CERATIZIT & Soley Leverage SAP Technology for Sustainable Product Portfolio Management

Overview

CERATIZIT Group, a leader in hard material solutions, partnered with Soley GmbH and SAP to innovate sustainable product portfolio optimization. This collaboration won accolades including a nomination for the SAP Innovation Awards and the Supply & Demand Chain Executive Award.

The Challenge: Complexity & Sustainability in Large Product Portfolios

CERATIZIT’s Cutting Tool Solutions division manages over 65,000 products, facing challenges in balancing economic goals with ecological responsibility. Key obstacles included:

• Lack of transparency in product performance and sustainability metrics
• Time-consuming manual reporting limiting strategic decision-making
• Difficulty phasing out high-emission products due to insufficient supplier and material insights

AI-Powered Solution: Soley Product Mining Platform + SAP

Soley GmbH, utilizing SAP’s ecosystem, created the AI-driven Product Mining Platform integrated with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Warehouse over the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). Key AI innovations include:

• AI Advisor: Recommends product actions to reduce carbon footprint without harming profitability
• AI Assistant: Natural language interface simplifying user interactions
• AI Detective: Detects hidden dependencies and strategic optimization opportunities

Supporting technologies include SAP Datasphere for data consolidation, SAP Analytics Cloud for analytics, SAP Databricks for data transformation, and advanced graph analytics for complex dependency mapping.

Impact & Business Results

• 87% implementation rate of AI-suggested sustainability measures
• 30% reduction in end-of-life products with negative carbon footprints
• 100% transparency in sustainability data
• 10% increase in Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT)
• 75% improvement in delivery reliability and resilience
• 40% inventory reduction within nine months
• ROI achieved in under 12 months

Strategic Significance

This partnership exemplifies how integrating AI-enabled analytics with SAP technologies empowers companies to simultaneously enhance sustainability and profitability. As Soley’s CEO Alexander Springer states, focusing on critical products safeguards value chains and mitigates supply risks.

SAP’s Commitment

SAP Supply Chain Management, under the leadership of Dominik Metzger, emphasizes resilience, sustainability, and intelligent automation using AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics to build autonomous, connected supply chains.

Conclusion

CERATIZIT and Soley’s collaboration demonstrates a model for sustainable digital transformation where ecological goals and economic success coexist. Leveraging SAP solutions and AI analytics drives measurable value, offering a proven pathway for other manufacturers aiming to optimize sustainable product portfolios.

Learn more: The Soley Product Mining Platform is available on the SAP Store. Stay updated with the latest in SAP supply chain management by subscribing to SAP newsletters.

Tags: AI, Carbon Footprint, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BTP, SAP Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Product Portfolio Management

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