Authored by: Akhilesh Pandey

Global Supply Chain Disruption

COVID-19 has been a disruptive force globally. This pandemic has been devastating for global human health and has caused disruption through – quarantines, travel regulations, overcrowded hospitals and a general sense of panic among the global community. Business has been completely derailed due to supply chain changes daily, so much so that it has been nearly impossible for supply chain managers & planner to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

Supply chain professionals can utilize some tools to better manage this highly volatile environment.  Adhering to Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes and utilizing SAP IBP application could create a strategic vantage point for organizations during these trying times.

The three core tenets of the IBP process that are very well incorporated in the SAP IBP application, which can enable organizations deal with unprecedented situations like COVID-19 pandemic are:

1. Scenario Planning
2. Visibility
3. Real-time Data Analytics

Read on below for more detail on these.

1. Scenario Planning: The organizations have to be ready with plans to deal with business upside as well downside. SAP IBP has the capability to generate fast simulations on upside and downside scenarios that can be compared with the baseline scenario. Depending on the situation, either of the scenarios could be promoted to the baseline scenario so that the organization could then execute its supply chain activities based on that. In case of the COVID-19 like situation this is probably a key. Organizations across industries could benefit from this SAP IBP capability. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on supply chains across multiple industries. Some have been hit  hard & deep, especially like airlines with major downside. Whereas, others like consumer products (makers of hygiene products especially) would be seeing an upside. Also, some like healthcare service providers have been hit hard because of constraints related to availability of – medicines/medical devices/equipment.
2. Visibility: The organizations in today’s extended supply chain network work as part of the whole, rather than in their own individual capacity. Visibility of supply chain plans & constraints in the entire supply chain network, help the entities that are part of the network to adequately prepare and respond to the challenges with agility. COVID-19 has hit the travel industry particularly airline industry dramatically. Entities that are part of this entire supply chain network of the larger travel industry be it hotels, cab companies, tour and travel companies, ancillary service providers to these companies plus to the airline companies would have been hit hard as well. If there is visibility across the supply chain network which an application like SAP IBP can provide, all the entities that are involved and are inter-connected could prepare and respond faster and better.
3. Real-time data analytics: It’s said that accurate data supported with right analysis is hard to deny. It is a potent tool for aligning  organizations and convincing the leadership to take quick actionable decisions. Nothing has proven to be truer in the COVID-19 pandemic situation than this! Together with the live coronavirus maps, analysis on the exponential nature of the spread of the virus and what segments of population are more vulnerable, healthcare system capacity constraints related to treating patients on this scale and the insight that came out of all this that isolation is the best prevention to arrest its growth; drove the communities and governments to take the right actions. SAP IBP is built on a high performing & scalable HANA platform, comes with an in-built analytics, with which the vulnerable organizations can align on the right course of action much quicker, course correct faster if some set of actions do not work out as intended, and take alternative actions. Also, SAP IBP application due to its flexible architecture, easy connectivity using highly scalable & flexible cloud platform integration together with ability to create custom analytics and dashboards at lightning speed further supported by machine learning based alerting capabilities, truly enables an organization to be nimble & agile.

How can Krypt help?

As an SAP’s preferred partner, Krypt can help you achieve accurate demand forecasting and planning using SAP IBP. It also adds operational acceleration and maximizes business value for customers. Our implementation approach is based on industry best practices and is business & user-centric. This helps you expedite the implementation process adoption and decrease risk.

If you wish to know about Krypt’s products/services, please request a demo or do contact us.

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