SAP MILL Solution
Did you know that SAP has a specialized industry solution for Mill operations called, IS-Mill or Industry Solution – Mill. It incorporates, among many things, the old IS – Cable functionality.
In 2008, they had just over 20 customers using the IS-Mill solution, some of which were in my old stomping grounds, the Middle East. Strange how every little experience can be put to good use later on.
Evaluating The SAP IS MIll Solution
For instance, today, I was contacted, again, by another recruiter looking for someone to come and help a company evaluate the IS Mill solution functionality versus their own business requirements.
You would be surprised at how many industries are called Mill industries
The interesting question here, for those that are curious, is how should you solve such a problem in a short amount of time?
What is a Mill Industry?
A mill industry refers to a manufacturing operation that produces goods from raw materials through a series of mechanical processes. These industries have been around for centuries and cover a wide range of products, from textiles to paper, steel, and flour. One of the most popular examples of mill industries is the textile mill, which uses raw materials like cotton and wool to produce fabrics. Other industries that fall under the mill category include the pulp and paper industry, sawmill industry, sugar industry, and the steel industry. While the products they produce may differ, the common thread among all mill industries is that they use machinery to process raw materials into finished goods.
What We Are Not Talking About
The word mills is also used in other areas of the economy. I thought it best to provide examples of these so that you can differentiate them from IS-Mill Industry connotation.
Property Taxes
Property taxes are commonly expressed as Mils Per Thousand. It is equal to one thousandth of a dollar. But if you go read a property tax bill, though this definition is common and agreed upon, almost everything else you see on property tax bill is likely to vary from one place to the next.
English Mylen
Late Latin molīna, meaning a mill, from Latin mola mill, millstone, from molere to grind. You will also frequently hear of a type of cloth called Mylen.
Cider Mill or Apple Mill
A type of mill that extracts juice from apples to make apple cider. There are also Coffee Mills, which grind roasted coffee beans into coffee grounds.
Pepper Mill and Other Common Mills
A mill for grinding pepper quern. It is also a type of primitive stone mill for grinding corn by hand. A spicemill is a mill for grinding spices. A tread-wheel, treadmill, treadwheel is a mill that is powered by men or animals walking on a circular belt or by climbing steps. A water mill is a mill powered by a water wheel. A windmill is simply a wind driven mill stone, often used for grinding grain. You can see this process in action at the Spring Mill State Park, in Southern Indiana.
SAP Solution Architecture Tools
Now that we know what type of mill we are and are not talking about, we can learn which tools and techniques you can use, as provided by SAP, to rapidly build a customized solution architecture map and perhaps even, a preliminary blueprint for an IS Mill prospect or customer who really doesn’t have the expertise or capacity to do it on their own?
Well, for some consultants, this will be ‘old hat’ but for others, they may not realize these tools exist nor that there is an actual defined approach to using them.
So here goes.
The recipe:
Tools required:
- SAP Solution Map Composer (Solution Explorer)
- SAP Solution Manager
- SAP Best Practices
- MS Project
- Requirements gathering expertise
- Existing process documentation
Optional:
1. Value Lifecycle Manager if you have access to it.
What is the SAP Value Lifecycle Manager?
The SAP Value Lifecycle Manager is a tool that can greatly benefit companies in the Mill industry, among others. It is a cloud-based tool that allows you identify and benchmark your processes against other SAP users. It's a key part of the overall SAP value management approach to successful SAP project management.
Knowledge Required and Approach.
SAP Solution Map Composer
There are two approaches to take to this but the first thing to do is to download and install the SAP Solution Map composer. Make sure you have the version that allows you to edit a custom built solution map.
SAP IS Mill Specific Solution
From there, you should pick the applicable processes from the IS Mill specific solution (if they fit per your analysis) and pick other processes from other industries that may also fit and as well be technically compatible. You can determine this using the PAM or product availability matrix.
This tool is completely customizable and can provide a convenient set of documents, usually in PPT format, that you can use to determine solution coverage and the required SAP components.
It can take a bit of time to walk through a requirements gathering exercise, and a project plan is recommended.
SAP Solution Designer
The second step is the more complicated step, but easily doable once you understand the intention of the SAP Solution Designer.
You will need to create a project within Solution Manager, and ensure that all applicable SAP Business Process Repository Library (BPL) elements are loaded (one or more SAP Best Practice sets may be involved here to get the library to give you all that SAP has to offer). You then will need to select the appropriate business processes from the BPL and they will be inserted into your project. Once you finish this process, you can, if desired, also create placeholders for any ‘gap’ items, as well as planned or known organizational structures, possibly authorizations and several other documents, and hit save.
Generate Your Solution Blueprint
Once this is done, if desired, you can have the system generate a blueprint automatically, though it won’t be pretty, but most importantly, it will create usable but not beautiful system process diagrams, useful for exploring how the system is supposed to work.
If you want pretty, you have to bring in something like ARIS.
Now here is where the men get separated from the boys.
Connect Solution Manager To An IDES Box
If you have done your job, the Solution Manager will be connected to either an IDES box or other productive system, and you can actually execute business processes, including IS-Mill specific procedures, directly from the Solution Manager to see how they work.
But wait, there’s more!
If you’re really ambitious, you can navigate over to the realization side of the SM and if your basis team has connected it up properly, the system will be able to produce configuration documentation by pulling it directly in from SAP and whatever you want to add to it.
But wait, there’s even more goodness in the toy box.
If you have the time, you can even do training videos and documentation and drop it into SM and if it is from RwD, put it in there as well.
Now I know, most of you never see Solution Manager on your projects.
That is too bad.
It really is a hugely useful resource, critical to system health and the only implementation tool SAP provides. But if you need to explore a particular industry solution, such as IS-Mill, then the procedure I outlined above is tried and true and fully supported by the applications provided by SAP.
Get SAP IS-Mill Consulting Support
If this sounds like a bit much for you to take on yourself, then just click the button below to request help.
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