From ECC to S/4HANA in Seven Months: Follow-the-Sun Delivery and Risk Controls for Discrete Manufacturing Programs
ERP IT SAP Delivery Manager/ERP Digital Transformation COE/ BTP COE / Gen AI – USA.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2023, 17(01), 1416–1426
Publication history:
Received on 04 December 2022; revised on 21 January 2023; accepted on 28 January 2023
Abstract:
The accelerating pace of digital transformation programs in discrete manufacturing around the world has motivated organizations to undertake ambitious plans on how to implement their migration of the old SAP ECC systems on SAP S/4HANA. Although there are intrinsic complexities of enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernisation (for example, data harmonisation and process re-design) companies are escalating demands on accelerated deliveries. The paper analyses an actual seven months SAP S/4HANA transformation initiative that was implemented based on a follow-the-sun delivery model in conjunction to constrained manufacturing setting risk-control frameworks. Traditionally, manufacturing companies had developed their SAP ECC landscapes over several decades, which has led to extremely customized landscapes, ineffective interfaces, fragmented master data, and patchy level plant extensions. Migration to S/4HANA also demands technical conversion and a complete overhaul of core business processes with new digital options including embedded analytics, universal journal, Fiori UX, predictive MRP, and advanced ATP. It becomes very difficult to squeeze all this into a period of seven months. What this paper can bring is a description of an effective strategy of implementing massive change in the process of a limited delivery timeframe, without compromising quality, compliance, and stability. The following multilayer approach is introduced in this paper: (i) fast track preparedness test, (ii) stringent design time-boxing, (iii) agile-waterfall combined governance, (iv) 24 round-the-clock international follow-the-sun delivery model, (v) automated testing and migration accelerators, and (vi) risk-control mechanisms that are specifically aligned with the discrete manufacturing value chain, which are: procurement, production implementation, quality, warehousing, and logistics. Besides that, the research establishes how the distribution of global delivery centers spread in North America, EMEA, and APAC facilitated the uninterrupted continuity of development, testing, and migrating data activities without enlarging the calendar period. Findings depict that the accelerated version shortened the average timeframe of ECC to S/4HANA conversion between 14 and 18 months to 7 months without jeopardizing the stability of the system. The major success measures were 98.4 percent defect closure prior to UAT, 93 percent automation of regression tests cases, and almost zero cutover downtime. Moreover, the committed risk-control architecture allowed overcoming the significant schedule slip, and risk early identification cut the rework by 37 percent. The paper ends with the implementation recommendations, the lessons gained, and a generalized framework that can be expanded to other manufacturing organizations by seeking to undertake a fast S/4HANA transformation.
Keywords:
SAP S/4HANA; ECC Migration; Discrete Manufacturing; Follow-the-Sun Delivery; Risk Controls; ERP Transformation; Accelerated Deployment; Agile Delivery; Global Template; Data Migration; SAP Activate
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Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0