What Is In a Name?

We found it strange that SAP decided to name its most advanced warehousing solution “extended warehouse management.” This term is first difficult to find the official definition for. The results of a search in Google Books shows that the term only shows up in books about SAP.

Its official definition is actually a very narrow application of warehouse management that covers an overflow warehouse, or contract warehouse. For instance a warehouse operated by a third party logistics provider could fit into this description.

To read more about 3PLs, see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/fourthpartylogistics/2009/05/25/3pl-vs-4pl/

Could a Renaming Help EWM in the Market?

After working in EWM we have concluded that the module could more accurately be named “advanced warehouse management.” That is EWM simply does more sophisticated things then SAP WM can do, and it may apply to a contract warehouse, or may simply apply to a client managing their own warehouse that have a lot of volume and strong needs in the area. Why would SAP name a product more narrowly than the situtations it can actually be applied to? This does not make a lot of sense. It would seem more logical to name a product something that makes immediate sense to people at least who work in the feild of warehouse management.

To read more about EWM, see this post.

http://www.scmfocus.com/sapplanning/2008/05/30/extended-warehouse-management/

To see my consulting offering in EWM, see this link.

http://www.scmfocus.com/consulting/areas-of-specialty/sap-ewm/