Best Practices in SAP ERP Modernization in Manufacturing

In today’s manufacturing world, many companies utilize reliable ERPs for their business operations; however, there exists the need to modernize and automate existing SAP systems to help regain efficient productivity and costs. For example, in the case of Dole Packaged Foods (DPF), they were suffering from inefficiencies within their manual processes that involved their S/4HANA system, wherein their employees were creating material master data and manually managing approval processes.

This resulted in significant issues within their manufacturing processes and led to material master data errors. Also, the researched solutions for automating their business processes resulting in costly changes, along with a tedious and impractical implementation process.

To resolve time spent on manual work and expensive platforms, Dole chose to modernize their SAP ERP with Pillir’s EdgeReadyCloud — a low code, rapid application development platform that integrates with SAP.

Here’s why Dole chose EdgeReady Cloud and how their implementation supported best practices for SAP ERP legacy modernization in manufacturing.

EdgeReady Cloud is an automated and systemized solution

One of the challenges Dole faced as a manufacturing company was their manual, non-systematized workflows - something that many manufacturing companies still operate with. Employees had to manage material master data and manually approve business processes, which contributed to a rise in human errors and higher costs to fix those errors. This caused Dole to start to think of alternative options for automating these manual workflows and modernize their SAP system.

As a best practice, they hoped to find an SAP solution that didn’t cause data integrity issues and automated the manual processes that were causing these errors. With EdgeReady Cloud, Dole was able to automate and reduce the duration associated with the material master inception to creation in SAP and they had a 30% reduction in manual labor with this approach to legacy modernization.

EdgeReady Cloud provided an affordable modernization solution

Another best practice when thinking about modernizing your SAP ERP in manufacturing is cost. The cost to manage and maintain lengthy, intense and granular workflows can be extremely high and it’s important to ensure that any legacy modernization solution is cost-effective. The NANCI app, created by Pillir, can be used on SAP systems to actually help customers identify unnecessary technical debt and lower the TCO of their ABAP customizations while being used alongside EdgeReady Cloud.

Especially in times of economic crisis, budgeting has never been more critical for any business. In Dole’s case, when they first began searching for a solution, they considered various MDM and MDG solutions. However, the cost associated with purchasing and implementing these solutions proved impractical.

With EdgeReady Cloud, Dole was able to save on major implementation, training, and consultant costs associated with their existing SAP system.

Using EdgeReady Cloud increases speed to market

Possibly one of the most important best practices to follow when modernizing your SAP ERP is to find a solution that has a streamlined implementation and deployment process. When Dole considered their options for a solution, their options included implementation of apps that would prove to be both time consuming and difficult to scale and sustain. They needed something that would have rapid speed to market. This is why it’s a best practice to find a solution that increases speed to market, while prioritizing business workflows that have an immediate impact on the bottom line. Going after applications that optimize your operating environment and make your business processes unique is critical.

EdgeReady Cloud does just that—it rapidly deploys as a user-centric, customized experience that tightly integrates to SAP. Pillir’s low-code, rapid application development solution digitized every workflow across the entire material creation process for Dole—not just those that exist within SAP.

If you're interested in learning more about how your company can improve its productivity like Dole Packaged Foods, reach out to our team today.