Many businesses today are looking for efficient inventory management to improve supply chains, minimize operational costs, and enhance stock visibility. For organizations that are managing fast-paced sector operations such as EV, customized digital solutions are required to achieve operational agility and competitiveness. This blog unveils how ERPROOTS overcame the limitations of SAP EWM by devising a strategic custom inventory management solution in SAP ECC for an EV division.
What is SAP inventory management?
SAP Inventory management is a solution for tracking, controlling, and optimizing the storage and movement of goods within a business, ensuring the right quantity of products is available at the right time and place.
What purpose did the client aim to fulfill in EV inventory management?
The client’s main requirement was to do faster implementation and deployment with a cost-effective SAP solution and with cheaper operational expenses. So, they chose a fully customized SAP inventory management solution over SAP EWM to track and manage inventory more efficiently while optimizing the supply chain (SCM) for their EV division by creating a customized system in SAP ECC.
How did our custom SAP inventory management solution transform EV operations?
The SAP solution chosen by the client covered all the inventory processes, including the QR label printing process for product details, the picking process, the putaway process, and the stock tracking process, using custom programs and SAP inventory transaction codes. The putaway and picking processes can be integrated in the RF gun and made accessible on mobile devices/tabs for enhanced user-friendliness and visibility. The implementation of the custom SAP inventory management solution followed a careful process to ensure efficiency and alignment with company requirements.
The main steps of this method were as follows:
Feasibility and POC for the requirement
Proposal of Solution Document
Phase-by-Phase Development
Proper Functional Testing
Go-live
What SAP implementations were integrated to optimize EV inventory workflows?
QR Label Generation for materials using SAP Forms.
RF Gun Interface Design for the Put away process via Module Pool Programming.
Fiori Tile Development for Picking, optimized for mobile and tablet devices.
Streamlining inventory management with QR labeling, putaway, picking, and movement types
What challenges did the client face in EV inventory management?
Complex Development & Maintenance
Effective inventory management includes custom-built systems, seamless integrations, and ongoing updates to match changing company needs, which were ensured and verified with the customer discussing the further continuing developments and needs.
Real-time management and Visibility Issues
Ensured with the customer to maintain and validate the actual data that matches with the real-time processes and to reduce the manual operations that cause data mismatch.
Scalability and Maintenance Challenges
System performance, data accuracy, and integrations were ensured from the developer end without affecting the data loss.
Increased Development & Maintenance Efforts
As processes got widened, the development of programs was continuously increasing but managed and matched the business requirements.
QR Code Generation & Scanning Issues
Label printing processes are dependent on the printer device, which should be changed according to the print. The QR and scanning product via HTML services were opted for as a better solution.
What were the results of implementing the custom SAP inventory management solution?
Achieved 100% compliance with industrial standards with 0% data loss.
Key Potential Outcomes
Cost savings and faster implementation:
Avoids the expensive licensing and implementation expenses of SAP EWM, allowing for faster deployment adapted to business needs.
Enhanced Control and Flexibility:
Custom-built systems provide complete control over picking, put away, and QR-based material tracking without relying on typical EWM configurations.
Seamless Integration with SAP Modules:
Coordinates with the MM, SD, and PP modules to maintain correct stock visibility and inventory adjustments.
User-Friendly and Simplified Operations:
Custom T-codes optimize warehouse procedures, decreasing complexity and increasing user adoption through role-specific functionality.
Scalability for Future Enhancements:
The system may be enhanced with more automation, reporting, and analytics as company needs change without requiring significant reconfiguration.
Wrapping Up
The custom SAP inventory management solution developed by ERPROOTS, with the expertise of professionals and a systematic approach, has effectively helped the company to manage the EV division. This resulted in significant cost reductions, improved operational efficiency, real-time inventory management, and easy interaction with SAP modules for their business. The SAP solution is flexible and scalable, streamlining warehouse procedures and delivering long-term value to stakeholders. Ready to optimize your warehouse and cut costs? Connect with our SAP experts today to enhance your inventory operations.
Authored by
Sakthivel V.T
Sakthivel is Vice President - SAP Technology at ERPROOTS Pvt. Ltd., with over 17 years of experience in SAP ECC ABAP and S/4 HANA ABAP programming in on-premise and cloud environments. He is experienced in implementation, support, and upgrade projects across various industry sectors such as automobile, steel, product industry, banking, and the energy sector. He has deep knowledge in solution designing, S/4 HANA migration, SAP Clean Core standards, integration with third-party systems, and leading AI teams to leverage S/4 HANA ABAP artefacts. He also has knowledge in functional modules such as SD, MM, PP, QM, FI, CO, and WM/EWM.
Co-authored by
Nandika Ganesan
Nandika is an SAP ABAP Associate Consultant who has implemented SAP S/4HANA in both on-premises and cloud environments for more than three years. She has practical experience developing RICEF objects, CDS views, and the RAP model, and she possesses a solid understanding of ABAP technical development. Nandika contributes to various kinds of projects at ERPROOTS that cover a range of fields. She concentrates on creating efficient solutions that increase system performance and efficiency while consuming the fewest possible time and resources.
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