefficiencies in the areas of procurement, materials management, inventory and warehouse management, planning, production, logistics, and fulfillment. You will receive updates and guidelines to root out these inefficiencies using standard tools and reports within your current SAP ERP, SAP Business Suite, or SAP R/3® systems.

This session offers in-depth lessons on:

• The top 5 purchasing practices that inflate your costs and inventory
• The top 5 causes for inaccurate lead-time estimates
• The top 5 causes for inventory overages and shortages
• The top 5 causes for production delays that jeopardize customer service
• The top 5 setup decisions that adversely impact process performance and costs
• The real-world impact of poor data on operations and supply chain costs

9:30 – 9:45 Networking Break

9:45 – 11:45
10 principles that SAP customers can adopt right now to cut costs and improve process performance
This session offers guiding principles to shape and measure your optimization efforts, from identifying and implementing optimization measures through their introduction to end users. Application of these principles will lower costs and enhance performance of key processes, including: procurement, planning, inventory and warehouse management, production, and fulfillment.

• Examine the most important principles for process optimization in the areas of procurement, planning, inventory and warehouse management, production, and fulfillment
• Review the key principles for process integration and optimization across these areas
• Gain a better understanding of the tools within your existing SAP environment that enable this
• Explore the data management techniques with the biggest impact on business value and your options for harnessing real-time information and improving master data accuracy in your SAP environment
• Get guidelines to reduce frequencies and lot sizes, and minimize holding and setup costs in your production environment
• Learn the right way to establish and enforce supply chain rules
• Hear how other companies align organizational structure with an integrated process environment
• Take home tips to manage events and exceptions
• Set and track practical KPIs that measure improvement — and don’t just measure to report
• Leave with techniques to secure buy-in for these principles, criteria to determine which principles should be adopted first, and guidelines to move forward

11:45 – 1:00 Networking Lunch

1:00 – 2:30
Is your data really trustworthy? Steps that ensure decisions and optimization activities are based upon timely, accurate, and complete data
This session provides techniques to ensure timely, accurate, and complete data. Learn steps to improve data flow within and across procurement, inventory, production, and customer service organizations. You will also examine best practices for establishing business rules and standards and for managing master and transactional data.

This session covers:

• Guidelines for aligning data definitions across procurement, inventory, warehouse, production, and fulfillment organizations
• Lessons to establish trustworthy inventory-on-hand data in order to use SAP available-to-promise (ATP) functionality with greater confidence
• The top 7 problems that corrupt materials requirements planning (MRP) data
• Comprehensive techniques other companies are using to keep their goods receipt/invoice receipt (GR/IR) account clean and in balance
• Updates on the pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized master data management, and expert guidelines for choosing the right approach for your organization
• 3 ways to leverage data for greater visibility, predictive capabilities, and as a foundation for process optimization
• How to locate and use reports that are readily available in your SAP systems to identify areas where data needs to be cleaned up
• Why you need reliable master data in preparation for “real time” management dashboarding as a future initiative

2:30 – 2:45 Networking Break

2:45 – 4:15
Leveraging standard, readily available SAP reports to reduce costs and promote process efficiencies
Standard reports from your SAP systems provide valuable views into your day-to-day operations. This session offers guidance on locating and leveraging these reports. It also covers SAP tools and best practices for real-time alerts.

• Learn which standard (and often overlooked) SAP reports provide the best indicators of inventory levels, supplier activities, production status, service levels, and costs
• Find out how to interpret these reports, as well as adapt them for your organization’s specific needs with little or no customization
• Hear how other SAP customers leverage these reports to create integrated plans, cut costs, increase process visibility, and foster interdepartmental collaboration
• Drill down into SAP analytic reports that identify inventory that is fast moving, slow moving, or out-of-stock
• See how your SAP ERP system supports the setting and monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs) as a way to measure performance improvements at an organizational and departmental level
• Gain real-time visibility into business processes that involve suppliers, customers, and transportation carriers with alert functionality, so that corrective action can be taken
• Learn the top 5 mistakes made when defining report types and information to report upon within SAP
• Get tips for leaner IT operations — meeting increased reporting requirements with fewer IT resources and with less cost

Day Two
7:30 – 8:30 Continental Networking Breakfast

8:30 – 10:00
Purchasing, MRP, and inventory practices that accelerate inventory turns and reduce warehouse costs
This session offers a comprehensive guide to using metrics within your SAP system to establish inventory levels that meet fulfillment promises — without incurring unnecessary inventory carrying costs. It also provides lessons to interpret and act upon these metrics.

