Aquafil: Business Evolution in the Italian Textile Industry with mySAP
Aquafil is a division of Gruppo Bonazzi and it is one of the major international players in the Synthetic Fiber and Polymers sector.
The company has a strong growth trend, based on subsequent acquisitions both in Italy and abroad. In order to obtain a shared culture and a common information environment, Aquafil selected mySAP solutions including the industry-solution Mill Products and Business Warehouse to manage specific requirements of the textile business.
The Aquafil implementation was the first in Italy of mySAP APO with extended components: PP-DS (Production Planning - Detailed Scheduling), GATP (Global Available to Promise), SNP (Supply Network Planning). Aquafil now benefits from an environment which enables closer cultural collaboration using standard processes throughout. Additionally, a centralized planning process at the business unit levels facilitates efficient financial operations.
Background
Established in 1956, the Bonazzi Group is a significant player in the international chemical-textile arena with 24 production sites, 3,500 employees and turnover of EUR 490 million. Bonazzi Group is diversified into two divisions: Aquafil synthetic fibers & polymers and Aquafabric natural & synthetic materials.
Aquafil has 11 companies world wide, organized into four units catering to the different businesses they operate:
- BCF - yarns for carpets, cars and furnishing
- Textile - yarns for stockings, knitwear, weaving
- Technopolymers - polymers and technical polymers for plastics manufacturing
- Caprolactam - raw material for technical polymers.
Business Requirements
Aquafil originally operated through a network of companies, each maintaining a strong local identity due to growth by acquisition.
Management’s vision was to create a new “group” culture by redesigning the business processes and defining a new business unit structure. Aquafil’s requirements were to:
- support common processes in multiple languages
- respect local fiscal requirements
- standardize information systems for all units in the Aquafil Group
- be structured around business units’ needs
- assign standard identification codes for the products, across all companies
- improve financial reporting processes.
Aquafil’s Textile business unit sought solutions for:
- complex product structures, based on concepts of lots, batches, items, collections, colors, etc.
- a large number of material codes and batches, with highly detailed data
- product management with the dynamic double unit of measurement, for example - kilos and bobbins
- sales orders with specific customer requirements
- high volumes of data exchange, both cross-company and intra-company
- different production strategies, Make-To-Order and Make-To-Stock.
Solution
Driving the Aquafil goal was the introduction of an integrated information system. mySAP APO and BW were identified as the solution to best meet business requirements. Aquafil engaged Capgemini as its implementation partner based on international expertise and the willingness to build a common solution in the textile sector.
The project placed a strong emphasis on change management, the organizational environment and culture at Aquafil. In Phase One the project team designed a core solution by focusing on 6 companies with 9 production plants throughout the 3 main business units: BCF, Textile and Technopolymers
The application solution consists of four components:
- SAP R/3 standard
- IS Mill Products
- mySAP SCM APO (Supply Chain Management, Advanced Planner and Optimiser including: Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling - PP/DS, Global ATP, Supply Network Planning - SNP and Demand Planning - DP)
- BW (Business Information Warehouse).
Modules implemented on the Aquafil project were:
- PP - Production Planning
- QM -Quality Management
- SD -Sales and Distribution
- MM - Materials Management, Purchasing and Inventory Management
- PM - Plant Maintenance
- FI - Finance - Accounting
- CO - Controlling
- Material coding
The first step was defining a new standardized structure for a new and common material coding. A sub-project was launched to collect disparate information from various sources in order to establish a uniform material coding system. It is based on the utilization of characteristics that can identify the product and specify detailed information, managed at batch level.
The result of this exercise was a reduction in the number of material codes and the easy identification of products. The characteristics are used in all the processes - from sales orders throughout the entire supply chain to delivery.
The definition of a dedicated characteristic allowed managing the double unit of measure with a dynamic conversion factor.
SAP’s IS-Mill solution allowed for easy configuration of the sales order to collect customer requirements and the configuration of purchase order. IS-Mill also enables stock overview by characteristics.
Aquafil’s production processes usually involve disparate phases realized in different plants and countries.The same product can be sold and re-used as a component in the next production phase. This logistic and production structure, including also external subcontractors, required the definition of a complex Supply Chain Model in the planning system APO.
Planning processes were managed at business unit level using customer requirements, inserted into the sales order, moving information among the entire logistics chain. All production sites were provided with weighing systems for confirmation and bar code systems for internal material movement.
Capgemini co-operating with SAP-IBU (Industry Business Unit) developers in Walldorf, Germany developed this solution which interfaces with SAP R/3. Industry-specific requirements were collected and mapped to SAP APO. In the end, solutions developed for Aquafil will be introduced in the standard 3.1 release of APO.
The project comprised teams from Capgemini and Aquafil. It was realized in an 18-month timeframe in Italy and Slovenia. Capgemini was supported by an external partner in Slovenia for training and the ‘go live’. Phase Two will include training and rollout in foreign country as well as new acquisitions in Italy.
Benefits
Thanks to a strong partnership and shared vision with Capgemini, Aquafil reached important benefits:
- the same culture and processes throughout different companies
- a rapid definition of the organization, per business units
- the feasibility of quicker integration of companies from new acquisitions
- the availability of a platform that naturally supports new e-business initiatives
- better management and quality of information within the integrated system.
Written in co-operation with Aquafil SpA