From Microsoft Navision to S/4HANA
Customer: Pöppelmann GmbH & Co. KG
Project duration: 1,5 Years
Our customer:
Poeppelmann is an international plastics company with over 2,500 employees specializing in high-quality plastic solutions. The KAPSTO division produces protective solutions such as caps and plugs for production, storage and transportation.
Initial situation:
The overall SAP implementation project is realized in several waves. For the “MACH3” phase, Varelmann supported Poeppelmann's in-house SAP team as a “co-pilot consultant”, as the customer was looking for selective consulting instead of full-time support. Poeppelmann's in-house consulting team led the project, while Varelmann and HPC provided selective assistance.
The consulting support enabled Poeppelmann to make optimum use of its existing internal resources while benefiting from the in-depth SAP expertise of the partners.
The objectives included to optimize processes, reduce value creation barriers and implementing a functional intercompany process between the KAPSTO and K-Tech divisions.
What has HPC achieved?
Varelmann was responsible for the ERP part of the project, while partner HPC was managed the EWM sub-project. Thanks to an agile project methodology with defined sprints and close cooperation between Poeppelmann's strong internal consulting team and the external consultants from Varelmann and HPC, the template was successfully rolled out on schedule.
HPC contributed the following points in EWM:
- Carrying out a Fit-GAP analysis regarding the existing template.
- Defined necessary adaptations and developments.
- Managed and supported the following sub-areas:
- Goods receipt
- Production supply
- Goods issue
- Transport planning
- Inventory
- Internal goods movements
- Executed sprints for individual process steps.
- Planned the rollout for future divisions.
- Provided go-live support.
What advantages does our customer have?
The project was completed within 1.5 years and the KAPSTO division went live over the Pentecost holidays at the end of May 2023. The implementation of SAP S/4HANA at Poeppelmann KAPSTO in Germany and across several sales offices in Europe led to a significant optimization of business processes. All existing KAPSTO processes were successfully integrated into the template, deliveringa future-proof ERP solution.
What were the challenges?
Poeppelmann faced the challenge of implementing a new ERP system worldwide. An existing SAP S/4HANA template was to be extended to the KAPSTO division, taking into account the division's specific product processes. During a fit-gap analysis phase, approximately 500 gaps were identified that needed to be addressed during the implementation.
Expertise was particularly required in the areas of sales, production and development. In addition, Poeppelmann needed particular support with project coordination and Extended Warehouse Management (EWM). A unique challenge was the project launch during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that a large part of the work was initially carried out remotely.
Outlook
The project team of around 40 people worked closely and with mutual trust, which was a key factor in the project's success. Additional success factors included a a highly structured approach and the targeted use of agile methods. This required particularly close cooperation and effective coordination between the teams.
