When Time Is of the Essence: How Houston Metro Achieved a Fast SAP Go-Live with 14 Critical Customizations
Implementing a "pre-configured" SAP solution quickly and efficiently isn’t always as simple as it sounds.
The challenge was the fact that during Covid the software had been installed in 2019 and was never fully implemented. In 2023 the customer approach us, Detering Consulting, to reinitiate the project. Our understanding of the SAP Warranty Management implementation project was:
- Evaluate base warranty solution implemented already by METRO
- Retrain business and IT teams
- Address the warranty application gaps identified during the initial implementation of SAP Warranty Fast Start solution
- Have METRO Rail and Bus teams review the overall process
- Goal was to go live for BUS and RAIL at the end of the project
BACKGROUND
Metro’s legacy SAP PM - Plant Maintenance module provided limited warranty functionality. Many SAP clients, including METRO, developed enhancements to address gaps in business needs. METRO Bus operations used SAP to perform limited warranty tasks to flag maintenance work orders for warranty-eligible assets in attempts to recover labor and repair costs. It was not an end-to-end solution and before 2016, financial steps such as vendor debits were performed manually in legacy.
In late 2016, Financial activity was brought into METRO’s SAP application to become METRO’s accounting system of record. About that time, METRO Facilities Management and Rail Operations started using SAP work orders to track maintenance work. In parallel, IT began exploring options to replace METRO’s heavily customized warranty solution with SAP’s newer “Warranty Fast Start” solution. While initially developed for SAP’s automotive customers, it was later expanded for utilization in cross-industry warranty applications. The Warranty Fast Start solution provided quick deployment of advanced warranty claims management functionality by combining software capabilities and advanced consulting expertise at a fixed fee to achieve critical time-to-value with the lowest amount of risk. Discussions were initiated with SAP to assess the Fast Start solution’s applicability for METRO.
In early 2018, warranty solution experts demonstrated the Fast Start solution at METRO. A week-long Quick-Scan-style workshop was held with key stakeholders from Bus & Rail Operations, Facilities Maintenance, Materials Management, Procurement, Finance, and IT to learn about METRO’s warranty processes and requirements.
FIT/GAP Discovery
While confirming a good fit, several gaps were identified related to METRO-specific requirements. These gaps require some configuration and coding enhancements to the basic delivered package.
User Acceptance Was High
User acceptance was positive, and users expressed interest in utilizing this end-to-end solution to meet business needs flagging warranty-eligible assets, creating claims, tracking vendor and equipment performance, and leveraging data to influence future operational decisions. The Warranty Fast Start solution was implemented to automate manual processes, increase accuracy, visibility, warranty supplier recovery, and reporting of warranty-eligible assets.
COVID’s Impact
Metro like everybody else in the world was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the nascent SAP ACS Warranty project was parked.
Benefits to METRO
Addressing the gaps in the warranty solution identified in the original implementation resulted in METRO benefitting from an end-to-end warranty management process. This was true as much as for Bus Operations, as is for Rail and other business units.
Establishing a business case, which is a key part of the project deliverables, in this case meant resolving various audit issues.
The heart of the Metro Warranty solution lies in its seamless integration between PM work orders and claims. Here, "PM" refers to Plant Maintenance, specifically the PM order that drives the entire process.
Project Highlights
The Houston Metro Warranty project was completed in record time: 6 months — with 14 essential customizations, aka FRICE developments. FRICE stands for Forms, Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, and Enhancements (coding).
How did we do it?
What does it take to customize a pre-configured solution and still go live faster than expected?
Really, no secrets
Adhered to the tried-and-true ASAP methodology, which has consistently delivered results across countless implementations. While ASAP is the Accelerated SAP methodology, we should be aware that SAP has replaced ASAP with the ‘SAP Activate’ methodology, which was not chosen here.
Some key aspects we focused on:
- Weekly PMO Management report read-out and effective 'Change Request Management' to keep the project on track
- A solid 'Project Plan' to guide us every step of the way
- Clear 'Organizational Structure' and 'Communication Plan' to ensure alignment
- Meticulous 'Budget Plan' and 'Risk Management' to safeguard our objectives
- Robust 'Change and Transport Management' and 'Development Standards' to maintain quality
- Comprehensive 'Training Plans' to empower the client’s team
Now the rest of the story
It all boils down to the right people for the job. An outstanding and engaged customer team that showed up and did the work on their side. That included folks from the shop floor, the implementation team, and strong steering committee support. Unlike most project steering committee meetings on this project, meetings tended to be short, to the point, and positive.
