About SWISS KRONO
SWISS KRONO is a family-owned enterprise engaged in the wood-based materials sector, producing items for timber construction, furniture, and interior design, as well as laminate flooring across eight countries, employing over 5,000 individuals. In the context of the global S/4HANA implementation at SWISS KRONO, which aimed at the standardization and optimization of master data, the company sought assistance from msg to explore methods for standardizing and streamlining the maintenance processes within the existing variant configuration framework.
Challenge
SWISS KRONO works with a wide range of products, most of which are produced to stock. Consequently, SWISS KRONO extensively utilizes material variants. The process was highly intricate and demanded significant resources, as the data required manual enrichment outside of the ERP system prior to the creation of the material variants. Afterwards, it was also necessary to execute several steps manually in SAP to ensure the functionality in the production process. SWISS KRONO primarily leveraged the benefits of variant configuration in R/3 through the use of configurable BOMs and routings, while the use of object dependencies for interactive configuration was somewhat limited.
This scenario led to two significant goals: First, to devise a solution that would greatly simplify the process of creating new material variants while also accommodating complex logic such as the derivation of texts and variable fields in the material master. Second, there was a need to expand the object dependencies for interactive configuration, thereby transferring the expertise that was previously confined to specialists directly into the S/4HANA system. A primary goal of SWISS KRONO was to guarantee that this knowledge could subsequently be accessed and maintained within S/4HANA by personnel from the specialist departments
Solution
In relation to the material variant system, a decision was reached to collaboratively develop the new msg.Variant Create add-on, aimed at providing a cost-effective solution for SWISS KRONO. The pilot project for material variant generation was rolled out in 2020, coinciding with the initial S/4HANA rollout at the Swiss subsidiary. The willingness to innovate, along with the consistent and effective technical collaboration with SWISS KRONO, played a crucial role in achieving success in this endeavor. The productive use within the Swiss subsidiary has thoroughly validated the accomplishment of the established objectives, leading to the decision to extend the solution to all other units as part of the S/4HANA rollout.
msg.Variant Create facilitates the automatic creation of a new material from different contexts:
- From the interactive configuration in the sales order
- In the background by using a BOM component
- Via mass creation using a simple Excel file
The control of material variant creation is highly flexible, allowing SWISS KRONO to independently control key parameters. These include:
- Text generation on the basis of the characteristic value assignment
- Variable valuation of the material master fields
- Creation of production master data
The process flow can be customized and expanded by the customer to incorporate specific functionalities through simple interfaces. For SWISS KRONO, the process flow was collaboratively designed during a workshop and implemented within the system. Consequently, material variants for SWISS KRONO are created through a lean process that does not require IT involvement. However, quality is maintained through a predefined set of rules and an approval workflow managed by the relevant specialist departments. To simplify the objective dependencies, SWISS KRONO employs the msg.Variant Master Data add-on, a solution that has gained traction among numerous clients. The extensive consulting provided during the implementation phase has further validated the favorable experiences that SWISS KRONO has encountered with this add-on thus far.
msg.Variant Master Data enables the storage of object dependency rules in straightforward tables, which can be easily accessed and managed without the necessity of comprehending the intricate syntax associated with variant configuration. Maintenance can be controlled using a cockpit or directly from the SAP modeling environment as an overview. The maintenance process is conducted intuitively using ALV table maintenance, either in dialog mode or by importing data from suitably formatted Excel tables. Experience at SWISS KRONO indicates that, following a brief introduction, employees within the department can effectively comprehend and interpret these rules, enabling them to submit more accurate support requests or modify the rules independently.
Benefits
The add-ons have now been implemented across all four locations within the S/4HANA environment, resulting in the generation of over 500 new material variants each month. The implemented msg solutions ensure that the time needed to create a material variant with complete functionality across all processes and validations consistently requires less than 15 minutes, as opposed to the previous duration of up to one hour. This results in a reduction of 2 full-time equivalents (FTEs), allowing a compact central team of 3 employees to effectively oversee the management of product master data support.
The unnecessary duplication of expert knowledge for variant configuration across individual plants is no longer required. At the same time, the quality of the material master data has improved, as the rules stored during the creation process minimize the need for manual interventions. This development also leads to a reduced support workload for the master data team.
