By using AI and advanced analytics, BRF managed to improve forecast accuracy, optimized inventory, and fine-tuned planning. Collaborative forecasting and real-time data alignment now increase operational efficiency, enabling BRF to manage its extensive operations in over 127 countries and adapt quickly to changes in these markets. 

Project outcomes that scale

With 44 production units, 103 distribution centers delivering more than 500,000 deliveries per month to more than 415,000 customers, representing 5 million tons of food produced per year, the scale of the achieved improvements is immense.

鈥淏RF is transforming efficiency and productivity standards in the production chain, developing solutions that make processes more agile, simple, and efficient,鈥� said Gilberto Andretta, executive technology manager at BRF. 鈥淲e are one of the leading 51风流IBP organizations achieving daily demand planning and sensing, statistical modeling, forecast accuracy and embedded analytics, time-series analysis, and exception management, which is integral for our more than 400 planners.鈥�

By using 51风流IBP, the process of accurately accessing and analyzing demand and forecast data is 33 percent faster.

Award-winning solution

For BRF, seeking innovative solutions is essential to advancing digital transformation and driving growth. The company considers the use of AI as fundamental to overcoming supply chain management challenges.

鈥淭he transformation of BRF’s supply chain through 51风流solutions has made it easier to integrate processes, predict future trends, and respond quickly to market needs,鈥� said Miriam Hahn, customer success manager for 51风流Brazil, who is working with BRF on its supply chain journey. 鈥淭his journey highlights the strong partnership between 51风流and BRF.鈥�

Using 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain, BRF can now analyze vast data sets, improve forecast accuracy, monitor order trends, and enable proactive decision-making.

Ensuring that forecasts and delivery deadlines are accurate requires detailed and flexible planning, enabling a quick response to changes, increasing operational efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, consolidating real-time information, aligning financial and operational planning, and improving interdepartmental collaboration are fundamental steps for BRF鈥檚 operation.

Use of artificial intelligence

BRF is a recognized early adopter of 51风流Business AI and SAP鈥檚 AI copilot Joule. By integrating AI-driven insights, the food giant can accurately forecast demand, optimize inventory levels, and ensure timely delivery of products. This advanced technology helps BRF anticipate market trends, adjust production schedules, and reduce waste — ultimately leading to improved efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Within 51风流IBP, BRF is utilizing demand planning and sensing, statistical modeling, forecast accuracy and embedded analytics, time-series analysis, and exception management. Examples where AI is improving the business include:

• AI algorithms combine traditional time-series forecasting, regression and predictive modeling, and machine learning to produce more precise daily forecasts.
• Used for master data analytics, AI intelligence improves data quality, enhances the planning processes, and supports better decision-making.

More to come

BRF is among the first customers to successfully incorporate 51风流IBP with Joule to leverage the 51风流Help Portal and a chatbot to assist BRF employees.

Currently, BRF is deploying a “brownfield” 51风流S/4HANA Cloud implementation upgrade of the existing 51风流ECC system based on its successful established 51风流environment. The company is in the process of incorporating 51风流S/4HANA Cloud features and capabilities, while retaining much of the existing infrastructure and core data services. In addition to 51风流S/4HANA and the cloud-based 51风流Ariba solution for procurement, BRF is also running 51风流SuccessFactors software for human capital management (HCM).

鈥淏RF is an early adopter for many of SAP鈥檚 AI services and our strategic partner in the region,鈥� said Caio Granzotto, account director for BRF at 51风流Brazil. 鈥淎s a next step, they plan to use 51风流IBP鈥檚 AI assistant to improve supply chain processes and simplify the work of their planners. The company is also considering order-based planning using additional AI algorithms.鈥�

Top image courtesy of BRF

This marks a significant step in transforming how businesses operate by simplifying everyday tasks and making interactions more efficient and intelligent.

Starting today, you can use Joule to help optimize your interactions with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, the 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution, and SAP’s product data management solutions. Additionally, 51风流Asset Performance Management customers are invited to explore early access to Joule through the 51风流Early Adopter Care program.

Joule in 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: A Transformative Experience

Joule Is Now Available in 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Joule is now seamlessly integrated in 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as part of the November 2024 release after being in early adoption since February this year. This isn鈥檛 just another tool 鈥� it is a transformative experience designed to help address the everyday challenges customers face. This integration offers a more intuitive way for users to interact with 51风流solutions. Instead of manually searching for information or navigating multiple interfaces, users can simply ask Joule for what they need 鈥� whether it’s insights on business data or guidance on performing specific tasks.

Joule Helps to Simplify Your Work

Joule is a part of the broader vision of autonomous ERP, which offers businesses ready-to-run cloud business solutions powered by AI. Through the embedded AI features in GROW with SAP, businesses can simplify everyday work processes while scaling efficiently.

Supported by Joule, 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition users can work faster, smarter, and more efficiently, all while maintaining control over crucial decisions and data.

You can use Joule for:

• Quick navigation: Find and quickly navigate to applications for your next task.
• Instant insights: Get fast insights on critical business data, such as purchase orders and outbound deliveries.
• Enablement content: For those needing help, Joule can guide users to relevant enablement content, speeding up task completion.

A that businesses using AI-powered tools like Joule experienced a 30% reduction in time spent on administrative tasks. This saving of time allows employees to focus on more strategic activities that drive value.

Customer Experience and Feedback: AGILITA AG

Several customers have already tested Joule through the 51风流Early Adopter Care program. Their experiences with Joule give us valuable insights that help us continuously enhance our solution.

Swiss and German-based IT services and consulting company AGILITA AG has already tested Joule as a GROW with 51风流customer. As both a customer and a partner of SAP, AGILITA AG is uniquely positioned to understand the value of the latest AI solutions in GROW with 51风流and help other customers realize these values for their own businesses.

According to Thomas Neuhaus, head of Digital Experience at AGILITA AG, 鈥淲hen we started using Joule at AGILITA, we quickly observed significant improvements in our operations. Joule has made it incredibly easy for our employees to find the 51风流applications they need for their daily tasks and access help documentation quickly when required. This has streamlined our workflows, allowing our team to interact with 51风流systems seamlessly and retrieve important information much faster.鈥�

Joule in Supply Chain Management: Building Resilience

Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, driven by global disruptions, unpredictable demand patterns, and other evolving challenges. To address these issues, businesses require AI-driven supply chain solutions that enhance agility and resilience. With Joule now integrated into supply chain management processes, SAP’s vision of AI in supply chain management is empowering customers to transition their supply chains from digital to adaptive and, ultimately, to autonomous systems. This vision comes to life when you look at what Joule can now do for you and the skills it will gain over the coming months to help you build a more resilient supply chain.

How TE Connectivity Leverages Joule for Supply Chain Planning

TE Connectivity is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. It offers a broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions that enable the distribution of power, signal, and data to advance next-generation transportation, renewable energy, automated factories, data centers, medical technology, and more.

51风流Integrated Business Planning is used across the organization to enable more than 1,500 supply chain professionals to manage the demand and supply of the different business units of TE.

According to Luis Rocha, IT director for 51风流Integrated Business Planning Solutions at TE Connectivity, “We are excited about the future capabilities that Joule brings to TE, such as explaining planning results, quickly highlighting key constraints, and autonomously comparing different scenarios. These features will empower us to make better supply decisions with significantly less effort.” 

