Fujitsu and SAP Japan collaborate on new solution
Fujitsu has launched a SAP solution designed to improve efficiency of operations including estimating specifications, arranging materials after receiving orders and issuing production orders.
Fujitsu Application for ETO on SAP Cloud Platform is specifically targeted towards manufacturers receiving orders for individual specification products.
According to Fujitsu, the solution reduces production lead time while enabling prompt information sharing of specification changes among sales, design, and manufacturing departments.
It features minimal master operation to enable production and parts information to be estimated and arranged even when it's not registered as master data, a navigator that aggregates essential business information, and a configurator that can determine the consistency of specification combinations during the sales process, the company states.
As such, Fujitsu says the new solution alleviates the burden and shortens the cycle of estimating and arranging work.
Fujitsu will continue to provide solutions for the manufacturing industry to support the digital business of manufacturing customers worldwide, the company wrote in a statement.
On the demand for the product, Fujitsu says BOM information required for manufacturing must be registered in the system in advance as master information for quoting, instructing on the manufacturing floor, and ordering materials.
In the case of individual specification product manufacturers, since their products will have individual specifications for each order, the number of master registrations of product configurations can range from several hundred to several thousand a month.
This has led to problems such as delays in actual work on-site due to registration lead times, Fujitsu says.
In addition, since specification changes occur frequently after orders are placed, it's necessary to maintain consistent specification combinations and ensure that such changes are communicated to the design and manufacturing departments. This also casts a burden on manufacturing sites where workers have to reflect such changes on bills in the system for each business.
In April 2019, Fujitsu began collaboration with SAP Japan and have developed solutions that extend the functionality of standard SAP applications on SAP Cloud Platform to further improve the implementation efficiency of related solutions.
This solution will be the first service from Fujitsu to industries under such cooperation, now being offered to manufacturing customers with Individual specification products.
The new solution offers the functionality to improve on-site system usability utilising the standard function of SAP S/4 HANA, on the SAP Cloud Platform.
Furthermore, this 'SAP Cloud Platform' development method minimises the impact of upgrading 'SAP S/4 HANA', Fujitsu writes.
Key features, according to Fujitsu, are as follows.
Enabling shorter manufacturing lead time with minimal master operation:
The sales management system normally requires information such as products and parts to be registered on the master at the time of invoice registration (quotations and orders), but this solution can register invoices without prior master registration.
This reduces the number of man-hours required for master registration and maintenance of individual specification products. Moreover, it shortens the manufacturing lead time by accelerating the communication process between departments including sales, production management, manufacturing, and procurement, which had to wait until the master registration had been completed.
Minimise operations with navigator consolidating key business information on one screen:
A navigator which displays order information on a single screen for individually specified product configurations, such as procured materials and instructions to factories, makes it possible to quickly check comprehensive information and register various business information.
This improves the efficiency of complicated bill operations, which previously required several hundred to several 1,000 screens to be activated and switched per day, and contributes to reducing the burden of fieldwork.
In addition, even if the specifications are not finalised, it is possible to procure the parts that have been finalised or to arrange to manufacture, thereby reducing the lead time required for the provision of individual specifications.
Configurator that enables consistent specification combinations during the sales process:
For some individual specification product manufacturers, customers' requirements are met by a combination of pre-set specifications and options. In this case, it is very effective to operate the configurator function which systematically determines the consistency of the combination of specifications and options to realise individual specification estimation during the sales process.
However, since the constraints and rules for combinations of specifications and options are enormous and complex, the master operation to utilise the configurator function can be very time-consuming.
This solution can determine the consistent combination of specifications and options at the time of estimation, reducing the number of man-hours for communication with the design department and dramatically improving operations by utilising excel tools for master registration and maintenance.
The solution will be available from December 23, 2019.
