Laying the Foundation for S/4HANA Transformation

Dragonfly supported a manufacturing partner on their journey from SAP ECC to S/4HANA – helping lay the foundations for a truly intelligent enterprise. Over a focused six week period, our collaborative system study delivered clear pathways to a digital core that empowers, connects and anticipates needs – so technology works for people, not the other way around.

Industry: Industrial Manufacturing

Goals: Establish a modern digital core that provides accurate lead times, capacity-aware planning, standardised production operations and a proactive supply chain.

Timeline: 4-6 weeks

The Challenge

The customer faced several operational roadblocks:

• Limited capacity visibility – making it challenging for managers to optimise resources or make timely decisions on outsourcing and deliveries.
• Unreliable lead times that impacted the ability to meet customer expectations.
• Reactive demand planning that stemmed from the lack of integration between sales quotations and forecasting tools.
• Production order prioritisation was inconsistent, causing issues with releasing and picking processes.
• Inaccurate routing times led to planning discrepancies and unreliable ATP (Available-to-Promise) dates.

Our Approach

We defined targeted objectives to address these gaps:

• Simulate demand and capacity for proactive, scenario-based planning.
• Leverage DD MRP dynamic buffers to reduce stock-outs and address unpredictable lead times.
• Improve routing accuracy by aligning planned versus actual operation times for more reliable scheduling.
• Automate subcontracting updates so production reflects changes in purchase orders in real time.
• Enhance forecasting to enable sharper, data-driven demand planning.

Outcome & Impact

The study provided clear direction in how SAP S/4 HANA could deliver measurable improvements, including how:

• Proactive capacity planning through pMRP simulations could help the organisation to balance workloads and improve decision-making.
• Inventory stabilisation was achievable for long lead-time products by introducing DD MRP buffering.
• Greater accuracy in scheduling could be realised through standardised routings and real-time tracking of operation times.
• Improved demand visibility and forecast precision could be delivered through integrated IBP and S&OP processes.