• Explore, in detail, numerous standard SAP metrics that are available within your SAP system, what they convey, and how to interpret them
• Acquire proven techniques for leveraging materials management (MM) and MRP settings, along with purchasing automation functionality that can help you to reduce inventory levels up to 15% within 6 months!
• Explore the inventory reduction steps to take first for immediate cost savings
• Find out how lowering inventory averages can help you better optimize inventory turns
• Get best practices to prevent stockouts
• Learn techniques to better meet customer demand and achieve target service levels
• Get tips to better control lot sizes and frequencies using standard MRP policies
• See how to use standard consumption graphics to measure and control inventory levels
• Take home examples of how other companies have balanced inventory levels with production schedules and lead times

10:00 – 10:15 Networking Break

10:15 – 11:45
Improve your lead-time accuracy 15% – 20% as you optimize processes and realize incalculable benefits across your supply chain
This session shares techniques that improve the accuracy of forecasts and planning activities. You will also learn how to properly establish, update, and adjust lead times within your SAP systems

• Explore the relationship between lead-time accuracy, purchasing costs, production schedules, and delivery performance
• Understand how lead-time performance impacts the overall cost and performance of your supply chain
• Learn the right way to build lead-time buffers between your production department and the customer, as well as between your purchasing department and suppliers
• Explore techniques to track lead-time performance, taking into account suppliers, warehouses, planning, scheduling, release dates, and ship times
• Get valuable methods to build lead-time buffers into your material master, and understand at which points in the supply chain they should be built in — before or after production, or during certain warehouse activities
• Learn the right ways to set up and leverage available-to-promise (ATP) functionality within sales and distribution, production planning, and plant maintenance applications to establish delivery dates you can meet and that your customers can trust
• Discover the frequency with which lead-time estimates really need to be updated
• Get best practices for improving lead-time performance

11:45 – 1:00 Networking Lunch

1:00 – 2:30
Using logistics information system (LIS) to reduce stock-out situations, accelerate inventory turns, and improve delivery times
Although many SAP customers are familiar with the standard logistics information system (LIS) analysis tool, there are little-known, often overlooked — yet invaluable — ways of using LIS to optimize inventory levels and fulfillment performance.

In this session, you will:

• Learn how to use LIS drill-down capabilities to generate real-time, visual representations of process performance and to make better inventory decisions
• Examine ways to navigate from LIS into other analytic areas, such as the purchasing information system (PIMS), to obtain an integrated view of procurement and inventory management
• Get best practices for leveraging LIS reports and analyses to better align your company’s purchasing policies with inventory targets
• Explore LIS graphical capabilities
• Learn how to segment data by time period and hone in on specific problems, like high purchasing averages
• Get expert tips for using the exception monitor, LIS, and inventory analysis tools in your current SAP systems to pinpoint master data problems that could lead you to purchase and stock more inventory than you need
• Get expert recommendations to interpret and confirm the accuracy of your LIS results
• Find out how these tools can be used as a foundation and a complement to SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) and SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization (SAP APO)

2:30 – 2:45 Networking Break

2:45 – 4:15
How to get your materials management and production teams dancing to the same tune
Production sits at the crossroads between demand and supply, so it’s no surprise that exceptions between materials management and production are a leading cause of poor service and fulfillment performance. This session provides proven methods to better align purchasing, inventory, and warehouse management with production for faster throughput and on-time delivery.

In this session, you will:

• Learn the best ways to align inventory quantities with lead times and service levels
• Find out how to use the exception monitor to determine whether an excess or shortage of raw materials is being routed to the shop floor
• Hear how other SAP customers have established purchasing and inventory policies that ensure their production department gets the raw materials it needs to optimize uptime
• Learn how to create “what-if” scenarios within core SAP systems to help you make better production decisions, automate lot sizes and lead times, and optimize inventory and service activities
• Get best practices to integrate materials management (MM) and production planning (PP) activities
• Explore the relationship between the standard MM and PP functionality running on your ERP system and the SAP functionality for production planning and detailed schedule that runs on SAP APO
• Get expert tips to align exception monitoring activities with service-level targets
• Learn how to integrate raw material planning, sales, and production capacity so that everyone is working for a common and understood outcome
• Find out how to avoid hidden works in progress (WIP) tactics that are often used to ensure production is on target, but ultimately create workarounds that impede integration, compromise delivery promises, and pile on costs

Day Three
7:30 – 8:30 Continental Networking Breakfast

8:30 – 10:00
Best practices and SAP functionality to monitor exceptions and manage events
This session provides education and updates on SAP functionality for event management, criteria to help you determine if it’s appropriate for your circumstances, and best practices for leveraging it to meet your business needs.

