Teksid brings innovation to manufacturing by implementing SAP S/4HANA

Continuing the pursuit of manufacturing innovation

Since being founded by the FIAT Group in 1978, Teksid has continually explored the boundaries of innovation to become a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of both iron and aluminum parts for engines. As part of a group-wide pursuit to develop and produce new generations of high-performance cars, Teksid has spent the entirety of its history looking for new ways to push the envelope and become more effective within its field. As part of this initiative, the organization launched a review of its ways of working in an effort to find new opportunities for improvement.

In 2019, this led Teksid to identify a need for a new ERP platform throughout its Brazilian manufacturing plants. Though the company had experienced a great deal of success with its existing processes and managed a modern plant within Brazil, it faced new challenges with the launch of a new aluminum production line, the wide variety of customers supported within the local region, and growing product complexity. All of this led Teksid to hypothesize that improvement to its information and communications technology (ICT) support systems would be essential to its long-term success.

Following an internal review to confirm this theory, Teksid settled upon the SAP S/4HANA ERP platform as its solution of choice. However, the far-reaching impact of the project as well as the ambitious timeline and objectives of the transformation called for substantial technical and industry experience. To ensure that it had the appropriate support for its transformation journey, Teksid partnered with Capgemini to roll out the SAP platform.

Roadmap for transformation

The partners quickly agreed upon a four-stage journey that would execute the transformation within an aggressive timeline of less than a year while ensuring that Teksid had numerous opportunities to prepare for the change. During the initial preparation stage, Teksid and Capgemini planned out a detailed transformation roadmap. This involved a review of the existing infrastructure within Teksid’s Brazilian plants and the organization of a workshop series that would bring together experts from both organizations to discuss the upcoming changes.

Following this, Teksid and Capgemini launched the exploration stage. During this period, the partners managed the workshop series they had previously planned in order to gain further insight into the existing processes and systems while also providing an educational experience for Teksid users. Based on the knowledge gained from these sessions, Teksid and Capgemini designed a new set of business processes fit to the future system. At this point, the organizations determined that it would be best to use a standard S/4HANA platform and minimize customization. Instead of rampant modifications, Teksid and Capgemini instead determined that they would implement targeted customization only where absolutely appropriate.

Throughout the lead up to the project, the implementation scope expanded to involve the most critical areas of the company. This ultimately led to a highly expansive approach that involved updates to Purchasing, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality assurance, HR, and Finance processes.

With a firm plan in place, the organizations then proceeded to the realization of their shared vision. This involved the configuration of the new systems as well as the implementation and testing of the targeted customizations. This was followed by comprehensive, end-to-end tests of the new S/4HANA platform to ensure that the new processes were functioning as expected. Finally, with the tests complete and showing that platform and processes were fully operational, Teksid and Capgemini entered the deployment phase and rolled out SAP S/4HANA, including a complete data migration from the old systems to the new platform.

SAP S/4HANA opens the door to future opportunities

As a result of this project, Teksid has fully realized its initial objectives. SAP S/4HANA helped execute widespread information rationalization that cleansed redundant data from the system and made it easier to achieve full compliance. Finally, the transformation simplified and standardized the ways of working throughout Teksid manufacturing plants in Brazil while additionally simplifying the organization’s application landscape.

With SAP S/4HANA in place, Teksid is now better prepared to ensure best practices are followed throughout its plants. The roadmap followed throughout the project represents an easily replicated approach that Teksid will be able to apply at other locations and within other regions. As a result of the success of their partnership, Teksid and Capgemini will now collaborate to develop and support new applications enabled by the SAP S/4HANA platform. Together, the organizations will continue to pursue a future based on innovation and a drive for leadership.