EIM Solutions solves the problem of availability control for purchase requisitions and production orders using SAP’s standard functionality at Schlumberger
Schlumberger is an eminent manufacturer of textile machinery and complete fiber-to-yarn lines. It is specialized in combing/recombing, spinning preparation, tow to top and semi wresting of long staple fibers. N.Schlumberger has presence in more than 60 countries with its headquarter locate at Guebwiller, France.
Business Challenges
The customer wanted a custom development that would check for stock of all components in a sub-contract purchase order before firming the requisition and components in a production order before creating the production order. The availability check was not just a check on inventory of each component but also a check on the warehouse availability. Warehouse availability check was to flexible in the inclusion or exclusion of various stock categories such as stock in goods inspection, stock ready to be delivered to customer, etc.
Key Challenges
- Working with a French customer
- Adhering to SAP logic for inventory availability check and simultaneously executing a warehouse availability check that excluded specific stock categories in a flexible manner. There is no comparable SAP functionality that is able to do a stock check for components both in inventory and in the warehouse.
- The logic had to be flexible enough to check availability for subcontract components that included stock provided to vendors and check availability for production order components that excluded stock provided to vendors
Implementation Highlights
- EIM solutions spent a considerable amount of time to understand the manner the SAP logic of checking for component availability on production orders and subcontract purchase orders.
- To keep this exact same logic, a custom function module was developed that served as a wrapper for the SAP function module that carried out the availability check.
- This custom development used standard SAP configuration to check for available stock in inventory management.
- At the conclusion of the availability check, a similar check was conduct for warehouse stock. To make this a flexible definition for the customer, a custom table was introduced to define the stock types that could be considered available in warehouse management.
- The result was presented to the customer as a summary per purchase requisition or planned order along with a detailed listing of all components per order.
- This enabled the customer to evaluate availability across multiple orders and take decisions on creation or production orders and purchase orders.
Business Benefits
With the custom development provided by EIM, the productivity of Schlumberger has gone up several fold. What used to take half a day or more on a weekly basis is now accomplished within a matter of minutes.
