ERP Real Life experience for supply chain management

1. When I was sitting where you are now—lecture halls, case studies, PowerPoint slides—I thought technology in supply chain was one thing: big systems that magically fix everything.
   Fast forward a few years. I’m now working in supply chain management, and my company has fully implemented SAP across procurement, inventory, production planning, and logistics.
   Let me tell you what I love, what I don’t, and what no one clearly explained to me back in college.
   

Day One With SAP: “Wow… This Is Serious”

The first thing SAP teaches you is discipline.
Suddenly:
Every purchase order must follow a process
Every inventory movement is logged
Every approval has a workflow
Every mistake leaves a trace
From a management perspective, this is powerful. SAP forces structure where chaos used to live.

What I Like About ERP Systems Like SAP

1. One Source of Truth
Before SAP, different departments had different numbers. Procurement had one Excel file, warehouse had another, finance had a third.
Now? One system. One version of the truth.

2. Control and Compliance
As a manager, SAP gives you visibility and control:

Who approved what

When materials moved

Where delays happened


This is critical for audits, financial accuracy, and operational stability.

3. Process Standardization
ERP systems are great at answering:

> “How should things be done?”



They define the backbone of the supply chain.


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But Here’s the Part No One Warned Me About

After the excitement faded, reality kicked in.

What I Don’t Like (And You Should Know This)

1. SAP Tells You What Happened — Not What Will Happen
ERP systems are excellent historians.
They record transactions perfectly.

But when I ask:

“What will demand look like next month?”

“Which supplier is likely to fail?”

“How much safety stock is actually optimal?”


SAP alone struggles to answer that.

2. Heavy, Rigid, and Slow to Change
Any small change requires:

Configuration

Testing

Approval

Time


ERP systems are built for stability, not speed.

3. Humans Still Make the Decisions
SAP shows reports.
Managers still interpret them—often based on experience, gut feeling, or pressure.

And that’s where things break.


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The Moment I Understood the Difference: ERP vs ML Applications

This is the part I wish someone explained to me in college.

ERP (Like SAP) Answers:

What did we order?

What do we have in stock?

What was delivered late?

What is the current cost?


ERP is transactional and operational.


---

Machine Learning Applications Answer:

What will customers order?

When should we reorder?

Which supplier is becoming risky?

How can we reduce inventory without hurting service?


ML tools are predictive and prescriptive.

They don’t just show data. They learn from it.


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Where ML Consulting Companies Come In

ML consulting companies don’t replace SAP. They sit on top of it.

Think of it like this:

SAP is the nervous system

ML applications are the brain


ML consultants:

Pull historical data from ERP systems

Clean and analyze it

Build forecasting, optimization, and risk models

Feed insights back to decision-makers


Instead of asking:

> “What happened last quarter?”



You start asking:

> “What’s the best decision right now?”




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A Real Example From My Work

Before ML tools:

We reordered based on fixed rules

Safety stock was static

Overstock and stockouts happened together (yes, both)


After ML-driven demand forecasting:

Reorder points adjusted dynamically

Inventory dropped without hurting service

Decisions became data-backed, not opinion-based


SAP executed the orders. ML told us what orders made sense.

That’s the difference.


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What I Want You, as College Students, to Understand

Here’s the honest takeaway:

ERP systems will always be foundational

They keep the supply chain running

But they won’t make it smart on their own


The future supply chain professional:

Understands ERP processes

Speaks the language of data

Knows how ML augments—not replaces—core systems


If you only know SAP, you’ll be operational. If you understand how ML works with SAP, you’ll be strategic.


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Final Advice From Someone Already Inside

Don’t think in terms of:

> “ERP vs AI”



Think:

> “ERP plus AI”



Learn processes. Learn systems. But also learn how decisions should be made when data, not guesswork, leads the way.

That’s where real supply chain leadership lives.