Schaeffler Group Boosting Efficiency and Reducing Costs
Founded in 1964, Schaeffler Group is a groundbreaking inventor and developer of motion technology.
From bearing solutions and linear guidance systems to repair and monitoring services, the manufacturer over the last 75 years has innovated a range of critical technologies, products and services for electric mobility, CO₂-efficient drives, chassis solutions and renewable energies.
“We see sustainability and digitalisation as key topics for our future success," says Christof Heurung, head of Strategic Digitalisation at Schaeffler Group
"By combining the right digital technologies, such as AI innovations, with our pioneering spirit, we can take sustainability to the next level and create an even more sustainable future for Schaeffler Group, as well as for our customers and suppliers."
A new era of greener supply chain digitalisation
To be successful in shipping diverse offerings to customers worldwide, organisations require a wide array of containers which must all be managed efficiently and transparently across internal operations, suppliers and customers.
Demanding the integration of numerous business systems and applications to access and exchange information securely, streamline processes strategically and react to new challenges and opportunities with precision, most companies fall short of achieving this advantage.
Common challenges faced by organisations:
- Fragmented application landscape
- Slow response to trends and requirements
- Limited transparency
- Disjointed operations
“After using SAP solutions for around 40 years now, during the past five years, we have established a strategic partnership with SAP to develop and introduce new IT application systems while forging ahead in our desire to run a more sustainable operation,” adds Gerhard Stoessel, IT program lead for SAP S/4HANA at the Schaeffler Group.
“Such a relationship is allowing Schaeffler Group and SAP to identify unmet industry needs and launch numerous innovations.”
Introducing industry-wide circular logistic flows
One such innovation mentioned by Gerhard is the SAP Returnable Packaging Management solution.
This industry-specific solution supports circular logistic flows for returnable and reusable packaging material such as containers, boxes and pallets from supplier and customer deliveries to intra-company movements and the journey back to the company.
Schaeffler Group is currently rolling out the solution across over 80 manufacturing plants in its worldwide ecosystem.
Sven Proschek, product owner of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for logistics at Schaeffler Group says: “Our partnership with SAP enabled us to enrich the solution with the industry-relevant capabilities that companies like ours need, as well as near-seamless, end-to-end integration of the container management cycle.”
With this collaborative approach, the two organisations are streamlining the supply chain into a more efficient and robust network, resulting in fewer delivery failures and deeper transparency in the company’s packaging material inventory.
The overall workload is decreasing even though the company ships products to more customers. This is in part due to AI capabilities such as container reconciliation automation and self-services for reordering packaging materials and checking inventory.
“We can now react quickly to new trends, support an end-to-end collaborative solution for suppliers and customers, and save time and costs through automation. Efficient container management also helps us avoid delivery failures due to shortages,” adds Sven.
Making sustainability more cost-efficient
Further exploring the capabilities of AI, Schaeffler Group is harnessing the technology in SAP Returnable Packaging Management to further bridge the gap between sustainability and cost efficiency.
A concept gaining traction is the use of machine learning-powered returnable packaging account matching. With this solution, organisations can reduce the manual effort needed to analyse unmatched items and determine whether the underlying issue is a logistical exception or a discrepancy in matching attributes
As a result, Schaeffler Group can streamline the reconciliation process and enhance efficiency, empowering packaging planners to focus on strategic tasks. Additionally, it minimises errors and increases the accuracy across the supply chain.
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