Industry Case Studies, Food and CPG

Inventory Management: Taming SAP Data Entry with Mobile Solutions

Background:
A Fortune 500 manufacturer of Food and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) needed to replace a legacy finished goods production and management application, which was unsupportable with a new application that provided the same capabilities and which interfaced with their ERP system.

Situation:
The client was using a legacy application to perform finished goods production, product tracking, product traceability, production management, inventory management, and various shipping activities. The system was at the end of its lifecycle and was unsupportable. The client decided to replace this legacy application with a new application which provided the same capabilities and which interfaced with their ERP system.

The client knew that if they simply eliminated the legacy system it would create several key challenges including a significant increase in manual activities and an elevated risk of errors. The client needed a simple, up-to-date, cost-effective solution that would provide the same capabilities as their legacy system, would interface with their ERP system, and would be able to be deployed across several the client's plants.

Solution:
Since the client was using SAP as their ERP system, the straightforward solution was to provide a new application, which employed SAP components and interfaced directly into SAP. The solution incorporated an RF-based mobile data entry application to facilitate the near-real-time data entry of shop floor data directly into SAP via SAPConsole. The wireless application on SAPConsole was then integrated into the client's corporate SAP environment and their existing network infrastructure. Another aspect of this solution was the incorporation of barcode Print & Apply solutions.

Benefits:
This solution allowed the client to eliminate a legacy system which was unsupportable and provide a new application that was very simple and easy to use and which promoted their overall corporate application strategy centered around SAP and SAP integration.

Switching to the SAP Mobile Data Entry solution has provided the client with significant operational savings, which have already been achieved in the first year of operation. Furthermore, the new solution has all but eliminated the on-going support costs and is fully and completely supportable into the foreseeable future.