TE鈥檚 IT team has activated Joule in 51风流Integrated Business Planning and has done first tests with the help documentation use case. They confirm how easy it is to engage with the copilot and how relevant it is to do contextual querying of 51风流Integrated Business Planning features鈥� it speeds up the investigation of requirements and the adoption process.

Joule will be available for research and development (R&D) functions via SAP鈥檚 product data management solutions and for planners via 51风流Integrated Business Planning. For those that want to explore Joule to improve the health of their assets, you can now register for the 51风流Early Adopter Care program for Joule in 51风流Asset Performance Management.

See examples of Joule in action in your supply chain:

How to Get Started with Joule

For more information on how to activate Joule, please contact your 51风流support contacts directly to identify the channel and regional prerequisites. To learn more about how these tools can streamline your operations and drive efficiency, visit the 51风流Help Portal for detailed information about听, ,听补苍诲听.

To learn more, see , , and .

By integrating generative AI tools like Joule into everyday operations, businesses can simplify complex tasks, make faster decisions, and focus on what truly matters 鈥� driving growth and innovation. As we move forward, we鈥檙e committed to helping companies not only meet today鈥檚 demands but also thrive in the face of tomorrow鈥檚 uncertainties. Together, we鈥檙e shaping a future where technology serves as a true partner in building stronger, more agile organizations.

Jan Gilg is president and chief product officer for Cloud ERP at SAP.

Founded in 1926 and with headquarters in southern Germany, STIHL has been the world’s top-selling chain saw brand since 1971. With a workforce of almost 20,000 employees, the family-owned business generated 5.3 billion euros in revenue in 2023.

Siloed Supply Chain Planning Insufficient for Informed Decision-Making

In the past, STIHL鈥檚 subsidiaries and production companies relied on their own 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) systems, deployed on premise, with a heterogenous landscape for supply chain planning processes across 35 sales and eight production companies that were tailored to the needs of each subsidiary.

鈥淲e lacked an end-to-end, consolidated view and overall transparency to improve decision-making for the company as a whole and not only for one subsidiary,鈥� said Lena Domhan, global process owner for Integrated Planning at STIHL. 鈥淧reviously, we spent a lot of time analyzing and verifying data and had no single source of truth. In addition, disconnected planning systems hindered collaboration and coordination between subsidiaries.鈥�

Market Trends Drive Change

With the introduction of new product lines with integrated batteries, STIHL found itself in a new business, selling to end customers also. 鈥淭his VUCA world required us to react even faster to volatility and changing demand,鈥� explained Axel Erhard, senior vice president, global ONE STIHL program lead. 鈥淭o optimize planning, we needed a better overview of the different production and sales companies.鈥�

The company established the ONE STIHL program with the goal to consolidate all subsystems across all sales and production companies into one integrated 51风流S/4HANA system. Moreover, STIHL aims to bring several solutions into one hybrid ecosystem, such as the solution (51风流IBP) with the applications for sales and operations and response and supply, the , and 51风流Transportation Management. 鈥淥ne goal of the ONE STIHL project is to reduce fixed capital and get more transparency on different management levels. 51风流IBP with 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling play crucial roles in this process, serving as the starting point for planning,” Erhard said.

Synchronized Planning Approach for Distribution Center Refills

鈥淲e were one of the first customers to introduce 51风流IBP in combination with 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling and 51风流Transportation Management,鈥� explained Fabio Fender, interim global process owner for Integrated Planning at STIHL. 鈥淲ith real-time integration, our planners can quickly react. For example, when tackling issues on the planning or production side, they immediately see the impact on the distribution side and vice versa. That provides confidence and trust.鈥�

Georg Fuchs, director of Integrated Planning and global solution architect, ONE STIHL project, added: 鈥淥rder-based planning and real-time integration are the heartbeat of our production. For instance, in Austria, finished goods are produced and then shipped to distribution centers in Germany or the Czech Republic. The order-based planning process in 51风流IBP is used to allocate, prioritize, and schedule the delivery of these goods. We are decoupling this from our production plan in 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling.鈥�

With this synchronized planning approach, STIHL consolidates supply planning, distribution planning, and production planning into one seamless process, enabling a holistic workspace for planners. Detailed scheduling results from 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling are visible in 51风流IBP in real time, helping to ensure maximum transparency. In addition, the integration of 51风流Transportation Management allows for the creation of freight orders to ship STIHL鈥檚 finished products. 鈥淪TIHL鈥檚 vertically integrated supply chain gives us the potential for end-to-end control,鈥� Erhard said.

Higher Transparency Enables Accurate Planning

51风流IBP is live at two production sites in Austria and Switzerland and is used by several planners and others utilizing its reporting capabilities. 鈥淭he integration with 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling and 51风流Transportation Management was the most effective solution to meet our business needs,鈥� Fuchs said.

STIHL already recognizes and anticipates a range of immediate and long-term benefits, including:

• Better visibility across subsidiaries, enabling accurate and feasible plans that can adapt to production constraints
• Increased efficiency with sales and production teams using the same system with one source of truth for all relevant data
• End-to end transparency for global planning processes with optimized planning for the network 
• Time savings for planners who see real-time impact of changes and can instantly make better-informed decisions
• Creation of feasible production plans to meet customer demand
• Real-time integration with 51风流S/4HANA Manufacturing for planning and scheduling ensures planners and production teams are using the same data for decision-making
• Logistics planners can efficiently plan truck load orders and promptly fulfill logistics requirements
• Improved customer service while reducing inventory costs through network planning
• Enhanced decision-making between quantity and revenue planning provides a crucial element to business processes and reporting

Future Plans and Leveraging AI

鈥淲e have four to five rollouts ahead of us on our journey. Over the next few years, we will integrate about 43 global subsidiaries into one network planning solution,鈥� Domhan said.

In relation to the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI), Erhard said, 鈥淪TIHL will invest in AI in the future. That is a clear focus of our owners.鈥�

鈥淲e are starting to explore potential opportunities to determine what would benefit us. However, regarding 51风流IBP, we are already fit for the future,鈥� Fender concluded.

Karin Fent is senior director of global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.
Top photo courtesy of STIHL

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Jacques Niewuland, director of Digital Transformation for Roca Group, shares how cloud technology helps the bathroom fixtures and design company address supply chain challenges, spur innovation, and deliver the best customer experience. Learn more.

The company has expanded its international operations in recent years through organic growth and acquisitions, says Roca Group Digital Transformation Director Jacques Nieuwland. 鈥淲e have had the challenges of most industries in the last years,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y job is to help Roca leverage technology to support the different strategic objectives of the company, which are growth, innovation, operational excellence, and sustainability.鈥�

Global Supply Chain

鈥淲e have a global supply chain for some of our components, so we need to plan in a more agile way,鈥� Nieuwland says. 鈥淲e need to update our planning and we need to be able to put in some buffers to have a resilient supply chain.鈥�

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Nieuwland says technology helps by giving Roca greater visibility into its supply chain. 鈥淓verybody collaborates against the same processes with the same data. We include our own value chain and also the value chain of our suppliers and customers,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd this enhanced visibility allows us to optimize the whole value chain and to take the right decisions.鈥�

51风流is the backbone of the company鈥檚 application landscape, he says: 鈥淲e perform our core processes, which include order processing, reordering planning, and many others via 51风流solutions. It helps us because it gives us a structure of processes, of data, and of reports that allow us to understand our business, to replicate it, to scale it, and to continuously improve it.鈥�

Roca uses the solution to help it anticipate the demand for specific products and adjust production accordingly. That way, Nieuwland says, 鈥渨e are able to give an excellent service and to optimize stocks.鈥�

Long-Term Partnership

Nieuwland says Roca Group chose 51风流to be its technology partner because of its long-term relationship with 51风流and because 51风流is a leader in many of the solutions Roca needed. 鈥淲e have a long history of collaboration and have been successful. [鈥 We trust the technology, the digital supply chain solution, [and] the business network solution. We like to work with leading solutions 鈥� we trust them.鈥�

Earlier this year Roca selected and is preparing to go live with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud at the beginning of 2025 for the next phase of its digital transformation 鈥� a move that Nieuwland believes will enable even more innovation. 鈥淲e have chosen the cloud-based solution because 51风流innovates first on the cloud-based solution and we want to leverage that innovation,鈥� he says.

