SAP LIS is Misunderstood
Use LIS? Feel like it has all the answers? Want more? Faster? LIS was intended to provide detailed reporting when necessary and high level reports easily for a variety of areas. It can deliver KPIs, sales status, and even sales forecasting. Here is a challenge: ask your LIS coordinator to adjust a report or create a new report and see how fast it happens. The power of LIS is misunderstood, but so is the complexity.
Business Objects
Extra data? Not really. Maybe in the wrong place. It isn’t wrong, it just isn’t optimal. Most businesses have multiple reporting data paths such as Business Objects, LIS, GUI reports… This usually stems from lots of energy being put into one, but fading as someone leaves, or workload increases, or preferences dictate a change to another path. Oftentimes, those data paths remain in place and simply remain unused. Sometimes this stems simply from a lack of flexibility. If it really delivered what was needed, it would be really popular.
SAP to Power BI
Ever use Power BI? Ever change Power BI reports? Power BI was designed to be flexible and fast. What types of changes might be necessary? You might want detailed reporting by plant – which can be done via drop down. Drop down or slider not present? Add it, easy. What if you need other data, like joining inventory into sales reporting? Why would this be necessary? If you had sales order status but could add inventory so you knew if you had all orders covered, or had partial shortages, it would simplify allocation situations.
Inventory Excesses and Shortages
Got inventory data? Is it valuable? Inventory data is useless without context. The context is what helps everyone understand excess inventory versus inventory shortages. Simplement delivers easy inventory data, but we also deliver information about inventory status. You and your staff need to know if it is excess or if it is a shortage without a lot of work. Our primary goal at Simplement is keeping things simple. This means you can easily see inventory related to demand as well as recent sales so you can understand days supply on hand (DSO) for any and all inventory.
MRP Controller Metrics
But what about metrics? Metrics are easy. With Simplement, we can help you understand the performance and status of each MRP controller assignment by planner or buyer. The result is that they can self monitor their materials and take control because each person will see priorities and issues rather than need to wait or find out from someone else. This is the ideal situation – where information creates ownership. And pride. Imagine your staff being proactive and engaged rather than waiting for your directions. Each person can have their own control center to make their own decisions with real time, valuable information.
MRP Dashboard
We’re working on it. Almost done. MRP data in days with Simplement. We deliver any and all SAP data including cluster tables like MDTC which contains MRP data. MD05 or MD06 are the tcodes commonly used to review MRP messages and data. Have you ever used these? It is worth checking because this is the primary solution, as designed by SAP, for managing and maintaining planning needs and changes. But if you notice, it is not easy to get an overall sense for the status of MRP issues from a high level.
Simplement offers an MRP dashboard, which includes MRP status information at any level, for any plant, any MRP controller… The dashboard also has information on material assignments, master data issues, inventory issues, and notifications for complex planning issues. All information is split out by tab for easy review.
If you would like to discuss any of this or any of your own difficulties with reporting SAP data, please reach out to us and ask for Christopher Grancher
