End-to-End Scenario Planning with SAP IBP

⇨ Robust Scenario Planning is needed to mitigate the risks/challenges from supply chain disruptions

⇨ SAP Integrated Business Planning offers comprehensive planning for the end-to-end planning process.

⇨ With scenario planning in SAP IBP, organizations can leverage advanced planning and optimization capabilities to enhance their ability to respond to uncertainties and make informed decisions in a dynamic supply chain environment.

Supply Chain disruptions are not new; they have been perennial for every supply chain across industries. Yet for the last few years, the frequency and severity of disruptions has increased dramatically, increasing costs, and reducing customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, disruptions in Supply Chains will continue, and they have the potential to recur more often than ever.

Under these circumstances, it is imperative for organizations to have a robust scenario planning processes and tool that covers that end-to-end supply chain functions. That way, organizations are equipped to manage these disruptions and reduce their impacts to its customers.

Scenario planning involves systematic exploration of potential future events or situations that could impact the supply chain, and the development of strategies to address these uncertainties. This process helps organizations prepare for a range of possible futures, enhancing their ability to adapt to changes and uncertainties in the business environment.

Scenario Planning Guide

SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) is an advanced planning and optimization solution that offers end-to-end supply chain planning capabilities in an integrated fashion. This integrated solution can also be effectively leveraged for scenario planning cutting across Demand Forecasting & Sensing, Demand Planning, Inventory Optimization, Supply Planning and Deployment. Here’s a guide on how to apply scenario planning in supply chain management and how leverage SAP IBP:

1. Identify Key Drivers – Identify the key factors or drivers that could significantly impact the supply chain. These may include economic conditions, geopolitical events, technological advancements, regulatory changes, natural disasters, and more. Develop a set of plausible scenarios based on the identified key drivers. Each scenario represents a different combination of factors that could unfold in the future. SAP IBP offers Driver Based Planning that can be leveraged to capture qualitative and quantitative information for risks and opportunities by evaluating their likely effects and expressing those effects in key figure values.

2. Assess Impacts – Evaluate the potential impact of each scenario on different aspects of the supply chain, such as demand forecasting, sourcing, production, transportation, and inventory management. Consider how these scenarios could affect suppliers, manufacturing, distribution, and customers. SAP IBP offers the ability to simulate and execute end-to-end planning process in a simulation mode. Versions and/or scenarios can be leveraged to model different simulations by executing planning functions like heuristics, optimizer, user input simulations, etc. SAP IBP analytics can be leveraged to understand the impacts of scenarios across multiple dimensions.

3. Scenario Analysis – Conduct a risk analysis for each scenario to identify vulnerabilities and potential disruptions in the supply chain. Assess the likelihood and severity of each scenario to prioritize them based on their potential impact. Users can leverage SAP IBP capabilities like Alerts, Gating factors, and Analytics Stories to perform a thorough risk analysis. This provides the necessary insights.

4. Communication and Collaboration – Communicate the findings of the scenario planning process across the organization. Foster collaboration between different departments and stakeholders to ensure a coordinated response to potential disruptions. SAP IBP offers native integration with Microsoft Teams, SAP Build Work Zone, and SAP Jam to enable collaboration across the organization.

5. Integration with Decision Making – Integrate scenario planning into the overall decision-making process within the supply chain. Ensure that the insights gained from scenario planning inform strategic decisions, operational planning, and risk management. SAP IBP offers the ability to promote a scenario into a plan of record. It’s native integration with SAP S/4 HANA, SAP ECC, etc. enables it to seamlessly execute on the selected scenario.

By integrating scenario planning with SAP IBP, organizations can leverage advanced planning and optimization capabilities to enhance their ability to respond to uncertainties and make informed decisions in a dynamic supply chain environment.