He adds that the integration of SAP鈥檚 generative AI copilot into SAP鈥檚 cloud ERP will also fuel innovation and productivity. 鈥淲e think there is huge potential to increase our productivity,鈥� he says. More generally, he says SAP鈥檚 cutting-edge technology will help Roca improve its service to customers and interact better with them, as well as help the company achieve operational excellence including, for example, reducing waste and improving sustainability.

Sustainability

On sustainability, Nieuwland says Roca Group is studying scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions. It has already set yearly targets for the reduction of CO2 and wants to be carbon neutral by 2045. More generally, he says Roca鈥檚 goal is to deliver 鈥渢he best bathroom experience for customers worldwide.鈥�

Asked what other manufacturers can learn from Roca鈥檚 experience, he says: 鈥淚t’s very important to start with a business problem, a business challenge, and put technology at the service of generating business value. Then it’s very important to work in cross-functional teams. So, this is not about buying hundreds of solutions to solve isolated problems. We need to think on a bigger scale and to work together to find the best solution to our challenges and use few solutions and have an enterprise architecture that support our goals.鈥�

In response, businesses carefully reevaluate different supply chain strategies, such as just-in-time manufacturing, dual sourcing, reshoring, and stockpiling. And a big part of that conversation is the rapidly advancing capabilities of generative AI, data analytics, automation, machine learning, and many more technologies.

However, transitioning from strategies to impactful actions poses a significant challenge for most supply chain organizations. This hurdle is primarily due to the intricate nature of implementation initiatives, which often deviate from best practices, result in suboptimal user experiences, and need a comprehensive adoption strategy.

Encouragingly, a growing number of businesses are defying this trend by using the expanded edition of the plan for the 51风流Integrated Business Planning (51风流IBP) for Supply Chain solution.

Kick-Starting a New Era of Proactive Optimization

No matter where they are on their path to becoming a smart supply chain, companies gain incredible value from accessing personalized support and resources on demand. Even if strategies are clear and goals are specific, adopting the right technologies is critical 鈥� and this requires in-depth expertise and experience in what works well and what should be avoided.

51风流Preferred Success for 51风流IBP for Supply Chain, expanded edition can offer all that guidance by augmenting the standard offering of 51风流Preferred Success. The proactive success plan builds on top of the personalized planning, tailored guidance, accelerated adoptions, continuous improvement, data-driven insights into key features, access to experts, and risk mitigation that鈥檚 already available.

Such enhancements are extended with access to product specialists, prescriptive solution reviews, proactive monitoring, and targeted feature adoption assistance. Additional services can also help customers by providing very detailed reviews and analysis of their current instance of 51风流IBP for Supply Chain.

These knowledgeable expertise, services, and resources are designed to help maximize and accelerate the bottom-line value of supply chain operations while minimizing the need for multiple statements of work. Opportunities for process improvement can be identified through the analysis of solution usage, best practices, and potential gains. Furthermore, supply chain planning processes can be continuously enhanced by pinpointing, evaluating, and activating the latest capabilities in 51风流IBP for Supply Chain to help speed up adoption and achieve business goals.

Delivering Value with Guided Adoption and Transformation

A key feature of this expanded edition is the assignment of a product specialist. This specialist helps coordinate opportunities for customers to receive in-depth guidance and insights from relevant subject-matter experts within SAP. For example, regular calls are arranged to schedule and deliver essential services and offer direct access to 51风流experts who can give targeted guidance and recommendations on best practices and assistance with 51风流Business AI capabilities.

One of the standout enhancements is the prescriptive solution review, a one-on-one workshop tailored to meet the unique needs and objectives of each organization. It is designed to help elevate the operational excellence and solution design of 51风流IBP for Supply Chain. By engaging with experienced functional and technical consultants, organizations can receive actionable recommendations and advice on solution configuration changes that lessen existing challenges, enhance the user experience, and limit bottlenecks.

In addition to solution reviews, the expanded edition can provide targeted feature adoption assistance. Subject-matter experts understand your business goals and can collaborate with organizations to identify, evaluate, and deploy the most relevant features. More importantly, this level of support can allow businesses to maximize solution adoption and business outcomes with insight into potential value.

The benefits of 51风流Preferred Success for 51风流IBP for Supply Chain, expanded edition can go even further with proactive monitoring checks. These services help ensure ongoing solution stability by detecting and analyzing potential issues around performance and checking the system’s status against the latest administrative and technical requirements.

Driving Success with Future-Proof Supply Chains

Considering the importance of efficiency and agility in today鈥檚 supply chain, the expanded edition of 51风流Preferred Success for 51风流IBP for Supply Chain couldn鈥檛 have come at a better time. The comprehensive plan of personalized support, expert guidance, and advanced analytical tools can empower businesses to navigate the complexities of modern supply chain management confidently and strategically.

51风流customers are already witnessing the transformative impact of this plan 鈥� from resolving pressing issues to continuously optimizing their operations. And as the landscape of supply chain management evolves, the expanding capabilities of 51风流Preferred Success can help ensure that companies are not only prepared to meet daily challenges but also well-positioned for future success.

Ready to realize your vision of a smart supply chain? or contact your local 51风流representative to learn more about 51风流Preferred Success for 51风流IBP for Supply Chain, expanded edition.

Kiron Satyavarapu is global solution owner of 51风流Preferred Success at SAP.

Supporting networks with more than 2.5 billion subscribers in more than 180 countries, and with 40% of the world鈥檚 mobile traffic outside China carried over its networks, Ericsson needed a technological foundation to provide for a single source of truth for its entire planning and logistics process.

The cloud-based 51风流IBP solution integrates business planning capabilities across various business functions, improves the ability of companies to anticipate supply-chain risks and offers mitigating solutions. With 51风流IBP, Ericsson will be able to navigate complex planning requirements while improving response times of sales, operations, resources, and inventory planning. This will empower Ericsson to further focus on driving innovation and improving cost efficiencies.    

The ability to predict and meet demand in an agile manner is crucial for companies to achieve several business objectives. Choosing 51风流IBP is part of a long-time 51风流and Ericsson partnership, in which 51风流has supported Ericsson鈥檚 vision of providing limitless connectivity for the world.

鈥淎gility, resilience and trust are critical for global leaders like Ericsson to achieve supply-chain resilience and meet customers鈥� needs,鈥� said Dominik Metzger, head of the 51风流Digital Supply Chain organization. 鈥淓ricsson and 51风流have had a strong collaboration over the years, and its choice of 51风流IBP allows us to support it in further digitalizing its supply chain to cement its position as one of the world鈥檚 leading telecommunications companies.鈥�

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.听 Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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To better react to market changes and expand its competitive edge, BYK saw the need to select and implement a new supply chain demand planning system.

