Why APS Upgrades are Reset Moments

You don’t want new features. You want the fundamentals to actually work:

The APS upgrade as a forcing function

Ask someone you know, “How are you?” and nine times out of ten you’ll receive the perfunctory, “I’m good.”

Follow-up immediately with, “How are you really?” That’s when the truth comes out.

Ask a supply chain manager if they want an Advanced Planning System upgrade, and nine times out of ten they’ll say, “Yes.” Follow-up immediately with, “Do you really want an APS upgrade?” That’s when the truth comes out.

Caveat emptor: in both cases, only ask the second time if you care to hear the truth.

“Well, yes, we want the benefits of a new or upgraded APS, but…”

Even when a major APS overhaul is fully warranted, it’s hard to muster the collective corporate enthusiasm to form a small army of specialists for a two-year wade through a swamp of flowchart creation, data validation, system integration, testing, training, … It’s not a side gig that is easily swept under, “all other duties as assigned.”

Nothing about this endeavor is trivial. And unless you’ve done it before, you may not even realize how hard-fought each step forward will be.

→ Design decisions where no formal process has ever existed?

→ Differing functionality expectations among user groups?

→ Massive gaps in item and location master data?

→ Planning parameters that haven’t been reviewed or updated for a decade?

→ Reverse engineering Tom’s Access database logic? (Tom retired in 1998)

→ The IT gatekeeper with enough red tape to evaporate any financial benefits?

→ Getting everyone to agree on a font for the executive steerco (let alone the messaging)?

So, let’s talk about those benefits. They must be really good. What do we get out of an APS upgrade? Well, it depends…

• on your starting point (how old is your current APS?).
• on your destination (what’s your price point? The sky is the limit, you know…)
• on your industry
• on your organization’s supply chain complexity
• on a host of other factors

While there are some clear leaders in the APS space, portions of the technology are:

• commoditized across vendors
• largely unchanged since the Clinton administration
• sufficiently configurable if you could just get someone to look at the settings
• actually just buzzwords with a summer intern’s vibe-code under the hood

Besides, how were you going to leverage those elaborate new AI features with your broken processes and dirty data anyway?
Massive effort. Low marginal gain in technology. How can it possibly be worth it?
Is the technology upgrade what really moves the needle on APS implementations?
I don’t think so. The grass isn’t greener on the other side; it’s greener where you water it.

So, why are so many companies readily jumping into the swamp?

The real transformation is not in the tooling. The real transformation is in:

→ the previously tribal knowledge now codified into decision machinery
→ the clearer understanding of the physics of supply chain planning among your teams
→ the long overdue clean-up of master data plus ongoing governance implemented
→ planning parameters aligned to your actual supply chain
→ the forged relationships among otherwise silo-ed functions
→ the elimination of dependency on Tom’s Access database

All of this is earned through the blood, sweat, and tears of the implementation project. There are no shortcuts. It’s about doubling down on fundamentals.

Perhaps the real reason for APS upgrade is that, from the executive cockpit, it’s a single button: APS upgrade. One initiative; dozens of benefits. The executive umbrella of “an APS upgrade” serves as a forcing function for all of the things that [rightfully] keep them awake at night.

One more thing while I have you: Don’t look right now (I said don’t look!), but there is a line of traditional consultants outside your door, each with a shiny slide deck showing how they have an airboat ready and waiting to glide seamlessly to the other side of the swamp. They promise you won’t even get your boots dirty. Not. Even. A. Smudge. But what is quickly earned is quickly lost.

My advice: ignore the slide decks and look at their shoes. Find the ones with dirt on their boots. They are the ones willing to roll up their sleeves and get in the muck with you. Real value is created in the swamp.