Post by PiLog Group

Most SKU cleanup projects fail within 18 months. Why? Because they fixed the symptoms without fixing the root cause: the article master data that sits between procurement, merchandising, supply chain, and IT with nobody holding clear accountability for it. The cost of leaving that problem unsolved is not abstract. Industry data puts the average annual cost of poor data quality at $12.9M per company. A 30% duplicate SKU rate is not unusual in retail environments, where the same product exists as multiple records across S/4HANA, Commerce Cloud, POS, and supplier portals. New collection launches get delayed 2 to 4 weeks because manual article master setup cannot keep pace with seasonal windows. Stock-outs from inaccurate inventory data that could have been prevented by a single governed source of truth. These are not mere edge cases. Rather, they are the operational reality for most retailers who have not yet fixed the foundation. On 1 July 2026 at 4:00 PM AEST (11:30 AM IST), Dr Rashad Ahmed Syed is hosting a live webinar specifically on this problem. Dr Rashad Ahmed Syed, Head of Operations at PiLog Group, ANZ, will walk through what actually works inside complex SAP retail environments. Why duplicate SKUs keep reappearing after cleanup. How poor article data blocks supplier onboarding and delays product launches. What it looks like when MirAI, PiLog's AI companion, automates the article creation from Excel files, images, free text, and supplier websites reducing setup time from 45 days to 25. And what governance built on a trusted single source of truth actually enables for procurement, merchandising, and AI initiatives that depend on clean product data. If your team is still managing around inconsistent article data rather than solving it, this session is worth your time. Registration link in the first comment. #ArticleMaster #SAP #MasterData #DataQuality #RetailTransformation #SupplyChain #S4HANA #MirAI #DataGovernance