Product Description

This book describes and demonstrates how SAP^® APO can be used to tackle real optimization problems arising in industry. In a unique combination it deals with the aspects of model-building as well as with the implementation in commercial supply chain management software, SAP APO being a typical example of an advanced planning system (APS).

The authors address readers involved in optimization projects in which SAP and, particularly, SAP APO are implemented in companies. These are the project designers, projects leaders, the IT personnel inside the companies, but also operations research practitioners, supply chain management consultants, and decision makers in the area of tool selection for optimization tasks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1037492 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 321 pages

Review

From the reviews:

"‘SAP APO’ stands for ‘SAP Advanced Planning and Optimizer.’ … I recommend this book for personnel in corporations and governmental entities contemplating improving supply chain operations with SAP software. The book may also be of more general interest to operations researchers and mathematical optimization professionals, especially those interested in mixed integer linear programs, those wanting to keep their academic activities relevant to real-world concerns, and those wishing to gain experience in commercial applications." (R. Baker Kearfott, SIAM Review, Vol. 49 (2), 2007)

Customer Reviews

Good overview of SNP Optimizer
Good overview of SNP Optimizer. Does not get into details, but does show explain how optimizer works. Good examples of implementations for clients in various industries. Strictly concerned with SNP Optimizer. Good reference material but would not use on an on-going basis.

Nice Overview, Not a Manual
This is a good overview of the SNP Optimizer and other modules in APO. It also goes into other optimization models (outside SAP), and has valuable examples of these in industries where optimization modeling long preceded SAP and SAP APO like the chemical and petroleum industries. Walking through the decisions of how these clients decided to either convert their models to an SNP implementation or use the external model as a bolt-on (the authors and SAP people prefer the term "plug-in") was enlightening.

This book will save you some grief in the decision-making process up-front, but it is not a how-to manual. At the time of writing the authors did not know of many live implementations of the SNP optimizer. The focus is on pre-implementation decisions and implementation. There is a lot of talk about what in SNP is technically possible, but not advised and could yield an impractical implementation. The book provides a good perspective for experienced practitioners of optimization modeling.