SAP Innovation Awards 2024 - 4361 - VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S
Business Innovator Winner: The rapid growth of offshore wind energy is a transformation driver at Vestas Wind Systems A/S. To achieve decarbonization, Vestas must meet new demands as both onshore and offshore operations grow by relying on global manufacturing, advanced supply chain capabilities, and a vast network of suppliers. To automate core supply chain processes and help simplify supplier relationships, Vestas uses SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration. The result is a more simplified and automated process, improved decision making due to increased supply chain visibility. Download the DocumentPUBLIC
Entry Pitch Deck
Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Adeola Abegunde, Director, Technology Area Lead – Digital
Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics
Renewable Energy and Manufacturing
Improving Supplier & Partner Collaboration with SAP
Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration
Entry Pitch Deck
Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Adeola Abegunde, Director, Technology Area Lead – Digital
Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics
Renewable Energy and Manufacturing
Improving Supplier & Partner Collaboration with SAP
Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration
COMPANY NAME:
HEADQUARTERS:
INDUSTRY:
WEBSITE:
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES:
Company Information
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 2
Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Denmark
Renewable Energy and Manufacturing
https://www.vestas.com/en
29K
Vestas pioneered and is leading the business of onshore/offshore wind
energy; and is also, the industry global partner on sustainable energy
solutions. Our 29K employees in 89 countries help to create a better world
by developing, designing, manufacturing, installing, and servicing wind
energy and hybrid projects all over the world. 85K wind turbines are
installed generating 164GW and 55K wind turbines are under service that
generate 144GW in 87 countries globally. 2022 revenues were at €14.5bn.
Our sustainable energy solutions have already prevented 1.9 billion tons of
CO₂ (equivalent to 88M passenger vehicles driven in one year) being
emitted into the atmosphere and contributed to a more sustainable energy
system globally. Vestas has been named the most sustainable company in
the world by Corporate Knights Global 100 ranking, 2023.
HEADQUARTERS:
INDUSTRY:
WEBSITE:
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES:
Company Information
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 2
Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Denmark
Renewable Energy and Manufacturing
https://www.vestas.com/en
29K
Vestas pioneered and is leading the business of onshore/offshore wind
energy; and is also, the industry global partner on sustainable energy
solutions. Our 29K employees in 89 countries help to create a better world
by developing, designing, manufacturing, installing, and servicing wind
energy and hybrid projects all over the world. 85K wind turbines are
installed generating 164GW and 55K wind turbines are under service that
generate 144GW in 87 countries globally. 2022 revenues were at €14.5bn.
Our sustainable energy solutions have already prevented 1.9 billion tons of
CO₂ (equivalent to 88M passenger vehicles driven in one year) being
emitted into the atmosphere and contributed to a more sustainable energy
system globally. Vestas has been named the most sustainable company in
the world by Corporate Knights Global 100 ranking, 2023.
CHALLENGE: SOLUTION: OUTCOME:
Improving Supplier Collaboration with SAP Business Network (BN)
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 3
Contract Manufacturing Suppliers
participate in the SAP Business Network
Dollars in purchase orders are executed in
the SAP Business Network solution
Time savings for FTEs
6K
Vestas
12.5B 10%
A vast number of Vestas suppliers are regional/local
market suppliers that develop their footprint as
Vestas matures in new global markets.
Due to the high demand for sustainability and critical
infrastructure, we have strong requirements for
suppliers on quality and compliance, ensuring the
delivery of quality products and services while
minimizing waste.
Non-conformance was communicated via emails
with limited transparency and traceability and are not
easily tracked, resulting in project delays and
financial impact.
SAP Ariba solutions were integrated with SAP
Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration.