Not to stick a feather in our cap, but…
This project, like all successful SAP projects, also relied on a top-notch SAP implementation consulting team that included an SAP project manager, SAP ACS Warranty solution architect, a principle-level functional consultant and two star-developers, with many years of experience in SAP Warranty.
Why is this a big deal?
There are dozens of concepts, hundreds of tables, and thousands of technical objects in the Data Dictionary and programs, function modules, class methods, BADI’s, etc. that are unique to SAP Warranty and the ACS Add-on solution, in combination of the advanced consulting concepts we typically bring to the fore. Those concepts and structures need to be understood in detail before any enhancement can be affected.
The key point here is that this programming reflects years of development collectively achieved by SAP and customers globally.
The Pre-Configured Solution: What Does It Offer?
While you could, after you get a baseline installation, run some basic warranty transactions, that is not the only purpose of the system. The purpose of the system is to give you a giant toolbox that you can assemble to order, to fit the unique warranty requirements of each individual customer that does not exist in the standard SAP (delivered) system.
Example: Each player in the value chain activates different processes, that each have different screen requirements, that get transported in the customer’s SAP system. While the standard SAP claims process is integrated to the SAP Finance and Controlling module (FICO) out of the box, the full integration did not only involve Finance, but also the Supply Chain. Therefore, for this client, we came up with three buttons, that automated material movement types for sending a part to the supplier, for scrapping a part locally, and for receiving a replacement part back from the supplier.
While this doesn’t sound like such a big deal, this system is being used at a major Aerospace and Defense OEM to trigger Warranty Return Purchase Orders, and an integration with the supplier portal. An integration of claims with other areas is always complex, because we are integration not only technical transactions and data, but also the business process is being integrated in SAP. This may not sound like a big deal, but this integration is literally bringing together two worlds: Supply Chain and Warranty Management.
While the supply chain guys worry about parts, part condition, location in the warehouse, and moving parts, the warranty guys worry about resolving customer issues (the “claim”), keeping the customer happy by crediting dollars or sending out replacement parts. I am simplifying here to make a point why integrating two groups in SAP is an achievement.
Claims is integrated to finance out of the box, but…
Typically, all customers like to change their general ledger finance postings, such as defaulting cost centers based on location or business unit, or substitute profit centers. Other businesses go deeper into the finance posting lines and add lines to satisfy more byzantine finance requirements. For example, even though the standard system is integrated with finance for list price credits, some customers seek to post cost to special GL accounts. We make that happen through an enhancement.
The 14 Essential Customizations
While we don’t want to provide the full blown technical details of every customization we believe it is interesting to mention the following:
| Title | Outcome | Benefit |
| Goods Movement Automation | Three commonly used inventory types are now executed automagically | There are no steps missed in the process, user productivity is improved through automation: Reusing part and plant and storage location and defaulting movement types prevents input errors |
| Auto-Create Claim PM Integration with another business unit | Recognize Functional Locations (“Technische Plätze”) used by Rail | Equipment is processed regardless of technical object |
| Implement Trading Functionality | Trading functionality (‘RIK’) is enabled: Replacement parts and their value are now tracked | Enable dual processing of trading parts and cash claims. Financial flows now reflect reality: the claim references the material posting, which has a financial posting assigned |
| Cost Center Determination is different for the new business unit | Cost center is now determined dynamically from the functional location technical object | Allow automatic finance posting by reusing existing cost center settings on the functional location master data. Satisfy financial requirement without manual intervention |
| Prevent superfluous error messages for labor-only claims | An error message such as “No Part Causing Error” makes no sense for a labor-only claim, problem stopped | Users don’t get inundated by bogus error messages |
| Expand Warranty check routine to determine functional location object type | Warranty check now reads functional location object type correctly to determine warranty coverage | Determine warranty coverage correctly increases claim confidence, and eliminates missed warranty eligibility |
|
Custom spare part warranty check
|
A custom spare part warranty check was implemented via two approaches for a goods-issue or goods-receipt based complex spare part warranty determination logic | Unlock previously overlooked spare part warranty claims that would have been impossible to capture manually |
