SAP Supply Chain Prioritization: Improve Business Results Using SAP

Have you ever felt overwhelmed trying to determine what really needs to change to improve business results?

In our work with organizations across industries and geographies, one truth consistently emerges: supply chain challenges are universal. Volatility, rising costs, service pressure, and working capital constraints are not isolated problems. They are systemic.

If you are reading this, your organization likely runs on SAP. But here is the more important question: Are you using SAP to actually run the business or just to record what already happened?

The Discipline That Unlocks Results: Working in the System

To perform meaningful analysis in SAP, there is one non-negotiable requirement: you must work in the system.

That means:

Master data aligned to real business processes
Transactional data kept current and accurate
SAP treated as the single system of truth

Modern SAP environments are designed for this. With S/4HANA’s real-time data model, embedded analytics, and intuitive user experience, business users no longer need to export data to spreadsheets to understand what is happening. The insights are already there, available in context, and updated instantly.

For organizations still working outside the system, this shift requires commitment. It demands leadership alignment, education, and a willingness to change habits. But the payoff is real. In our experience, most organizations can transition to working fully in SAP within three to six months when the effort is intentional and supported.

And when they do, the impact is immediate: better decisions, faster execution, and measurable improvements in inventory, service, and working capital.

Data Is Only Powerful When You Use It

SAP is not short on data. What many organizations lack is the discipline to trust it and act on it.

Standard SAP transactions, embedded analytics, and planning tools are not optional extras. They are the foundation for prioritizing supply chain challenges and improving business results. When teams rely on spreadsheets and side systems, they fragment decision-making and obscure accountability. When they work in SAP, priorities become visible, trade-offs become clear, and action becomes aligned.

What to Remember

If you take nothing else away, remember this:

Work in SAP as it was designed
Treat data as a strategic asset
Use SAP as your system of truth
Leverage standard transactions and analytics
Focus first on the highest-impact areas

You do not need new software to improve supply chain performance. You need to fully activate the SAP capabilities you already own.

When you prioritize correctly, SAP stops being a reporting system and becomes what it was always meant to be: a performance engine for the business.

Many organizations underestimate what they already have. SAP S/4HANA, paired with modern capabilities like embedded analytics, real-time MRP, and role-based Fiori apps, gives leaders immediate access to the insights needed to prioritize action and improve performance. The challenge is not a lack of tools. It is knowing where to start and trusting the system enough to act on what it shows you.

Start with What Matters Most: Inventory Value and Impact

One of the simplest and most effective ways to prioritize supply chain action is to focus on inventory value. Standard SAP capabilities allow you to analyze materials by inventory dollars and automatically sort them from highest to lowest impact.

Why does this matter?

Because every dollar tied up in inventory is a dollar that cannot be used elsewhere in the business. Inventory is essential, but excess inventory is a silent drain on cash flow, margin, and flexibility. Too often, companies carry high inventory levels and still experience stockouts of critical components. The result is expediting, premium freight, and missed customer commitments.

SAP already provides the visibility to answer the most important questions:

Do you have the right materials?
In the right locations?
At the right time?
In the right quantities?

The issue is not access to data. It is prioritization.

From Overwhelm to Focus: Applying the 80/20 Rule in SAP

A common objection we hear is that there is simply too much data. With thousands of materials, analyzing inventory at the material level feels daunting.

Consider a familiar scenario. Your CFO informs you that inventory must be reduced by 10 percent. Your organization carries $100 million in inventory across 10,000 materials. The math is simple: reduce inventory by $10 million. The execution is not.

Where do you start?

SAP makes this manageable. In most organizations, 10 to 20 percent of materials account for roughly 80 percent of inventory value. By using standard SAP analytics and reports, you can immediately isolate the highest-value materials and focus your efforts where they will have the greatest financial impact.

Instead of analyzing 10,000 materials, you start with 1,000. From there, SAP allows you to further segment by planner, plant, supplier, or demand pattern. What once felt overwhelming becomes structured, actionable, and achievable.

This is how SAP turns complexity into clarity—if you let it.