Product Lifecycle Costing, Invoice Receipt Processing, and Mobile Warehouse Management

2013 Annual DSAG CongressSAP developer T.CON GmbH & Co. KG will be showcasing its consulting, solution, and service portfolio for SAP ERP at the Annual DSAG Congress from September 17 to September 19, 2013. The congress will be taking place at the NürnbergConvention Center, with T.CON’s exhibit located at Hall 11, Booth I 7. During the event, the consulting service provider will be focusing on user-friendly add-ons that are fully integrated into SAP ERP and that are designed to cover the processes involved in product lifecycle costing (PLC) for automotive suppliers, invoice receipt processing, and mobile warehouse management. The three corresponding software packages, which expand and enhance SAP’s standard software without modifying it, provide electronic support for the respective business processes, enabling companies to significantly boost their efficiency.

T.CON’s PLC Cockpit enables automotive suppliers that use SAP ERP to reliably and precisely calculate all cost components involved in manufacturing new parts, taking the parts’ entire lifecycle into account. This, in turn, allows them to prepare clear cost breakdown (CBD) analyses for manufacturers after receiving an OEM quotation request.  The add-on makes it possible to carry out cross-plant costing in a standardized manner, easily compare results, and simulate margins at the click of a button. Not only that, but to do so, Cockpit consolidates the required SAP data centrally, reducing maintenance to a minimum.  Moreover, it can accurately calculate component costs to the fifth decimal place, after which users can copy the data to the CBD templates used by the automaker in question with a simple mouse click. Another couple of advantages are the fact that users do not have to create specific master data for costing in the SAP system, and that a quotation can be easily created in SAP ERP for any costing calculations generated in PLC Cockpit. Finally, the add-on generates not only external costing calculations, but also internal costing calculations based on Controlling’s standard values, making it easy to track discrepancies in planned costs, quotation prices, and actual costs.

Meanwhile, T.CON’s add-on for invoice receipt processing is based on SAP Business Workflow and covers the entire lifecycle of vendor invoices, all the way from scanning, through checking and approval, to payment. In fact, the completely IT-assisted workflow enables users to process invoices much more quickly and effectively, with or without a purchase order reference. This not only relieves employees from having to perform time-consuming manual work, but also reduces the amount of paper documents that they have to keep track of.  The add-on also makes lost cash discounts a thing of the past, as invoices, their status, and the corresponding cash flows can all be continuously monitored and analyzed with the help of monitoring functions. The add-on also comes with many other useful features: For example, users can intervene in a process workflow when necessary, such as when they need to add memos or notes. And since the individual steps involved in invoice receipt processing are linked directly to SAP transactions, users can also access vendor master data and material movement data at any time. Finally, the add-on features e-mail integration and a web interface, making it possible for employees who do not use SAP to be part of the approval and exception processes.

Finally, T.CON’s web-based mobile warehouse management system (Mobile Warehouse Management = MWM) is designed to enable companies to establish automated, transparent, and accurate processes at their warehouses, allowing them to optimize their inventories and minimize production downtimes. In fact, MWM enables users to conveniently enter all movements within a warehouse (such as stock placements, stock transfers, picking operations, and packing operations) in real time, after which the corresponding data is transferred directly to SAP ERP via WLAN so that it can be posted there immediately. Moreover, the application automatically suggests free bin locations for stock placements and comes with a stocktaking function. Perhaps more importantly, however, MWM can be installed and used on all popular mobile devices, including PDAs, forklift terminals, smartphones, and tablet computers. This means that a sudden disconnection from the network will not result in any data being lost, as the posted information will be temporarily saved on the corresponding mobile devices.

In addition to learning more about these add-ons, attendees are more than welcome to visit us and find out more about T.CON’s MES CAT Suite manufacturing execution system, which is not only fully integrated into SAP ERP, but has also been certified as “Powered by SAP NetWeaver” by SAP. This MES application enables manufacturers that use SAP ERP to achieve vertical real-time integration between the production systems at their shop floor and their ERP environment. Visitors will also be able to learn more about “T.CON All-in-One Rolls,” a pre-configured industry-specific software package that is based on SAP ERP and the MES CAT Suite, can be quickly implemented, and is intended specifically for companies that make and process reels, rolls, folio-size goods, and cut-size goods from various materials.

Click here to schedule an appointment for a personal meeting with a T.CON expert at the Annual DSAG Congress.