BHEL unit implements ERP package

Our Bureau Bangalore , Dec. 22 THE electronics division of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) here has successfully implemented ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software package integrating its core functions. The ERP software has been sourced from SAP, Germany. The implementation of the ERP package, as per its Strategic Plan 2007, will be taken up in a phased manner in other units of BHEL leading to an integration of their business processes, with its attendant benefits. Mr Ramji Rai, Executive Director, BHEL, formally launched the operations of the Bangalore unit through this software. Mr Rajat Mathur, Vice-President, International Sales, Wipro, and Mr R. Ramakrishnan, Country Head, Solution Architect Team, SAP, were present. Implemented by a team of BHEL engineers with consultancy from Wipro in a record time of about six months, BHEL expects this package to deliver significant returns over the coming years, resulting in enhanced efficiency in execution of projects and improved services. By enabling the transfer of uniform and accurate information between various departments and functions as well as with customers and vendors, BHEL is looking ahead after this implementation to lead to an effective integration of the business processes. Improved data availability and monitoring are also expected to facilitate quicker decision making process and finally result in improvement of various business results and enhanced customer satisfaction. The electronics division is an ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified unit and is one of the major manufacturing divisions. It manufactures modern automation systems for power plants and industries at its facilities at Bangalore. It has diversified into other high technology areas like semi-conductor devices, solar photovoltaics, telecommunication and defence.

BHELs IT prowess sets example for PSU sector

BHEL, the Rs 6347.8 crore PSU has been using IT ever since 1960 to increase operational efficiencies. As Dheeraj Kapoor found out, the company now boasts of an IT infrastructure that few private players can compare with and is gunning for 100 percent IT literacy amongst employees

To most, a PSU would be the last place where one would find a solid IT infrastructure. But for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), the Rs 6347.8 crore public sector undertaking with a major presence in the engineering and manufacturing sector, the case has been very different. The company began its IT sojourn at a time when most other private players where still deliberating on whether to take the IT path or not and today boasts of an IT infrastructure that comprises of a Wide Area Network (WAN), usage of CAD/CAM tools in the designing process and a full fledged ERP system to be rolled out in the months to come.
According to R c Jain, a solid IT plan holds the key to the success of BHEL on the domestic and international scene

BHEL in brief BHEL with a product offering comprising of 180 products and offering systems and services catering to the needs of core sectors such as power, transmission, transportation including railways, defence, telecommunication, oil etc was established in Bhopal more than 40 years ago and is considered to be one of the first players in the electrical industry in the country. The company exports its products to more than 50 countries and registered a turnover of Rs 6347.8 crore in the fiscal year 2000-01. The beginning of IT Soon after commencement of operations, BHEL realised the power of IT when in 1960 it underwent a massive technology transfer from countries such as USSR, USA and UK. Though the technology at this stage was still rudimentary, almost all units of BHEL underwent a complete makeover. This makeover covered practically every area of operations from design and documentation to manufacturing. As part of this transfer, the company also acquired all related computer programmes allowing it to rewrite codes to suit the India-specific working conditions. IT in everyday operations In an effort to increase operational efficiency, BHEL developed and deployed numerous systems. Jain says, It has been part of our endeavour to IT enable all business processes that have a direct impact on production and materials planning, inventory, manufacturing, sales accounting etc. Some of the business applications include materials management, financial management, PF accounting, production management involving material requisition, commercial management, HR and engineering management. Jain adds that most of these applications are home-grown ones as they are more suited to its particular requirements than off-the-shelf products. In the mid 90s, the company introduced an online system for its business processes. Over the years, the IT tools in the company have been gradually upgraded in accordance with the requirements of the company and in tune with the technology scenario. Each of the companys manufacturing units have a strong functional computerised system base supported by an appropriate IT infrastructure. The company, which was earlier using mainframe computers, has now replaced them with high-end servers and front-end PCs, which are used extensively across the organisation. In addition to the above systems, being an engineering organisation, the company has been using PDMS, AutoCAD, CAM and other Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools. These tools, Jain points out, are acquired from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) only. The usage of these tools he says have helped in a faster rollout of products and have helped to ensure greater accuracy of the same. In an effort to tackle the perennial problem of hacking and intrusion attempts, the company has well defined principles for the protection of its infrastructure and data. The

company ensures that norms for computer security are defined and adhered to. All the Internet gateways are protected with firewalls, proxy server and intrusion detection systems. BHEL is presently using firewalls from Checkpoint. Anti-virus software provided on all nodes, desktops and servers are updated regularly. At present, the driving force for IT security in the company is the IT Act, e-commerce activities which encompass authentication, integrity, non-repudiation and confidentiality and lastly service availability. Currently all manufacturing units of the company have a core team of IT professionals who are responsible for the IT infrastructure in their concerned unit. Each of the major operations in the units such as material management and finance also have their own systems professionals. At the corporate level, overall policy co-ordination is done by the Corporate Information Technology Group. At present, the company has over 1000 IT professionals working for them. In order to meet the business challenges of the future, some of the newer areas that are being considered for absorption into the IT infrastructure include the enterprise-wide computing systems, collaborative and concurrent engineering, simulation modelling and video conferencing. Connectivity and BHEL on WAN With a huge set up comprising of 14 manufacturing units, 3 distinct business groups (catering to the power industry and international operations), 4 regional power centres, over 100 project sites, 8 service centres and 14 regional offices, one of the main problems faced by the company was connectivity. In an effort to tackle this problem head-on, the company developed and connected all its offices through a wide area corporate data network called BHELNET. To connect its various facilities, the company adopted various modes of communication. These included leased lines from VSNL, ISDN, PSTN dial-up and point-to-point leased lines and VSATs. Backed by these means, BHELNET supports applications such as e-mail, file transfer, Intranet applications, Web publishing, business applications and engineering of information applications. At present all manufacturing units, service divisions and some important projects are connected over BHELNET. Together these number 27, with more expected to be connected soon. In addition to BHELNET, each of the major units of the company have their campus-wide backbone network supported by Local Area Network (LAN) for inter office and department connectivity for systems integration. From the mid 1990s, the company started introducing high speed LANs in various units, which include Gigabit and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) LAN. According to Jain, the main effort of the company in its networking has been to develop a synergy between the WAN and LANs. To its collage of leased lines, VSATs etc, the company plans to add Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The VPN, affirms R C Jain, executive director-IT, personnel, administration and productivity, BHEL, will go live by the end of the year. B2B On the Business to Business (B2B) front, BHEL has already initiated steps to facilitate B2B transactions between their manufacturers units and suppliers. This includes the Ancillary Development Department of Trichy unit of BHEL, which has developed a system to carry out e-commerce activities. The various e-commerce systems that can be carried out leveraging this systems are purchase order, supply materials, completion accounting, work in progress (WIP) analysis, bill processing, material accounting and excise duty. As a by-product of this system, a number of standard sub-queries are developed for

