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Archive for the ‘SAP’ Category

The Reality of Automotive Service Parts

Posted in Basic Supply Chain Concepts, SAP, tagged , , , on May 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »

New Information
In a previous post we wrote about the inefficiency of automotive service parts networks.
http://spplan.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/auto-service-part-networks-are-a-mess/
The line of reasoning of the article was that manufacturers were unnecessarily outsourcing the management of service parts too low in the supply chain – at the dealer level and the auto service parts could be greatly improved in their management [...]

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Why Service Parts are Good for the Environment

Posted in Basic Supply Chain Concepts, SAP, tagged , , on May 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Where Are Service Parts in the Environmental Discussion?

Not sufficiently discussed is why service parts effectiveness is good for the environment. The same family that dutifully recycles, may also be the same family that trades in a car after 3 years for a newer model. Many electronics items are designed never to be serviced, or [...]

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Automotive Dealers Mostly Useless

Posted in SAP, tagged , on May 19, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Money for Nothing
The degree to which dealers are “taking it easy” is evident in the latest Consumer Reports survey where despite the overwhelming advantages of being part of a dealer network, dealers on average provide a customer experience that is 7% lower than that of independent maintenance shops. However it gets a lot worse when [...]

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Target Stocking Level

Posted in Basic Supply Chain Concepts, MCA, SAP, tagged , on May 18, 2009 | 2 Comments »

What is a Target Stocking Level?
The first time we heard of Target Stocking Level was on an MCA project. This is the actual output of the Strategy module of MCA SPO. We have listed a short definition from MCA’s SPO Glossary.

“TSL is the quantity available to meet demand within the lead time and thus becomes [...]

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Why Auto Service Part Networks Are a Mess

Posted in Enigma, Inventory Optimization, MCA, SAP, SPP, Service Parts Planning Basics, tagged , , , , , on May 16, 2009 | 7 Comments »

Big Problems in Automotive Service Networks

In our previous post we discussed the problems with how automotive service parts websites are dominated by dealers. We also discussed how this is completely inefficient and why these web sites should be centralized and either managed by the manufacturer, or simply outsourced. http://spplan.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/auto-service-parts-websites-a-problem/

However, after further research it turns out [...]

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APICS is Selling an Illusion

Posted in SAP, Uncategorized, tagged , on May 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »

APICS is Selling an Illusion
There are people that have a distaste for reality. In fact most of us prefer how we wish it were over how it is. However, once a person or institution beings to state that their fantasy equals reality that is when the problems begin.

APICS

APICS was founded in 1957 and has over [...]

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Auto Service Parts Websites a Problem

Posted in Basic Supply Chain Concepts, SAP, Service Parts Database, tagged , , , , , on May 14, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Caught in a Time Warp

It is always amazing to come upon a technology that is so amazingly underutilized. This would be the case for service parts online databases.

The Story

We needed a door handle assembly part for a 1997 Honda Accord. First we started with eBay, which really had a pretty small inventory. We could only [...]

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Service Based Hosted ERP and and Amazon.com

Posted in Reference, SAP, tagged , , on May 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Web Enabled ERP
Is it necessary for every company to install its own SAP or other ERP software? We are beginning to wonder. Online applications for personal productivity is getting us thinking if the collaborative needs of supply chain make these internally focused software implementations obsolete. Why have your own ERP, when you can have a [...]

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Is SAP PLM for Real?

Posted in PLM, SAP, SPP, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 21, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Pushing SAP PLM
For some time SAP has been promoting its product lifecycle management (PLM) solution. We should say at the outset that we don’t find the term PLM very useful. Yes there are lifecycle implications to the software, however this category of software could more accurately be described as bill of material management software. However, [...]

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Who is Tops in Service Parts Management?

Posted in SAP, SPP, tagged , , , on April 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Internet Searching for Parts Excellence
Lets start off by discussing what we originally intended to do in this post. We thought we would do some Internet research and easily find some of the best service parts management companies and describe what they were doing that set them apart. However, because of the lack of data we [...]

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