CERATIZIT & Soley Revolutionize Sustainable Product Portfolio Management with SAP Technologies

Date: October 21, 2025
Author: Jeanette Rohr

Overview

CERATIZIT Group, a global leader in hard material solutions, partnered with Munich-based Soley GmbH and SAP to implement an innovative, AI-powered sustainable product portfolio management system. Recognized by SAP Innovation Awards and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, this collaboration demonstrates a successful integration of sustainability and profitability through cutting-edge technology.

Challenges in Managing a Complex Portfolio

• CERATIZIT’s Cutting Tool Solutions division manages over 65,000 products.
• The dual need was to harmonize economic goals with ecological sustainability.
• Key issues included lack of transparency in product performance and sustainability data, laborious manual reporting, and inefficiencies in phasing out high-emission products.

The AI-Driven Solution: Soley Product Mining Platform

Soley GmbH developed a platform integrated with SAP supply chain technologies, featuring:

• AI Advisor: Recommends strategic actions to reduce carbon footprints without impacting margins.
• AI Assistant: Natural-language interface facilitating user-friendly interactions without deep technical know-how.
• AI Detective: Uncovers hidden dependencies and optimizes product configurations for profitability and sustainability.

This platform leverages SAP’s ecosystem, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP BTP, SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Databricks, enabling complex data extraction and analytics through massive graph computations.

Seamless Integration and Impact

• The solution merges CERATIZIT’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data with financial metrics to create a dynamic digital twin.
• It facilitates identification of risks, optimization opportunities, and transparent sustainability analytics across all product tiers.

Measurable Business & Environmental Outcomes

• 87% of AI-suggested measures implemented, enhancing product sustainability and supply chain robustness.
• Over 30% reduction in end-of-life “ballast” products with negative carbon impact.
• Achieved full transparency on carbon footprint data company-wide.
• Financial improvements include:
  • 10% EBIT increase through optimized working capital.
  • 75% boost in delivery reliability and supply chain resilience.
  • 40% reduction in inventory within nine months.
  • ROI realized in under 12 months.

Leadership & Vision

Dominik Metzger, SAP Supply Chain Management President and Chief Product Officer, emphasizes leveraging AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics to build autonomous, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.

Alexander Springer, CEO of Soley, highlights the strategic value of identifying critical products to proactively manage supply risks and safeguard value chains.

Conclusion: A Blueprint for Sustainable Digital Transformation

The CERATIZIT-Soley-SAP partnership exemplifies how modern manufacturing companies can simultaneously pursue ecological responsibility and business growth by harnessing AI and integrated SAP technologies. This case sets a precedent encouraging organizations to blend sustainability and profitability through intelligent data use.

Learn more & access the Soley Product Mining Platform on SAP Store.
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Tags: AI, Carbon Footprint, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BTP, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP Databricks, SAP Innovation Awards, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Supply Chain Management

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