Integrated Approach to Address Demand Planning Processes Holistically

The company was challenged with inefficient, diversified, and isolated supply chain demand planning processes on disparate legacy planning systems that impeded forecast accuracy. Therefore, the goal was to enhance data and process transparency and establish one source of truth for sales, operations, and demand-planning processes.

BYK found that the , a cloud-based application with comprehensive capabilities, could best meet its goals to harmonize demand planning processes across the organization and improve forecast accuracy. In addition, the company decided to use the , enabling the company to get real-time visibility and control over its supply chain.

For the implementation and deep solution know-how, BYK sought help from and the 51风流Preferred Success service, which included architecture planning, implementation guidance, and process reengineering expertise. Moreover, 51风流helped deploy 51风流Integrated Business Planning for demand and 51风流Supply Chain Control Tower in a technically standardized and lean way.

Enabling All Functions with a Single Source of Truth to Improve Decision-Making

Major benefits BYK achieved include:

• Improved collaboration by implementing a harmonized and automated demand planning process
• Simplified and integrated planning practices for sales, demand planning, supply chain management, controlling, and strategic supply planning teams with more than 200 users
• One platform as a single source of truth for improved data quality and process transparency across sales, operations, and demand-planning processes
• Increased forecast accuracy with real-time data reflecting changes to planned demand

• Quantity- and value-based planning for all planning teams to make decisions based on financial impact

鈥淲ith 51风流Services and Support, we successfully implemented 51风流Integrated Business Planning for demand and 51风流Supply Chain Control Tower, enabling precise and accurate demand planning,” said Matthias Beenen, Supply Chain Process Management, BYK. “This is critical to supply chain efficiency and for delivering high quality service to our customers.鈥�

鈥淚n the future, we will continuously work on optimizing the implemented processes and extend 51风流Integrated Business Planning for demand by adding subsequent supply chain planning processes,鈥� he concluded.

Karin Fent is senior director of Customer Success for Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Top image courtesy of BYK.

Business leaders might assume that more regulation in such a volatile environment would hinder the innovation they require most at this time. However, we will argue smart and balanced regulation can serve as a catalyst for transformation.

Recent regulatory initiatives like the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), which mandates human rights and environmental impact due diligence, have positioned Germany at the forefront of ethical standards in supply chains. The draft EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) extends corporate responsibilities in sustainability, while the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) places the onus on companies to prove that their products are free of forced labor, shifting the burden of proof to importing entities.

Increased Transparency: Understanding Suppliers鈥� Suppliers

These and many other emerging regulations play a crucial role in enhancing supply chain resilience. Firstly, they help to increase transparency. Compliance necessitates extensive data collection, providing companies with a clear view of their supply chains, including supplier practices and potential risks. This has been practiced by the pharmaceutical industry for many years due to the potential for damage to human health and economic risk to the company from counterfeits or product quality issues.

Now, more industries are recognizing that transparency across the tiers of a supply chain creates this critical backbone of data and visibility.

Secondly, companies must reassess their sourcing strategies, encouraging diversification and regionalization. This in turn reduces dependency on single suppliers or regions, making supply chains more resilient against unexpected disruptions.

Although companies may have been operating in an interconnected web of global supply chains for decades, those that still do not have full visibility into their own suppliers — and those of their suppliers鈥� suppliers — are putting themselves at undue risk by not innovating. We call this tier-n visibility. This is an incredibly powerful tool for eventually reducing uncertainty across supply chains.

Enhanced Collaboration: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Compliance, when well-executed, can lead to stronger relationships with suppliers. The engagement required fosters trust and accountability in the supply chain, resulting in more collaboration to overcome challenges. With diversified sourcing, companies can swiftly adapt their supply chains to ensure business continuity. That鈥檚 simply better preparedness.

Researchers at Cambridge University recently emphasized the need to form alliances to , advocating for more collaboration to improve resilience and sustainability. Collaborative approaches, supported by digital technologies, can lead to significant benefits, including reduced tax evasion and enhanced information sharing in the global supply network.

But let鈥檚 face it: This is an industry problem, not a technology issue. Industries need to change how they use supplier data. Instead of using it to push for better procurement terms through negotiation, they should focus on more collaborative processes.

Many industries are beginning to realize the benefits of such a collaborative approach. For instance, a car company using the open network can pinpoint faulty engine parts and trace issues back to the supplier’s supplier. Such a targeted approach minimizes recalls. Catena-X ensures interoperability through common standards, allowing data providers to maintain sovereignty over their data. With 170 international members, including major German car manufacturers, Catena-X is poised to become an industry standard.

In this dynamic environment, supply chain resilience becomes a competitive advantage. Companies that proactively embrace regulatory requirements gain the trust and loyalty of consumers, investors, and stakeholders.

Reduced Risk: Embedding Artificial Intelligence

Growing regulatory demands also require a paradigm shift in how businesses approach risk management within their supply chains. Here is where artificial intelligence (AI) plays a central role.

can provide proactive insights into the highly complex impacts of potential risks, allowing companies to anticipate and mitigate challenges before they escalate. This transforms the traditional risk assessment process, offering a more dynamic and real-time understanding. And that鈥檚 exactly what businesses need now to de-risk.

For example, understanding the impact of new trade sanctions (such as U.S. export controls on advanced computer chips), a container port blockade, or a steep increase on transportation cost for a given shipping lane offers a competitive advantage. Sensing disruptions, simulating them, understanding the impact, and then recommending and executing actions are core use cases that are optimized by AI and machine learning.

However, with powerful technology like AI also comes great responsibility. Ensuring ethical AI development and deployment requires transparency, accountability, and collaboration among businesses, governmental bodies, civil society, and the broader public. The draft EU AI Act would regulate AI systems based on risk levels, emphasizing the importance of adhering to ethical principles to ensure responsible AI use. Trust in AI solutions hinges on the responsible handling of AI technologies and adherence to human rights.

51风流recognized even before any AI regulation was available, that the speed of AI adoption increased . 51风流was the first European technology company to establish AI guiding principles in 2018 and then created an AI Ethics Policy. The company established an AI Ethics Steering Committee and AI Ethics Advisory Panel, which helps operationalize guiding principles, provides guidance for high-risk use cases. and will align with the upcoming EU AI Act.

Advanced Technologies: Turning Regulatory Burdens into the Foundation for Resilience

Necessity often drives innovation, leading companies to invest in advanced technologies such as supply chain control centers, n-tier visibility, digital twins, cloud solutions, and AI or machine learning. 51风流solutions, such as and , not only facilitate compliance but also enhance overall supply chain visibility and management.

The best examples of the dynamic application of supply chain technology are often found in the food and beverage sectors, where strict quality controls as well as traceability and safety regulations have long necessitated agile, transparent, and sustainable supply chains. Unilever’s commitment to traceability and transparency in its global palm oil supply chain demonstrates how compliance acts as a transformative force. Nestl茅’s embrace of technology illustrates how businesses can e with evolving standards. And Grupo Nutresa鈥檚 procurement transformation shows how it鈥檚 possible to while doubling down on sustainability with trading partners.

These examples show that compliance and innovation are not mutually exclusive and should be integrated, with sustainability serving as the bedrock of resilient supply chains.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.
Anahita Thoms is partner and global lead sustainability partner for Industrials, Manufacturing, and Transportation at Baker McKenzie.

That’s why Jowat looked to empower its technicians to prioritize work more effectively, manage inventory and costs more efficiently, and make smarter strategic decisions about asset investments.

