Basel, CH – September 2021
Classified Procurement for the Protein Industry – 1/3
Today’s newsletter kicks off a three-part series on Classified Procurement, Softproviding’s new module for the procurement of primary products. The product supports companies in purchasing “unclassified” products and is already being used successfully in the herb and dairy sectors. In a further step, the specific requirements of the protein industry are now being included into the product. This is worth a closer look.
Generally, the requirements in the protein industry are considered more challenging than those in other food processing industries. This is once again evident in the functionalities that are now being added to the Classified Procurement product that are specific to the protein industry. Below we give a brief outline of the features you can expect in the product.
Classified Procurement for the protein processing industry now uses the standard purchase order and inbound delivery functions in S/4HANA instead of Livestock Reservation and Livestock Reception. A fundamental difference to other primary products is that the classification and settlement of livestock, differentiated by stock types such as cattle and pigs, is done per carcass. However, the collection of an entire group of animals (lot), which can sometimes comprise several 100 animals, is agreed with the producer via an order item, whereas the number of animals delivered is recorded via a delivery item.
In order for the classification to be carried out per animal, after delivery of the animals to the slaughterhouse, a handling unit ID is usually only assigned for each carcass in the slaughter process itself, which is linked (packed) to the delivery item. All relevant characteristics of the different partners (producer, piglet producer, trader, transporter) and the carcasses of the different stock types, which are important for the settlement and the documentation of the fitness of the carcass, are assigned to the carcasses, i.e. the handling unit ID, by means of the classification functionality integrated in SAP.
In the Classification Cockpit (previously Slaughter Data Cockpit), the user is given a transparent overview by means of traffic light status for each HU (previously slaughter process number). For this purpose, SAP Status Management was integrated into CP. Based on a status schema, individual user statuses can be integrated into the process. An executed business transaction can set or delete one or more statuses for an object. Also integrated in the traffic light status are plausibility checks regarding the range of weights and lean meat content or index points. In addition, the user is informed if mandatory characteristics of the classification are not evaluated.
Also integrated in the Classification Cockpit is the comparison of the number of animals delivered to the number of animals slaughtered. This is done via the “Packaging” process in SAP. The HU is assigned to a delivery item. HUs that are not assigned to a delivery item or need to be reassigned can be linked in the cockpit by simply marking the HU and the inbound delivery item. However, it is also possible to start an activity manually or by job to make the assignment automatically based on the lot number or other rules.
The fact that these new functions can also be used in other areas of the food industry should also make interested parties from other sectors take notice. You can already look forward to the next newsletter with the second part of our series on the innovations in Classified Procurement.
If we have piqued your interest with this article or if you are interested in a planning demo, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Stephan Kronbichler (Business Development) E-mail phone +41 (0)61 508 21 42.