Enhancing Supply Chain Resilience through SAP APO and S/4 HANA Integrated Planning Frameworks

Abstract

In times of endemic supply chain disruption—ranging from global pandemics and international tensions through to raw material shortages—resilience has become the imperative organizational need to ensure operational continuity and competitiveness. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Advanced Planning Systems (APS), while performing well in isolated disciplines, fail to deliver the integrated, real-time reactivity necessary to confront volatility and complexity in rapidly changing conditions. The paper presents a digitally integrated planning framework, one drawing on the complementary capabilities of SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) and SAP S/4 HANA, to amplify the resilience of the supply chain. By integrating advanced demand planning, supply network planning, and execution levels within real-time, in-memory architecture, the framework provides predictive analytics, agile scenario modeling, and coordinated decision-making across functional silos. Methodologically, the research takes a conceptual modeling stance, underpinned by illustrative simulations of typical supply chain disruption, the paper critiques the proposed framework against the resilience drivers of responsiveness, adaptability, visibility, and risk-absorbing capacity, and demonstrates significant benefits over legacy siloed systems. This research contributes to the literature by bridging the capability disconnect between legacy planning tools and next-generation digital ERP systems, providing both strategic and operational recommendations to supply chain managers operating under uncertainty. As future avenues, empirical validation within industry contexts as well as extension toward AI-infused autonomous planning systems are anticipated to be of interest.