In this blog post, you will learn about how SAP asset & service management solutions pave the way to more sustainable business operations for the industrial world. Let’s start with some context and understand why this is critical in today’s world.
Strategic Context
Sustainability and its 3 pillars
There is no universally agreed definition of Sustainability, broadly it can be defined as the processes, actions or technological developments that aim to avoid the depletion of natural resources and improve - manufacturing operations, the direction of investments, consumer purchasing behaviours etc. - keeping an ecological balance that does not adversely impact the quality of modern life.
Sustainability is largely made up of three pillars: the economy, society, and the environment. These principles are also informally used as profit, people and planet.
The need for businesses to put sustainability at the heart of their business strategy and address climate change and its associated inequities is now critical.
What does it take to reach net zero?
Businesses are actively looking to reduce their carbon footprints. While, Scope 1 and 2 emissions (the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions that a company makes directly and indirectly) are most within an organisation’s control, Scope 3 emissions is often where the impact is.
Scope 3 are emissions associated, not with the company itself, but that the organisation is indirectly responsible for, up and down its value chain - it includes everything from goods purchased ("upstream Scope 3") to business travel to packaging and transportation of raw materials to its products when customers use them and end-of-life treatment ("downstream Scope 3").
Particularly for companies with a physical product and supply chain - Scope 3 emission will represent most of the business' carbon footprint.
Hence committing to reach net zero will involve tackling not just Scope 1 and 2, but Scope 3 emissions as well. While many business leaders have set a net-zero carbon emissions goal, devising a strategy and implementing it effectively is a challenge.
To manage the green line, companies need business process technology to identify, quantify, analyse, and act on data through their end-to-end operations.
Industrial World: Sustainable Operations
As companies construe their role in mitigating environmental impacts, it’s clear that a more sustainable world needs the industrial world to build more sustainable operations.
For heavy industry, sustainability has been on the forefront for years and asset management and reliability play a key role.
Adopting environmentally sound practices and aligning operational metrics to reduce waste, conserve energy, boost efficiency, and minimize regulatory costs - are critical to a sustainability strategy.
Unique proposition (What is SAP Doing to Help?)
SAP's purpose is to help the world run better and improve people's lives with sustainability at the core (https://www.sap.com/sustainability/our-approach.html)
Chasing zero - SAP‘s vision is to enable a future of Zero Emissions, Zero Waste, and Zero Inequality with Climate Action, Circular Economy and Social Responsibility. This can be achieved with dedicated sustainability solutions (see https://www.sap.com/sustainability.html) as well as with solutions supporting sustainability in specific aspects (see next section ‘Sustainability with SAP Asset & Service Management’).
For organizations to deliver more sustainable operations and support a healthier planet, they need to consider environmental impact while also creating value for the employees, shareholders, customers and the communities in which they operate.
Let’s look at how SAP asset & service management solutions pave the way to more sustainable operations.
Sustainability with SAP Asset & Service Management
Incorporate the ‘green line’ into strategic decision making
SAP Asset Performance Management (SAP APM) helps to optimize asset performance and extend the lifecycle of assets. With SAP APM you can:
- Balance profitability, asset health, and availability by leveraging data driven proactive strategies
- Systematic assessment of technical objects in regard to the “green line” along the asset lifecycle (from acquire to decommission) of climate relevant parameters (Co2 emissions, energy consumption etc.)
- Utilize charting, dashboarding and forecasting capabilities enriched with ML calculating asset health
- Improve daily performance with efficient preventive and predictive maintenance plans and decision-making support with sustainable mindset for example in regard to replace and repair scenarios
- Use condition-based maintenance and remote monitoring to keep every asset in optimal condition, reducing the number of assets sent to landfill
- Extend the lifecycle of assets by reducing performance issues that drive early replacement
- Reduce unneeded labor and time with a focus on criticality of assets
- Reduce unplanned downtime
Get started here:
SAP Asset Performance Management:
https://www.sap.com/products/scm/apm.html
SAP Intelligent Asset Management offerings:
https://www.sap.com/products/scm/asset-management-eam.html
Reduce the carbon footprint of your field service organization
SAP Field Service Management (SAP FSM) helps to reduce energy and effort in your workforce as well as reduce the use of harmful pollutants. With SAP FSM you can:
- Optimize and automate service execution with automated scheduling using AI
- Reduce overall fuel consumption/mileage with improved route planning
- Avoid repeat visits by providing technicians with mobile access and asset information they need, no matter where they are
- Increase first-time fix rates and reduce travel by using augmented reality (live video chats) to connect field service technicians with remote experts.
- Use Crowd Service (partner management) to source local digitally empowered service technicians and avoid CO2 emissions associated with flying in experts all the time.
- Use self-service capabilities for faster resolution and energy savings
- Improve service processes leading to increased lifetime and efficiency of equipment.
Get started here:
SAP Field Service Management & Crowd Service:
https://www.sap.com/products/scm/field-service-management.html
https://www.sap.com/products/scm/crowd-service.html
Incorporate circularity into your equipment supply chain
SAP S/4HANA Service Management (Inhouse Repair) and Maintenance Management help to increase equipment runtime and reduce material impacts. With these solutions you can:
- Perform systematic assessment of next best action for a defected technical object with respect to the “green line”
- Optimize re-use of defected equipment through equipment manufacturer:
- Refurbishment of full equipment
- Re-use of equipment components
- Optimized re-cycling per component
- Reuse components to run technical equipment with lowest ecological impact
- Monitor efficiency of equipment
- Trigger equipment replacement due to malfunction or EOL
- Analyze equipment, decide on equipment processing: repair, refurbish, decompose, recycle
- Include pre-used components in equipment production
- Receive equipment with optimized component re-use and minimal production waste
- Utilize integration with Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) to reduce costly and unnecessary environmental impact
Get started here:
Service in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
https://www.sap.com/products/erp/s4hana/features/service.html
SAP Environment, Health, and Safety Management
https://www.sap.com/products/scm/ehs-management-health-safety.html
Special thanks to
dirk.kempf and
o.frick for their valuable contribution!
Thank you for reading and wish you a great start to 2023!
Best regards,
Anshika Goyal
SAP S/4HANA Asset & Service Management
