Another Game In The Chestnut Tree City

On a sunny day in the end of May of 2013 the SAP Forum took place in a city known for its wonderful chestnut tree blossoms – Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. In the keynote address Maxim Matyash, country manager for SAP Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, announced that SAP CIS recognized SAP Ukraine as the best sales team of 2012 in CIS. Besides the strong sales division, the Ukrainian office can be proud of its Presales, Consulting, and Marketing teams, and developments units specializing in SAP Manufacturing Execution solutions with such customers as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Prodrive, Philips, Hitachi and Bosch. The SAP office is located in the heart of Kiev, facing the Olympic stadium where the final game of the European Football Cup Ukraine/Poland 2012 took place.

Another game, no less interesting, was played at the InnoJam event, in which participants threw an imaginary ball and made a sound or a funny movement or shared an adage performed to foster creativity. The InnoJam took place within the SAP Forum to inspire young talent about enterprise software and its multinational giant.  Despite the fact that the end of May is the busiest period in a student’s life – dominated by hard study and final exams – 25 students came to prove themselves in this innovative event at the biggest Kiev university, the National Technical University of Ukraine. After an introduction into the Design Thinking methodology the participants got to know the business cases for the whole day workshop. Several challenges for the InnoJam represented requirements from discrete industries. In 2008 SAP acquired the U.S. based company Visiprise, Inc., a provider for plant-level manufacturing execution solutions, with offices in Kiev, Ukraine and Carlsbad, California. The work force is now integrated into the SAP and as well on the software side the SAP Manufacturing Execution (ME) is now integrated with ERP. Based on a long-term experience of the SAP ME experts Ukrainian colleagues prepared business cases about challenges in the daily life of plant workers and clerks.

SAP experts Anton Steshenko and Dmytro Gladkyi shared business cases related to SAP ME solution. “Every morning, upon arrival to the plant, Dmytro needs to make clarifications with the factory master: on which workbench he should start, how many details have to be manufactured, etc… In addition every workbench has limited capacity and the details need to be processed in the specified order of the production chain. How can we enable Dmytro to get all the required information without contacting the clerk?”

Another topic of big data was in scope. Did it happen to you that during your travel in another country you looked at prices, weights, etc. in the stores and wished to be able to easily compare them to the currencies and weights of your native country?  This was another business case which awaited students to be resolved.

Here are some more insights and photos from the workshop:

The students were divided into six teams applying the psychology type selection method (engineer, visualist, analyst, communicator, experimenter, barrier fighter).

Team #1 described their persona – Elena, female, 26 years old, works as a manager, is financially independent, curious, likes travelling and needs a simple solution for travelling abroad. The team’s solution was an electronic wallet with GPS functionality which automatically will suggest the required amount of money for the according product.

Team #2 designed a solution for Vasilisa (manager at a big multinational company, 28 years old). An electronic device can be installed in changing rooms of stores. After a simple click on the country’s flag the information about the size, currency, and similar models in a system known by the customer will be shown to the customer so there is no need to search for the information or calculate mentally.

Team #3 presented their imagined character Dmytro who assembles motorcycles at Harley Davidson and proposed a solution which includes a magic glove which enables human to lift details fifty times heavier than it is physically possible and thereby increase productivity dramatically.    

After lunch a warm-up game “I am a tree” was conducted to inspire participants to build on each other’s suggestions and ideas.

Teams #4 and #6 presented a mobile and desktop based solution to show  detailed information on the work scope for the plant worker including analytical data about his performance and planned turnover saving time and efforts on contacting the clerk.

Team #4

Team #6

Team #5 designed a “plant” glass, which projects the details and graphic guideline for motorcycle production and a cart which contains the details required for a production cycle projected in the glass.

The “I like… I wish…” session finalized the one-day-workshop. The students wished to know where to get the opportunity to participate at more such SAP conferences and to get a position at the world’s business software leader. Isn’t that the best feedback which can be given for a workshop? We can proudly say that all preparation and work brought fruitful results.

The next day Masha Oseeva presented the broad offering from SAP University Alliances CIS – organizers of InnoJam series CIS wide – to the students, professors, colleagues, customers and partners within SAP Forum Kiev.

Students got the opportunity to share their ideas, solutions with the audience benefiting from HANA capabilities as a technology platform.

The winning teams received a prize from Maxim Matyasch – a dinner with the SAP Ukraine director at an Italian restaurant – a great opportunity for students to discuss their vision and aspirations and on the other side to get recommendations for their future carrier from SAP executive.

Many ideas and concepts generated by the students at the workshop were included into the SAP ME backlog by the product owners from the Kiev office. And so a new game was kicked-off in the chestnut tree city, hopefully with many further thick results for the customers, students, SAP, and society.