SAP has begun to outline a long-term strategy to benefit customers
with supply chain management and manufacturing systems that work
together more intelligently and adapt to unexpected problems.
The company announced that it would devote development resources to
create a new generation of collaborative production and supply
chain applications that would work together as one system.
SAP said the suite would connect supply chain management and
manufacturing operations, from raw materials procurement to the
shipment of the finished goods to the customer. The company said it
would improve inventory turns, tighten manufacturing cycle times,
improve quality management and, ultimately, cut ownership costs.
According to SAP spokesman Bill Wohl, this is a statement of vision
that will probably require between 18 to 24 months before it
results in product enhancements.
"It's less a factor of technological improvements than it is
weaving supply chain management into the processes that make up
manufacturing solutions," he said. Shop floor personnel have tended
to view what they do as different from what supply chain
professionals do.
One analyst expressed scepticism about SAP's ability to deliver on
its integration promise. There are many shop floor production
systems in existence and, so far, no enterprise resource planning
company has successfully integrated its manufacturing or other
applications into them in a meaningful way, said David Dobrin,
analyst at B2B Analysts.