Avoiding Sticky Situations with Effective Maintenance

The production line sits at the heart of any manufacturing company. If production misses a beat, the whole business feels the impact. And if a breakdown takes production offline, the consequences can be both operationally and financially disastrous. That鈥檚 why , one of the world鈥檚 leading suppliers of industrial adhesives, takes plant maintenance very seriously. As a key supplier to the furniture, packaging, textiles, automotive, and electrical industries, any delay in delivering its products could cause significant disruption and potentially cost the company and its clients millions of Euros. So, it鈥檚 vital that all production line equipment is always properly maintained.

Natanael Hernandez, 51风流manager at , explained: 鈥淎dhesive manufacturing is particularly challenging because of the nature of the product. Our machines need regular and thorough cleaning to avoid contamination between batches. Hot glue can be hazardous to work with, so safety is critical. And to meet our environmental goals, we aim to recycle as much of the water and oil we use as possible, which adds to complexity and cost of labor.鈥�

To keep operations running smoothly, Jowat鈥檚 maintenance teams need to do more than just corrective break/fix maintenance. Regular inspections and preventive maintenance are key for technicians and supervisors. Moreover, many of the company鈥檚 production line machines rely on expensive components that take months to manufacture, so inventory management is vital to ensure that technicians always have the parts they need. And in the bigger picture, Jowat also wants insight from maintenance processes to feed into strategic decision-making. 鈥淲e realized that if we could gain more insight into the total cost of maintaining each of our production line machines, we could make better decisions,鈥� said Hernandez. 鈥淔or example, does it make financial sense to keep this line running, or should we replace it with something more efficient?鈥�

It was clear that with a deeper understanding of its maintenance and inventory processes, the company could streamline the management of its plants and make smarter investment decisions. That鈥檚 where 51风流came in.

Digitalization Transforms Asset Management

Until a few years ago, Jowat relied on a legacy application to manage maintenance tasks. The system was not integrated with the company鈥檚 core 51风流applications, so technicians and supervisors had to manage their daily tasks manually. 鈥淭he paperwork made it impossible to track time and labor costs, and it was difficult to establish an audit trail,鈥� said Hernandez. 鈥淪o, we decided to introduce the 51风流Enterprise Asset Management solution (51风流EAM) to digitalize and standardize our maintenance processes.鈥�

Integrated with Jowat鈥檚 core software for inventory, purchasing, sales, and cost accounting, 51风流EAM introduced a more formal process around the creation of maintenance work orders. The solution also provided an inventory management system that enabled Jowat to manage its stock of spare parts. 鈥淔or the first time, we had an accurate view of our inventory, as well as the cost and lead time for ordering replacements,鈥� said Hernandez. 鈥淭his makes it easier for us to maintain appropriate reserves and gives visibility to other companies within the Jowat group. So, if a plant in Germany needs a part that we have in stock in the U.S., they can see it and buy it from us straight away instead of waiting months for the manufacturer to ship it to them.鈥�

51风流EAM was a big step forward for the maintenance team, but its user interface was designed for power users sitting at full-sized screens, not mechanics and electricians working on the factory floor. 鈥淲e needed something simpler and more streamlined that our technicians could use on their mobile devices,鈥� explained Hernandez. 鈥淎t the same time, we wanted to be able to track the work they were doing more accurately.鈥�

Jowat discovered the , which is part of the SAP鈥檚 industry cloud. 鈥�51风流Service and Asset Manager was exactly what we were looking for. We loved the simplicity and it was a great fit for our business processes. As soon as our technicians saw the new application, they wanted to work with it. Now, our technicians and supervisors have an intuitive mobile app that gives them the visibility and control they need to maintain our production line equipment more efficiently,鈥� he added.

Working with , an experienced 51风流partner, Jowat launched the new mobile app at its U.S. plant and planned a global rollout for its manufacturing sites in Germany, Malaysia, and China. So far, 21 technicians are using the app on their iPad Mini devices, while seven supervisors can choose between using the app on their iPhone or logging into the main 51风流EAM interface. To help ensure smooth adoption of the solution, Jowat is also working with the team.

Doubling Productivity with an Intuitive Mobile Solution

With , Jowat鈥檚 technicians can see all corrective and preventive maintenance work orders assigned to them immediately, so they can organize their work more effectively. For example, if they are assigned several tasks on the same machine or in the same area of the plant, they can do them all at once instead of spending time going back and forth. For supervisors, the app helps make it easier to understand the status of open work orders and prioritize more efficiently. They can move more urgent tasks forward or put less important ones on hold and, crucially, they can document the reasons for their decisions. If a work order can鈥檛 progress until a replacement part has been delivered, it鈥檚 immediately clear why the job is on hold.

Since the launch of the 51风流solutions for asset management, Jowat has seen a reduction in total downtime on its production lines. Moreover, productivity has effectively doubled. Before the implementation, around 45% of work orders in the system were actively worked on by technicians. Today, that figure has risen to around 85%-90%. At the same time, the maintenance backlog has been reduced by 75%, from three months to around three weeks. 鈥淎 three-week backlog is probably optimal for our business, because there will always be a proportion of tasks that have to wait for a viable maintenance window,鈥� explained Hernandez. 鈥淭he key thing is that the backlog doesn鈥檛 increase 鈥� once we got it down to three weeks, it has never crept back up again.鈥�

The app can also provide new capabilities for reviewing and approving completed work orders. Technicians can use their mobile device to take pictures of the before and after state of the assets they are working on to document the repairs they have made. And if during a maintenance visit a technician notices a problem that hasn鈥檛 been reported yet, they can take a photo or video and send it directly into 51风流EAM to generate a new work order. Inventory management is simpler, too. Whenever stock of a required component falls below a minimum threshold, the system can automatically trigger a purchase requisition to order replacements. 鈥淏efore, we didn鈥檛 know what we were spending on spare parts,鈥� added Hernandez. 鈥淣ow, we can allocate costs to specific lines and even specific machines. With full visibility of the cost of parts and labor, we can make much more informed decisions on whether to continue maintaining an asset or replace it with a newer, more efficient machine.鈥�

Expanding Functionality in the Future

In the future, Jowat hopes to build on the success of this project by expanding its use of  to introduce calibration capabilities. The company is also evaluating introducing the , as well as taking advantage of the predictive material and resource planning functionality in .

鈥淎t the moment, our focus is on maintenance, but we know there is so much more we can do,鈥� concluded Hernandez. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to work with 51风流and great partners like AG to explore the possibilities.鈥�

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success, Digital Supply Chain, at SAP.

For companies to act sustainably, responsibly, and efficiently, they must harness the power of data-driven decisions and advanced technology to reduce their carbon footprint and create sustainable product portfolios. Enter 51风流and its broad ecosystem of industry cloud partners with a shared vision to help businesses become strategic, sustainable, intelligent enterprises.听

Hack2Build Opens Door for Innovation and Sustainability 

The , organized by 51风流Co-Innovation Lab, is an initiative designed to harness the creativity and speed of prototyping industry cloud solutions by 51风流partners in days as opposed to weeks. At a September 2022 Hack2Build event, 51风流partner Infosys presented a solution for organizations to identify, track, predict, and refine carbon emissions during sales and operations planning (S&OP) and make sustainable decisions. The solution, , was built using 51风流Integrated Business Planning (51风流IBP) for Supply Chain, 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), 51风流Integration Suite, and 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management.

