IBM ILOG ERP/SCM Application Integration

IBM ILOG has many years experience building planning and scheduling applications that integrate with the leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) applications. Whether you use ERP alone or ERP in conjunction with one or more SCM applications, IBM can import the data needed to build plans and schedules that improve your profitability and customer service. Once optimized, these plans and schedules can be returned to the appropriate system of record for execution.

IBM planning and scheduling solutions read master and transactional data directly from your systems of record and create the planning and scheduling scenarios that the optimization engines solve. At any time, planners or operations personnel can commit the improved plans or schedules back to the system of record. And when customer demand, raw material, resource availability, scheduled shipments or other critical inputs change in your system of record, you can refresh the input data to ensure that the plan or schedule being developed is based on the latest information.

The required master data might involve available equipment and lines, recipes, trucks, distribution centers or shipping lanes. Transactional data used might include inventory positions, customer demand, production orders or shipments to be delivered.

The IBM ILOG Professional Services team has established best practices and predefined connectors for SAP and Oracle integration, helping to reduce project risks and integration costs in many planning and scheduling projects. However, IBM ILOG's product architecture allows integration of IBM optimization-based solutions with any system. As a result, even companies with heterogeneous application environments where, for example, different plants that use different versions of an ERP application or even entirely different applications, can still standardize on a best-of-breed analytic solution.

• One of the top food and beverage firms in the world is using IBM ILOG Plant PowerOps to extend SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) for fresh dairy production planning and scheduling. SAP PP/DS is the system of record for all data, with any data change automatically made available to the application. Planners access the IBM planning and scheduling application from the SAP environment, rather than exiting out of the SAP environment. As a result it is easy for a planner to work on production order management issues in SAP while working on planning and scheduling in the IBM environment.

• Strategic planning in the automotive industry, integrating a custom optimization solution to SAP APO and SAP Business Warehouse (BW).

• Synchronized production planning and truck loading in a major beverage company, integrating a custom truck loading application with SAP ERP and APO demand planning. Over 150 trucks and rail cars per day get two-thirds of their loads directly from the packaging lines, reducing the need for finished goods inventory at the plant while increasing vehicle utilization and customer service.

• Production order sequencing in a leading chemical company, integrating a custom optimization solution to SAP APO.