461–470 of 622 posts
SAP implementation basically sunk Target's huge investment into operations in Canada https://www.canadianbusiness.com/the-last-days-of-target-can... Seems to me SAP is ripe for disruption, but it would be a very challenging throne to unseat.
I worked one summer (2014) manufacturing emergency stop buttons for ABB. We used SAP for our incoming orders. Each order was printed on paper as some kind of report from SAP and put in our physical inbox. When we had manufactured buttons for an order, we would go to a desk with two computers, both logged in to SAP. With the first computer we would scan a barcode from the order to find it in the system, mark the order…
What did you do with the paper you used between the two computers? Did you toss it or was it filed somewhere? If it was filed, my guess was that it was an internal control measure. They wanted to make sure there was a paper copy of every transaction for audit purposes, and what better way to make sure of that then requiring the paper to move the order forward? If you tossed it, then it sounds like they were just too…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a third option - customize the ERP to conform to your existing processes. The last place I worked chose that option, they were a medical device company and didn't want to change their processes. Of course it made a huge amount of extra work, much of which was done by expensive contractors.
That option is a long thick gray line. Every ERP will be "customized". It has to be - provide your own chartfields, business units, workflows, decision points, etc. It's the amount of the customization that makes the difference. I've been on ERP implementation projects that were 28 days long, and 5 years long. I am the "expensive contractor", and I have never ever in 20 years met another expensive contractor who did…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>changing the business to fit SAP is preferable to changing SAP to fit the business. And it's accurate advice. It shouldn't be, but it is. This is a common misunderstanding. Many people miss the underlying philosophy of SAP software. The reason SAP encourages businesses to adopt SAP's way of doing things is that they did research into the optimal way of doing the common business processes that don't differentiate you…
Does SAP include the optimal business process for software engineering? What is it?
It sounds like HN readers could stand to spend a little time studying microeconomics. I would love to see a Valley solution to the problem of sourcing raw materials including energy, storing raw materials, sourcing packaging, storing packaging, sourcing machine parts, storing machine parts, keeping track of vendors, machine maintenance labor, machine maintenance scheduling, cost accounting for the inputs, manufacturi…
The answer is pretty simple actually. You make a couple of billions a year. Invest a single billion in a full UX revamp for 5 years down the line, and see how it all works out.
Throwing money at problems doesn't always work, but when you have a lot of money, and a very specific problem, it tends to work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, Its really super strange to adopt Google, Microsoft, Apple processes.. Yes?
If you want to be better than them, then I'd say Yes.
I searched on Google, "What is SAP?" Here are the top three links as of today:
1) https://www.sap.com 2) https://www.guru99.com/what-is-sap-definition-of-sap-erp-sof... 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_ERP
What do you notice among the top three links? All of them are mostly talking from business-speak perspective. For a software engineer learning about SAP for the first time, all I want to know is what does SAP literally do? The top three links do not have screenshots of the software, do not simply explain the technical capabilities of SAP, and do not explain how SAP differs from competing products.
Although I never interact with SAP daily, I have always been curious about what it does, but did not want to waste a lot of time on Google searching for a real explanation. Hence, to have a section like "What ERP software actually looks like" in the parent link fulfills a certain desire to know SAP that I have had in the back of my mind.
To some extent, I can blame laziness on my part—in that I have not researched enough about SAP, but why should it be this hard for a software engineer to learn about another piece of software? This is why sometimes, it is better to have a neutral party (non-SAP affiliated) to explain a product, rather than SAP itself.
I was an ABAP developer around 10 years ago, wrote a bunch of Planning & Scheduling apps/"screens" running in SAPGUI R/3 and APO for a (brand new) manufacturing plant with a new SAP implementation. I learned ABAP in a literally one weekend and was able to make stuff really quickly. For the most part, you could just "loop at " extract what you want and show it on a screen using one of their existing ui components. The…
For someone with a web development freelancing background wanting to get into enterprise software, would you recommend going into SAP? Would Salesforce be a better path? Which one is better for a freelancer working from home (if any)? Feel free to share any other thoughts on the matter
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I integrate into SAP for manufacturing and the users can certainly do every transaction they need to do to account for cost and shipping product and keep finance / supply chain happy. But yes, to actually plan and run their manufacturing area, that's where the software I write comes in... as well as a ton of spreadsheets :)
As lng as the data in these spreadsheets goes back into SAP. If it doesnt' you can kill SAPs MRP. I saw that happen. Which is then kind of hell's hell. And then the spreadsheet-users complain about SAP.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What did you do with the paper you used between the two computers? Did you toss it or was it filed somewhere? If it was filed, my guess was that it was an internal control measure. They wanted to make sure there was a paper copy of every transaction for audit purposes, and what better way to make sure of that then requiring the paper to move the order forward? If you tossed it, then it sounds like they were just too…
We had a giant garbage bin beside the table, everything was tossed.