By Fujitsu’s Matt Hobson
As a child I played with Lego. I would spend hours crossed legged on the carpet, tongue hanging out following the instructions to build the latest spaceship that my parents had bought me for my birthday. Some of the creations took minutes, some hours but once complete I could escape into another universe.
Building a Lego spaceship however is literally child’s play compared to the complex engineering to order processes of our customers. They face several challenges, including frequent and ongoing design changes not only before production starts but during the process. From tracking of the purchase order and production order status related to the finished goods, to lack of a standard Bill of Material as development and design only takes place after the order is received.
This can create dissatisfaction, delays, and ultimately additional cost.
The Fujitsu Application for SAP Solutions Mass Customisation (available on the SAP Store) is a solution designed to meet complex business operations in manufacturing, across Configure to Order, Make to Order and Engineering to Order (ETO). The solution provides users with the ability to streamline business operation and improve usability by integrating unique value-added features from Fujitsu and the capabilities of SAP S/4HANA.
It also allows for the standardisation of ETO operations and processes globally, developing a model plant template which can integrate with SAP S/4HANA via the SAP Business Technology Platform and support the concept of keeping the S/4HANA core clean. Driven from a Fiori front end it is also real time, allowing the data such as purchase order lines in S/4HANA to be viewed directly.
This solution is built by Fujitsu based on our manufacturing heritage and industry experience already in use by global manufacturing companies. We can bring that expertise to the benefit of our customers.
By creating a Bill of Material with a fixed specification as soon as the order is finalised, this confirms the order progress and analyses impact from design changes in a single application. This enables a stress-free front end business operation which removes complicated communication and co-ordination across the business.
Furthermore, to reduce operation overheads, minimum master data information is required for the custom-made products and the material master is interfaced automatically to S/4HANA, simplifying complex master registration operations. Improving the efficiency of master data maintenance using the configurator function reduces the workload on front-end operations and enables optimisation of master data with complex constraints and conditions.
So, whether you are building spaceships, marine diesel engines or high-tech electrical equipment, make ETO child’s play again with the Fujitsu Application for SAP Solutions Mass Customisation. This solution is built on the SAP business technology platform to meet the requirements for complex operations in Engineering to Order.
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