Implementing Integrated Business Planning

This book provides comprehensive guidance on leveraging SAP IBP technology to connect strategic, tactical and operational planning into one coherent process framework, presenting experience shared by practitioners in workshops, customer presentations, business, and IT transformation projects. It also offers use cases and a wealth of practical tips to ensure that readers understand the challenges and advantages of IBP implementation. The book starts by characterizing disconnected planning and contrasting this with key elements of a transformation project approach. It explains the functional foundations and SAP Hybris, Trade Promotion Planning, Customer Business Planning, ARIBA, and S/4 integration with SAP IBP. It then presents an example of a process for integrating finance in IBP. Annual business planning and monthly strategic product planning are taken as examples of explain Strategic Planning. The core of the book is dedicated to tactical sales and operations planning (S&OP) and its process steps, product demand, supply review, integrated reconciliation and management business review, illustrating all steps with use cases. It also describes unconstrained and constrained-but-optimized supply planning, inventory optimization, and shelf life planning in detail, and explains how to improve responsiveness with order-based allocation planning, sales order confirmation, and big deal / tender management coupled with simultaneous re-planning of supply. The book closes with a chapter on performance measurement, focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, and adherence. Throughout, the book includes use cases to connect process and technology through use.