WAGNER Group completes template rollout in China

Transcription

1 Global SAP rollout project WAGNER Group completes template rollout in China The mechanical engineering company J. Wagner GmbH has always been globally oriented and is successfully represented on all continents. To support continued growth, WAG- NER decided to implement SAP software step by step at all companies in the Group. Therefore, a template was developed to cover the processes of the Decorative Finishing and Industrial Solutions divisions. The next step was to roll out the template at the Group s location in China. Above all, this ambitious project demanded cbs Corporate Business Solutions in-depth experience with global rollouts and extensive expertise in the complex regionspecific requirements in China.

2 About J. Wagner GmbH Headquartered in Markdorf in Baden-Württemberg (in the Lake Constance district), J. Wagner GmbH is a leading global manufacturer of technological units and systems for the surface application of wet and powder coatings as well as paints and other liquid media. The range of objects that can be coated is immense: From furniture to walls, garden fences, construction machinery, wheel rims, and cell phones there are very few objects that cannot be coated. With innovative coating technologies for the application of paints, wet coatings, powder coatings and other liquid media, WAGNER has been helping to raise the standard of surface finishes all over the world for 70 years and is a real hidden champion. Back in 1953, the company s founder Josef Wagner developed the first mass-produced airless electric paint spraying gun. Today, the WAGNER Group operates globally with approximately 1,500 employees, 17 operating companies, and around 300 sales agencies in international markets.

3 By Markus Seip, cbs Corporate Business Solutions The successful mechanical and plant engineering company J. Wagner GmbH has always been globally oriented, is successfully represented on all continents, and continues to show steady growth. Because of acquisitions in recent years, however, the company s IT landscape has grown inorganically and there is a lack of consistency between business processes in different countries. This has led to greater complexity, a lack of transparency, and a lack of comparability between entities. To support continued growth, WAGNER decided to implement SAP software step by step at all companies in the Group. Therefore, a template was developed to cover the processes of the Decorative Finishing and Industrial Solutions divisions. The next step was to roll out the template at the Group s location in China. Above all, this ambitious project demanded cbs Corporate Business Solutions in-depth experience with global rollouts and expertise in the complex regionspecific requirements in China. This included specific reporting and the Golden Tax system. Global strategy with transparent processes The internationally positioned WAGNER Group shows significant growth worldwide. Revenue continues to grow in the USA as well as in South America and Asia. Transparency is imperative for any organization that wants to continue to grow. Without standardized IT and comprehensive, harmonized processes, the growth strategy cannot be implemented. Because of acquisitions in recent years, however, the company s IT landscape has grown inorganically and currently consists of a mixture of SAP and non-sap systems. There is a lack of consistency between business processes in different countries. This results in high maintenance costs and makes it much more difficult to manage and control individual entities. Markus Moßmann, Group CIO at WAGNER: Our objective was therefore to reduce complexity, establish harmonized processes in the company, and achieve a globally consistent IT landscape. Up to three rollouts in parallel per year WAGNER management has decided to introduce SAP at all locations in the coming years. At certain times during 2016, up to three SAP rollouts were taking place in parallel. WAGNER also wanted to reduce the duration of rollouts and standardize processes at all locations. To do this, it needed to define a template that covered all business processes of the Decorative Finishing and Industrial Solutions divisions at WAGNER. Deviations from the processes described in the template should only be allowed in the case of different local legal

4 requirements. The aim was to use this template to reduce the duration of a rollout to four or five months. The template was to contain detailed visual process descriptions, user documentation, a Customizing cookbook, and test definitions for the 70 to 80 most important WAGNER business processes. This documentation reduces the effort required during the rollout to determine which processes are relevant for the entity in question. The only thing left to do is to align these with the respective legal requirements in the rollout country. This also had to be taken into consideration at Wagner Spraytech (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. The rollout in China was a strategically important project for WAGNER since it represented the starting point and the prototype for the template rollout in other regions and continents. Stefanie Stiefel, Director IT Applications: The particular challenge we faced in the China rollout was to reconcile a global SAP template with the complex local requirements in this region. Deployment of local China specialists The first step was to establish efficient template processes in the Decorative Finishing and Industrial Solutions WAGNER divisions (with the consumer, contractor, and industry sectors) based on the current processes at the central locations in Markdorf and Altstätten. These were then coordinated across sectors with the business process owners. The next step was to define the processes relevant for China. Implementing SAP in a country of 1.3 billion inhabitants is a special challenge. China has its own requirements for accounting (Chinese GAAP) and required legal reporting. A Golden Tax solution with an interface to the SAP ERP system must be available. Reports and documents to Chinese business partners must exist in the Simplified Chinese language. There are considerable language and cultural differences between Europe and China, which is why deploying local specialists can help. When it came to defining the relevant processes for China, the main issues were how to avoid implementation problems resulting from local requirements and

5 how to take differences between standard SAP functions and local legal and business requirements into consideration. A special fitgap workshop on aligning current processes with legal requirements was held and training was organized for WAGNER key users. To make matters more complicated, the training took place in the local language. In the end, the relevant process owners were responsible for accepting the defined business processes. Several test cycles were run before the data was transferred to the new system on-site by the local entities. Data was migrated from the (non-sap) legacy system using the Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW). cbs provided go-live support and after-go-live support through local consultants. M-cbs methodology as a project turbo boost The tried-and-tested M-cbs methodology was used in the complex project. This approach developed by cbs ensures a dedicated focus on each process and phase and allows global rollout projects to be mastered and managed cost-effectively. In this case, the methodology facilitated the creation of the project plan, process lists, key user documentation, and open issues list. The rollout project was accelerated significantly thanks to M-cbs, and the new template was established within just four months. It comprises the Sales and Distribution (SD), Materials Management (MM), Production Planning and Control (PP), Project System (PS), Warehouse Management (WM), Quality Management (QM), Financial Accounting (FI), and Controlling (CO) modules. The template offers a modular

6 system that contains a defined set of global business processes, process variants, and encapsulated processes that have been implemented successfully in Europe for different business models. WAGNER now has an SAP template that is tailored specifically to the company s requirements. It consists of a global template with SAP standards for processes, master data, and reporting as well as specific, enterprise-wide WAGNER definitions. Standardized and proven processes The SAP ERP system was up and running for the WAGNER company in Shanghai right from day one. Stefanie Stiefel, Director IT Applications: The China rollout shows that it is worth collaborating with partners who have special expertise in the target region. Failing to do so could result in significant additional effort in the commercialization phase following the rollout, which was avoided in this case. WAGNER has reached an important initial milestone. Thanks to standardized and proven processes, we can now manage our growing business in China more effectively than before. The new standardized SAP solution enables us to compare key figures generated in China worldwide, explains Stefanie Stiefel. This has enabled WAGNER to make considerable headway in its ambitious project to deploy one SAP ERP system worldwide that uses harmonized data and standardized processes. The company has also

7 taken a step forward in terms of IT governance. IT will be easier to manage in the future and IT processes will be aligned more consistently with the company s strategy. However, China is only the starting point for the global rollout strategy. WAGNER now has a solid basis for integrating further international subsidiaries into the SAP strategy. The project will be continued using tried-and-tested methods and additional template rollouts are planned. The next project at the Denver and Chicago locations in the USA has already been launched. Manager Markus Seip is responsible for M-cbs project management at cbs Corporate Business Solutions GmbH.

8 cbs Corporate Business Solutions The Materna Group Management Consultancy Im Breitspiel Heidelberg - Germany P contact@cbs-consulting.com