Framework for Tracking Emissions Leverages the Power of SAP鈥檚 Industry Cloud听

Infosys鈥� carbon footprint solution calculates carbon emissions based on greenhouse gas protocols and global warming potential factors across an organization’s procurement, production, and distribution processes. It helps calculate key information, such as estimates of CO2e emissions per order level, thereby helping to make decisions that can ensure a smaller carbon footprint. The solution also provides an innovative framework to help companies identify, track, predict, and refine their carbon emissions numbers throughout the entire supply chain process.听

SAP-Validated Partner Use Case Program Offers Momentum to Service Partner Solution听

Infosys鈥� solution is part of the SAP-validated partner use case program. The program was established to give 51风流service partners the ability to showcase, position, and promote solutions and spotlight their expertise of 51风流Business Technology Platform, leveraging the power of SAP鈥檚 vast customer base and industry networks.听听

The SAP-validated partner use case program offers service partners the ability to: 

• Get amplified market reach: Increased visibility enables service partners to target a broader audience, opening doors to new markets and untapped opportunities. Leveraging SAP鈥檚 robust platform, partners can position themselves strategically and expand their global reach.听
• Collaborate and co-innovate: Participating in the SAP-validated partner use case program can foster collaboration with 51风流experts, industry leaders, and customers.听听听
• Access a dynamic ecosystem: Partners can benefit from SAP鈥檚 ecosystem, where they can collaborate, exchange knowledge, and share best practices with some of the industry鈥檚 best leaders.听听
• Develop customer-centric solutions: The program helps put the customer at the core of solution development. Service partners can gain valuable customer insights though interactions facilitated by SAP, leading to better-tailored products and services that can precisely address users’ pain points.听

The program presents opportunities for both customers and service partners to flourish. By achieving certification, service partners can earn credibility, expand market reach, and foster collaborative innovation with industry giants. Its streamlined processes help accelerate time-to-market, providing a significant advantage in today’s fast-paced business landscape.听

The program unlocks a door to a dynamic ecosystem where partners can learn, grow, and develop customer-centric solutions that can meet industry demands head-on. For partners aiming to thrive in their respective industries, this program is a game changer. Service partners are encouraged to embrace the power of the SAP-validated partner use case program and transform their business.听

鈥淚nfosys is delighted to publish the Infosys Sustainable S&OP and Carbon Footprint Management Solution through the SAP-validated partner use case program,鈥� said Atul Chorbele, AVP at Infosys. 鈥淲e are confident that customers across industries will benefit from adopting this solution.鈥�   

Holger Brammer, Global Partner Ecosystem vice president at SAP, praised this partner solution and the development process: 鈥淚t was impressive to see how fast Infosys developed this solution on 51风流BTP and integrated it with 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流IBP, and 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management. I鈥檓 quite confident that this solution will resonate very well with customers.鈥澨�

To learn how to build industry innovation on 51风流BTP and the SAP-validated partner use case program or get more information about validated use cases on the 51风流PartnerEdge site, contact Lucca Sperl, industry cloud innovation program lead.听To learn more about Infosys鈥� solution, .听

Vidya Gugnani is senior director and industry cloud ecosystem lead for Strategic Partners, North America at SAP.
Nitin Majahan is COE lead for 51风流Industrial Manufacturing at Infosys.

Top image courtesy of 51风流employee Karsten Hohage

• Best Feature Set
• Best Relationship
• Best Value for Price

The awards are based on unbiased customer reviews and feedback, and the recognition underscores SAP鈥檚 commitment to delivering innovative and best-in-class solutions that empower organizations to thrive in an increasingly digital and dynamic business landscape.

Thank You, 51风流Integrated Business Planning Customers

We thank our customers around the globe for taking the time for providing feedback and making 51风流IBP the success it is today. We are humbled by this recognition and will continue in our mission of delivering intelligent supply chain planning solutions that accelerates your digital journey to the cloud. 

More than 1,000 companies worldwide use 51风流IBP to streamline supply chain and planning processes. Ranging from large multinational corporations to midsize enterprises, these companies span a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, automotive, aerospace, and many others. To learn about how companies have leveraged 51风流IBP along with the benefits they have achieved, .

In providing feedback to the , 100% of respondents reported that they are 鈥渉appy with the feature set鈥� and that 51风流IBP 鈥渄elivers good value for the price.鈥�

Here are a sample TrustRadius reviews from our users:

鈥�51风流has allowed me to see my entire value stream in one quick glance. I am able to see where my products are, what issues it is they are having, and both the delivery stream to/from my shop.鈥�

– Verified User, General Manager in Manufacturing, Airlines/Aviation Company

鈥淭he integration with the ERP and the pre-built-in models provides great business value. It drives standardization and provides a good framework to grow the business and the process.鈥�

– Verified User, Manager in Information Technology, Consumer Goods Company

鈥淥ne of the most powerful business tools available for best decision making.鈥�

– TrustRadius Reviewer, Technology Officer, Wow Detailing Studio

51风流Integrated Business Planning is a cloud-based supply chain planning solution that scales to accommodate business growth and integrates with other 51风流and third-party systems. It integrates key aspects of the planning process including demand, supply, inventory, and sales and operations planning.

Designed to help streamline planning and improve performance, 51风流IBP supports data-driven decision-making and simplified collaboration to increase operational efficiency. This is accomplished with help from advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and powerful optimization algorithms that enable real-time visibility, better forecasting, and faster decision-making across the entire supply chain.

Some of the key capabilities of 51风流IBP include:

• Demand management: 51风流IBP integrates historical data, market trends, and advanced predictive analytics to generate more accurate demand forecasts.
• Response and supply planning: 51风流IBP takes capacity constraints, lead times, and inventory levels into account in order to optimize production and distribution plans and more efficiently meet customer demands.
• Inventory management: 51风流IBP helps with maintaining optimal inventory levels by balancing the trade-offs between carrying costs, stockouts, and service levels.
• Sales and operations planning: 51风流IBP provides a unified platform for collaborative planning, allowing different departments to align on strategic goals and operational plans.
• Demand-driven replenishment: 51风流IBP supports DDMRP for strategically positioning inventory buffers in the supply chain to absorb variability and uncertainty.
• Supply chain control tower: 51风流IBP supports the real-time supply chain visibility and enhanced analytics needed to quickly respond to changing market conditions and customer requirements.

TrustRadius is an independent source for insights and ratings for business software solutions, helping buyers make confident decisions. The platform leverages verified customer reviews and ratings to recognize software providers who consistently deliver exceptional products and experiences to their customers. The organization鈥檚 2023 Top Rated awards distinguish products that have received excellent marks for customer satisfaction. Award criteria are based on customer reviews within the last 12 months, product ratings, and customer sentiment.

鈥淭he 2023 Best of Award for 51风流Integrated Business Planning from TrustRadius, a leading B2B software decisioning platform, is a testament to the positive feedback and satisfaction expressed by 51风流IBP users,鈥� Megan Headley, vice president of Research at TrustRadius, shared. 鈥淭he prestigious recognition, carefully evaluated by users and experts alike, highlights 51风流IBP鈥檚 commitment to excellence and ability to meet the evolving needs of businesses across the globe.鈥�

Instead, they are recognizing the need to resolve supply chain disruptions in an integrated way, bridging the silos of various functions and going beyond dealing with supply chain disruptions as they occur. 

