Get more out of your supply chain: how to improve the backorder process thanks to AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a kind of magic word. Everyone is talking about it and every organisation thinks they should be using it as soon as possible. But how do you do that and how do you use AI to get more out of your organisation? We will explain that in this blog. We will focus on your supply chain. We will show you how AI can help you optimise your backorder process.

There your container is, at the bottom of the Maas. A container ship did not quite fit under the Willemsbrug and the containers on the deck crashed into the bridge. As a result of this collision, a handful of containers slid off the deck and into the water. They could just as easily be the containers containing the materials you desperately need for your production process. Or with the end products your customers are waiting for.

Balancing on a thin rope

A supply chain is like a thin rope. If everything goes well and you remain perfectly balanced, you can walk quickly and efficiently to the end. Nothing to worry about. But your supply chain is rarely smooth sailing and in practice it often happens that the rope breaks. This can happen for any number of reasons: from a pandemic to political unrest and from staffing problems to containers sliding into the Maas. All of this causes delays in your production process and your customers have to wait longer.

There is nothing you can do about your container of goods suddenly ending up in the Maas. Nor can you change it. What you can do, however, is handle it as best you can. For example, by communicating as quickly and transparently as possible with everyone involved. Of course, customers are never happy with delays. But if you communicate this delay in a timely and complete manner, and offer ready-made alternatives where possible, you can ease the pain. This way, you continue to build a sustainable, reliable customer relationship.

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How does AI help?

In order to inform your customers in a timely and complete manner, it is important to continuously monitor and manage your supply chain. You already have tools for this, but they require manual operations. You have to open the tooling yourself and manually take follow-up steps. And that is exactly where AI comes in handy. With AI, you get automated control over your entire chain. This prevents time-consuming and error-prone manual work.

Thinking in terms of solutions

Suppose your container of materials arrives at your warehouse two weeks later than planned. As soon as this delay is known, the AI of SAP (SAP Integrated Business Planning and/or SAP Business Technology Platform) will get to work for you. The system will indicate which deliveries will be affected and which customers you should inform. But also: what alternatives there are for those same customers. Because perhaps product A is not in stock in time, but product B is. And even though your customer ordered product A, alternative B could make them just as happy. AI does not just look at problems, but also immediately thinks in terms of solutions.

The communication of issues in the supply chain is also in good hands with AI. Because if there is a problem, this information must reach the right people. SAP’s AI generates tasks for your employees and sends them to them. This way, your employees are always immediately aware of challenges and possible solutions. Do you want to inform your customer immediately and automatically? That is also possible. AI creates an email for you that contains not only all the necessary information, but also the tone of voice that suits the specific customer or contact person.

Configuration is the key

SAP’s AI helps your organisation to work in a more customer-friendly and productive way. You get more out of your staff because they spend less time on manual tasks. What’s more, AI helps you manage your stock more efficiently. This not only saves you money, but also allows your organisation to work more sustainably. And the great thing is that this AI is already available in SAP. That makes it relatively cheap to use. It’s already there. You don’t need to develop new apps or extensions (or have them developed).

The AI in SAP must, of course, be configured to your needs. AI can only do what you want if it knows what you want. This requires careful configuration. This configuration is indispensable if you want to truly reap the benefits of your new technological colleague. The specialists at Ctac will be happy to help you with this. Would you like to know more about the possibilities for your organisation? Please contact us.