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Orange County Convention Center

Orlando, Florida | May 15-18, 2011

Automated CVC maintenance in APO

Demand Planning at ACH Food Companies
Steve Smythe ACH Food
Companies
Suresh Nagarajan Deloitte
Consulting, LLP

Real Experience. Real Advantage.

[Introductions

Who we are

Steve Smythe Business Analyst, ACH Food Companies

Suresh Nagarajan APO Consultant, Deloitte Consulting,
LLP

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[Company Background
ACH Foods is a mid market, manufacturer and marketer of
consumer branded products

Consumer
Cooking
Oils

Spices
seasonings
and sauces

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Baking
Enhancements

Foodservice

Alimentos
Capullo

[ Company Background (continued)

ACH operates out of four
locations in the US:
Headquarters Oakbrook, IL
Shared Services Cordova, TN
(shown)
Oil & Syrup Manufacturing Argo, IL
Spice Manufacturing Ankeny, IA

ACH also maintains sales

offices in Canada, Puerto
Rico
Utilize Third Party
Distribution Centers

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[ ACH & SAP - Project Compass

Wave 1

Finance, PTP and OTC, BI

Live June 2008

Wave 2:

ECC Core Manufacturing, Product Costing, Recipe
Management and Quality Management

APO Demand Planning and Supply network Planning

Live March 2011

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[ Learning Points

Definition of CVCs

Challenges of CVC maintenance

Custom solution to proactively maintain CVCs based on
master data in ECC.

Custom Solution to compare ECC & APO master data to
trigger realignments

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DEFINITIONS OF CVCS

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[ CVC Characteristic Value Combinations

CVCs form the base hierarchy against which all data
(history and forecasts) are recorded & managed in APO
Demand Planning

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[ CVC Characteristic Value Combinations

Characteristic:

Example APO Product, APO Location

Value:

Example APO Product = A, APO Location = X

CVC:

Example A X

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[ CVC Structure at ACH Foods

Our CVC structure is a combination of product attributes,
customer attributes and location attributes

Product
Attributes

Customer
Attributes

Product Group
Product Category
Brand type
Brand
Size
Volume / Rebate group (or)
Pack Size

Sales division
Industry (or) distribution channel
Account assignment group (or)
Country
Sales office
Sales district
Major account
Plan-to/Buy group

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Location
Attributes
Ship - from

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[ Source of CVC Data - Customer

These are the customer related attributes with example values that each one can have

ECC Customer
Master Tables

Customer
(Ship-to)

Customer
Division

Account
Assignment
Group
(Country)

1. Consumer
1. US
2. Food Service 2. Canada

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Industry Code
(Distribution
Channel)

Sales Office

Sales District

Plan-to/Buy
group

1. Retail
2. Fdsrvc

1. North East
2. South East

1. NY
2. Miami

1. Promo 1
2. Promo 2

Major Account
1. Cust group 1
2. Cust group 2

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[ Source of CVC Data - Product

These are the product related attributes with example values that each one can have

ECC Product
Master Tables

Product

Brand Type

Brand

Product Group

1. Branded
2. Unbranded

1. Mazola
2. Spice Islands

1. Oils
2. Spices

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Product
Category
1. Corn oil
2. Seasonings

Size
1. 48 Oz
2. 1 Oz

Volume / Rebate
Group
(pack size)
1. 12/48 Oz
2. 207/1 Oz

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CVC MAINTENANCE CHALLENGE

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13

[ CVC maintenance challenge?

Standard methods for maintaining CVCs:

Automatically added when shipment history with new
combination of attributes posted

Load from file

Load from existing planning object structure

Create manually one by one

CVC Maintenance Challenges

Creating new CVCs before sales occur (i.e. forecast first, ship
second)
Keeping CVCs in sync with master data in ECC
Manual creation of CVCs is labor intensive and error prone as it
does not have a mechanism to validate the combinations that
are being created by the planners.
Triggering history re-alignments

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14

[ Manual process to create CVCs

/SAPAPO/MC62

All Characteristics are keyed in manually with no validation.

We have 18 Characteristics Lots of room for error

No validation of codes for each characteristic

No validation of combinations between each characteristic

Ex. Correct Brand on a product.

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15

[ Guiding principles

Master data in ECC and APO to match

Master data in ECC to be the source

Planner will make conscious decision before updating
CVC

Planner will use discretion on if new CVC needs to be
created for new distribution

Given complexity of CVC structure, we didnt want CVCs
created from scratch. We want the system to recommend
based on inputs.

CVCs that are generated from the shipment history would
be accepted.

