Global Standard for Material Governance

The Scherdel Group is an internationally active technology group headquartered in Marktredwitz. The family-owned company develops and manufactures technical springs, stamped and bent parts, assemblies, plastic systems, and specialized machinery for the automotive industry, medical technology, and other industrial sectors. With 34 locations in eleven countries, approximately 6,800 employees, and over 135 years of history, Scherdel is one of the world’s leading providers in its core technologies.

As part of the SAP S/4 implementation and the international SAP rollout at the Scherdel Group, the technology group is establishing a new standard for material governance.

The Apicon Data Master ensures transparency, smooth processes, and higher quality in material creation and maintenance. The manual creation of materials using template parts in SAP has been replaced by a workflow-driven approach. This standard is being implemented in the Scherdel Group’s plants worldwide.

System-Supported Material Entry

The Scherdel Group began implementing SAP S/4 in 2023 and is gradually phasing out its existing legacy systems. Material creation and maintenance are critical business processes involving numerous departments. At Scherdel, these include Sales, Production (particularly work planning), Purchasing, Materials Planning, Controlling, and Environmental Management. Intercompany procurement plays an important role at this globally active company.

Process Reliability and Efficiency

With the goal of ensuring process reliability and efficiency worldwide in material entry and data maintenance under SAP S/4, the Scherdel Group chose Apicon Data Master—a proven, modular, and fully SAP-integrated solution.

A solid foundation had already been laid: In the legacy system, Scherdel used a well-structured process for material entry. Responsibilities for the individual process steps were also clearly defined and were further refined as part of the SAP implementation.

However, the material entry process had not been fully system-supported up to that point. This led to a lack of transparency regarding the overall process, manual effort, and incompletely maintained master data. Because required fields were missing, some necessary fields were either omitted or filled in incorrectly. It was also not always possible to ensure that the process steps were followed in the correct order. „What we were missing were required fields so that no one could forget to enter anything that was actually needed during the material creation process,“ explains Kathleen Neumann, Head of Lean and IT at Scherdel Marienberg. In the future, the creation of materials and changes should be process-based. At the start of the S/4 implementation, Scherdel used SAP template materials. To streamline processes and reduce lead times, it was decided to replace the creation of materials using template materials.

Introduction to Apicon Data Master

At the end of 2024, Scherdel opted for the Apicon Data Master. The SAP-certified solution for master data management impressed with its relevant features, full SAP integration, and modular expansion options. „We took a look at the tool at some of their reference customers. That’s when the decision was made very quickly,“ Neumann reports.

Another key factor was the integration of Apicon Data Master into the coaching approach. This provides the Scherdel Group with a high degree of flexibility, particularly with regard to the global rollout. From the start of the project, an in-house consultant was brought on board and trained. This allowed small adjustments to be implemented independently and promptly in the Data Master. In a very short time, Scherdel was able to develop not only additional business logic but also complete data entry screens. With the Apicon Data Master, the team now implements new processes independently, flexibly, and securely. Apicon’s experts provide support as needed. SAP compliance is always guaranteed.

Efficiency with Large Data Sets

With the implementation of SAP, the volume of data has increased compared to the legacy system. Nevertheless, Apicon Data Master ensures that data creation and maintenance are carried out efficiently, securely, and in a traceable manner. Just under a year after the introduction of Data Master, 6,800 materials had already been created. That amounts to about 550 materials per month, and the trend is upward.

The material procurement process is divided into several subprocesses with individual work packages that are intentionally visible to everyone involved. This makes workflows transparent and speeds up the process. „The feedback has been consistently positive,“ confirms Neumann. „Everyone knows when it’s their turn. You know where a work package currently stands.“ This allows all departments to look beyond their own scope and understand the overall sequence of steps being taken. Users can also quickly find out where a part is being processed by searching for it by material number. At the first plant, Scherdel launched the SAP S/4 implementation without a workflow-based tool and used SAP template materials. Especially when it came to changes, the functionality in the standard SAP system was not scalable enough for the large number of materials. Scherdel also worked with an internal numbering logic for material types.

Smart Rules

The rigid SAP template materials and the specific logic of number assignment have been replaced by a combination of rules and an intelligent editor in Apicon Data Master. Smart rules are now used instead of template materials. This eliminates the possibility of selecting the wrong template. In the user-friendly editor, users are shown only the fields necessary for each process step. There is no need to search for fields across different views, and additional field values are automatically derived from user input. Material numbers are also determined automatically.

This reduces the potential for errors and shortens process lead times. Enhanced validity checks in the input forms—in addition to the existing required fields—ensure the desired data quality. Feedback from users in the business units has been consistently positive. This is primarily because the system provides the desired guidance, transparency throughout the entire process has been significantly increased, and it ensures that data is maintained in its entirety. „The approval of all employees involved confirms the outstanding work of the entire project team,“ Neumann emphasizes.

International Rollout

The Scherdel Group is rolling out SAP S/4 across its global network of companies. For this reason, it was essential to take a broad view of the entire group right from the initial process definition phase in order to unify the diverse processes at the various plants into a single, centralized concept. Intercompany procurement was also planned in advance for the international plants in collaboration with consultants from Apicon.

The Apicon Data Master is currently in use at four Scherdel Group plants. Additional rollouts are underway and are expected to take place simultaneously in the future. Whenever SAP is implemented at a location, the standardized processes are also implemented using the Apicon Data Master. This approach has proven effective: „It works very well. I don’t know how it would work without the system,“ confirms Kathleen Neumann.

Factors Contributing to the Success of the Transformation

Effective change management is of great importance to the Scherdel Group. The central MDM team is always involved in changes and change projects.

This is important for incorporating master data processes from the very beginning. Scherdel is also benefiting from this in the SAP S/4HANA project and during the implementation of Apicon Data Master: Key users are guided through the process, users receive comprehensive training, and even after the go-live, the team is always available to answer questions. Lessons-learned sessions following the go-lives at the larger plants have proven to be effective. Furthermore, it is crucial to establish a team comprising representatives from business units, IT, and the organization who understand and evaluate the processes. Thorough testing is essential for the project’s success.

Not only before go-live, but also during ongoing operations—whether implementing new processes or conducting quality assurance. The MDM team at Scherdel draws on its extensive experience in this area.

Additional rollouts

Our collaboration with Apicon was consistently very positive and straightforward. With Apicon Data Master, we established an efficient, reliable, and transparent process for material creation and maintenance. Everyone involved knows where parts currently are in the process, which work packages are being processed, and which fields need to be updated.

We were able to achieve exactly the level of completeness in the material master data that had always been a challenge in the past—for example, because statistical item numbers or weight specifications were often missing.

With the Apicon Data Master, the Scherdel Group has set a new standard for materials governance and created a robust database. Users and departments benefit from automated, guided, and transparent processes.

Thanks to the coaching approach, future developments can be implemented independently using Apicon Data Master. The next milestone is already planned: a centralized process for locking and coordinating the release of master data changes for parts used across multiple plants within the corporate group. The Scherdel Group will continue to rely on Apicon’s expertise in the future and is exploring the use of the Data Master for additional SAP objects and business units. (Source: Apicon)