sapinfo.net
April 9, 2000
From SAP R/2 to Variant Configuration to SAP R/3:
(09/04/2000) Extremely short reaction times for manufacturing tailor-made polyester fibers are what mark the day-to-day business of the JohnsManville subsidiary in Bobingen. Consequently, the company has to find ways of optimizing its variant-rich production. By replacing its old non-standard R/2 system with an SAP R/3 4.0 system, it has managed to do just that. A master bill of material (BOM) now means that customer-specific requirements can to a large extent be mapped in the standard R/3 system.
Customer orientation and fast reaction times are the top priority at JohnsManville (JM) in Bobingen. In January 1999, the JohnsManville group bought into the former Hoechst subsidiary Trevira in Bobingen near Augsburg and in Berlin. JM is a US global player, and manufactures high-tech building materials, fibers and industrial fabrics. In the company's "monofilaments" division, polyester monofilaments are manufactured in various thicknesses, profiles and colors - in accordance with customer requirements. A second "spunbonds" division manufactures polyester materials which are used in the construction industry and for filtration.
More aggressive global competition resulted in increasing pricing pressure on the markets for both these products. It was against this backdrop that the group decided to migrate from SAP R/2 to R/3. Peter Podraza, IT Manager of JohnsManville Europe outlines the requirements that the migration project had to satisfy: "The aim of the project was to implement an R/3 environment that was as close to the standard as possible, and could be used for a Europe-wide rollout strategy." In addition to this, variant configuration functionality had to be set up in the new R/3 system, as did accounting functionality that conformed both to US-GAAP principles and to the German Commercial Code (HGB). The project deadline was December 21, 1999 - the date on which the new R/3 system was to replace the old R/2 system and another legacy system.
Standardizing the Non-Standard
The Bobingen site had been using SAP R/2 since 1990. Numerous custom developments - mainly for sales group processing and shipping - meant that around 80 percent of the system's functionality was non-standard. By switching to R/3, JohnsManville also aimed at achieving a return to the SAP standard.
The migration project in Bobingen was, in effect, a pilot project since JohnsManville planned to phase in SAP R/3 gradually at all of its European sites. This meant that the future complex structure of the entire corporate group also had to be taken into account in all aspects of the project.
Project Based on AcceleratedSAP
The project itself was planned and implemented using AcceleratedSAP (ASAP). Since the time frame was so tight, some of the individual project phases overlapped. Early prototyping meant that the key users could familiarize themselves with the future R/3 processes shortly after the project began. The data migration phase was also started early on in the project.
In the first part of the project, the R/3 Plant Maintenance (PM), Investment Management (IM), Project System (PS) and Financial Accounting (FI) modules were implemented. Preparations were also made for implementing Europe-wide reporting functionality, as well as the Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) and Quality Management (QM) modules.
Variant Configuration Ensures Consistently High Quality
Custom-made products are the key in the "monofilaments" division. Some 95 percent of the polyester monofilaments ordered are not taken from stock, but are configured on the spot - new thicknesses, lengths, profiles and colors are always being introduced. The lot number, which provides manufacturing instructions, is selected when the sales order is entered. This ensures consistently high quality, for example, with regard to the abrasion resistance of the monofilaments that are woven together to make the mesh belts for manufacturing paper. This task is performed using the SAP R/3 Variant Configuration functionality. "The sales group processing activities in R/2 had to be converted so that they could be used in R/3 Variant Configuration," explains Hans-Jürgen Olbricht, CEO of OSCo.
Since there is no procedure in SAP R/3 for converting sales groups into characteristics, or models into classes, JM got together with implementation partner OSCo and developed a tailor-made solution for the project. Individual customer requests are entered in a Technical Requirements Profile (TRP) - this means that product characteristics can be generated and used to map customer requests in Variant Configuration.
Customer-Specific Requests
An imaginary "ideal product" was defined at JM. This ideal product comprises all conceivable customer specifications. The individual components and manufacturing guidelines are stored in a "super structure." This ensures that every customer request can be entered and mapped in the system. To ensure that the customer-specific product can be manufactured, JM uses SAP user exits to represent deviations from the ideal product in configuration. This means that maintaining the appropriate master data no longer poses a major challenge. Plans have also been drawn up to use mySAP.com to automate the business processes in the business-to-business sector.
Flexible Method for Universal Processing
Since Handling Unit Management functionality is only available as of SAP R/3 Release 4.6, a special add-on was developed for processing the shipping of packages in R/3 4.0. This enables JM to handle mixed pallets with different batches and materials - even in other areas. JM has taken advantage of this, and uses this option universally for the entire material flow - from production to distribution warehouses and consignment stores. The company also plans to implement the standard R/3 functionality for managing returnable packaging (spools).
Another challenge that the project team had to face was package management. On the one hand, data from the legacy system had to be imported into the new system. On the other hand, the team members had to bear in mind that the data would be used in other areas of the corporate group as well. This meant that a data basis had to be created which would support the business processes both in the existing custom solution and in the new R/3 system. The procedure chosen centered around batch classification and the passing on of batch characteristics to LIS (Logistics Information System).This meant that additional custom developments could be kept to a minimum.
Make-to-Order or Collective Manufacturing?
In an analysis of the business processes in the filtration materials division, it became clear early on that neither make-to-order production nor standard production could be processed on the basis of unique product descriptions. For this reason, procedures for standardizing packaging descriptions were developed for the data transfer.
One of these was a special reporting procedure that
supports process order processing and manual material
planning. Company-specific dialogs were mapped in
Variant Configuration - this way, the follow-on processing
activities were kept within the SAP standard.
Even though the Bobingen project also had to address requirements that applied to the entire Europe-wide rollout, the project team managed to transfer most of the old process chains into the standard R/3 4.0B system in just seven months. Peter Podraza describes the challenge: "We had to satisfy a range of seemingly contradictory requirements all at the same time." When the project kicked off, it looked as though it would only be possible to get an overview of the requirements for the new system when the company was incorporated into the JM group - that is, from the start of 1999 on. On the other hand, it was absolutely essential that the new system should go live for the 1999/2000 changeover.
In accordance with American corporate management strategy, the production, sales and service companies are managed separately in the new system. It was also possible to map the resulting cross-company-code business processes in Logistics and Accounting (with the requirements of a customer consignment procedure combined with make-to-order production) almost entirely in the standard R/3 system.
Go-Ahead for Europe-Wide Rollout
Now that the Bobingen implementation project has been completed and tested, JM plans to work together with OSCo and implement R/3 at other sites. Peter Podraza explains the next steps: "At the start of the year, we started implementing R/3 at the glass fiber plant in Wertheim, and other European sites will follow."