The next phase involved implementing real-time domestic transportation visibility. They kicked off the TM/SBLN project in 2022, with the initial phase being focused on ocean visibility, where they were having the greatest problems. For one, TM/SBLN allowed the cooperative to get better visibility to what shipping times would be from alternative ports like Los Angeles or New Orleans. Working in close partnership with the VP of Supply Chain, we quickly mapped out what our key requirements were. ![]() But when COVID dramatically slowed down the shipment transit times, that accelerated the push to get the real-time logistics solution installed. “The TM/SBLN solution was always on our roadmap,” Mr. ![]() Implementing SAP Business Network for Logistics In addition to increased agility, the use of SAP IBP enabled Blue Diamond to reduce inventory by 20%, improve on time in full shipments to customers, and reduce transportation costs by over a million dollars because of a better understanding of what the facility-to-facility shipments needed to be. The process was collapsed from the standard one month rolling planning process to a process that was done on a weekly basis in order to better react to new challenges that were cropping up much more frequently during the pandemic. To react to the dynamic nature of the market during the pandemic, they also sped up their integrated planning process, the process that balances supply with demand. Scenario planning became more important during COVID. An analysis that took 6 hours could now be done in 20 minutes. “What IBP gave us was a single platform with consolidated data, where we could also do scenario planning,” Mr. Demand sensing improves forecasting by incorporating short-term demand signals like point of sale data. The company is now in the process of incorporating demand sensing. Nor has the project really ended, they continue to optimize the solution to improve the planning. Once the demand/supply plan is produced, that feeds the logistics planning process.īlue Diamond had the usual master data and change management challenges with implementing SCP. The branded products and ingredients businesses were not treated as silos, but instead planning synchronized production across both businesses. The integrated business planning process, enabled by the SAP tool, was then used to better balance demand and supply. That statistical forecast then fed the constraint-based factory planning. The demand planning solution provided for more accurate, statistical forecasting. ![]() “We've had a whole transformation journey that we've mapped out, predominantly around the synchronized planning concept,” Mr. Implementing SAP Integrated Business Planning “But COVID is what forced the urgency from the logistics side of our business,” Mr. The company invested in SAP’s supply chain planning solution – Integrated Business Planning – back in 2018 to move away from a manual demand and supply planning process to something more automated and optimized. The first building block was SAP’s enterprise resource planning solution which was initially implemented in 2014, and upgraded to S/4 Hana in 2021. Blue Diamond had already been on a journey to improve their supply chain capabilities.
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