Schwan Cosmetics: Precision & Sustainability with SAP® S/4HANA

Industry: Consumer Goods

Products: Decorative cosmetics

Employees: 2,600 (2021)

Sales: 227.3 million euros (2021)

Website: www.schwancosmetics.com

The First Cosmetics Pencil in the World: Schwan Cosmetics

The success story of the long-established Franconian company began in 1927. With the invention of the first make-up pen “Schwan Cosmetics Eyebrow Pencil”, Schwan Cosmetics revolutionized the cosmetics industry, and it is now one of the globally leading manufacturers of cosmetic pencils. The extensive range includes Kajal pencils, lipsticks, lip liners, and eyeliners, among others. Pursuing the highest quality and sustainability standards, Schwan Cosmetics regularly creates innovative highlights and it remains an influential player in decorative cosmetics to this day. At nine locations around the world, some 2,600 employees work on the beauty trends of tomorrow with high levels of customer focus, innovative strength, and creativity. Due to its keen interest in anticipating the future, the company became aware of the looming termination of maintenance support for their SAP ERP system.

Numerous Requirements – One Solution: SAP S/4HANA

The consumer goods industry is facing several long-term challenges. These include the need for the regular development of new products to satisfy customer desires and market trends, impacts on consumer behavior from circumstances to do with the pandemic, as well as raw material shortages and supply chain bottlenecks. Then there are digitalization, innovation, and sustainability, which all pose concrete challenges to a modern IT system landscape. Schwan Cosmetics is now well-placed to deal with these challenges. In collaboration with NTT DATA Business Solutions, the company examined and evaluated the optimization potentials along its value chain. As a result, a clear project goal was established: to improve the system across all business functions and processes, enabling the company to operate with greater sustainability, agility, and flexibility. This covered optimized production flows, production costing, and third-party packaging.

Detailed Planning & Execution: Makeover Successfully Completed

Bundled expertise, speed, and fixed prices: Thanks to the reliable methodology of the Conversion Factory, the conversion was realized without any problems, on time & in budget, and technical challenges such as the business partner conversion were dealt with successfully. Schwan Cosmetics had decided to go for a two-stage conversion. First, the technical system migration and business partner conversion were performed; this was followed by an evaluation of the innovation potential of the new system in innovation workshops and its subsequent realization. The supply chain was optimized as well. A logistics portal was set up, soon to be enhanced with the installation of the it.xpress add-on. This solution facilitates automated shipment processing with the integration of forwarding agents in SAP, resulting in optimized shipping processes. This means that
products can now reach cosmetics (end-)customers around the world even more quickly.

Flawless State-of-the-Art Business Processes

Using modern technologies, SAP S/4HANA automates processes, minimizes effort and expenses, and streamlines workflows along the entire value chain to enhance efficiency. Shorter innovation cycles, a high level of process reliability, and smooth business process flows thus pave the way to sustainable operation and future product innovations.