In this session, you will:

• Hear how other SAP customers manage supply by exception
• Explore the pros and cons of using out-of-the-box SAP functionality for event management to monitor events within your SAP environment and across multiple third-party or legacy systems
• Explore documents and alerts that show you what can happen to an order during processing in production, logistically, and along a delivery route, and see what tools are available to handle exceptions
• Step through the process of setting an alert
• Learn how to diagnose an alert and determine what corrective action, if any, should be taken
• Find out how to set up SAP functionality for event management that lets you know when your procurement chain is out of sync — from purchase order and acknowledgment all the way through goods delivery and invoice receipt
• Get expert tips for defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for event management
• Examine your options for reporting on event management data to determine whether an exception is a one-time occurrence or symptomatic of a larger problem

10:00 – 10:15 Networking Break

10:15 – 11:45
7 best practices to ensure broad-based adoption, measurable improvements, and the ongoing success of your optimization initiatives
This session offers change management examples, along with practical lessons based on the experiences of other companies that have implemented the techniques outlined in this seminar. Learn how to go beyond SAP system modifications to implement a broad-based change management strategy that not only addresses technology, but also strengthens interdepartmental cooperation and communication, enhances individual “ownership,” and invigorates the supply chain.

• Learn how to establish rules for how processes will be executed and technology will be utilized, as well as methods for holding users accountable to these rules — while keeping them inspired and motivated by measurable improvements
• Learn how to define and enforce rules across your user base to ensure a single, standardized process for making changes to and properly utilizing your SAP system for process optimization
• Gain insight into the best methods to respond to the most common reactions from users as you roll out new methods of process execution
• Explore powerful team evangelization techniques, exercises, and train-the-trainer strategies for inspiring users to adopt your new plan
• Learn how to educate your users as they go about their daily tasks to minimize disruption of the work environment
• See how to apply change management techniques that work within small, flexible organizations as well as within more structured organizations where change doesn’t come easily
• Find out how other companies are using PAT (process aligned teams) that meet regularly to review exceptions and make decisions on corrective actions
• Learn how to structure your own PAT: who should be represented, how often the team should meet, and the process for escalating problems

Seminar adjourns

BONUS TAKE-HOME SESSION
Techniques to integrate your systems with those of your suppliers for better collaboration
Electronic data interchange (EDI) has been around for a long time, but the advent of service-oriented architecture (SOA) enables levels of information exchange that were never possible before. This session shows you how to use software as a service (SaaS) to set up an EDI that allows you to exchange information in real time with suppliers, enabling better collaboration, more accurate inventory targets, on-time delivery, and reduced procurement costs.

This take-home resource provides guidance, tips, and techniques to:

• Take a one-to-one, customized exchange of information with a single supplier and transform it into an EDI network that can communicate with many suppliers
• Determine how you can use SaaS to build a hub that translates your messages into the system “languages” of your suppliers and transportation carriers
• Master the building blocks of creating networked EDI using web services
• Examine the architectural components, SAP software, and skills needed to build a SaaS-based EDI network
• Ensure that your new EDI network is designed for performance, so that messages flow back and forth in a timely fashion
• Get your suppliers on board with the new system to hasten system adoption
• Locate and leverage standard SAP reports and procedures to ensure vendor performance improvement

BONUS TAKE-HOME SESSION
Getting suppliers and vendors to function as part of your supply chain (Hint: This first requires getting your own house in order!)
This bonus take-home resource offers lessons to properly design your company’s processes and system configuration to optimize supplier communications, relationships, and service levels.

This take-home resource provides guidance, tips, and techniques to:

• Use historic inventory activity data in your SAP system to set better supply cycles and lot sizes with vendors and suppliers
• Establish the right KPIs for monitoring and measuring vendor performance in 3 key areas:
  • Delivery time
  • Order accuracy
  • Quality
• Leverage the information and procedures required to engage with suppliers to ensure practical and tangible performance improvement
• Avoid redundant activities — such as different departments creating multiple purchase orders for the same item, from the same supplier, at the same time — that can drive up your cost of fulfillment costs and lead to warehouse inefficiencies
• Apply ABC analysis to get better measures of your most commonly ordered materials
• Gain vendor buy-in with increasingly accurate lead times on commonly ordered materials
• Implement a vendor evaluation (VE) component within the materials management (MM) functionality of SAP ERP to measure vendor performance
• Establish criteria and protocols to ensure that you do business with only your most reliable suppliers