Table of Contents
Highlights
Industry: High-tech
Geography (Global): HQ in North America, Plants in Asia-Pacific
Scope: Parts, Materials, BOMs, Approved Vendors, Approved Manufacturers, Component Engineering, Product Release, Engineering Change Management
Cross-functional Teams: Finance, Supply Chain, Purchasing, Inventory Management, Engineering, Test, Compliance, Hardware Engineering
Systems: SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Database
Total number of stakeholders involved in Master Data workflows: 300+ globally
Key Master Data Issues before ZMDM adoption
- The transition from Oracle to SAP created several gaps in master data management in the context of New Product Introduction, Engineering Change Management, and Component Engineering
- Resorted to manual data loading methods to create materials, BOMs, approved manufacturers/vendors, approved manufacturer parts, and PCN processing
- No workflows to systematically manage and coordinate engineering change processes (ECR, ECO, ECN), and component engineering workflows
- Lack of coordination between Engineering, Sourcing, and Manufacturing teams
- Extended cycle times impacting New Product Introduction and Engineering Change Management
Results
| Before ZMDM | After ZMDM |
|---|---|
| Gaps in master data management led to manual methods to handle master data – very high effort, room for errors, and time-consuming | Master data management integrated into New Product Introduction, Engineering Change, and Component Engineering processes |
| Manual and email-based processes for engineering change management and component engineering | Digital workflows connect all the cross-functional teams and systems |
| Required development and management of multiple applications to support Engineering Operations and related business processes | All processes designed and deployed in ZMDM |
| Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on license, support, and operations of different applications. | ZMDM costs are a fraction (1/4). Savings exceed $250K/year |
Case Study Details
The high-tech company in this case study is a leader in designing, manufacturing, and supporting embedded computing products used by leading organizations in telecommunications, data centers, manufacturing, and other mission-critical industries.
The transition from Oracle to SAP created a need to support Master Data Management (Parts/BOMs, Approved Manufacturers, Approved Vendors, Approved Manufacturer Parts..) as part of New Production Introduction, Engineering Change Management, and Component Engineering processes. The following processes were designed to support cross-functional collaboration as well as integration to SAP for Master Data Management.
New Product Introduction
- New Prototype Release and Build Process
- New Part Request
Below is the process for a New Part Request. It is cross-functional and incorporates a Change Control Board, Export Compliance, creation of SAP Material Master data, and setting up availability dates in SAP and other sales systems.
- Release to Production
- End-of-life Process
Sustaining Engineering
- Engineering Change Request
- Engineering Change Order and Implementation
Component Engineering
- New Component Request
- Component Change Request
The picture below shows the process for changing components, which typically have information on the Approved Manufacturer, vendor, and related Manufacturer Part.
- Product Change Notice (PCN for Components) Analysis
- Component End-of-life Analysis
Integration
Seamless integrations with SAP for master data creation and synchronization and the use of purchasing and inventory information to support decision-making as part of various business processes were fundamental to digitizing and improving NPI, sustaining engineering and component engineering processes.
