Outokumpu unifies operations with SAP S/4HANA

Finland’s Outokumpu, Europe’s largest producer of stainless steel, had an ambitious approach to acquiring competitors that had created a complex IT landscape and inconsistent processes across its many plants.

Outokumpu’s leaders made a bold plan to centralize and streamline the company’s IT environment. They believed that implementation of a new SAP S/4HANA® solution would provide a strong platform for the organization’s needs. Such a move would not only make it easier to integrate business lines, but also give everyone access to the same information and insights via a shared data warehouse. That, in turn, would eliminate many decision-making and collaboration challenges.

As a first step, the Outokumpu and Accenture team defined what they wanted the new S/4HANA solution to accomplish. This included harmonizing and centralizing processes and data, improving efficiencies and business decisions, and delivering a more consistent customer experience. In addition, the team needed to integrate the core SAP solution with various technologies, harmonize data and establish new data management and governance practices. With those prerequisites in place, the team implemented the new enterprise system, deploying a new template solution for key business functions in Outokumpu’s operations in Germany and Sweden. They then integrated everything—including vendor systems—to create a seamless IT experience.

With its new, centralized system, Outokumpu has a unified platform and a “single face” to present to the customer.

With the first deployment complete and subsequent rollouts in process, Outokumpu is harmonizing processes and data to achieve better visibility into operations, vendors, products and customers. In addition, through the new system and functions such as quota verification, alternative production routes and controls on technical production capabilities, Outokumpu can increase flexibility, allowing cross-mill planners to route orders and achieve the best response to customer demands. Finally, with SAP S/4HANA, the company has the foundation it needs to relentlessly pursue innovation, improve customer service and differentiate itself from its competitors.