How GIA Informatik Leads Muller Martini into the Future with SAP

"The people, not the houses, make the town." This is how a novella about Bad Mergentheim could begin. In this town of around 24,000 inhabitants in the northeast of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Muller Martini runs a competence center for the hardcover sector. The group, which is internationally known for print finishing systems, wanted to renew its structures, build a new SAPsystem and associated processes in order to optimally coordinate and standardize the Group-wide interaction of all sites. The project goal for the production plant in Bad Mergentheim was to transfer the adjusted structures to the new system landscape as of January 1, 2018.

SAP project from a single source

"We're talking about a rollout here, which means we're adapting the logic and definition of a template to all the other plants in the group. Everything has to be from a single source," says Roger Wiederkehr, SAP project manager at GIA Informatik AG in Oftringen. "We deployed the template live at two companies at the headquarters in Zofingen in September 2015 after around 18 months of intensive preparation. This formed the starting signal for the further rollouts we are working on - such as in Bad Mergentheim. With our project team, we are adapting one plant per year to the new structure."

What are the reasons for choosing GIA Informatik AG?

During the restructuring, GIA covered the SAP area, firstly because it has a lot of experience and good results as a Gold Partner of SAP - both in outsourcing and in application consulting and system implementation - and secondly because it is a subsidiary of the Muller Martini Group. Beat Tanner, ERP specialist at Muller Martini AG in Zofingen, who pulled the strings between the sites and GIA during the project: "GIA is the group's internal competence center for SAP. It has a great deal of knowledge, also has an overall understanding of the structures, and has a strong project team. Some long-standing team members started their professional careers at Muller Martini and therefore know the business and its characteristics particularly well."

The milestones

The project partners attended a workshop at the end of January 2017 to discuss the next steps. "In February and March, we developed the Delta functional concepts, and in April we carried out the implementation," Beat Tanner explains. The first migration took place in May and the second migration at the end of September. The go live took place on time for the planned date of January 1, 2018. Just one month later, aftercare was discontinued and the system went into normal operating mode.

Hurdle successfully overcome

As expertly as GIA handled the project, there were also individual difficulties to overcome. "The defined processes were to be followed and the organizational changes were to be made as planned, so that the standard would remain guaranteed," explains Roger Wiederkehr. "However, the system and process-related changes posed a major challenge for the on-site organization. With clarification work and a lot of understanding, we created a sensible solution."

Synchronized structures bring great advantages

By synchronizing the structures, the efficiency gain from this project is great. With the SAP migration - a cleanup back to a standard - many legacy issues were thrown off that had accumulated over some 20 years in the previous SAP system. "Now the Bad Mergentheim site can work with the new conditions, is fully integrated into the Group and can use its structures at any time," says Roger Wiederkehr. Thanks to these clean SAP processes and master data, the foundation has also been laid for the subsequent migration to SAP S/4HANA.

Tips to other companies

Do you run a large company or an SME, do you want to clean up your structures and also introduce or renew SAP? Roger Wiederkehr and Beat Tanner give you the following advice:

• Make sure that you have a clear overview and define the principles right at the beginning.
• Jump into the project with enough resources to make quick progress.
• Define a clear division of tasks and responsibilities.
• Consider and incorporate the interests and frameworks of all stakeholders.
• Communicate the milestones to everyone involved and work to meet them day by day.
• Track the processes before you implement the system.
• Define clear contact persons and maintain level-appropriate, open communication.
• To ensure that the project proceeds cleanly, make sure that the technical and planning understanding is at eye level at all stages.
• Create structures through regular meetings. Focus on regularity and routine.
• Perform integrative tests. If you do this comprehensively, you will avoid unnecessary work steps.

Future activities

The project in Bad Mergentheim was successfully completed and everything is running smoothly. But even after a new rollout, there is still a need for optimization at certain points; primarily from ideas from the business to increase efficiency. While Roger Wiederkehr supports this project with his team, Beat Tanner is responsible for ensuring that the improvements are meaningful and beneficial. The rollout is progressing: GIA will implement the SAP system at further Müller Martini sites.

Information: GIA Informatics

Implementation at Muller Martini: The Facts
Objectives:

• The existing Group SAP (GRPSAP) sets the framework and system boundaries.
• Transfer to existing GRPSAP with a "back to standard" premise.
• Adherence to the project budget (a mid-six figure amount).
• cutover without any negative impact on the delivery capability of Muller Martini Bad Mergentheim (MMBM) and subsequently also of the other sales organizations of the MM Group.
• Fast and flawless startup of MMBM in the new GRPSAP.
• Simplification of the authorization concept.
• Standardization of master data and its maintenance.
• Upon project acceptance, current system documentation in the form of tracked detailed concepts should be available from GIA.

Timing:

• Workshop: End of January 2017
• Delta professional concepts: February and March 2017
• Realization: April 2017
• Migration and integration test 1: May 2017
• Migration and integration test 2: End of September 2017
• Go Live: January 1, 2018
• Handover to regular operation: February 1, 2018

Effort:

• Personnel at GIA: seven different technical specialists
• Number of man hours for the project: in the low four-digit range

Achieved goals:

• The framework of the GRPSAP has been complied with.
• The target "back to standard" was achieved.
• The overall budget was adhered to. Overall, GIA even undercut the budget by around 20 percent.
• MMBM managed the cutover phase without any significant problems thanks to good planning and a manageable effort.
• GIA adapted the authorization concept to the GRPSAP standard.
• In its basic structure, MMBM now also works with the group-wide Mat/PPS set of rules. Supplementary/missing processes are implemented subsequently.
• GIA handed over the tracked IT and process documentation at the end of the project of the new sales organization.