October 16-17

Welch Allyn’s Proven Approach for Optimizing Material Master

Maintenance

Ryan Conwell Business Process Engineer Global Product Data Management Welch Allyn, Inc.

In This Session…

• We will discuss how Welch Allyn streamlined their material master creation and change process. This will include: – What problems were faced – How those problems were resolved – Major hurdles we encountered – Why Winshuttle worked for us – Our key points to take home

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Who we are… • Medical device manufacturer with global headquarters in

Skaneateles Falls, NY • Over 2,300 employees in 17 countries • 6 manufacturing locations

– 4 design locations

• 21 sales/distribution locations

Our Products… • Diagnostic equipment for:

– Cardiopulmonary – Ear/Eye/Nose/Throat – Blood Pressure – Physical Assessment – Vitals Monitoring

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Our SAP system landscape… • Single instance SAP ERP 6.0

– SAP CRM – SAP Netweaver BW – SAP Solution Manager – Select Modules are using portals

• Multiple DMS content servers – One to support each major

manufacturing/design site • Skaneateles, NY • Beaverton, OR • Navan, Ireland • Tijuana, Mexico

How are we organized?

9

CRM BW PLM CLM CS

DTS

FICO HR

IT

MK

PTP QLM SM SWAT

SAP Business Processes

Business Process Owners

Business Application Managers

IT Service Providers

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Business Problem..

• Material Masters – 26,500+ unique materials created since

Jan. 2010 – 1,900+ Material Master changes Processed

each year – Material Masters changes accounted for:

• 44% of all ECRs • Average time: 50 DAYS! • Percent finished within one week: 15% • Percent finished within two weeks: 33%

Business Problem.. • People Involved:

– Actual data being input by several groups and individuals

– Communicated through SAP Shared Folders in the Business Workplace:

– Completely Manual – No system

notification when new work was ready for processing

– Each function owned its own piece, no more, no less

Material Master Coordinator monitors all folders

Previous Workflow

New part is needed ECR is requested MM Create Form is

filled out

ECR is signed & sent to Document

Control

Doc Control notifies MM Coordinator

MM coordinator creates Business

Workplace Document, and

adds to appropriate shared

folder

First “tab owner” completes MM work, moves

document to next folder

Next “tab owner” completes work, moves document

to next folder

Next “tab owner” completes work, moves document

to next folder

Next “tab owner” completes work, moves document

to next folder

Next “tab owner” completes MM

work, moves document to next

folder

MM Coordinator changes status,

archives document ECR is released

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Business Solution..

• Create “Single Point of Entry”

• Establish ownership for all data fields – Includes mapping when field values are

changed or defaulted

• Only involve SMEs when their expertise is truly needed

• Emphasis on standard work

Material Master Creation • Key transactions required to create Material Master (MM) data

– MM01 (Create Material Master)

– MM02 (Change Material Master)

– MM17 (Mass Change For Material Master)

– CL20N (Maintain Classification Values)

• How does a team request the creation of new Material Masters

– The team completes a Material Master Data Sheet (MMDS) and attaches it to a Business Change Request, SAP Request Notification.

– The Material Master Data Sheet (MMDS) is also the Winshuttle load sheet.

– The Material Master is built out to an IQ status awaiting Component Qualification and/or Validation or Verification. (IQ) Incomplete Qualification signals that the material is built out completely and only requires confirmation of deliverables.

– Following Component Qualification and/or Validation or Verification, another request is made to move the material to the appropriate final status and release for sale.

New Workflow

New part is needed ECR is requested MMDS filled out

ECR is signed & sent to Document

Control

ECR is released

Workflow tasks are sent to SMEs for

their specific information

Material Master coordinator makes

MM changes

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Winshuttle for Material Master Creation

• Benefits: – Consistent data

• Sequence of tab creation • Can build master data governance into scripts

– Cost savings • Fewer touch points in Material Master creation

process – Welch Allyn has been able to move 90% of Material Master

tab creation to one department rather than spread across six

– 3 individuals split the work for the entire company

– Reduction in Business and Regulatory Risk • All data fields are accounted for • A standard process is followed for any type of change

Material Master Data Sheet

Business Change Request

Anatomy of the Material Master Scripts

• Scripts are loaded based on tabs and tables being – 8 unique scripts are run when creating Material Masters

• We leverage “Copy From” materials – Ensures like materials are created with the same values – For fields that do not transfer during copy from, we fill in

or overwrite with Winshuttle script

• Material Master Data Sheets also act as our load sheets – Built-in logic based on business processes

• EG. The combination of delivering plant and receiving plant derive the correct Special Procurement code for Costing.

• Set the default tabs for the Material Master prior to running each script – Easier and reduces the number of errors when running

scripts

Anatomy of the Material Master Scripts

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Results • Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

– Average time: • 50 days to 26 days (-35%)

– Percent of MM changes processed in under 2 weeks: • Up from 33% to 63% (+91%)

– Percent of MM changes processed in under 1 week: • Up from 15% to 44% (+193%)

• Over that same time, regular ECRs have had: – 5 day improvement in average time – 4% and 8% increase in 2 week and 1 week

turnarounds respectively

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Next steps

• Where do we want to go? – Use a web based form to drive decision

making and input • Current MMDS is pushing the limits of excel • Include validation of input fields

– Push to move five different create processes down to one

– Reduce the approval overhead of changes – Automated workflow based on SAP events

Overview

• Introduction & Background • SAP Landscape • Business Problem • Business Solution • Why Winshuttle? • Results • Next Steps • Summary • Questions

Best Practices

• Establish an owner for the Material Master as a whole

• Determine which fields are independent, which are dependent

• Use standard work wherever possible – Reduce options in fields being used

• Automate decision making wherever possible

• Link scripts whenever you can

• Document script prerequisites

Summary

• Understanding your current business processes is a must

• Change your work from person specific to function specific

• Any technology you use to improve a business process must be able to change as fast as the business

Ryan Conwell Business Process Engineer, Global Product Data Management Welch Allyn ryan.conwell@welchallyn.com