About the Client: This large commercial and defense manufacturing company wanted to make a major change in their system for manufacturing and accounting, but was plagued by documentation and disclosure requirements for their government contracts. With a highly diversified product base, including helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, missile systems, armored transport vehicles and light commercial vehicles, they needed to understand their system needs as a big picture, as well as the details.

The Business Challenge: The company had decided to implement SAP for both manufacturing and accounting functions, but was aware of the specific reporting requirements mandated by their many defense contracts. In addition, the general complexity of a full SAP implementation in so many areas was overwhelming. They knew that they would need assistance to integrate the specially designed Grouping-Pegging-Distribution module (GPD) required for cost collection and progress payment reporting.

The Sharp Solution: Sharp Decisions Inc. was engaged to assist in the in the end-to-end processes of analyzing and implementing SAP, including many module areas and the integration of GPD. SDI conducted joint analysis sessions with Business Operations and the basic user community to understand functional and technical requirements, as well as identifying all integration points between functions.

The Benefits: The company was able to speed the analysis and business decision-making associated with all of functional areas without adversely impacting their overall implementation schedule. Specific implementation needs that were met included:

• Calculations to forecast both flexible and long-term product planning and forecast production costs in Sales.
• Complex requirements in Financial Accounting to accommodate three-way invoice matching, partial payment documents and split account processing.
• Integration functions for CMOD, BOM/WBS and PS.
• Capacity planning and material allocation for both centralized and localized planning – including replenishment, missing parts, defective parts and alternative parts.
• Workflow for PM notification process and for part replacement tracking.
• Preventive and predictive part maintenance process for internal/external materials.
• Connectivity between the Procurement module and all Master Parts List and Illustrated Parts Catalog components.
• A vendor managed inventory process engine for Pay-on-Consumption processes.