Smart Ops EIO

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

Can you shed some light on what Enterprise Inventory Optimization from SmartOps offers that standard APO doesn't and how they compliment each other?  Some decks / pre-sales materials / links / case studies appreciated. I could only come across some high level marketing talk on sap website.

Also advise if there is some education and certification on EIO. Years ago this firm reached us for selling some products and I was pretty impressed with their business sense, UI and presentation. I am aware SAP acquired it.

Thanks

BS

[satish_waghmare3 · Accepted solution]

Hello Borat

I do not have any links/documents but this information was based on my past project where we had integrated APO/ECC with SmartOps Tool used for Safery Stock Calculation.

The SmartOps Solution Suite consists of three main components:
Client PCs that access the SmartOps application server via Internet Explorer
Application server running the SmartOps applications
Relational database(like Oracle/DB2) in which to load and store supply chain data

Supply chain data can be loaded into the SmartOps database by using the SmartOps data loader software that is installed with the SmartOps Solution Suite and database instance.

1. Forecast extract from APO. 2. Transportation lanes from APO 3. Quota from APO 4. BOM

Custom Z Programs were developed to extract this data from APO. We had used Open Hub in BW for Forecast data.

Once the required data(master and transactional) is feed into SmartOps, Optimizer can be run which helps in Safety stock determination

Following are six key factors used in Inventory Optimization by SmartOps. The algorithm is pretty strong with various parameter which can be used.

1.DEMAND VARIABILITY, 2.SUPPLY VARIABILITY, 3.BATCH SIZE, 4.SERVICE TIME, 5.CARRYING COST, 6.DIFFERENTIATED DEMAND STREAMS.

Hope this will help.

Thank you
Satish Waghmare

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Zuper,

Do you have any idea where and how HANA fits in this whole thing and is it necessary to have one ?. I am confused with somethings I read on SAP sites.

If possible can you elaborate what is differentiated demand streams ?

Is there a more robust logic for planning activities like replenishment (deployment) and load building in Smart Ops ?.

Did you perceive any discernible difference between results of safety stock calculated by smart ops and SAP's dozen safety stock strategies (based on forecast and lead time variability)

My purpose of asking these questions at this point is we have APO configuration experts with 15 years of experience who never heard what Smart-ops is and we have a client who wants to implement it. So I am going to lie to the client depending on what suits my interests.

Thanks for the response though I probably need to read a lot more to figure this out. full marks.

Regards

BS

[satish_waghmare3 · Accepted solution]

Hi Borat,

I am sure SAP HANA is not necessary. I will not be able to comment where HANA can fit in this landscape - APO, ECC, SmartOps.

Regarding Differentiated demand streams,  Basically Stocking point may service multiple demand streams. These demand streams can be differentiated based on Service level, service time, forecast bias, prod life cycle (influencer of demand)

SmartOps EIO is dedicated tool focusing on all the matters related to Inventory Optimization one of them Safery Stock determination. It definitely is more capable and robust solution which consider six key factors mentioned earlier. I believe APO do not consider many of them (like Service Time, Demand Variability).

Frankly I have limited information too as my role was not related SmartOps in that project. I had read a few documents at that time and attended a few meeting with the client and worked on functional part of integration requirements.

Please do share if you get any links or information on this topic.

Thank you

Satish Waghmare

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Demand Variability could not be same as forecast error that SAP uses for advanced SS calc. Anyway

Thanks Satish for your prompt responses. Yes there are many such niche applications in Supply Chain Optimization area that could do things on the fly but being immersed in SAP made me clueless about about what supply chain is all about.

Thanks

BS

[dymonselise]

SMART OPS is called now EIS - and can be also be implemented to ECC (not APO/BW)

DM

[Former Member]

Thank Dan

That indeed should have been the case for a start... to avoid double work and nuisance value of APO esp. if the latter is used as an expensive typewriter of sorts.

Thanks

BS

[Former Member]

BS,

I have never used SmartOps EIO, but a short search shows that there is quite a bit of info in Service Marketplace.  Try

http://service.sap.com/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000758959&_SCENARIO=01100035870000000202&

You might want to focus on the end user guide, which appears to me to be somewhat similar to SAP 'Help' docs.

http://service.sap.com/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01100035870000758959&_SCENARIO=01100035870000000202&_O...

Best regards,

DB49

[Former Member]

Thanks Dogboy

I was looking here and couldnt find one. Thanks for the links. No S user ID. Will get one this week.

http://help.sap.com/boall_en

Regards

BS

[Former Member]

BS,

The version of EIO for which I cited the docs was 6.9.

It looks to me as if SAP has repackaged the solution and called it EIS; version 6.10; removing most of the SmartOps references but including some additional functionalities. On the Help.sap.com site

SAP Enterprise Inventory and Service-Level Optimization 6.10 – SAP Help Portal Page

but you still need an S number to access.

Doing a quick scan of the EIO portion of the new document, it seems to have mostly the same info as the older SmartOps EIO doc.

Best Regards,

DB49

[Former Member]

Hi Borat,

Between 12/23/13 and 12/30/13, 31 emails were released in SCN in topic area [SAP Advanced
Planning & Optimization (SAP APO)] by author David Zatz. Each one was either new EIS information or an update to existing SCN messages. Each eamil had either a link to to EIS documents, most in SAP.com, or an update to a message in SCN. I didn't read them but did save for future reading.

Do a search on David Zatz in SCN and see what shows up. It's worth a shot.

Best Regards,

Mike

[Former Member]

Thanks Dogboy and Maclean,

I did came across the link on help.com but I thought it was something else. It asked for a S User id that I didnt have,

Will check Davids links.

Regards

BS