Faurecia enables always-on business operations with SAP and IBM

• Analytics & Modeling - Process Analytics
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries

• Automotive

• Discrete Manufacturing
• Logistics & Transportation

• Manufacturing System Automation
• Supply Chain Visibility

• System Integration

Faurecia, a leading automotive components manufacturer, operates on a just-in-time basis, supplying global vehicle makers with emissions control technologies, seating, and interior and exterior systems. The company's customers demand faultless order fulfillment, and any failure to meet service levels can result in severe financial penalties and reputational damage. To run its worldwide operations, Faurecia relies on a comprehensive set of SAP applications, supported by IBM® DB2® databases and running on IBM Power Systems™ servers. These were previously deployed as a single instance supporting more than 200 production sites in 33 countries. However, as the company's business grew, it needed to minimize potential downtime for its critical SAP ERP applications. The company needed a new systems architecture that would support its expansion, reduce risk, and minimize the impact of planned maintenance on its supply chain, manufacturing, and customer service levels.

Faurecia is a leading automotive components manufacturer that supplies global vehicle makers with emissions control technologies, seating, and interior and exterior systems. The company operates on a just-in-time basis, with its customers demanding faultless order fulfillment. Failure to meet agreed service levels can result in severe financial penalties and reputational damage for Faurecia. The company has global operations employing 94,000 people and generated group sales of more than EUR18 billion in 2013. To run its worldwide operations, Faurecia relies on a comprehensive set of SAP applications, supported by IBM® DB2® databases and running on IBM Power Systems™ servers. These were previously deployed as a single instance supporting more than 200 production sites in 33 countries.

Faurecia chose to split its existing single SAP instance into a multi-instance landscape, based on regional centers. This would open up more possible maintenance windows, as well as reducing the number of users for each instance. The company worked with IBM Global Business Services to perform the split and create a new dedicated SAP landscape for each of its three operational regions: EMEA, North and South America, and Asia-Pacific. A new central instance handles SAP master data for global consistency. The project plan called for the creation of a new central SAP instance for each of Faurecia’s three operational regions. The core SAP application sets include SAP ERP, with components for finance and controlling, sales and distribution, materials management, production planning, planned maintenance, advanced planning and optimization, supply chain management, and enterprise data warehousing. Additionally, Faurecia runs SAP Sales Relationship Management, SAP Process Integration, SAP Business Intelligence, SAP NetWeaver Portal, SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence, SAP Solution Manager, SAP Central Process Scheduling CPS.

• Reduces business risk and minimizes operational downtime, enabling longer regional maintenance windows.
• Smaller SAP instances reduce the number of users per instance for easier management and confine impact of downtime to regional users.
• Flexible, multi-site architecture provides Faurecia with a secure platform for driving planned growth.