SAP PLM Journey for a Manufacturer of Dispensed Beverage Equipment

The LeverX Group team assisted the customer with a phased approach to SAP PLM.

leverx group

The LeverX Group team assisted the customer with a phased approach to SAP PLM.

customer

Customer

Leading manufacturer of dispensed beverage equipment.

CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE

Our client was facing internal challenges resulting from product design changes, customer requested enhancements, and a slow process to envision and design new products for prototype and production.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

The SAP PLM journey began back in 2009 with the selection of the SAP ERP platform, based in large part on SAP providing a robust and fully integrated PLM module.

Project Scope

Phase #1

Initial DMS Single Source, document change process, Visual Enterprise

The initial phase of the SAP PLM implementation focused on activating SAP CAD Integration and SAP Visual Enterprise. This is the foundation of a strong PLM vision, providing versioning, revisions, history and full linkage between documentation and SAP master data. Over 500,000 CAD files were analyzed and converted from PDMWorks and various network drives into the SAP DMS environment. This represented 17 distinct types of documents and enabled comprehensive and consistent security and change controls for engineering documents.

Phase #2

Project Management 1 — Migrate to SAP PPM, sunset old PM software

Phase 2 focused on implementing the SAP PPM module and gaining better visibility and control over project resources. The PPM solution enabled the ability to create projects, assign resources, track project time, and report and manage to resource PTO time. One hundred twenty projects were set up in PPM with 5 levels of expense approval and status network. A KPI dashboard was created driven from 200 columns of project data. Reports were developed for project status, key milestones and assigned hours, enabling greater management visibility across all initiatives.

Phase #3

Expand DMS, initial ECM process & basic workflow via IPS

The core emphasis in Phase 3 was Engineering Change management, and included an upgrade to the core SAP platform. By implementing the Integrated Process Solution (IPS) add on from LeverX, our client enabled department control over key product development and modification workflow processes. Engineering can build new workflows to break down key change notice database and Master Data Management processes. An email enabled approval workflow was designed to enable users to be able to approve changes without having to log into SAP itself.

Phase #4

Expand Portfolio & Project Management

This phase of the project is ongoing, and emphasizes expanded PPM capabilities improving upon project resource management, project cost management robust project reporting and PPM Workflow. Improving upon executive dashboards and reporting standards based on usage of PPM from phase 2 was a key driver here and a dashboard updated to include 250 columns of project data was included. Easy Document Management for project documents was also implemented, ensuring the goal of a Single Source of Truth within the SAP ecosystem was achieved. LeverX IPS was utilized to implement workflow for PPM Project Phase approval.

Key Features

Leverx Group works with companies and organizations to address the complex challenges of today's business world. Each of our partners is an experienced, innovative, and proven leader in their respective fields.

Automotive

SAP PLM is a solid basis for the automotive industry. This solution helps digitize and automate manufacturing processes and work more efficiently with suppliers and partners.

Aerospace & Defense

The solution allows aerospace and defense companies to reduce the time to market for innovations without compromising safety while simulating innovation scenarios along a complex value chain.

Food & Beverage

SAP PLM provides the food & beverage industry with all the required technologies that help to develop sustainable, traceable, high-quality products within a shorter time.

Consumer Goods

With SAP PLM, this industry can exceed the diverse expectations of consumers and enable sustainably and profitably growth for the business.

Pharma

SAP PLM helps to make pharmaceutical production more effective and with lower risk.

Technology Stack We Used

Leverx Group works with companies and organizations to address the complex challenges of today's business world. Each of our partners is an experienced, innovative, and proven leader in their respective fields.

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)

Mobile

  • Android (Kotlin)
  • iOS (Swift)
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Document Management

  • Document Release
  • Material Master Release and Extension
  • Sales Order Release
  • Manufacturing Instruction Release
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Request Management

  • Procurement Request
  • Tooling Change Request
  • Shop Floor Issue Request
  • Customer Issue Request
  • Plant Maintenance Work Request
  • Request for Quote

RESULTS

  • Reduced New Product Development and major customer request turn time in Engineering Services by 35%. This improvement allows information to be production ready 29 days quicker per customer order.
  • Reduced minor customer request turn time in Engineering Services by 71%
  • Reduced the average months for equipment set up in SAP to first sale by 71% (8.3 to 2.4)
  • Reduced engineering change request rework by 8%
  • Reduced engineering change requests in queue by 50% (500 to 250)
  • Improvements allow information to be production ready 32 days quicker per customer order
  • More hours available for value-added tasks like Quality, New Product Development, and customer requests - 20 people had 50% more time for priorities
  • Cost avoidance by automating PDF generation with our conversion engine, eliminating the need for 100 additional SAP licenses in manufacturing. Additional savings from the sunset of PM and PDM software.
  • DMS and PPM allow us to automate electronic purchase requisitions with workflow
  • Reduced manual entry to support customer website by using SAP material master and push to website, reducing graphic designer time by 90%
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