SAP Innovation Awards 2024 - 4481 - SMA Solar Technology AG
Business Innovator Winner: SMA Solar Technology AG is paving the way for the future of energy supply with a modernized digital foundation. The company has created a platform that integrates SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, the SAP Digital Manufacturing solution, and other SAP and third-party solutions. Guided by the Cloud Success Services team from SAP, this transition is setting the stage for a 15% increase in workforce productivity and a 10% reduction in costs and stock turnover. Dokument herunterladenPUBLIC
Entry Pitch Deck
SMA Solar Technology AG
Industrial manufacturing
Shaping the energy supply of tomorrow with
cutting-edge energy solutions
Entry Pitch Deck
SMA Solar Technology AG
Industrial manufacturing
Shaping the energy supply of tomorrow with
cutting-edge energy solutions
COMPANY NAME:
HEADQUARTERS:
INDUSTRY:
WEBSITE:
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES:
Company Information
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 2
SMA Solar Technology AG
Niestetal, Germany
Industrial manufacturing
www.sma.de
~4,200
Committed to a clean future, German inverter manufacturer and energy
solutions provider SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) has been driving the
transition to decentralized and renewable energies worldwide with
innovative solar and battery inverter technologies for more than 40 years.
Founded in 1981, the company is a pioneer and world market leader in
decentralized, digital, and renewable energy solutions for residential,
commercial, and industrial solar applications.
As an innovation leader, SMA integrates digital technologies into its
processes and systems to optimize efficiency and innovation. The
company strives to further minimize its environmental footprint and is
committed to sustainable practices and ethical business conduct.
HEADQUARTERS:
INDUSTRY:
WEBSITE:
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES:
Company Information
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 2
SMA Solar Technology AG
Niestetal, Germany
Industrial manufacturing
www.sma.de
~4,200
Committed to a clean future, German inverter manufacturer and energy
solutions provider SMA Solar Technology AG (SMA) has been driving the
transition to decentralized and renewable energies worldwide with
innovative solar and battery inverter technologies for more than 40 years.
Founded in 1981, the company is a pioneer and world market leader in
decentralized, digital, and renewable energy solutions for residential,
commercial, and industrial solar applications.
As an innovation leader, SMA integrates digital technologies into its
processes and systems to optimize efficiency and innovation. The
company strives to further minimize its environmental footprint and is
committed to sustainable practices and ethical business conduct.
CHALLENGE: SOLUTION: OUTCOME:
Accelerating the Global Transition to Renewable Energies
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 3
Increase in supply-chain
workforce productivity
Improvement in overall supply-chain
planning costs
Reduction in inventory carrying costs
and stock turnover rate
15%
SMA Solar Technology AG
10% 10%
The in-house-developed manufacturing execution
system (MES) landscape has evolved over the last
40 years. In return, future development of solar
innovations have become limited due to complex
interfaces, low performance, and expiring
maintenance intervals of solutions installed on-site.
The aging system posed a major challenge to the
competitive delivery of the latest solar technology
innovations in a new SMA Gigawatt Factory. Risks
included production downtime resulting in frustrated
employees, high logistics costs, unsatisfactory
inventory management, and a lack of process
transparency.
SMA initiated the modernization of its operations
by establishing a cloud foundation that includes
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition integrated with
the SAP Digital Manufacturing solution and various
other SAP and third-party solutions. Guided by the
expertise of the Cloud Success Services team from
SAP, this transition was supported by a selective
data migration, strategic prioritization of process
improvements, and a focus on standardization.
SMA continues to enhance its digital capabilities on
the integrated platform. Plans include tools for
collaboration, transportation management, yard
logistics, and integrated business planning.
The project is already delivering impressive results,
boosting supply chain productivity, reducing
inventory carrying costs, and decreasing days in
inventory. This trend is expected to continue as
supply-chain planning costs and total logistics costs
decrease. The initiative will also help streamline
transportation planning, curb freight spending, and
establish a collaborative partner portal. Additionally,
the real-time visibility that the platform provides can
help improve transparency into order statuses while
supporting connected devices in the yard. Overall,
these outcomes signify an enhancement in
operational efficiency across various facets of the
organization.
Accelerating the Global Transition to Renewable Energies
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 3
Increase in supply-chain
workforce productivity
Improvement in overall supply-chain
planning costs
Reduction in inventory carrying costs
and stock turnover rate
15%
SMA Solar Technology AG
10% 10%
The in-house-developed manufacturing execution
system (MES) landscape has evolved over the last
40 years. In return, future development of solar
innovations have become limited due to complex
interfaces, low performance, and expiring
maintenance intervals of solutions installed on-site.
The aging system posed a major challenge to the
competitive delivery of the latest solar technology
innovations in a new SMA Gigawatt Factory. Risks
included production downtime resulting in frustrated
employees, high logistics costs, unsatisfactory
inventory management, and a lack of process
transparency.
SMA initiated the modernization of its operations
by establishing a cloud foundation that includes
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition integrated with
the SAP Digital Manufacturing solution and various
other SAP and third-party solutions. Guided by the
expertise of the Cloud Success Services team from
SAP, this transition was supported by a selective
data migration, strategic prioritization of process
improvements, and a focus on standardization.
SMA continues to enhance its digital capabilities on
the integrated platform. Plans include tools for
collaboration, transportation management, yard
logistics, and integrated business planning.
