Monitoring Open Order Backlog in SAP R/3
Viitanen, Petri (2012)
Viitanen, Petri
Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
2012
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012120518430
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012120518430
Tiivistelmä
The thesis is intended to justify the use of SAP transaction MD4C (Multilevel Order Report) over the previous practice of manual monitoring open order backlog. The thesis is also aiming to improve the current process of monitoring open and delayed order backlog by coming up and providing improvements and development ideas to MD4C.
As open order follow-up and order backlog monitoring both belong to the main daily tasks of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) at Distribution Center Europe (DCE), it is extremely important to find ways to work with the best available tools, options and practices in such way that it takes as little effort and time as possible.
All these aim at improving the effectiveness of CSRs office hours, improve customer loyalty through keeping promises and enable CSRs to timely inform customers about possible delays in advance. One of the reasons behind this thesis is also to make the supply chain more transparent for CSRs, thus removing the need to contact purchasers as much as before, by empowering CSRs with a clear and simple tool for checking the statuses of orders. Before MD4C, the CSRs mostly relied only on receiving a notice from purchasers about upcoming delays.
The earlier the possible delays are spotted by the CSRs, the easier they are to avoid by asking purchasers to contact suppliers and ask for better lead time and in time deliveries. As purchasers use different tools to follow-up their own purchase orders, there might be cases where something is left unnoticed. Thus it’s important for CSRs to be able to spot possible errors and inform about these in advance.
As open order follow-up and order backlog monitoring both belong to the main daily tasks of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) at Distribution Center Europe (DCE), it is extremely important to find ways to work with the best available tools, options and practices in such way that it takes as little effort and time as possible.
All these aim at improving the effectiveness of CSRs office hours, improve customer loyalty through keeping promises and enable CSRs to timely inform customers about possible delays in advance. One of the reasons behind this thesis is also to make the supply chain more transparent for CSRs, thus removing the need to contact purchasers as much as before, by empowering CSRs with a clear and simple tool for checking the statuses of orders. Before MD4C, the CSRs mostly relied only on receiving a notice from purchasers about upcoming delays.
The earlier the possible delays are spotted by the CSRs, the easier they are to avoid by asking purchasers to contact suppliers and ask for better lead time and in time deliveries. As purchasers use different tools to follow-up their own purchase orders, there might be cases where something is left unnoticed. Thus it’s important for CSRs to be able to spot possible errors and inform about these in advance.