3M’s global SAP Business Suite rollout begins

Ernie Park, vice president and CIO at 3M, makes the point that as the company has acquired businesses, so it has also inherited their software installations, covering all the way from shop floor to supply chain systems. "We undertook a thorough evaluation to determine the best-suited business software that could further improve customer intimacy, service delivery and power each of our divisions and regions of operations with industry best practices," states Park. "SAP business solutions will play an important enabling role in unifying core processes globally and supporting our ongoing strategy of meeting customer needs wherever they are. We expect the SAP deployment to provide significant value to 3M in the coming years," he adds. Park says that 3M is taking a phased approach to its deployment in order to help ensure business continuity. The first implementations are already underway in Europe and Asia Pacific. In Europe, for example, 3M is implementing a new demand forecasting and supply planning system, harnessing SAP APO (Advanced Planning & Optimisation). Meanwhile, in Asia-Pacific, Park says the company is planning to replace most of its legacy applications with SAP ERP over the next few years. Park explains that, once the proof of concept has been validated, additional rollouts will ensue to other geographies. And he says that business intelligence (BI) software will also play a key role in the global deployment, enabling 3M's management to access accurate and timely data on business performance across its divisions to support informed decision making.