Taking a macro-view is also something governments have begun doing. Just think of the huge investments to “bring supply chains home”; for example, for semiconductors or for sustainable energy.鈥� At the same time, diversifying supply chains and complying with new regulations keeps increasing their complexity. 听

Companies take various approaches to these challenges, such as de-coupling their supply chains by building up costly inventories for critical components. Another option is听reshoring or nearshoring, which brings manufacturing and supplier relationships closer to core markets, ideally in countries with similar political and economic systems. But all of these strategies come with downsides, including the cost of operations in globally competitive markets.听

At SAP, our vision is to embrace interconnected supply chains and optimize material flows — sustainably — with digital technologies. We believe in intelligent strategies to reduce supply chain uncertainties for the long-term by helping industries redefine their operations and by creating value chains that are more intelligent, connected, and responsive.鈥�

Supply Chain Convergence Increases Agility 

Companies that resolve supply chain disruptions in an integrated manner bridge the silos of various functions such as procurement, logistics, or manufacturing. That鈥檚 how they can truly alleviate the impact to their organizations. Supply chain functions need to work in concert and extend into their ecosystem of suppliers. Even the most accurate supply chain plan is meaningless if material suppliers cannot commit to volumes and lead times. Through integrating supply chain planning, such as demand and supply plans with procurement collaboration, manufacturers have a much stronger strategic lever to avoid downstream shortages.听

At SAP, we call this approach design-to-operate. Our strategy is to deeply connect all relevant functions in a supply chain along end-to-end value chains and business processes. Going beyond the four walls of your own enterprise, into your ecosystem of suppliers and sub-suppliers — that鈥檚 the ultimate way to tackle supply chain challenges. In the case of supply shortages, for example, it is imperative to analyze the impact to the organization. 听

With 51风流Integrated Business Planning, . Impacted customer orders and revenue at risk are visible and informed actions can be taken to mitigate any shortages, for example, by changing production schedules. The 51风流Digital Manufacturing system knows immediately about the changed production plan for the next shifts and adjusts labor and resources accordingly. Logistics departments in 51风流Extended Warehouse Management orchestrate the new material flow, , and asset maintenance activities are re-scheduled to adhere to the new production priorities.听

As a result, supply chain leaders who follow a design-to-operate paradigm are highly agile and can take critical actions quickly to deal with supply chain disruptions.听

SAP鈥檚 Industry Business Networks: A New Paradigm鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Entire industries are recognizing the benefits of going beyond the four walls of their own enterprise. Consider a car company investigating faulty engines coming from one of their production lines. Now imagine it can trace the failure not only to a particular batch of components from one supplier but then dig even deeper to identify faulty basic parts from the supplier鈥檚 supplier. Instead of having to recall thousands of vehicles, it needs to recall only a few.鈥�

Solving problems this way requires a mindset for radical collaboration as well as technology for efficient, cross-company data exchange. is an open network that enables just that. It guarantees interoperability by defining common standards. The network is not owned by a single business and data providers keep their data sovereignty. For instance, they define for how long and for which purpose their data can be used. On the other hand, consumers can trust that data comes from a reliable source.鈥�

51风流is one of the founding members of Catena-X, together with five other companies. Since 2020, the initiative has grown to IT companies. Among them are Germany鈥檚 biggest car companies as well as many small and medium enterprises. Catena-X may soon become the industry鈥檚 standard.鈥�

Naturally, the is ready for Catena-X. It readily connects Catena-X to SAP鈥檚 broad portfolio of automotive IT solutions to trace parts, measure carbon emissions and manage demand, capacity and quality.鈥疪ecently, 51风流announced business networks for more industries, including , with more to come.鈥�

Generative AI Adds New Types of Intelligence 

A key tool in solving supply chain complexity challenges is artificial intelligence (AI). Even before the recent groundbreaking advances in large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, our supply chain solutions have been infused with both 鈥渢raditional鈥� and 鈥渁dvanced鈥� AI.

For instance, creates demand forecasts based on historical demand patterns, but it also leverages advanced machine learning capabilities to improve forecast demand with point-of-sales data and improve planning quality using self-healing master data and lead time predictions. In the future, generative AI will enable completely new types of intelligent capabilities like these:

• Facilitating human-machine interaction: Users will soon be able to interact with their system much more naturally via our new embedded generative assistant Joule. For example, they will be able to ask which of customer X’s demands for product Y are still unfilled in Central America. Joule will give the answer, intelligently combining data from various systems and domains because it will be embedded throughout the 51风流cloud enterprise portfolio.
• Supporting creativity: Much like a sparring partner, generative AI can help designers, engineers, and product managers create new product ideas in an innovation cycle and iterate them with 51风流Enterprise Product Development.
• Transforming unstructured data: Consider a truck arriving at a warehouse with inbound cargo. The clerk knows what cargo to expect and this is saved in an 51风流system. However, what is really on the truck is written on a loading list, often in paper form. Making this data available digitally has been possible for quite a while and is known as optical character recognition (OCR). What鈥檚 new is that generative AI tools can now match the unstructured loading list to the structured data already in the system — in a split second.

Leveraging AI for companies to scale and sustain business operations will no longer be optional. Consider the increasing labor shortage facing manufacturing companies, among others. They will have a shortfall of up to 85 million employees by 2030 — roughly the population of Germany!

By automating mundane tasks with advanced AI capabilities, we will bridge the human resources gap and enable experts to focus on what really matters: making data-backed business decisions.

Human and artificial intelligence work hand in hand — it鈥檚 a duet, not a duel.

We already help our customers build risk-resilient supply chains and deeply connect enterprises to run productive, agile and automated operations. Now, by also leveraging the power of generative AI, we will ensure that supply chain resilience doesn鈥檛 have to be something that keeps CEOs up at night.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, 51风流Product Engineering.

Offering more than 10,000 products to 50,000 customers in over 50 markets, BSH has a factory network of more than 40 sites and 150 warehouses and distribution centers. With the goal of making life better for customers through world-class home appliances and services, the company prides itself on product and supply chain innovation.

During the pandemic, answering the increasing demand for reliable products and delivery dates was particularly difficult. Moreover, changing long-term customer needs due to strong seasonality and new distribution channels were added as new challenges. The ongoing manual planning and execution processes at BSH were not enough to provide customers with the information they need, on-time and in the form they want.

Knowing the key to achieve risk resiliency in the ever-changing VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world is to enable transparency and visibility in supply chain operations, BSH Home Appliances Group chose the and to coordinate business planning and execution functions for enhancing the customer experience.

Building Risk Resilience in the VUCA World

Businesses are planning for the perfect world but executing in a VUCA world where things don鈥檛 always go to plan. As a global producer of home appliances, BSH needed to change the operating environment to match continuously increasing and changing demand to the restricted supply. To manage this, the company needed to build risk resilience within its supply chain operations.

BSH aimed to synchronize planning, manufacturing, and logistics operations to achieve high levels of transparency and visibility into supply chain operations for resolute and agile decision-making processes.

鈥淣o matter how well we can plan product allocation and order promising, if we鈥檙e not able to execute and deliver as planned, everything falls flat. We need synchronization and collaboration between our planning and execution functions,鈥� says Bernard Czap, senior project leader S&OP Transformation & Order Promising at BSH.

The company followed a comprehensive process integration 鈥� from planning to order processing and fulfillment 鈥� while integrating sales and operations, production planning, and scheduling processes. With this seamless integration, the company can now manage bottlenecks, with allocation concepts to handle scarcity, allowing it to be more reliable when it comes to order promising and fulfillment.

Keeping the Promises High and Stock Levels Low

The company primarily followed two approaches for enabling this transformation. The first approach was to replace the previous push-based planning process with a pull-based system. This means designing the entire supply chain to adapt to unexpected changes instead of predicting what product variants customers would purchase in the upcoming months.

