The benefits of SAP S/4HANA for companies have many dimensions. Typically, the primary focus is on quantifiable benefits such as revenue increases, cost reductions, or improvements in return on investment. But SAP S/4HANA also provides a platform for innovation and growth, as well as opportunities to mitigate risk and meet growing compliance requirements. However, the value of SAP S/4HANA for improving sustainability is often overlooked.
NTT DATA Business Solutions
Reducing Carbon Footprint: Oetiker's SAP S/4HANA Success
Customized Solutions for a Reduced Carbon Footprint
Sustainability is a challenge for the world and therefore also for each individual company. Without a healthy planet, there is no basis for continuity, long-term profit, and growth. SAP S/4HANA can be an important factor in improving sustainability, as it provides much of the relevant data about a company’s activities in the various business areas, such as purchasing, sales, manufacturing, or supply chain. In addition, SAP is developing increasingly comprehensive solutions to improve sustainability. Learn more about how SAP S/4HANA can improve your sustainability management.
In addition to SAP standard solutions, there are many opportunities for smaller customized solutions. A pioneer of such a customized solution is Oetiker, a leading global supplier of high-end joining solutions for the automotive industry and for high-value applications in industrial segments. Oetiker’s international group of manufacturing operations manufactures at thirteen locations on three continents. Through a combination of internal efficiency measures and support for external projects, Oetiker aims to become carbon-neutral by 2035. Oetiker has an environmental strategic plan with clear targets, focus areas and measures to reduce its carbon footprint.
SAP S/4HANA Provides the Required Data
The company has already a clear overview of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions at plant level. The number of sites is limited and therefore data collection, calculation and analysis are done manually using Excel and Power BI – SAP data is not yet used. However, calculating the amount of Scope 3 emissions for outbound shipments is currently the most difficult area. The big volume of outbound transports and the large number of involved transport companies contracted by third parties prevent the manual determination of emissions. The required information on outbound transport activities must therefore be provided by the SAP S/4HANA ERP system.
Dashboard in the SAC for Visualization
There is a need to use SAP applications and data to capture, calculate, and analyze CO2 emissions for outbound shipments. The corresponding data is captured by SAP S/4HANA. To calculate and analyze the carbon footprint of outbound transportation activities to customers, Oetiker and Frank Jacobs, SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect with a focus on Sustainability at NTT DATA Business Solutions, developed a customized dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud. To deliver immediate value to our customers, we always start with a Minimal Viable Product to control scope, cost and time, but keep an eye on the next steps and the target architecture. The solution design at Oetiker consists of different building blocks:
MVP Oetiker Carbon Footprint Analytics | Solution Concept Diagram
Recombine Existing Data
The transportation management embedded in SAP S/4HANA (Basic Shipping) provides a standard functionality to calculate the emission quantity and fuel consumption for a freight order based on sustainability factors for a transportation mode or means of transport. The reuse of master data, customizing and development objects within Basic Shipping can be very useful for Oetiker – this without the specific use of freight orders and within the scope of the existing S/4HANA license. For example, the use of Outbound Deliveries in SAP S/4HANA enables the recording of Incoterms, the weight of the goods as well as the shipping point and the address of the consignee.
Learn more about the sustainability potential of S/4HANA and SAC
The opportunities for using S/4HANA and SAC to reduce the carbon footprint are manifold. The development of customized solutions provides valuable insights that enable a concrete improvement of sustainability within the company. If you would like to learn more about the possibilities, we look forward to hearing from you.