SAP Adaptive Supply Chain Networks: Smarter, More Responsive
SAP Becomes First Solution Provider to Integrate Radio Frequency Identification and Agent Technologies into Supply Chain Management Solution
biz.yahoo.com
ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2002-- SAP AG (NYSE:SAP - News) today announced that it continues to deliver on its vision of adaptive networks by extending supply chains well beyond their traditional boundaries, marking the first time a solution provider has successfully integrated both agent technology and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® '02, SAP's international e-business conference being held in Orlando, Fla., June 5-7.
By incorporating adaptive agent and RFID technologies into mySAP(TM) Supply Chain Management (SCM), companies will achieve an increased level of visibility into their customer and supplier network, by immediately locating necessary information. This will dramatically enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of all processes along the entire supply chain by enabling a totally new way of real-time decision making.
This announcement further reinforces SAP's vision of adaptive supply chain networks, which was originally announced at SAPPHIRE® '01. By replacing rigid linear supply chains with adaptive supply chain networks, enterprises will be able to continuously gather demand and supply signals from across the supply chain network and integrate that data into a cohesive environment. In doing so, network partners can intelligently cooperate to keep demand and supply closely aligned and better coordinate the fulfillment process, allowing each one to respond quickly to changes and more effectively manage cross-company supply chain processes.
At SAPPHIRE, SAP will demonstrate a prototype of the world's first adaptive replenishment system for consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and retail companies. Though the development of a prototype is significant, the real success of RFID-agent technologies will come in their wide adoption by retail and consumer packaged goods companies. SAP is an active member of the Auto-ID Center, a consortium of leading corporations founded to create open industry standards and foster the development of innovative smart object technologies.
In April in Barcelona, SAP, Intel, and METRO AG, one of the world's leading retail groups, announced a strategic cooperation whose objective it is to develop future-oriented technologies for retailing. Expectations are placed particularly in transponder technology that can be used in future distribution concepts for automatic product identification from the manufacturing process via transportation and warehousing logistics all the way to the store.
"We are fully behind SAP's move under the Auto-ID Center initiative to develop RFID and agent technologies built on open standards that will enhance supply chain efficiency and responsiveness," stated Larry Kellam, director, Business-to-Business Supply Chain Innovation for Procter & Gamble. "It is the resulting standards-based applications that will lead to unprecedented value. We consider RFID and agent technologies as a key to our supply chain vision, helping us to lower costs and deliver value for our customers."
As companies increasingly transition manufacturing and service functions to third parties, they need supply chain solutions that allow them to capture occurrences across the entire network in real time. The level of visibility will lead to dramatic reductions in costs, enabling companies to best align supply and demand and allowing them to focus on their core business. To enable such high levels of visibility, SAP continues to leverage its partnership with BiosGroup, one of the world's leading developers of agent technology.
"It is our goal to create adaptive agent technology that will help customers create more efficient supply networks," said Stuart Kaufmann, chief scientific officer and co-founder of BiosGroup. "Without the ability to distill relevant information, systems and users could easily be overwhelmed with massive amounts of unstructured data. Therefore, agents need to be able to effectively activate alerts and intelligently distribute information to business applications only when the data translates into relevant conditions, like a potential inventory shortage in the future or a critical shipment whose delay could lead to a production shortfall or out-of-stock condition."
Agent technology is necessary to fully leverage the benefits of the RFID-enabled supply chain. Adaptive agents are small software packages that analyze the information being collected and intelligently route it across the planning and execution network. They are easily customizable and can function efficiently in a distributed environment.
Electronic tags based on RFID technology are enabling objects, including consumer products, shelves, and shopping baskets, to know dynamic information about themselves. In contrast to bar code systems, RFID allows for the unique identification of every physical object. Information regarding each object, including manufacture data, storage places, transit times, price, costs, shelf life, and even post-purchase warranty information can be added or updated throughout the supply chain process. By getting "smart objects" connected to the supply network, shelves become able to automate in-store logistics as well as activate the larger supply network by triggering replenishment requests.
"Today's supply chain management tools share a fundamental flaw of assuming rather than knowing where things are," said Claus Heinrich, member of the Executive Board at SAP. "RFID technology in combination with adaptive agents will help us to bridge the gap between the physical world and the digital world to create what we call real-time, real-world aware supply networks that are smarter, more responsive, and more adaptive. We believe that the use of this dynamic information for better real-time decision making across enterprise boundaries will become a significant source of competitive advantage by allowing companies to constantly adapt based on real world conditions." |
