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apsolut is steering the far-reaching procurement transformation at MAHLE
CompanyMAHLE
BranchAutomotive
ProductsThe product portfolio covers all key areas along the drive train and air-conditioning technology for the drive triad of the future: electric motor, fuel cell and use of non-fossil fuels such as hydrogen.
Number of employees>72,000
Turnover9.8 bn. euros
HeadquartersStuttgart, Germany
Websitewww.mahle.com
One of the world’s first SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement Suites
MAHLE is one of the world’s top 25 suppliers and the fourth largest automotive supplier in its home market of Germany. Every second car contains MAHLE components, which are manufactured at around 160 production locations in more than 30 countries. In 12 research and development centres worldwide, the Group is working on new products and processes for the mobility of the future.
MAHLE’s procurement transformation is part of the MORE programme (MAHLE OPTIMIZED REAL-TIME ENTERPRISE), the most far-reaching IT transformation in the history of the company. Within the scope of the programme, existing processes and systems are being migrated across all business units into a uniform SAP S/4HANA on-premise solution. A key part of this new architecture is SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement, or S/4HANA CP for short. In S/4HANA CP, the procurement processes of all SAP ERP and non-SAP ERP systems of a company converge. MAHLE is therefore one of the first companies in the world to use S/4HANA CP productively with the support of apsolut.
Within the MORE programme, the NPM Ariba sub-project plays a special role, as its roll-out in indirect purchasing was brought forward. This early roll-out was made possible by the use of S/4HANA CP, which serves as the integration layer between the existing legacy systems and the new MORE system architecture. The new processes within S/4HANA CP could therefore be mapped in indirect purchasing independently of the connected systems. Since only a few master data are stored directly in the system and the majority are read from the respective target system at runtime, no complex master data harmonisations were necessary.
The first immediate advantage for MAHLE is the simplified user guidance by means of Ariba Guided Buying. In addition, SAP Ariba Commerce automation has created an electronic exchange of documents from the connected backend systems, and SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration creates complete transparency along the supply chain. Due to the short deployment phase and the very early roll-out, MAHLE can also dismantle most of its existing legacy architecture in indirect purchasing at an early stage. This applies in particular to the SAP SRM and the catalogue system of a third-party supplier. The resulting savings in licensing and operating costs mean that part of the project expenditure for the NPM Ariba sub-project is already amortised during the
project phase.
The roll-out in Europe, North America and Asia was completed at the end of 2021. At the same time, integration with the overall MORE project will take place to achieve a seamless system world.
"Together with apsolut, we started as a pioneer in Central Procurement and we are very pleased that we were able to reap the first fruits of this pioneering work so early on.”
says Stefan Ehrhardt, Head of SAP Governance Purchasing.
Implemented tools
SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement
SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
SAP Ariba Guided Buying
SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration
SAP Ariba Commerce Automation
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"When selecting our implementation partner, apsolut was able to prevail over internationally active competitors thanks to its excellent understanding of our requirements, openness in partnership, and great flexibility. Thanks to the very good cooperation with the apsolut team, we successfully completed the project and signed a support agreement for future developments."
Julia Graubner, Senior Procurement Project Manager, K+S
Success Story
“We knew that this was apsolut’s first project for a health insurance company, but that didn’t matter. Because apsolut always listened to us, understood our requirements and finally delivered solutions. We could design different processes for direct and indirect purchasing. Together we work professionally in state-of-the-art mode.”
Michael Spiess, Chief Procurement Officer, Sanitas Krankenversicherung
Success Story
"As our experiences with apsolut were so positive across all national companies, we have already doubled the number of monthly support days twice. Thanks to apsolut, we now have the resources we need to implement rollouts in other national companies. At the moment, they are ongoing in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France.”
Sandra Mancino, Application Consultant, C&A
“We had many specific requirements and together with apsolut we found a solution for each one of them. We used to search for supplier information, now we do find it. We are really very satisfied!”
Tanja Sefrin, Project Manager, KUKA
Success Story
"Although personal contact was very limited due to Corona, a strong team formed during the intensive project phase. The decision-making paths at BITZER and apsolut were always short so that issues could be dealt with promptly and the planned go-live date achieved. The home office was not an obstacle, but also gave us the necessary flexibility for a project of this size.
All team members have done a great job, I have rarely worked so well with a consulting firm!"
Steffen Bauer, Project Manager, BITZER
Success Story
“For the new Ariba system, wewere able to onboard more than 1,400 users in three national subsidiaries with only little training effort. With regard to our Procurement processes, we have gained significant transparency and control.“
Jane Wanger, Global Procurement Systems & Support bei KSB
Success Story
"apsolut has been supporting us in the ope-ration of our SRM system for 10 years. It does not matter whether we report a problem in the production system or want to discuss change requests. We are contacted by apsolut in a timely manner to resolve our concerns or discuss our requirements in detail. apsolut always provides the important piece of securi-ty in the background - if anything goes wrong, they always help quickly and straightforwardly."
Torsten Enseroth, SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect, Friedhelm Loh Group
Success Story
"Being able to design our purchasing processes flexibly, digitally and above all efficiently offers great added value. We will therefore continue to expand our system in the direction of SAP Ariba."
Armin Kaczmarek, Senior Vice President Corporate Purchasing, Vorwerk
Success Story
"Together with apsolut, we started as a pioneer in Central Procurement and we are very pleased that we were able to reap the first fruits of this pioneering work so early on.”
Stefan Ehrhardt, Head of SAP Governance Purchasing, MAHLE
Success Story
“The cooperation with the international apsolut project team from Germany and India was very effective despite the tough schedule. Due to the high degree of standardisation and automation, we were already able to realise potential savings and, in particular reduce process costs.”
Markus Ortlieb, Director Global Procurement, ProMinent GmbH
Success Story
"With apsolut, we have gained a partner who has implemented our requirements effectively and efficiently in the configuration of Ariba in a practical manner and in a breathtaking amount of time. The customer-oriented approach was one of the main reasons why we also chose apsolut for the implementation of SLP and Contract Management."
Frank Unfried, Director Digitalization Purchasing & Indirect Spend bei Pfleiderer
Success Story
"When selecting a partner for our procurement transformation, a high level of technical know-how was of course also important to us. Here, apsolut was able to convince us with best practices from customers of a comparable size. The decisive factor in the end was the experience in change management! Only in this way were we able to introduce a fully-fledged procurement system that is also accepted by all employees."
Göktürk Simsekol, Digital Transformation Director, Flint Group
Success Story
„We were able to roll out Ariba very quickly, because we established a pragmatic and open culture of cooperation with the apsolut team from the very beginning, and we were prepared to systematically align ourselves with the standard“,
Sarah Eve Wiedemann-Geiß, who oversees purchasing and supplier management at Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall
Success Story
"apsolut demonstrated a high degree of flexibility and commitment during the project. The structured working methods and the dedicated team enabled us to meet the urgently needed go-live deadlines."
Paul Trautmann, Manager Procurement Processes & Projects, Röhm GmbH
Success Story
“With a partner like apsolut, not even a pandemic is able to stop us! When the project started, we were a little skeptical, due to the fact that the project team was unable to meet face-to-face. But we are now delighted to say that all our concerns have proven to be unfounded.“
Chandrashekhar Saldur, AGM - Global Procurement & Projects, ETG Group
Success Story
“In addition to the high level of expertise, what impressed me most about the apsolut team was the enormous commitment. We were very well supported throughout all stages and overcame all difficulties together”,
Anne Otto, Business Process Expert, Digital Solutions, JOYNEXT
Success Story
"apsolut led us in a very cooperative and super-competent manner throughout all phases of the project! Above all, the open collaboration between all project members kept motivation high throughout. The project team gets on very well with each other. We were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the ability of the entire project team to make quick decisions!"
Hubert Buchsteiner, Group Vice President Purchasing, ZKW Group
Success Story
"apsolut impressed us in our project , particularly because of the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff!"
Annette Römer, Project Manager at McKesson Europe
Success Story
„apsolut not only guided us through the project with utmost professionalism and a proactive approach – decisive was the fact that apsolut enabled us to operate the new tool independently and to control the next steps ourselves. In addition, thanks to apsolut, we have been able to establish the right network, including with the right contacts at SAP Austria. The project has been an overwhelming success and we have managed to foster an almost friend-to-friend relationship with the apsolut team."
Gerald Goldgruber, Strategic Manager for Process Management and SAP, Frutura
Success Story
‘We’re on the right track to being able to take full advantage of the potential that this transformation offers, as apsolut not only gives us the expertise that we need, but also has an incredibly agile and committed approach. apsolut no longer feels like an external partner to me, but more like an internal department, with whom I hope we can continue to work well into the future.’
Dr. Bei Mortensen, IT Business Service Owner – SCM & Manufacturing, GEA Group
Success Story
"A transformation program of this scale needs a strong internal team from Procurement and Internal IT, but of course also experienced and committed external partners. The most important aspect is that everyone then works together with passion and conviction towards the common goal. In addition to the strong know-how of the consulting implementation partner – in our case apsolut – a strong line of communication from the partner to the software supplier SAP is also necessary."
Martin Traxl, Head of Strategy & Digitalization, OMV
"The mix of virtual design discussions, system demonstrations and break-out sessions, supported by best-in-class tools that allowed us to annotate and track tasks and decisions during screen sharing, enabled us to work closely with apsolut even though distances of up to 12,000 kilometres had to be bridged. We were very pleased that both our projects could be successfully implemented with the help of apsolut."
Alina Aftene, Procurement Solutions Specialist, Delivery Hero
“apsolut impressed us in the project work with McKesson above all through the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff.”
Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
Success Story
"We have never regretted our decision to rely on apsolut as our implementation partner. The preparation, support, and transparent project progress at all times convinced us. We are delighted to have apsolut as our partner for all questions relating to our SAP Ariba tool."
Marcel Krischer, Zentis GmbH & Co. KG
Success Story
"From the beginning of the project, we have made a remarkable change together with apsolut. The Döhler employees find their way through the easy user interface without any prior knowledge of SAP. As a result, our purchasing department is no longer an operational procurement office, but a team of in-house consultants."
Shibu Palakalodil, Projektleiter SAP Ariba-Implementierung
Success Story
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