| Fleet Defect Adjustments | Fields used in fleet defect were not being read, and now they are | Rail fleet defects are now being able to be processed |
| Monthly Warranty Financial Report Build | Executive management now has visibility of recaptured warranty cost showing trading value versus financial recovery, as well |
· Auditable financial statements of warranty recovery · Provides a snapshot of claims filed versus claim payments received · Trading parts versus cash received · Financial overview of all claim activity |
| Enhance "claim values" screen section to show Variance absolute amounts and % | Implemented calculation that shows the claimed vs. negotiated reimbursed values in absolute amounts and percentages |
Supports vendor recovery reporting variances. Over time and over all claims shows propensity of vendor recovery avoidance. Supporting vendor negotiation process by providing visibility of difference by claim and through workbench. |
| Version Partner Update | In case of spare part warranty, the spare part vendor is replacing the original equipment vendor on the claim |
Improved claim submission, increasing claim acceptance |
| Moved from SAP Script to Smartforms | One Smartform for several PDF or print outputs, easier to create and customize |
Consistent formatting for both sides of the house, better maintainability going forward |
| Automate claim creation batch process | All claims get automatically created every night |
No claims missed, moved from manually creating missed claims to monitoring process. Reduced man-power requirements |
| Improve Job Log Error Messages | Job log now shows detailed situational awareness |
Job log messages are now actionable |
| Warranty Coverage Report | The coverage report visualizes the data that led to determining spare part and component warranties. |
Moves from a manual process to a monitor and analyze process. |
By comparison this seems a lot, but other projects have in the hundreds of FRICE enhancements, and no project manager name is Mr. No.
As you can see, above enhancements fall into the three categories:
- Enhancing System Integration
- Automating Workflow and Reporting
- Streamlining User Experience
As it happens every project results in changes that seem to fall into the three categories above.
When executing a QuickScan, we typically identify requirements as the ones above to allow for better scope estimates.
The Go-Live Process
How did we achieve a Go-Live in Record Time?
The project, like all projects, faced many challenges, such as the entire team getting displaced by a Hurricane, record heat, and other natural disasters, unplanned system refreshes that caused prior-state program versions. Translation: When we get our wires crossed, we end up with inconsistent versions.
Overcoming Challenges Along the Way
There were many key challenges:
- We hit a long-missed transport issue, that bit us hard. It took a while to diagnose and longer to devise a fix.
- This is actually not an uncommon problem. You typically have a dev, quality, and production system, and a sandbox. When the business asks for the latest data, typically the Q and Sandbox systems will be refreshed from production
- The refresh not only refreshes master data but also all technical objects with their versions as they exist in production
- Transported object versions already released into Q will be overwritten
- System access
- Getting system access and maintaining it when working remotely while ultimately achieved presented unplanned barriers to productivity
- User roles and authorizations can be an issue
- It is imperative that user roles and authorizations are clarified in the beginning of the project. This becomes a major roadblock, as users are repeatedly halted in their workflow each time they encounter an authorization issue. Additionally, missing authorization issues are often unclear, requiring extensive troubleshooting time, especially when the SAP transaction doesn’t directly indicate that a authorization object value pair is missing!
- In the beginning of the project, we typically inquire about roles in use at the client and related authorizations, so that we identify and insert additional required authorizations
- Challenge was to set the project up for success
- Key here was to follow the methodology (ASAP)
- Getting the project management environment set up correctly was key
- Initial conditions determine ultimate successful outcome (path dependence)
Summary
The Metro warranty management solution is comprised of many elements. The great thing about this approach is that after it is installed it is actually pretty easy to configure to meet the client’s requirements including the 14 custom developments.
With this approach all of the Metro claim’s management processes are now fully supported in a highly automated fashion. The system is scalable, supportable, and auditable, and can expand to meet the customer’s future requirements. It’s ready for S/4 Hana.
Conclusion
Does your existing warranty system or your SAP warranty system need improvement?
This solution is not just effective for Metro—it’s a model that any North American transportation authority could adopt with ease. If your current warranty management system, SAP-based or otherwise, needs improvement, let’s discuss how this approach could work for you. Click the button below to book a meeting with us to discuss your requirements:
