Industry: Manufacturing
Case Study
A leading manufacturer of health and beauty products improves work order collaboration to reduce costs iGATE Patni helps a leading manufacturer of health and beauty products implement a SAP SNC solution to automate work order collaboration, gain better supply chain visibility, and reduce costs
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The Client The client is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of health and beauty products and kitchen and electronic appliances. Since its founding in 1959, it has become a leading manufacturer of nationally branded personal and health care appliances. Today, its divisions are among the most recognized and respected brands in small kitchen appliances and cookware.
The Challenge
which was time consuming and error prone and
The client has manufacturing units spread
instance, frequent changes to PO (Purchase
across the US, Canada and Costa Rica, but
Orders) lines had to be handled manually as the
sources majority of its products from contract
OTS system wasn’t designed to handle this
manufacturers located in the Far East. It uses
aspect. The OTS system maintained its own
the SAP ERP platform as its backbone along
product hierarchy data which was not in sync
with add-ons such as SAP Advanced Planner
with
and
Customer
dual-maintenance of data both in the SAP as well
Relationship Management (CRM), and Business
as OTS environments resulting in the duplication
Information Warehouse (BW) and other central
of efforts. This, in turn, not only raised operating
modules such as the Order Tracking System
costs substantially but also provided inaccurate
(OTS) for reporting on the status of purchase
reporting statistics. The OTS was also unable to
orders,
track shipments from the vendor location in
Optimizer
(SAP
often led to delays in the visibility of orders. For
APO),
production,
consignments.
The
and
version.
This
necessitated
China to the docks in the old system, hampering
developed by an external consulting firm in
planning efficiency at the client’s side. In order
the mid 1990s. Initially, the consulting firm
to improve their Global Supply Chain information
provided maintenance support and required
flow and lower the cost and risk of maintaining
application enhancements till it went out of
multiple software platforms, the client proposed
business.
to replace the existing OTS system with the SAP
the
module
SAP
was
Thereafter,
OTS
shipping
the
system
faced
numerous maintenance issues resulting in
SNC 5.1 solution.
high operating costs, and reduced scope for enhancements.
Increasing
business
complexity added to the clients woes as the existing system found it difficult to meet
The Solution
business expectations.
iGATE
Patni
recommended
a
one-week
assessment phase to analyze key issues faced
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The OTS did not allow seamless flow of
by the client’s supply chain and propose
information to the SAP environment and
solution options to meet the clients business
thereby hampered the ability of the SAP
and IT requirements. A consulting team from
Business Information Warehouse (BW) solution
iGATE
to gather and analyze all types of statistical
understand the requirements and also discuss
information. Additionally, the existing OTS
strategies to improve its sales and distribution
system depended on manual entry of data,
planning. These meetings focused on:
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Patni
initially
met
the
client
to
Improving competitive advantage by making
iGATE Patni was able to demonstrate how the
the supply chain more agile, responsive and
solution will operate in an actual business
adaptive
environment.
Improving Supply Chain KPIs.
The roadmap for the implementation of the proposed solution extended across all the
The primary focus of this assessment was to find
client’s supply chain locations and covered
an alternative to the ‘Order Tracking System’
aspects like schedule, cost, and scope. It also
(OTS). iGATE Patni proposed a full server
included
installation of the SAP SCM 5.1 solution with a
improvements in the client’s supply chain
planned usage of the SNC module.
ecosystem based on iGATE Patni’s Assessment
a
list
of
opportunities
for
Discovery initiative. A train-the-trainer approach The assessment was followed by a high level
was adopted to train contract manufacturers to
roadmap covering and prioritizing opportunities
improve asset building and engage in practical
for the client. iGATE Patni ensured that its solution
hands-on activities. Before the go-live stage, the
facilitated standardization of the client’s IT
OTS as well as the SAP SNC solution was run in
architecture as well as addressed its need for
parallel for three months to acquaint users with
information visibility across the supply chain
the new system while ensuring unhindered
including contract manufacturers in the Far East.
business operations.
The solution ensured transparency over:
Status of finished goods inventory at the
The Benefits
vendor’s site
Interim status of goods being manufactured by vendors
IT organization with a single integrated software environment to the client with an extended
Near real-time reporting to the client to enable planning
The partnership with iGATE Patni provided a lean
visibility into inventory details and requirements from its manufacturers. The client was able to leverage existing investment in SAP software to drastically improve response time from vendors,
Support phase out of the existing OTS
gain better supply chain visibility, and reduce
system
operating costs through increased efficiency.
iGATE Patni was involved in the complete end-to-end implementation lifecycle of the SNC
Other benefits to the client include:
solution spanning stages such as development,
Reduction in the number of expedited shipments
testing, end-user training, piloting, and finally go-live. It demonstrated the ability of the
Elimination of third-party services that gave
selected solution to meet the client’s critical
key manufacturers electronic access to the
requirements by means of an unconventional
client’s purchase orders
simulated pilot/proof-of-concept over and above SAP’s ASAP (Accelerated SAP) implementation methodology. With the aid of the prototype,
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Increase in productivity and elimination of the need for dual data entry by automating work order collaboration
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Better visibility into and improved accuracy of supply chain information Integrated quality control processes to centralize information and streamline shipping logistics Single master databases by enabling SAP as the system of reference.
The Technology
SAP SCM SNC 5.1, 7.0
SAP R3 4.5b
DB2
AS/400
About iGATE Patni iGATE Patni is an US $1 billion organization, providing full-spectrum consulting, technology and business process outsourcing services differentiated by a Business Outcomes-based business model. Our philosophy of “Accountable for Clients’ Business” driven by iTOPS (Integrated Technology and Operations) platform has helped iGATE Patni to provide effective solutions to over 350 Fortune 1000 clients globally, across verticals like: Insurance & Healthcare, Life Sciences; Banking & Financial Services; Manufacturing, Retail, Logistics & Distribution; Communications, Energy & Utilities; Media, Entertainment, Leisure, Travel; Product Engineering Services and Independent Software Vendors. Armed with global talent; an employee strength of about 25,000; a mature global delivery model with delivery centers spanning the Ameri cas, Europe- Middle East-Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific; iGATE Patni is large enough to be resourceful and small enough to be flexible.
iGATE Patni is the brand name of the iGATE Group Companies comprising iGATE Corporation and its subsidiaries including Patni Computer Systems Limited. 4 of 4
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