Time-critical carve-out drives restructuring program at SHW Automotive
SHWBusiness segment spin-off paves the way for sustainable growth and innovation
The SHW Group stands for intelligent manufacturing in the automotive sector and is experiencing rising demand. To drive this development going forward, the company needed to transform its Powder Metallurgy business segment into a separate legal entity. Technically speaking, they needed to spin off the existing SAP system at the company code level. SNP delivered the audit-proof solution quickly and with minimized system downtime.
Complex SAP system split done fast
As part of a strategic restructuring initiative, SHW Automotive wanted to remove the data of their Powder Metallurgy business segment from the shared company code and transfer it to a separate instance. The new company code also needed to be created in the existing SAP production system. To achieve this, the global company relied on SNP’s expertise and software. Three years before, SNP had already completed a similar IT project for another SHW business segment. SNP used this existing scenario and adapted it to fit the new project. The quick project start proved highly advantageous, allowing a fast spin-off at the IT level to meet the legal requirements.
Due to the manufacturing shift schedules, it was also crucial to keep the system downtime required for the data migration as short as possible. Every minute the team saved during the complex project led to reduced costs, as it meant less disruption to ongoing operations. At the same time, consistent data was essential in the new company code to fulfill the legal requirements of the company split.
Effective collaboration ensured that the migration was completed within five months and with a short downtime of just 24 hours. The data-driven project plan and blueprint, clearly defined responsibilities and accelerated transformation processes thanks to SNP software made the project a resounding success.
Seamless data-driven collaboration enables early go-live
The cutover took place on one weekend. Besides the short project duration, the selection criteria also proved to be challenging: Only period balances needed to be migrated – not all the individual values. Furthermore, the plan was to transfer the logistics history as well.
Despite only testing the data migration in one test run due to time constraints (two were actually planned), everything went smoothly. The carefully planned agile cutover paid off: Between the migration steps, the teams exchanged knowledge and further optimized the procedure, for example by using faster computers on the customer side or extending access rights for SNP for the data transfer. This accelerated the following transformation steps.
In addition, technical checks known as quality gates helped SHW’s project managers to complete their tasks in the system during the data transformation. Predefined communication rules and channels provided seamless collaboration between SHW and SNP, ultimately bringing the go-live date forward. The business segment spin-off and the migration to the new company code were completed by Saturday evening.
Advantages of the chosen approach
- The approach ensures a very short project duration: Thanks to strategic collaboration and automated SNP software, the go-live can take place ahead of schedule.
- The database-driven transformation minimizes the SAP system downtime: Production continues without disruption.
- The secure software is certified by leading auditors: The migrated data undergoes automated consistency checks.
Key Facts
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System
SAP ECC EHP8
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Project type
Company code split in SAP system
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Downtime
24 hours
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Users
762
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Project duration
5 months
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Modules
FI, CO, WM, MM, PM, PP, QM, SD
The short project duration, low downtime and special migration criteria made it a challenging IT split. Thanks to SNP, our restructuring program was a success, and we were able to minimize the downtime of our production system even further.
Jürgen Besener
Head of SAP and Processes
Innovation driver for CO2-reduced solutions
SHW Automotive develops innovative product solutions for sustainable mobility at nine locations worldwide. Its three business segments Pumps, Powder Metallurgy and Brake Discs serve the automotive industry as well as the truck and off-highway market, such as manufacturers of agricultural and construction machinery or wind turbines. In September 2023, Powder Metallurgy was reorganized as part of the internal restructuring initiative: Since then, SHW Powder Systems GmbH has been responsible for manufacturing sintered components and remains 100 percent part of the SHW Group.
