Coca-Cola mulls global rollout of SAP Business Objects

International soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has implemented supply chain performance management application SAP Business Objects across its North American region and is currently in discussions regarding a global rollout of the solution.

The implementation, which was begun in July 2010 and completed with the help of systems integrator ITC Infotech, will help the company align the supply chain with its business goals by providing "visibility across the chain", according to the company.

Coca-Cola's supply chain is a complex network of plants, bottlers, warehouses and customers which has in the past resulted in inconsistency of reporting across the multiple product lines.

The SAP solution will help resolve this problem and provide real-time information on which to base tactical and strategic decision making.

SAP Business Objects has been configured to report the supply chain performance around demand planning, production and customer service. The performance scores are available on a real-time basis and users are able to create their own reports and dashboards based on their areas of interest and priority.

Russ Rodal, metrics programme manager, Coca-Cola, said: "The solution helps us analyse our supply chain, and because the SAP Netweaver Business Warehouse [an application that has been closely integrated with Business Objects] captures details around transactions as and where they happen, our data is updated in real time and we are not bound by a static data model."