Source: SAP „Reimagine Business in the Digital Economy. Use Cases with SAP S/4HANA“
 

SAP S/4HANA is intended to enable companies to focus on the digital economy. For the change from old IT worlds into a new SAP S/4HANA universe, different solutions are available. We present six central applications that industrial companies should know:

S/4HANA R&D

Key Capabilities

• Enabling a multidisciplinary product definition
• What-if analyses and iterative design processes
• Real-time multilevel BOM exploration

Benefits

• Achieving transparency and real-time access to product information across disciplines and throughout the product lifecycle
• Making better design decisions using SAP HANA analytics
• Executing engineering changes with full knowledgeof downstream costs

S/4HANA MANUFACTURING

Key Capabilities

• Identifying and prioritizing most critical material issues, options, and consequences
• Faster execution provides more current and accurate view of material situation
• Providing enterprise-wide visibility across supply, production, inventory, and demand

Benefits

• Faster reaction to demand changes
• Reducing manufacturing costs and stock-outs
• Lower inventory and safety stocks

S/4HANA ASSET MANAGEMENT

Key Capabilities

• Simulating of maintenance strategies with respect to cost, risk, and performance
• Predicting and preventing downtime by analyzing data generated by machines and sensors along with business data
• Proactively controlling risks and preventing incidents by leveraging analysis, simulation, and prediction techniques

Benefits

• Real-time insight into asset performance to make timely, relevant decisions
• Combined evaluation of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data
• One common view of process risks related to employees, assets, or the environment

S/4HANA Finance

Key Capabilities

• Ensure one source of the truth for finance and operational data
• Real-time oversight into finance processes, finance and managerial accounting results
• Prediction, simulation and what-if analysis for continuous finance and business planning

Benefits

• Enterprise-wide consistency and minimized errors need for reconciliation
• Instant insight to enable timely and relevant decisions, with no lag time
• Evaluation of the financial implications of strategic business decisions

S/4HANA SUPPLY CHAIN

Key Capabilities

• Mastering uncertainty – supporting supply and operations planning cycles with real-time data and what-if scenarios
• Being demand-driven – sensing short-term demand, responding quickly with fast planning, replanning, and simulation
• Responding efficiently – real-time and adaptive freight planning, truck visibility, and warehouse automation

Benefits

• Higher inventory turns and revenues, reduced stock-outs, and revenue loss
• Higher on-time delivery, reduced order lead times, using inventory more efficiently as a better buffer against uncertainty
• Reduced warehouse and transportation spend, improved flexibility, and lower customer order cycle times

S/4HANA Sourcing & Procurement

Key Capabilities

• Securing many-to-many networked collaboration with trading partners
• Consumer-grade usability and mobility
• Full source-to-pay processes, including spend analysis, sourcing, contract management, supplier management, procurement, invoice management, and payables management

Benefits

• Increased profitability derived from employee compliance and sustainable cost savings
• Effortless user experiences with unprecedented transparency into spend, enabling companies to Run Simple
• Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) due to less data replication, reduced effort for system setup and operation, and reduced data footprint