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
- Release to Production
- End-of-life Process
Sustaining Engineering
- Engineering Change Request
- Engineering Change Order and Implementation
Component Engineering
- New Component Manufacturer Request
- Component Change Request
- Product Change Notice (PCN for Components) Analysis
- Component End-of-life Analysis
Integration
Fundamental to digitizing and improving NPI, Sustaining Engineering, and Component Engineering processes were 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.
