At Argon Consulting, we are aware that the durable achievement of the goals of the supply chain requires that information systems and target processes are aligned.

Software publishers have developed APS (Advanced Planning System) offers that can be interfaced with the company’s transactional tools and are capable of making simulations with constraints (of pex capacity) of the decision-making processes, and of taking decisions according to operational and financial criteria.

Feedback from the projects that we have managed in recent years has confirmed our conviction that it is preferable, on this type of highly business-oriented project, to separate the management (definition of target processes, selection of solutions, change management) from the integration (settings and interface) of the solutions.

In our opinion, this separation is all the more necessary, because:

• the overhaul of processes further to supply chain projects requires the teams to intervene at a very early stage, right from the diagnostic, in order to make sure that projects are acceptable,
• the durable achievement of the goals often involves the revision of supply chain governance in the company and the overhaul, at least partial, of the roles and responsibilities between production / supply chain / sales and marketing.

Argon Consulting helps its customers in:

• the auditing, diagnostic and positioning of current practices according to the maturity matrices,
• the identification of the challenges related to existing malfunctions and the estimate of the cost of overhauling the organizations and tools (business case),
• the revision of processes so that they are adapted to the specifics of the company and apply best practices,
• the clarification of the target organization in terms of skills and size, organization and roles and responsibilities,
• the implementation of alerts, KPIs and scorecards,
• the definition of architectural scenarios that incorporate different options (APS modules vs. simpler or dedicated modules, use of modules from the existing ERP, etc.),
• where appropriate, the selection and possible implementation of APS tools (authoring of the specifications, management of calls for tender, deployment strategy, implementation assistance, project management and risk management, etc.) or dedicated tools,
• the change management plan (changes in culture, behaviors and skills, training, communication, etc.).

Argon Consulting has a strong understanding and command of the available tools: SAP APO, JDA / Manugistics /  i2, Dynasys, TXT, Futurmaster, Préactor, Ortems, etc.