I am writing this blog post in the air, sitting in seat 4c, somewhere over the Midwest en route to Philadelphia. As I look below, I see field after field of United States farmland. The land looks like a giant puzzle. After a busy week with high-tech and electronics clients, my fingers are itching to help others solve a different type of puzzle. The goal of this blog is to help business users maximize their current SAP Investments in a time of change.

Reflections

High-tech manufacturers in the Silicon Valley of the United States are some of the best at supply chain planning. With changing product profiles, short life cycles, constraints with downstream suppliers, and changing markets, being good at supply chain planning matters. In this tough market excellence in supply chain planning is a critical element to be competitive. In high-tech, supply chain planning is more important than in other industries like chemical, pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods and retail.

Over the course of the last decade many clients implemented supply chain planning but have struggled to maximize the value. The reasons are numerous. Planner turnover, time to plan, ability to get to data, system usability, and talent gaps are all major issues. Getting good at planning requires executive leadership. Business leaders need to support a new way of doing business. It requires investing in planning talent, and the recognition of planning as a core competency. Most companies fail before they succeed.

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