CERATIZIT & Soley Leverage SAP Technology for Sustainable Product Portfolio Management

Innovation at the Intersection of Sustainability and Profitability

CERATIZIT Group, a global leader in hard material solutions for machining and wear protection, partnered with Munich-based Soley GmbH to address the challenge of managing a vast and complex product portfolio exceeding 65,000 items. By adopting Soley’s Product Mining Platform integrated with SAP’s supply chain management technologies, they have pioneered a model that balances environmental responsibility with economic performance.

The Challenge: Complexity and Transparency Deficits

CERATIZIT’s Cutting Tool Solutions division needed to simultaneously pursue ecological objectives and maintain competitive advantages. The primary hurdles were the sheer scale of the product range and insufficient transparency regarding sustainability metrics and product performance. This lack of clarity impeded strategic decision-making, as employees spent significant time gathering data rather than focusing on actionable insights. Additionally, limited visibility into critical materials and supplier emissions obstructed the efficient phaseout of products with high carbon footprints.

AI-Driven Product Portfolio Analysis Powered by SAP

Soley’s Product Mining Platform integrates seamlessly with SAP’s ecosystem, drawing data from SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Warehouse, facilitated by SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). Key AI-driven modules include:

• AI Advisor: Recommends strategic actions such as product phaseouts that reduce carbon emissions without compromising profit margins.
• AI Assistant: Allows intuitive, natural-language interaction with the platform, eliminating the need for advanced technical skills.
• AI Detective: Discovers hidden dependencies and pinpoints optimization opportunities by analyzing complex product configurations.

This robust architecture employs SAP Datasphere for data consolidation, SAP Analytics Cloud for advanced analytics, and SAP Databricks for intelligent data transformation and graph analytics.

Quantifiable Sustainability and Business Benefits

The collaboration achieved significant milestones within nine months:

• Sustainability Impact:

  • 87% implementation of AI-suggested sustainability measures.
  • Over 30% reduction in end-of-life “ballast” products with negative carbon footprints.
  • 100% transparency in sustainability data across all product hierarchies.

• Business Performance:

  • 10% increase in Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) via optimized working capital.
  • 75% improvement in delivery reliability and supply chain resilience.
  • 40% decrease in inventory levels.
  • Return on investment realized in under 12 months.

CEO Alexander Springer underscores the strategic advantage, emphasizing the importance of identifying critical products for securing value chains and mitigating supply risks.

Leadership Driving the Future of Sustainable SCM

Dominik Metzger, SAP’s President and Chief Product Officer for Supply Chain Management, reinforces the vision of building autonomous, resilient, and sustainable supply chains through AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics.

Conclusion: A Blueprint for Sustainable Digital Transformation

The successful integration of AI-enabled analytics with SAP’s supply chain technologies by CERATIZIT and Soley exemplifies how manufacturing companies can reconcile sustainability with profitability. This partnership serves as a replicable model for other organizations aiming to achieve comprehensive ecological and economic goals through cutting-edge digital transformation.

Explore more:

• Learn about the latest SAP supply chain management innovations.
• Discover the Soley Product Mining Platform on the SAP Store.

Tags: AI, Carbon Footprint, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BTP, SAP S/4HANA, Sustainable Manufacturing, Supply Chain Optimization

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