Industry package for the discrete industry

Digital transformation is not stopping at discrete industries, whether a company offers configuration of truck trailers, hazardous material containers, furniture, wind turbines, pumps, gearboxes, large kitchen appliances, or specialty vehicles and machines for cleaning and grinding.

To ensure that companies in this sector - most of which are SMEs - can continue to operate successfully on the market in the future, they need not only an innovative and stringent business model, but also agile and efficient digital corporate management.

This is confirmed by the study "Departure into Digital Transformation" by the consulting and analyst firm Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC). The most important prerequisite for this is a modern IT architecture - modular, lean, high-performance and flexible.

Its core, a next-generation ERP system such as the current version 1709 of the S/4 Hana Enterprise Management application suite, is the "enabler" of digital transformation.

True to the run-simple principle, S/4 Hana allows convenient real-time access to data, key figures and processes via intuitive Fiori interfaces and provides powerful functions for analysis, forecasting, simulation and a lean data model.

Special S/4 Hana application packages bundle the tasks of the individual business areas such as finance, sales, production, purchasing or logistics into digital end-to-end processes.

Optimal mapping of industry processes

But every industry has its specific process requirements. In the discrete industry, this is especially true with regard to master data management, variant configuration, availability checks, production planning or purchasing. Here, a preconfigured, modular and scalable industry package, which is based on S/4 Hana and can be introduced quickly and at a fixed price, can help.

Modular architecture: The be-all and end-all for success

MSG Treorbis Discrete Manufacturing is just such a solution on the market. It merges the advantages of S/4 Hana and SAP Fiori with the benefits of SAP best practices for discrete industry and is optimized by add-ons from MSG Treorbis for special tasks in the context of variant configuration, based on more than 20 years of experience in this area.

The industry package is ideally complemented by web- and cloud-based extensions and apps. At the same time, SAP's powerful in-memory technology ensures high speed in the processing and analysis of data.

It is precisely this modular IT architecture that is the big plus of MSG Treorbis Discrete Manufacturing. The solution enables agility and flexibility and forms the be-all and end-all for business success.

The customer can select individual modules as required and combine them flexibly into a customized application according to the modular principle.

SAP Cloud Platform: An Overview

In addition to S/4 Hana, SAP is positioning the SAP Cloud Platform platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering as a strategic starting point for digital transformation. The SAP Cloud Platform offers database, integration and application services as well as special platform services, such as SAP Fiori, Internet of Things, analytics and predictive analytics, and security. Essentially, the SAP Cloud Platform functions as an extension platform: Here, extensions can be developed for existing SAP applications, for example for cloud solutions such as SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors as well as SAP Fieldglass or Concur.

Integration platform: Applications, whether from SAP or a third-party provider, can communicate and exchange data via SAP Cloud Platform.

Development platform: Web-based applications, apps, and services can be developed in a dedicated development environment and linked to existing SAP software, but can also be used standalone.

The building blocks of the industry package

The starting point and baseline of the industry package are the SAP functions and processes for financial accounting and controlling (FI-CO), for human resources management (HCM), and for reporting (Business Warehouse).