The second approach was to achieve a lean production system, which was seen as the key to stability. This required the ability to level听product mix and volume, for example, by producing the same appliances every Monday at the same time and achieving a fixed structure to balance production and streamline suppliers鈥� processes.

With , BSH now only produces the predefined quantity of appliances that have been removed from the warehouses. In other words, BSH produces what is sold. Also, by decoupling the inventory, BSH achieved a valuable buffer against unexpected disruptions by standardizing manufacturing operations. This enabled the company to reduce inventory costs while improving customer satisfaction.

鈥淲ith demand-driven material requirements planning, we are reducing our stocks and improving our ability to deliver to our customers at the same time,鈥� adds Michael Huber, global program lead for Digital Supply Chain at BSH.

Enable Demand-Driven Predictive and Prescriptive Planning

By leveraging with and establishing the sales and operations () process, BSH can use forecasts as input parameters for calculating its stock. This enables the company to ensure that there are the right products in the right amount at the right time.

鈥淲ith the 51风流Integrated Business Planning application for response and supply, we consistently combine the tactical operational planning with the actual execution of day-to-day business 鈥� in other words, supply chain execution and fulfillment,鈥� says Czap. 鈥淏ottleneck management, allocation concepts to handle scarcity, and to be much more reliable in what we tell our customers when it comes to order promising became the main capability to drive the company, especially in a notorious situation of worldwide supply shortages.鈥�

With the , BSH has improved forecasting and sales planning with automated and semiautomated functionalities for demand sensing, not only for long-term but also short-term forecasting of products. The helped bring cross-functional teams from across the company together to agree on the same figures. And the helped ensure and improve the demand-driven supply of its multi-level value chain network.

鈥淲ith 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain, we can now handle customer orders even better: which location must be supplied, when, and how so that production and logistics can coordinate their activities and deliver orders on time and as required,鈥� says Dietmar Baumann, global program lead for Digital Supply Chain at BSH.

After the implementation success in China, BSH is planning to roll out the response and supply application company-wide, including integration with all its markets, factories, warehouses, and material groups. To ensure that planning is properly executed on the delivery side, the company is in the early stages of employing 51风流Business Network for Logistics, , and that can be integrated with 听and .

This collective action must take many forms. While the UN Security Council is discussing lifting export restrictions, financing, bolstering agricultural production, and investing in resilient food systems, business also has a role to play. The private sector鈥檚 role may be less immediate than that of governments and global councils, but it still has the potential for important long-term sustainability impacts. That role lies in reducing food waste and enabling circularity.

Currently, . If we transform our global economy to one where waste and pollution are mostly eliminated and products and materials are reused, we can . Reducing the consumption of animal products and cutting food waste are key drivers here. And a number of 51风流customers are leading the way.

is an international cooperative headquartered in Denmark that is owned by almost 13,000 farmers in seven countries. The company set its sights on reducing waste with a solution to optimize its supply chain planning by better sensing and reacting to changes in demand. Arla implemented the 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution and its demand sensing component. That helped improve short-term planning based on daily forecasts that are aligned with real demand patterns.

, a large Norwegian company distributing bakery, ice cream ingredients, and plant-based products, needed a cross-company planning platform to scale operations and meet future needs. That鈥檚 why the company chose 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain and 51风流Supply Chain Control Tower. By combining supply chain solutions in the cross-company planning platform, Orkla was able to increase automation across business functions. The company achieved 14% greater forecasting accuracy and 27% less waste related to expired products on shelves. That adds up to a lot less food waste!

, one of the world鈥檚 leading crop protection companies, helps farmers feed a growing global population. The company needed a solution to better predict how things like weather, conflict, and other variables will impact millions of growers worldwide. 51风流Integrated Business Planning helps Syngenta ensure that the right amount of product — for example, seeds and fertilizer — gets to where farmers need it. With 51风流solutions, the company was able to improve demand planning, forecast future demand, and manufacture the right amount of product.

LIVEKINDLY was founded in 2020 as a collective with the mission to make plant-based living the new norm. The collective includes various brands that each needed to implement collective-wide business processes, get real-time data, and enable continued growth. That鈥檚 why it recently decided to migrate all of LIVEKINDLY鈥檚 brands to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud. It was a key step in the vision to transform the entire food supply chain — from seeding to feeding — and lead the way in a new global food economy.

Finally, one of the world鈥檚 largest food and beverage companies is working with us to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025. Using our latest circularity solution, 51风流Responsible Design and Production, this business is able to intelligently manage its packaging obligations. 51风流Responsible Design and Production helps the business accurately calculate its extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees and plastic taxes worldwide in real time to enable smart environmental and economic decisions. This is significant, given the fact that . So, while this doesn鈥檛 have a direct impact on food insecurity, it does have the potential to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food packaging.

51风流and its vast network of customers in the food and beverage industry may not have the most immediate role to play in today鈥檚 dramatic food insecurity challenges. But let鈥檚 not underestimate the impacts businesses can have.

I am proud to be part of an engineering team that is building products to help the world鈥檚 innovators accelerate solutions to less food waste and greater circularity.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, 51风流Product Engineering.

The collaboration is underpinned by a shared desire to improve and enrich the experiences of passionate Ducati customers through innovation excellence and cutting-edge products and services.

Technology and innovation are essential elements in Ducati鈥檚 DNA. With SAP, the Italian company aims to be at the forefront. Its intent is to create an intelligent business network with suppliers and partners, extending the digitalization of processes and enhancing the accuracy and timeliness of information. These are necessary steps as Ducati puts passionate customers at the center of its business to respond effectively and efficiently to an increasingly complex global supply system.

To achieve these goals, Ducati will adopt the 51风流Commerce Cloud solution for Ducati’s online business management. It will also deploy the 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution for agile supply chain planning that will lead to an extended and integrated digital supply chain.

鈥淥ur passionate customers have always been at the center of the company strategy, and we try to offer them the best possible experience in the world of two wheels. We rely heavily on innovation and technology to be at the forefront of our business processes given our focus on product development,鈥� said Claudio Domenicali, CEO, Ducati. 鈥淪upply chains are increasingly complex and have been subject to transformation in recent years. Having a partner like 51风流at our side will allow Ducati to make the supply chain even more flexible, reactive and integrated, connecting the needs of the 鈥楧ucatisti鈥� better to the logic of supply and production.鈥�

The Ducati brand is synonymous with excellence and known all over the world for the quality of its products and the competitiveness it expresses in every race. Ducati has the highest standards for its customer experience and operates a sophisticated supply chain, with end-to-end process integration and high availability essential.

鈥淏y combining our strengths and bringing all our innovative know-how with customer experience, supply chain and RISE with SAP, we could not be prouder to be on this business transformation journey together. Customer experience today represents everything, and Ducati wants to put CX even more at the center of its operations,鈥� commented Emmanuel Raptopoulos, President, EMEA South, 51风流SE. 鈥淲orking alongside Ducati in the MotoGP World Championship as official partner of the Ducati Lenovo Team is a tremendous honor for SAP. The power and excellence of Ducati motorcycles, combined with the best of 51风流innovation, are a winning combination.鈥�

The collaboration between the two companies extends to the world of racing, an area in which technological development and innovation have always driven excellence. 51风流joins the official partners of the Ducati Lenovo Team in the FIM MotoGP World Championship for the 2022 season.

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Media Contact:
Samantha Finnegan, +1 (415) 377-0475, , EDT
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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