Success Story Emmi

Emmi controls the entire Order Processing with BatchMan

Initial Situation

To harmonize processes in the specialty fields and in the two dozen Swiss production facilities, Emmi introduced the enterprise application software SAP between 2012 and 2016. Since the first go-live at the start of 2015, the background jobs were successfully and reliably planned using standard SAP functions. But as more factories were converted to SAP, the more the demands grew that could not be implemented with standard functions or only with complex workarounds. The limits of the standard functions were met in preparation of the most complex and provisionally last go-live – that of purchase order processing (Order to Cash).

Challenge for Ordering

Every day, Emmi gets via EDI between 700 and 800 order entries and even up to 1,200 on peak days. These may all arrive within just one minute. The respective delivery windows of the orders are often only a few hours. Thus the time of the entry processing for an order is very different. To ensure jobs run smoothly and to avoid data inconsistencies and other errors, you have to use SAP SM37 to plan jobs with a maximum lead time so job runs every 30 to 45 minutes, for example. Despite the built-in buffers, the risk remains high for mutual blocks and errors.
Erfolgsgeschichten HONICO Kunden

Industry: Consumer Goods and Retail

Use Case: Automation of Purchase Order Processing

Advantages: Reduction of maintenance windows and manual interventions

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Limits of SAP Job Control

  • Capacity bottlenecks due to long end-to-end lead times
  • Data inconsistencies and error messages due to blocked jobs
  • Reconciliation costs and error risk for maintenance windows, cutover, etc.
  • Manuel effort and error risk for time change

Decision to use BatchMan

Based on the initial situation, it became apparent to Emmi that purchase order processing was not in the position to go live just with the standard SAP functions. After evaluating four expert tools, BatchMan was chosen. While all the tools met the basic functional requirements, BatchMan was finally victorious by its simple architecture, easy and swift implementation, full integration in SAP and last but not least by HONICO as partner.

„Simple handling and a high degree of transparency in job processing – Emmi processes 33.000 jobs with BatchMan daily.“

Emmi Schweiz AG

The Installation

The first step was to install BatchMan on the test system. From that point, the jobs were continuously defined and planned in the test system. One month later, BatchMan was already installed in the production environment and all known jobs were planned and active in the test system. Just in time for the readiness test, all jobs were also planned and activated in the quality assurance system as well as the pre-production system. To minimize risks and especially to make it easier to get to the bottom of any errors, Emmi decided to move jobs into the production mode of BatchMan before the SAP go-live for purchase order processing and thus control production systems via BatchMan. This ensured that the cutover was done early for the jobs already in the production mode. The move into the production mode in the last step left only the jobs of the new processes.

„HONICO – cooperation is a breeze and reaction times are fast.“

Emmi Schweiz AG

The Solution with BatchMan

  • Platform-independent control of SAP and non-SAP systems
  • Simple, central management and control of jobs
  • Central and clear monitoring
  • Simple handling (for instance, maintenance windows, job orchestration, alarms, etc.)
  • Simple architecture and integration into the system landscape
  • Serial and parallel processing of job chains

Result and Outlook

Today aside from the technical jobs, Emmi also controls all other jobs in the SAP environment using BatchMan. There are now about 1,300 jobs being managed in ten SAP systems. In the production systems, there are about 33,000 jobs being done. Thanks to BatchMan, Emmi met all the demands of job automation, reduced job aborts and error messages thus cutting time needed by about a third. Emmi confirms that BatchMan fulfilled their expectations. In particular, the time change and the maintenance windows have gotten simpler. Transparency is also highlighted because it is much better, thanks to central monitoring. Cooperation with HONICO is a breeze and reaction times are very fast.

About Emmi

Emmi is the leading Swiss milk processor and one of the most innovative premium dairies in Europe. In Switzerland, the enterprise focuses on developing, creating and marketing a full range of dairy products and fresh products as well as producing, ripening and selling mainly Swiss cheese. Abroad, Emmi concentrates on established markets in Europe and North America with brand concepts and specialties as well as increasingly on developing markets outside of Europe. Fresh products mainly include lifestyle products, convenience products and health products. When it comes to Swiss cheese, Emmi is the global leader. The customers at Emmi consist of retrial trade, the hotel industry and gastronomy and the food industry.