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16

CREATION OF NEW CVCs

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17

[ Business events that could trigger creation of new CVCs

Business Event

New Products

Activities in ECC

Activities in APO

Create the new material

with all the product
attributes in ECC Material
master

Create new CVCs and

begin manual forecasting
in demand planning

New Distribution

N/A

New customers

Create the new Customer

in the Customer master

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Create new CVCs and

begin manual forecasting
in demand planning

Create new CVCs and

begin manual forecasting
in demand planning

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[Schematic Diagram of create new product CVC logic

ECC
Material
Master data
tables

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Master data
tables

APO-DP
CVC

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Shipment
transactions

Compare , identify new

Products that are setup
in ECC and are not in
APO
Planner select key
customer attributes from
custom solution input
screen

CVC create
program

Program derives valid

combinations based on
the master data and
planner inputs in a text
file

Planners upload the text

file to create new CVCs
in APO-DP
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[Schematic Diagram of create new customer CVC logic

ECC
Customer
Master data
tables

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Master data
tables

APO-DP
CVC

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Shipment
transactions

Planner select the

product that needs to be
setup for the new
customer
Planner select key
customer attributes from
custom solution input
screen

CVC create
program

Program derives valid

combinations based on
the master data and
planner inputs in a text
file

Planners upload the text

file to create new CVCs
in APO-DP
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20

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

Can generate CVCs for new product or customer

As hierarchical fields are entered, other levels are
suggested based on validity rules/ master data setup.

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21

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

After all fields are entered you select the location to download

the file

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22

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

Executing the prior screen will display all proposed CVCs to

create
All product attributes will be pulled in from the material master

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23

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

Upon exiting a message will appear showing the name of the
file created.

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24

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

After creating the CVC report (downloaded file), you will use

/sapapo/mc62 to upload the suggested CVCs.

Use Create Characteristic Combination option

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25

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

Select to Load to Worklist
Select Load data from File
Enter location of the downloaded file from previous step

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26

[ Custom solution to create CVCs at ACH

Uploaded file is copied into the table to generate CVCs

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27

PROPOSE CVC REALIGNMENTS

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28

[Business events that could trigger Maintenance of existing CVCs

Business Event
Change any one of
the material master
attributes
(Brand
Brand Type
Product group
Product cat
Size
Volume rebate grp)

Change any one of

the customer
master attributes
(Sales district
Sales office)

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Activities in ECC

Complete the changes to

the material master

Complete the changes to

the customer master

Activities in APO

Perform CVC realignment

in demand planning and
begin forecasting in the
changed product hierarchy

Perform CVC realignment

in demand planning and
begin forecasting in the
changed customer
hierarchy

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[Schematic Diagram of change CVC program Logic

ECC
Master data
tables

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Master data
tables

APO-DP
CVC

Compare product
attributes in CVC to
product attributes in
product master
Compare customer
attributes in CVC to
customer attributes in
customer master

Nightly
refresh

APO-BI
Shipment
transactions

Proposed
Realignment
report
program

Generate proposed
realignment report for
exceptions where there
is a product & customer
master data mismatch
Planners download the
exception report and use
it in DP realignment
transaction
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30

[ Custom

Recommended Re-Alignment Report

This report will compare master data in APO-BI with master data
in APO-DP and highlight the discrepancies
Discrepancies will either trigger master data correction or a
realignment in APO-DP
This is a report that should be run regularly to identify master
data issues.

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31

[ Custom Recommended Re-Alignment Report

When run on Product Attributes, the report will highlight any
products where the attributes in ECC do not match the attributes
in APO for that same product.
Ex. On 2001573 below, the product category is 0116 in APO and
0101 in ECC. This is most likely created because of a change in
master data in ECC. This will trigger a realignment.

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32

[ Custom Recommended Re-Alignment Report

When run on Customer Attributes, the report will highlight any
customers where the attributes in ECC do not match the attributes
in APO for that same product.
Ex. On customer number 1400555 below, the Planto in APO is
ZZZ and the planto in ECC is blank. This will require the master
data team to update this shipto with the correct planto.

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33

Key Learnings

Definition of CVCs

Challenges of CVC maintenance

Custom solution to proactively maintain CVCs based on
master data in ECC.

Custom Solution to compare ECC & APO master data to
trigger realignments

Real Experience. Real Advantage.

34

Thank you for participating.

Please remember to complete and return your
evaluation form following this session.
For ongoing education in this area of focus, visit
www.asug.com.
SESSION CODE:
1108

Real Experience. Real Advantage.

Speakers:
Steve Smythe & Suresh Nagarajan