The rise of the global economy has created both opportunities and challenges for today’s manufacturers. While companies have greater sourcing and distribution options and more markets for their end-products, these changes have also brought increased supply chain complexity, greater competition, and the very real need for companies to remain agile in the face of uncertain economic conditions and shifting demand. SAP solutions for Supply Chain Management deliver integrated planning and execution capabilities that enable companies to work collaboratively across departments, divisions, and business networks to build an adaptive, responsive supply chain network that can decrease time to market, and deliver maximum efficiency and profitability.

The presentations in this track provide insights from leading companies and SAP experts on how to leverage the SAP Supply Chain Management solutions to optimize supply chain related businesses processes like order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and promise-to-delivery, and to gain greater visibility across your extended supply network, increase throughput, decrease inventory costs and cycle time, and achieve real gains in productivity.

Other key learning takeaways include:

• How to leverage Radio Frequency technology for a rapid payback
• How to increase accuracy and drive down inventory costs using cycle counting
• How to leverage multiple technologies to achieve the best fit for your operations and IT organization
• Which tools and techniques can help you satisfy payment approval requirements
• How to add transparency, exception handling, and effective reporting to your Accounts Payable environment
• The latest tips and tricks for managing deployments of complex architectures
• Why Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a more affordable voice picking solution and how you can use it outside the warehouse
• Why Master Planning is important for every industry
• How your company can benefit from the new developments in APO 7.0
• How to measure performance bottlenecks in SCM GATP and what to do when the business needs more, now
• Why supply chain collaboration is a strategic capability for your company
• How to gain visibility into assets, shipments, planned and unplanned events

Highlights include:

Join The Schwan Food Company to hear how the Inventory Managed and Warehouse Managed SAP Cycle Counting transactions, along with custom SAP Console transactions, have enabled them to improve inventory accuracy and reduce inventory costs, improve purchasing decisions, eliminate month-end inventory, and save time.

Learn how Intel Corporation went from a highly customized SAP solution for interfacing electronic payments to suppliers to a standard SAP solution. They will share how, while implementing on ECC 6.0 the utilization of SAP IDOC PEXR2002, they were able to facilitate a standardized solution for the interface of electronic payments to over 70 countries processing $20 billion of payments annually.

Learn how Johnson Controls is implementing an optimized purchase-to-pay solution in two Global Shared Service Centers to handle the invoice processing for more than 150 plants. Find out how they are streamlining PO and non-PO invoice and exception handling, and leveraging improved efficiencies in their approval process for faster invoice processing.

Learn how Beam Global Spirits and Wine addressed their change management issues in moving from a paper-based environment to an automated data collection system, leveraging SAP Console. They will share the business case for the implementation, anticipated and actual benefits, and where you can leverage SAP console for similar benefits.

Come hear about the innovation that Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has achieved in the voice picking arena in the warehouse. CCE has deployed the first-ever VoIP-based voice picking mobility solution, which is currently deployed in dozens of their warehouses. Learn how they eliminated redundant labor steps, improved their order fulfillment accuracy to 99.8%, and established a company-wide voice UI that enabled process automation solutions for their mobile workers, customers, and vendors.

Learn how Black & Decker’s implementation of Global Available-to-Promise (gATP) 4.1 in 2007 enabled them to reduce order cycle time and improve customer satisfaction by using product allocations, ATP checking against in-transits, back order processing (BOP), and changes to in-house SAP ERP functions to derive benefits from gATP functionality. This session highlights the details on the functionality they used and lessons learned during the project.

Learn how Cat Logistics utilizes the Inbound Monitor to improve customer service levels, decrease cycle time variations, and increase supply chain velocity. Cat Logistics will share their implementation experience, focusing on the deployment methods, benefits achieved, impact to the business, and lessons learned along the way.

Join Georgia-Pacific, LLC for an in-depth look at their innovative approach to cleansing the master data of a complex and diverse data environment. Come hear how GP was able to optimize spend through contract adherence, price managements and supplier rationalization in the pursuit of its vision to purchase goods and services at the lowest total cost of ownership.

The Green Logistics and Green Supply Chain Management roundtable discussion led by SAP, will bring SAP customers together to discuss initiatives, expectations, and ideas around Green Logistics and Green Supply Chain Management. The session includes information on how SAP solutions can already today help companies to become more efficient, streamlined, and ‘sustainable’. Customers are invited to present their ideas and then join a discussion on future direction and activities.

Other key topics addressed in this year’s program include:

• Benchmarks in High Performance Transportation Management
• Clean Master Data in a Complex and Diverse Data Environments
• Deployment Options for the SAP Solution for Service Parts Management
• Duet Demand Planning: Overview and Update from Early Adopters
• Eliminating Supply Chain Waste to Mitigate Rising Fuel Costs
• Extending the Enterprise – SAP Supply Network Collaboration in 2008
• Gaining Visibility with the Help of SAP Event Management
• Impact of Adopting Supply Chain Planning Best Practices
• Maximizing Procurement Effectiveness
• MRO Inventory Optimization – Getting Lean and Green
• Payment Approval and Control in SAP: A New Approach
• Replenishment - It’s Easier Than You Think!
• Standardizing Electronic Supplier Payments Utilizing Standard SAP
• The Benefits of eSourcing Behind the Firewall
• The Difference Inventory Accuracy Makes
• Trends in Warehouse Management
• What’s new in APO 7.0?