Small tools - big effect

Every company has its own processes. Individually tailored to the needs of the company and often developed over many years, they are a fundamental part of its economic DNA.

The way in which a company organizes itself is a decisive factor in its success. Internal company processes shape such important factors as business efficiency, product quality, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

The better the company's IT maps and optimizes these processes, the more successful the company can be. The SAP system offers a tried-and-tested framework for this - a powerful tool that is able to map even the most complex requirements almost completely.

But why does this often happen insufficiently in reality? If you take a closer look, there is considerable potential for optimization in pretty much every company.

Manual work, workarounds and home-made programs characterize the picture, where fully automated solutions have long been possible. The result is error-prone processes and extra work. Compromise is the greatest enemy of efficiency.

The first mistakes are often made when introducing an SAP system. Many companies shy away from the changes that would go hand in hand with optimal use of the SAP system.

The result is inadequate compromises that often reduce the productivity of a company or department for years. However, it is not only the adherence to cherished processes and habits that prevents modernization.

Often, the specialist departments concerned simply lack knowledge and imagination about the possibilities of the in-house SAP system. IT is only asked for advice when the pressure of suffering increases.

Individual SAP customizations

The effect that even supposedly small applications and adaptations of SAP to the individual needs of a company can have is shown by the example of a manufacturer of industrial trucks.

The SAP optimizer Clientis developed a small tool for the company to calculate the maximum load capacity of the vehicles. Originally, this was only intended to simplify the calculation of some technical values for a safety notice.

However, the load capacity indicator is now used along the entire value chain: from the preparation of the offer to the delivery of the finished vehicles. The company must equip each vehicle with a so-called load plate before delivery.

The sign is intended to inform the driver about the maximum loads that can be transported. As vehicles are individually adapted to the customer's specific requirements, the maximum load capacity must be calculated separately for each custom-made product.

However, this is complicated, as almost any change to the vehicle can affect the result. Similar to buying a car, customers can customize their vehicles from a wide range of models, equipment variants and additional applications.

Size and weight, tire type, the type of lifting device, the desired transport height or the model of fork tine are just some of the factors that need to be considered.

Previously, the necessary calculations were carried out in a separate work step. An employee collected the necessary data from SAP and manually inserted it into an Excel document in which the mathematical formulas required for the calculation were stored.

Transmission errors occurred from time to time. Due to the good order situation, the amount of work required for the calculation had also increased significantly. The company wanted to simplify this process and make it more reliable. It therefore approached Clientis with the request to develop an SAP solution to automatically determine the load capacity.

The company uses SAP ECC Release 6.6, which was supplemented by a specially developed mechanical engineering solution at the end of the 1990s. Clientis fully integrated the new automatic payload calculation into the customer order entry system, including variant configuration.

The new tool records all around 200 different characteristics in the first step. This ensures that every customer request and every specification is taken into account when calculating the correct load capacity.

The data relevant for calculating the load capacity is then compiled in separate customizing tables. In the next step, the tool converts the relevant data into a complex formula from which the maximum load capacity is calculated. The data required for the sign is then available at the touch of a button.

However, the benefits of the new tool go far beyond this. As the payload calculation is fully integrated into the customer's existing SAP system, the calculations are now available to the company across the entire value chain.

This results in further useful application options. For example, the system automatically checks whether a vehicle is a new configuration variant or whether the company has already produced identical vehicles in the past.

If this is the case, the company can dispense with the otherwise mandatory tilt test on the test stand, thus saving costs and time.

Furthermore, the automatic load capacity calculation also enables simulations. This allows the technical order center to check whether a customer's wishes are technically feasible as early as the quotation phase.

Automatic load capacity calculation is also used in marketing, in the development and design department and in quality control.

The automatic load capacity calculation has now proven itself in practice. The tool has been running almost error-free since its introduction and has completely replaced the previous time-consuming Excel-based calculation process. As it is integrated into the existing SAP environment, errors due to incorrect data transfer are now a thing of the past.

Integration in SAP

Compared to external development, a fully integrated solution also offers the advantage that future upgrades and release changes can be adopted by SAP without any problems.

The prerequisite for this is an experienced SAP service provider who consistently uses SAP enhancement techniques and refrains from "creative" in-house developments. The initially somewhat higher programming effort compared to a non-integrated external solution quickly pays for itself in this way.

Thanks to the automatic calculation of the load capacity, the company benefits from significant time and effort savings in production and a considerable improvement in transparency across the entire value chain.

The manual calculation of data for the load plate has been completely eliminated. The automatic comparison with previous calculations helps to avoid unnecessary tilt tests. The new simulation calculations have also helped to improve the quality of advice and customer satisfaction.

Unfortunately, very few companies exploit the full potential of their SAP system. Cumbersome processes, expensive workarounds and superfluous manual work can be found in many companies and in all departments.

As shown in the example, many processes can even be implemented within the SAP standard. SAP has interfaces specially set up for this purpose, which can be used to seamlessly integrate many solutions without damaging the system.