Manufacturing Operations Transformation
ClientSector: Industrial Components Manufacturing
Locations: 5 plants across India and Southeast Asia
Platform: SAP S/4HANA
The Background
A fast-growing manufacturer was running on disconnected legacy systems. Each plant operated differently. Planners worked off spreadsheets. The shopfloor wasn’t visible to the business. Finance waited for everyone else before it could close. The company was growing but its operations couldn’t keep up.
Where We Started
We didn’t try to fix everything at once. We picked the process costing the most and started there.
The first Qube: Production Planning.
Planners were spending hours reconciling data across systems to build a plan that was already outdated by the time it reached the floor. We measured the current cycle time, agreed on an outcome (25% faster planning) and built it in SAP PP, one plant at a time. When it was done, we handed it over and moved to the next process.
How the Qubes Stacked
Each Qube targeted one broken process. Each had one outcome number agreed upfront.
Qube 1
Production Planning
Replaced manual planning with system-driven MRP across all 5 plants.
Delivered: 25% faster production planning cycle.
Qube 5
Order-to-Cash
Connected sales orders, dispatch, and invoicing in one system. Inventory availability checks happen in real time at the point of order.
Delivered: 20% faster order-to-cash cycle.
Qube 2
Inventory & Material Management
Standardised item codes, warehouse structures, and goods-movement flows. Gave every plant real-time stock visibility.
Delivered: 30% improvement in inventory accuracy.
Qube 3
Shopfloor & IoT Integration
Connected SCADA/PLC systems directly to SAP. Machine events now post automatically. Maintenance alerts are triggered by the equipment, not a breakdown.
Delivered: 100% automated shopfloor logging. Zero manual entry.
Qube 4
Procurement
Moved purchase orders, approvals, and vendor management into SAP. Procurement now runs off the same demand signals as production planning.
Delivered: 15% reduction in procurement costs.
Qube 6
Finance & Reporting
Unified the chart of accounts across all locations. Built live dashboards for finance heads and plant managers in SAP Fiori.
Delivered: Real-time financial visibility. One version of the truth across all plants.
Qube 7
Traceability & Compliance
Activated end-to-end batch tracking from raw material receipt to finished goods delivery.
Delivered: Full traceability in seconds. Compliance audits went from days to a single SAP query.
How the Functions Formed
The seven Qubes grouped into three connected functions:
Qubes 1, 2, 3
Manufacturing Operations
Plant managers now have one live view of what’s planned, what’s in stock, and what’s running on the floor. The three Qubes reinforce each other: planning drives replenishment, replenishment feeds scheduling, and the shopfloor reports back automatically.
Qubes 4, 5
Supply Chain & Commerce
Sourcing and selling connected for the first time. A sales order now triggers an availability check against live stock, which triggers procurement if needed. The supply chain became a chain.
Qubes 6, 7
Finance & Governance
Finance no longer waits for other departments to report. It reads directly from the same transactions driving production, procurement, and sales. Month-end is a confirmation, not a consolidation exercise.
When It All Connected…
↻ Before
A sales order triggered delays—warehouse checked spreadsheets, production found out days later, and finance only saw it at month-end. Each step was disconnected, creating confusion and slowing the business down.
✓ After
A sales order in SAP triggers an automatic availability check, adjusts the production plan if needed, alerts procurement if stock is short, and posts to finance in real time. The CFO sees it before the shift ends.
That’s what happens when Qubes stack into functions and functions form a value chain.
Results at a Glance
One process. One outcome number. Seven Qubes later, a manufacturing operation that runs like one connected system.
