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Wednesday November 3, 4:23 am Eastern Time

Whirlpool blames SAP software for delays-WSJ

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Whirlpool Corp., the number one U.S. appliance maker, has blamed delays in shipping its appliances in part to a SAP AG software package implemented two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The Journal quoted a Whirlpool spokesman as saying a new ``enterprise-resource planning'' software package from Germany's SAP, combined with record levels of orders, had lengthened lead times to all but the biggest customers.

Most of the problems had been fixed and the company hoped to eliminate all order delays by December.

The Journal quoted an official at SAP Americas as saying he was unaware of the problems, but tests prior to activating the system had shown ``anomalies'' in order-related functions.

He said SAP corrected the problems and was now fine-tuning the system, and that Whirlpool management was pleased with SAP's support, the Journal said.

The paper said orders for quantities smaller than one truckload had faced snags in the areas of order processing, tracking and invoicing.

It quoted the Whirlpool spokesman as saying the disruptions were part of the normal process of implementing the new software.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 03, 1999

Answers

Hey Hoffmeister - what little credibility you have is rapidly diminishing with these screw-ups by your company!

Hershey and now Whirlpool are getting it in the neck!

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), November 03, 1999.

Right. Let's see, that makes 9000+ SAP R/3 installations. One, Hershey, has bad management, so that's SAP's fault. No doubt Whirlpool, which went live only two months ago, did so a little prematurely. That's also SAP's fault.

-- Tarantula (coolley@wagner.net), November 03, 1999.

No, the worry is that all these rather important places are RUSHING into their SAP implementations because they needed to replace their non-Y2K compliant systems with Y2K compliant SAP. This is not a slap to SAP per se, but one does wonder if perhaps SAP was oversold as being easier to implment than it really is.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 03, 1999.

SAP has apparently developed an "any color you want so long as it's black" reputation. Most sources claim that you don't modify SAP to match your company's way of doing things, you modify your company to do things SAP's way. So if you realize this in advance and bend over, SAP goes in smooth. If you want SAP to bend instead, you can do battle and eventually be beaten to your knees.

There have been several companies (wish I could remember which ones) that decided to adopt SAP (or Peoplesoft) as their compliance strategy, and have only recently given up trying to force SAP to do things *their* way, and *just started* fixing date bugs in their existing software. I feel sorry for the CIO's told to implement SAP but NOT change the way things are done around here.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), November 03, 1999.

My y2k preps include replacing my electric appliances with propane units. Through a local dealer, I ordered a Whirlpool gas cooktop on 13 Sep...dealer thought it would take three days to arrive. It finally came in six weeks later. The dealer thought that the delay may have had something to do with Whirlpools attempts to get ready for y2k.....

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), November 03, 1999.