Specifically:
2021: Purchase Order (PO) Collaboration: PO
transmission, returns management
2021-2022: Forecast Collaboration: material level
forecast sharing, tracking of responses
2023: Quality Collaboration: communication of non-
conformance, 8D methodology; PO Collaboration:
advanced shipping notification
Prior to implementing SAP Business Network,
Purchase Order, Forecast, and Quality collaborations
were error prone, time consuming and manually
based interactions. The SAP solution replaced
manual efforts with automation and intelligence:
Quality Collaboration: early visibility to product
defects between buyer and supplier, which drives
quicker resolution.
Advanced Shipping Notification: provides an efficient
and compliant way to track and receive goods.
Forecast Collaboration: centralized forecast info with
feedback at both item and plant level, better visibility.
Improving Supplier Collaboration with SAP Business Network (BN)
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 3
Contract Manufacturing Suppliers
participate in the SAP Business Network
Dollars in purchase orders are executed in
the SAP Business Network solution
Time savings for FTEs
6K
Vestas
12.5B 10%
A vast number of Vestas suppliers are regional/local
market suppliers that develop their footprint as
Vestas matures in new global markets.
Due to the high demand for sustainability and critical
infrastructure, we have strong requirements for
suppliers on quality and compliance, ensuring the
delivery of quality products and services while
minimizing waste.
Non-conformance was communicated via emails
with limited transparency and traceability and are not
easily tracked, resulting in project delays and
financial impact.
SAP Ariba solutions were integrated with SAP
Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration.
Specifically:
2021: Purchase Order (PO) Collaboration: PO
transmission, returns management
2021-2022: Forecast Collaboration: material level
forecast sharing, tracking of responses
2023: Quality Collaboration: communication of non-
conformance, 8D methodology; PO Collaboration:
advanced shipping notification
Prior to implementing SAP Business Network,
Purchase Order, Forecast, and Quality collaborations
were error prone, time consuming and manually
based interactions. The SAP solution replaced
manual efforts with automation and intelligence:
Quality Collaboration: early visibility to product
defects between buyer and supplier, which drives
quicker resolution.
Advanced Shipping Notification: provides an efficient
and compliant way to track and receive goods.
Forecast Collaboration: centralized forecast info with
feedback at both item and plant level, better visibility.
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 4
Collaboration with suppliers and partners is essential
to Vestas powering a sustainable future for the world
by leading globally with meeting the demand for both
onshore and offshore wind energy.
SAP BN has been instrumental in optimising how
Vestas CO-operate with suppliers through order,
forecast and quality collaboration processes. Thus,
enabling simplification and automation of processes
and improved decision making.
Adeola Abegunde
Director, Tech Area Lead – Digital Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics
Collaboration with suppliers and partners is essential
to Vestas powering a sustainable future for the world
by leading globally with meeting the demand for both
onshore and offshore wind energy.
SAP BN has been instrumental in optimising how
Vestas CO-operate with suppliers through order,
forecast and quality collaboration processes. Thus,
enabling simplification and automation of processes
and improved decision making.
Adeola Abegunde
Director, Tech Area Lead – Digital Procurement, Supply Chain and Logistics
GLOBAL CHALLENGES BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Challenges and Objectives 1 of 2
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 5
Accelerate deployment of renewal energy: Wind and solar
energy only account for around 9% of the global electricity
generation mix today; it is therefore clear that the deployment of
renewables needs to accelerate substantially for the world to stay
within a 1.5 °C scenario.
Drive society-wide electrification: 20 percent of global energy
consumption is in electricity. A key lever to creating a sustainable
energy system is to drive electrification forward and ensure
mobility, heating, and industries can be powered by electricity from
renewables.
Implement solutions for non-electrifiable use: In some
industries and sectors electrification is not feasible anytime soon.
However, Power-to-X and green hydrogen are well-known solutions
that show great potential to address the challenges we face – for
example, by helping to shift steel production and heavy transport to
renewable energy sources.
Vestas counts on thousands of suppliers worldwide with strong
requirements to the suppliers on quality and compliance, ensuring the
delivery of quality products and services while minimizing waste.
