Intense competition, higher customer and shareholder expectations, and geographically dispersed business units are amplifying market pressures on businesses to achieve operational excellence. According to a 2008 Economist Intelligence Unit survey, sponsored by SAP, senior executives rank end-to-end visibility into operations as the top requirement for achieving operational excellence.

In many enterprises, operational silos that evolved organically with organisational growth represent the core challenge preventing manufacturing and services businesses from having a holistic view into their operations.

Successful businesses achieve operational excellence by creating a dynamic, operationally driven architecture that goes beyond delivering functional efficiency to seamlessly link business processes together. As a result, complete transparency across the entire operational chain is enabled. The benefits are multi-dimensional and include increased customer-service levels, decreased costs, predictable compliance, and superior overall operational performance.

Solutions from SAP and our partners can help you unify all operations to achieve operational excellence. By linking key operations together, you can have real-time visibility into your business, execute with high-efficiency across all units and geographies, and ensure continuous improvement – all fundamental contributions to transforming your operations into a strategic competitive advantage.

PROVEN RESULTS

By achieving operational excellence, a leading petrochemical company was able to vault into a top ten industry position – just three years after it was founded. This world-class company enhanced its competitiveness and realised extraordinary bottom-line results, including the elimination of more than $7 million direct operating costs within a few months

HOW DO I...?

• Run efficient manufacturing operations to reduce manufacturing costs and meet customer requirements, as well as quality and safety standards
• Integrate sourcing and procurement to generate sustainable cost savings, reduce operating costs, and ensure compliance with contracts and policies
• Deliver efficient after-sales services to enable superior operations for profitable growth