Aschheim/Dornach, 05. March 2024 – Getzner Werkstoffe, headquartered in Bürs, Austria, has been developing solutions for damping unwanted vibrations and noise for over 50 years. The products are used in the railroad, construction and industrial sectors. They extend the service life of mounted components and thus reduce maintenance and servicing costs. The elastic bearings made from the high-tech materials Sylomer®, Sylodyn®, Sylodamp®, Isotop® and Sylocraft® are the result of in-house research. They are used in particular in railroad superstructures, for the elastic mounting of buildings and machines and as structural components.
In the past, the SAP specialists from CONSILIO had already accompanied and supported Getzner Werkstoffe in the SAP environment with support and in the realization of various projects. Over time, it became increasingly apparent that the SAP system taken over from the sister company Getzner Textil did not optimally map the company's own processes and therefore always had to be readjusted manually. This not only consumed valuable resources, but also caused unnecessary costs.
The company is expanding internationally and sees the optimization and digitalization of existing processes as an essential prerequisite for further growth.
However, the requirements became more specific, meaning that the system had to be fundamentally optimized. This laid the foundation for the S/4HANA transformation. Due to the positive, long-standing cooperation, the Austrians decided to work with the Munich-based consulting firm CONSILIO.
The partnership-based cooperation, the methodical approach and the great flexibility of CONSILIO's specialists were the decisive criteria for us to engage the company as a partner for this business-critical change.
Brownfield, an option that wasn't an option
Initially, the Austrians tended towards technical conversion - the brownfield approach. This initially involved making a 1:1 copy of the existing setup and then removing all adapted processes from the system. On closer inspection, however, it became clear that a step-by-step optimization process would not be sufficient in the long term and that the conversion would not be cost-effective due to the original textile setup. Subsequent system changes were very costly due to the different processes. The reason: at Getzner Werkstoffe, unlike its textile sister, the process chain starts with a chemical process followed by mechanical manufacturing processes such as cutting or punching. In addition, the industry is becoming more digital. This means that customers are increasingly demanding complete systems that can be digitally mapped and controlled. It was therefore clear to Getzner Werkstoffe that in order to further expand its leading position in the field of vibration isolation, the company needed to develop in the direction of complete digital solutions. As these challenges could not be met economically with the current system and a technical conversion, the top management ultimately opted for a greenfield approach.
With the S/4HANA implementation, Getzner Werkstoffe aims to further standardize and automate its processes, create transparency in planning and further improve its customer service through intelligent data collection and analysis. Getzner Werkstoffe has set a time frame of two years for the changeover to S/4HANA. Six company codes and one controlling area had to be remodeled and mapped in the system.
SAP Activate „Tailored by CONSILIO“ for Getzner
When switching to S/4HANA, Getzner Werkstoffe followed the SAP Activate "Tailored by CONSILIO" methodology. Like the SAP original, it consists of the Prepare, Discover, Explore, Realize, Deploy and Run phases. The added value offered by the CONSILIO version lies primarily in the fact that CONSILIO specialists combine functional and technical SAP application expertise with industry and business process know-how. This enables them to streamline the standard SAP Activate process in a meaningful way and thus significantly reduce project management overheads.
As part of the Prepare and Discover phases as well as workshops on the topics of WM/EWM, QM and MM, CONSILIO evaluated as far as possible all the processes required by the Austrian specialist for vibration isolation and vibration protection. Based on the results and the defined requirements for the future system, the best practices that best suited the company were selected. A fit-gap analysis also showed where adjustments needed to be made.
With its greenfield approach, Getzner Werkstoffe is taking the optimal path in terms of efficiency and innovation. With the new system, Getzner is not only at the cutting edge of IT technology, but can also meet the future requirements of its customers.
In-one-Step instead of Step-by-Step
When internationally active companies switch to S/4HANA, they have two methods at their disposal: the classic rollout approach (step-by-step) and the big bang approach (in-one-step). Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. For various reasons, Getzner Werkstoffe decided to switch to S/4HANA in a big bang - in other words, the system was converted at the same time in the branches in Austria, France and Germany.
The time had come at the beginning of 2024. Thanks to the smooth collaboration between the CONSILIO and Getzner project teams, their solution-oriented approach in critical situations and their exemplary commitment - even at weekends and on public holidays - the new system went live successfully in January 2024. Since then, S/4HANA has been running stably and CONSILIO has taken over the hypercare phase.
Next step: S/4HANA in further branches
However, the end of this project does not mean the end of the cooperation between Getzner Werkstoffe and CONSILIO. For example, some of the subsidiaries have not yet been converted. They are also to be supplied with S/4HANA in the next step. Getzner Werkstoffe also plans to rely on CONSILIO's expertise for this project.