Suppliers have different internal systems and solutions leading to data,
processing and information mismatch between Vestas and suppliers in
different geographies
Vestas developed various siloed, non-integrated and custom solutions
to enable collaboration with suppliers in various geographies leading to
costly, complex maintenance of the application landscape and non-
scalable.
Multiple solutions requiring more specialized and expensive
consultants, also limited retained knowledge
Critical information/data like purchase orders, invoices, forecast, non-
conformance are communicated via emails with limited transparency
and traceability and are not easily tracked, resulting in project delays
and financial impact.
Challenges and Objectives 1 of 2
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 5
Accelerate deployment of renewal energy: Wind and solar
energy only account for around 9% of the global electricity
generation mix today; it is therefore clear that the deployment of
renewables needs to accelerate substantially for the world to stay
within a 1.5 °C scenario.
Drive society-wide electrification: 20 percent of global energy
consumption is in electricity. A key lever to creating a sustainable
energy system is to drive electrification forward and ensure
mobility, heating, and industries can be powered by electricity from
renewables.
Implement solutions for non-electrifiable use: In some
industries and sectors electrification is not feasible anytime soon.
However, Power-to-X and green hydrogen are well-known solutions
that show great potential to address the challenges we face – for
example, by helping to shift steel production and heavy transport to
renewable energy sources.
Vestas counts on thousands of suppliers worldwide with strong
requirements to the suppliers on quality and compliance, ensuring the
delivery of quality products and services while minimizing waste.
Suppliers have different internal systems and solutions leading to data,
processing and information mismatch between Vestas and suppliers in
different geographies
Vestas developed various siloed, non-integrated and custom solutions
to enable collaboration with suppliers in various geographies leading to
costly, complex maintenance of the application landscape and non-
scalable.
Multiple solutions requiring more specialized and expensive
consultants, also limited retained knowledge
Critical information/data like purchase orders, invoices, forecast, non-
conformance are communicated via emails with limited transparency
and traceability and are not easily tracked, resulting in project delays
and financial impact.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES WHY SAP
Challenges and Objectives 2 of 2
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 6
A streamlined collaborative platform with partners and teams
across the Vestas Value Chain was needed including Vestas’ own
factories and partner factories.
Objectives included:
• Building a single unified platform as a single source of
information
• Sharing data and information with key suppliers/partners
• Enabling traceability across the value chain
• Transparency into quality issues to drive quicker resolution
• Early visibility to product defects between buyer and supplier
In 2007, Vestas and SAP began their journey with implementing
SAP ERP Central Component to enable a centralized system of
business that provides every department access and shared data
to create a better work environment.
In 2015, Vestas consolidated its ERP instances to a single instance
under its ONE ERP project.
Since 2017, Vestas has been transforming their digital procurement
for supplier collaboration, starting with SAP Ariba solutions, and is
continuing to build out the Vestas value chain in 2023 with SAP
Business Network.
This has enabled transparency and connectivity of data not only
within the Vestas value chain – finance, master data, production
planning and logistics management – but also with Vestas's
suppliers and partners.
Challenges and Objectives 2 of 2
© 2023 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 6
A streamlined collaborative platform with partners and teams
across the Vestas Value Chain was needed including Vestas’ own
factories and partner factories.
Objectives included:
• Building a single unified platform as a single source of
information
• Sharing data and information with key suppliers/partners
• Enabling traceability across the value chain
• Transparency into quality issues to drive quicker resolution
• Early visibility to product defects between buyer and supplier
In 2007, Vestas and SAP began their journey with implementing
SAP ERP Central Component to enable a centralized system of
business that provides every department access and shared data
to create a better work environment.
In 2015, Vestas consolidated its ERP instances to a single instance
under its ONE ERP project.
Since 2017, Vestas has been transforming their digital procurement
for supplier collaboration, starting with SAP Ariba solutions, and is
continuing to build out the Vestas value chain in 2023 with SAP
Business Network.
This has enabled transparency and connectivity of data not only
within the Vestas value chain – finance, master data, production
planning and logistics management – but also with Vestas's
suppliers and partners.