South Africa`s metals, forest products and textiles industry companies have been leading the way for their sectors globally in the enterprise software market. They have been working with world enterprise player SAP to further develop SAP`s core enterprise solution R/3, making it more suitable for their unique make-to-order processes. The result of this collaboration is the SAP Mill Products Solution, due for general release next year.
"South African industry has pioneered much of the development within SAP R/3 for these sectors," says Neil Burger, Mill Products business unit manager for SAP Southern Africa. "Saldanha Steel in South Africa has cooperated closely with the SAP Mill Products business unit in developing a solution that incorporates additional functionality designed specifically for the metals, forest products and textiles industries.
"Two other South African SAP customers, Sappi`s Ngodwana Mill and Alusaf Bayside, have also installed certain components of the solution," he says.
"SAP has developed the SAP Mill Products Solution with valuable input from South African and global customers, as well as industry expertise gained through serving more than 800 customers in the metals, forest products and textiles industries," says Burger. "The final SAP Mill Products Solution was heavily influenced by the work done here in South Africa, and will be generally available with the release of SAP R/3 4.0 in the second quarter of next year."
To compete successfully in a make-to-order environment, companies in the metals, forest products and textiles industries must make precise delivery commitments, minimise inventory and production costs, and lower waste. The SAP Mill Products Solution has been developed to help meet these supply chain challenges.
It addresses the unique business requirements of these sectors by supporting make-to-order manufacturing involving a high number of material variants and multilevel product structures. It offers extended functionality in logistics, production planning, and financial and controlling business processes. Major benefits include optimised performance, reduced costs and the ability to synchronise supply planning and production with demand in a dynamic global marketplace.
"Benefits include improved performance and customer service as a result of the significant shortened turnaround and reduced inventory," says Burger.
The solution consists of the following: SAP R/3 enterprise business applications spanning financials, human resources and logistics, including support for product specification with various attributes such as volume, weight, grade, size, sheen and colour. Industry-specific functionality supporting the logistics chain from product definition and configuration through preliminary planning and order processing to capacity planning and production:
Many of the world`s leading companies in primary metals, pulp and paper, textiles and metal products manufacturing have already selected SAP R/3 for their enterprise computing needs. Other South African companies include Mondi, Iscor Mills, Alusaf Hillside and SANS Fibres.
"With SAP R/3 4.0, and the Mill Products Solution, these companies will now be able to integrate production planning with sales order demand and drive down inventory using SAP R/3," says Burger. "SAP will enable them to improve performance in a number of areas key to success, including order and shipment accuracy, product execution and on-time delivery"
Part of the Mill Products Solution will be the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) solution. One of the SAP New Dimension products, SAP APO provides a suite of supply chain planning software with advanced planning, optimisation and scheduling capabilities.
"With SAP APO, companies can quickly respond to changing market dynamics and synchronise planning across the supply chain," says Burger. "Industry-specific functionality within SAP APO supports available-to-promise, block scheduling and rolling scheduling capabilities. SAP APO also provides industry- and task-specific algorithms and heuristics, which enable companies to synchronise the supply plan with actual and forecasted demand."
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