1. Financial and HR processes with MSG Plaut Finance: There is considerable potential for optimization, especially in financial processes, which can be leveraged with the S/4 Hana Finance application package.To this end, MSG Treorbis draws on the financial experts of MSG Plaut, a sister company and also a member of the MSG Group, which bundles its comprehensive expertise in the area of S/4 Hana Finance in the MSG Plaut Finance consulting portfolio.S/4 Hana Finance contains all financial solutions from SAP. The solution brings together transactions and analyses, bundles data from accounting, controlling and the material ledger in a single document, the universal ledger, and thus creates a "single source of truth" for financial processes.This shortens reporting and planning cycles and financial statements are accelerated - also due to the elimination of aggregates and indices - keyword "soft close".Since the data is processed at line item level, it can be analyzed in any level of detail and, thanks to in-memory technology, almost in real time. The universal ledger also reduces the data footprint.
2. SAP Best Practices: The basic prerequisite for installing the industry package is the use of SAP Best Practices for S/4 Hana (on premise). They include preconfigured scenarios for materials management, production planning and control, sales, logistics, product lifecycle and quality management, as well as for accounting and controlling, including the necessary reports and all forms. They also map the individual production types, i.e. make-to-order and make-to-stock production, and the associated end-to-end processes such as engineer to order, order to cash, purchase to pay, and configure to order.
3. MSG Treorbis add-ons: Another building block are the solutions of the MSG Treorbis Variant platform. The proven SAP-based add-on is already optimally designed for operation on S/4 Hana in accordance with the SAP New Programming Model and supports product configuration, an elementary ERP core process.The add-on contains more than 60 solutions that extend SAP's best practices in many respects and bring more efficiency and flexibility to configuration-related processes: for example, in the maintenance of master data as well as in relation to the availability check of material, purchasing processes with suppliers, production planning for in-house production and the controlling of product variants.The highlight of MSG Treorbis Variant is the innovative, web-based UI5 quotation configurator, which offers B2B users the convenience of private online shopping, even when configuring complex products.The intuitive SAPUI5 interface allows online access to configuration knowledge in the SAP back end (LO-VC or SAP CPQ) and "Guided Selling" without technical hurdles, clearly and in 3-D, whether on a desktop PC or mobile via tablet or smartphone.Any further configuration is immediately transferred to the back-end, which in turn "feeds" the UI5 quote configurator with all the necessary data and functions for the configuration. (see Complex products in 3D view)
4. Cloud scenarios: If required, the processes of the Discrete Manufacturing industry package can be extended by cloud-based business scenarios and SaaS cloud solutions such as Hybris Cloud for Customer.The UI5 quotation configurator can also be connected to the Customer Engagement application, as it is also designed to run on the SAP Cloud Platform.With the help of the SAP Cloud Platform, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering, even smaller sales and service locations can then be integrated into MSG Treorbis Discrete Manufacturing quickly and with little effort. In this way, a company can establish end-to-end IT-supported and transparent business processes across all locations, which is a competitive factor for internationally operating companies in particular. Via the cloud, the sites "connected" to the back end are provided with the business scenarios they need on site - for example, for converting inquiries into orders (marketing-to-opportunity) or order processing from order to receipt of payment (order-to-cash). Access is via the Internet browser. As this eliminates the need to set up, operate and maintain an in-house IT infrastructure, it has a positive impact on IT costs.

The fastest way to a new solution

The industry package is put together individually for each customer and implemented with precise adherence to schedule and budget. For this purpose, MSG Treorbis has built and documented a reference process model for Discrete Manufacturing based on the individual building blocks in SAP Solution Manager (version 7.2).

Solution Manager, which runs on a Hana database, has also been linked to S/4 Hana so that new process models are now created automatically instead of manually as before. In this way, the process flow can be modeled quickly and then visualized and monitored in diagrams or flowcharts.

SAP system in fitness test

If the customer uses an SAP system, this is already integrated in advance with the innovative MSG FIT service (see On the test bench) is analyzed comprehensively, which also contributes significantly to accelerated project execution.

MSG FIT checks whether or how functions, transactions, programs, in-house developments or interfaces are used and determines whether the system documentation is up-to-date. The result of this analysis is compared with current benchmarks of around 1000 SAP system evaluations created with MSG FIT and the processes defined in SAP Solution Manager.

This provides the customer with a viable basis for defining the scope of their S/4 Hana-based application and deciding which functions will be provided via the cloud and how the switchover should be made (greenfield, brownfield).

Regardless of which approach a company chooses, the path to MSG Treorbis Discrete Manufacturing and the implementation of a digital transformation agenda are riddled with challenges. Mastering them requires in-depth know-how.

Support during implementation

That's why MSG Treorbis is a one-stop shop for customers in all matters from process consulting to implementation and the choice of operating model (on premise, cloud, hybrid) to managed services for application management and hosting - worldwide.

If required, access to resources in the MSG Group, which is active in 25 countries, is possible at any time. Even globally active customers are thus supported throughout the entire lifecycle of their S/4 Hana-based industry package - an important prerequisite for the sustainable optimization of their business processes.

MSG Treorbis Variant: Solutions for optimizing core ERP processes

The MSG Treorbis Variant platform is closely interlinked with the SAP processes for sales, purchasing, and production planning and control. This ensures the rapid processing of orders from the preparation of the quotation to the on-time delivery of the finished product.

The add-on can be used in conjunction with LO-VC in SAP ERP, but also with the SAP Configure Price and Quote (SAP CPQ) solution for SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer and for SAP Hybris Commerce. Its benefits at a glance:

The characteristics and characteristic value assignments of the individual variants of a product, including their mutual relationships, are stored centrally in "decision tables". This reduces the effort required for master data maintenance during configuration by up to 60 percent.

A cross-plant, automated ATP check verifies the availability of all materials and components needed to manufacture or assemble the end product. This allows realistic delivery dates to be agreed with the customer.