The project is already delivering impressive results,
boosting supply chain productivity, reducing
inventory carrying costs, and decreasing days in
inventory. This trend is expected to continue as
supply-chain planning costs and total logistics costs
decrease. The initiative will also help streamline
transportation planning, curb freight spending, and
establish a collaborative partner portal. Additionally,
the real-time visibility that the platform provides can
help improve transparency into order statuses while
supporting connected devices in the yard. Overall,
these outcomes signify an enhancement in
operational efficiency across various facets of the
organization.
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 4
The combination of SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Private Edition and SAP Digital
Manufacturing helps ensure a modern
and future-proof foundation for our next
milestone, the SMA Gigawatt Factory.
Moving to the cloud adds to our
ambition to meet all the requirements
of state-of-the-art solar systems.
Heiko Kehm
Head of IT Order to Cash, SMA Solar Technology AG
The combination of SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Private Edition and SAP Digital
Manufacturing helps ensure a modern
and future-proof foundation for our next
milestone, the SMA Gigawatt Factory.
Moving to the cloud adds to our
ambition to meet all the requirements
of state-of-the-art solar systems.
Heiko Kehm
Head of IT Order to Cash, SMA Solar Technology AG
COMPANY NAME:
Participating Partner Information
PwC’s expertise has enabled us to create an
optimized target solution design for using
functions in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private
Edition. Our collaboration has helped ensure
that SMA’s transformation journey is fully
aligned with the company’s future strategic
direction.
Timo Wenzel
Program Manager Digitalization
SMA Solar Technology AG
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 5
• PwC
• Customer Success Services from SAP
In September 2019, SMA asked PwC to take charge of the ambitious project to build a
comprehensive and scalable global digital enterprise platform. The goal was to enable the
company to meet the corporate, organizational, and management needs of quickly moving
toward adopting integrated solar energy technologies and business models.
In 2021, SMA chose SAP Digital Manufacturing as the MES system. With the assistance of
the Cloud Success Services team from SAP, the company adopted a flexible cloud road map
and benefited from the team’s technology and product engineering expertise necessary to
establish and support a modern framework for electronic production.
This complex, ongoing digital transformation project, with several further release phases
happening between 2023 and 2025, has already involved a “big bang” migration of more
than 70 SMA legal entities and 30 production, sales, and service sites worldwide to the new
integrated platform. In total, the current project team involves more than 150 business,
technology, and transformation experts from SMA and the SAP ERP application team in PwC
Germany’s technology consulting unit.
Participating Partner Information
PwC’s expertise has enabled us to create an
optimized target solution design for using
functions in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private
Edition. Our collaboration has helped ensure
that SMA’s transformation journey is fully
aligned with the company’s future strategic
direction.
Timo Wenzel
Program Manager Digitalization
SMA Solar Technology AG
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 5
• PwC
• Customer Success Services from SAP
In September 2019, SMA asked PwC to take charge of the ambitious project to build a
comprehensive and scalable global digital enterprise platform. The goal was to enable the
company to meet the corporate, organizational, and management needs of quickly moving
toward adopting integrated solar energy technologies and business models.
In 2021, SMA chose SAP Digital Manufacturing as the MES system. With the assistance of
the Cloud Success Services team from SAP, the company adopted a flexible cloud road map
and benefited from the team’s technology and product engineering expertise necessary to
establish and support a modern framework for electronic production.
This complex, ongoing digital transformation project, with several further release phases
happening between 2023 and 2025, has already involved a “big bang” migration of more
than 70 SMA legal entities and 30 production, sales, and service sites worldwide to the new
integrated platform. In total, the current project team involves more than 150 business,
technology, and transformation experts from SMA and the SAP ERP application team in PwC
Germany’s technology consulting unit.
GLOBAL CHALLENGES BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Challenges and Objectives 1 of 2
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 6
• More people, companies, and institutions around the world are
focused on making themselves increasingly independent from
energy-based fossil fuels.
• Decentralized solar power is currently the most cost-effective
option for energy generation, compared to wind, gas, and coal.
• Storage systems and digital solutions must balance out energy
generation and consumption so B2B and B2C customers can
share their electricity with other consumers.
• Global cumulative solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has grown
continuously since 2000, rising to 1,177 GW in 2022 with roughly
239 GW of new PV capacity installed that same year.
• The introduction of wind and solar energy generation into the
power grid increases decentralization, making the electricity
supply system more complex.
• Players in the power-generation sector must be smoothly
integrated and interconnected to provide a sustainable, secure,
and cost-effective electricity supply.
• A comprehensive understanding of the backbone of future
energy supply is necessary to integrate renewable energies and
storage systems smoothly and secure reliable power.
• A more flexible architecture was needed to support the PEARL
program, which is transforming the company from a hardware
manufacturer to a customer-oriented solution provider.
Challenges and Objectives 1 of 2
© 2024 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC 6
• More people, companies, and institutions around the world are
focused on making themselves increasingly independent from
energy-based fossil fuels.
• Decentralized solar power is currently the most cost-effective
option for energy generation, compared to wind, gas, and coal.
• Storage systems and digital solutions must balance out energy
generation and consumption so B2B and B2C customers can
share their electricity with other consumers.
• Global cumulative solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity has grown
continuously since 2000, rising to 1,177 GW in 2022 with roughly
239 GW of new PV capacity installed that same year.
• The introduction of wind and solar energy generation into the
power grid increases decentralization, making the electricity
supply system more complex.
• Players in the power-generation sector must be smoothly
integrated and interconnected to provide a sustainable, secure,
and cost-effective electricity supply.
• A comprehensive understanding of the backbone of future
energy supply is necessary to integrate renewable energies and
storage systems smoothly and secure reliable power.
• A more flexible architecture was needed to support the PEARL
program, which is transforming the company from a hardware
manufacturer to a customer-oriented solution provider.