retrieving data from the online Oracle database. Data that is required to be sent to subcontractors are transferred through e-mail attachments. The subcontractors can send requests for clarifications or assistance through the Web. Initiatives have also been taken up for development of the company level market place for e-procurement and esales. At the unit level, the e-commerce framework has been developed for acquirement of spares of specific products such as pulverises, valves, pumps and traction equipment. ERP and the future One of the most recent initiatives of the company has been the initiation of ERP implementation. Says Jain, In order to keep pace with the new economy, the integration of our business processes has become a necessity. To this end we decided to adopt a proven ERP package that would cover all our manufacturing units and business sectors. Accordingly, after evaluating a couple of packages, BHEL zeroed in mySAP.com from SAP, with Pricewaterhouse Coopers as the implementation partner. The company implemented the systems on a pilot basis for identified products. As part of this plan, the rollout of the pilot site i.e. the valves plant at the Trichy plant has been going on in full steam and is expected to be complete by the end of the month. The ERP solution is expected to be cover modules such as financial accounting (FI), treasury management, control, project systems, sales and distribution, logistics, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), materials management, production planning, quality management and plant maintenance. The servers to be used for the ERP system will include development server, ITS Server, integration (quality and testing) server, workplace server, business warehouse server, knowledge warehouse server, CRM server, network for PCs and servers. Along with ERP adaptation in the manufacturing units, plans have also been chalked out for the implementation of CRM in the business sectors at Delhi. Adds Jain, We plan to integrate all internal business processes by implementing ERP and online systems and linkages with suppliers, sub-suppliers and customers over the Net using tools such as CRM, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Web marketplace and so on. Currently, plans to revamp the IT infrastructure are underway aimed at both enhancing computing power and communication bandwidth to smoothly carry out the change. The company has also embarked on a 100 percent IT literacy plan. It has drafted schemes aimed at imparting education at both the local and corporate levels. At the officer level, the IT literacy rate currently stands at 90 percent. Says Jain, Unlike other organisations, there was no resistance from the employees in using IT tools. In fact, the employees have displayed considerable interest in familiarising themselves with the same. The reason he cites behind this is that the company is primarily a learning organisation. The other factor being that a large number of machines in the company are computer controlled so the familiarity with IT tools is high. The company has also introduced a capsule computer education in all its training programmes for its professionals. As part of its effort to further the cause of IT literacy, the company is also offering soft loans to employees to buy PCs. Benefits The company has to date invested crores of rupees into building up its IT infrastructure. But have there been any tangible benefits of the same? Says Jain, In todays eeconomy, IT plays an important role since each and everything is required in a digitised format. This holds more importance than ever in our case as we operate in the international market. One of the most visible benefits of our IT initiatives has been the better management of our working capital. The other benefits have been an

improvement of operational efficiencies, such as production cycle reduction, inventory reduction, better product design and reduction in wastage of material, performance monitoring, customer care and after sales service. With an aim to become the leading Indian Engineering Enterprise providing quality products, systems & services in the fields of energy, transportation, industry, infrastructure and other potential areas, the company has well-equipped facilities to carry out research. Some important research facilities are: Material Sciences Laboratory. Turbo-machinery Laboratory. Test facilities for clean coal technology. Ultra High Voltage Laboratory. Centre for Electric Transportation (with UNDP assistance). Welding Research Institute (with UNDP assistance). Ceramic Technological Institute (with UNDP assistance). Pollution Control Research Institute (with UNDP assistance). Fuel Evaluation Test Facility- (BHEL-USAID joint project) 6.2 MWe Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)Plant.

ERP (SAP-HR) inaugurated in BHEL Bhopal unit

Submitted by Anonymous on 25 December 2007 - 10:06am

Economy

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net Bhopal: In a simple programme held at IFX conference hall in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, (BHEL), Bhopal unit ERP (SAP-HR) was inaugurated by RK Singh, Executive Director, BHEL, Bhopal. Inaugurating the momentous occasion of GO-LIVE of Systems, Application and Products - HR System, Singh said that this implementation is a matter of pride for our Corporation as this is one of the major HR Initiatives with a company-wide coverage. He said that the growth BHEL is registering today is because of the intensive strength and work culture of the employees of the company.

Appreciating implementation of SAP HR, he said that many of the issues related to organization can be resolved successfully with this kind of tool. RSV Prasad, Executive Director (HR), PS-HQ, B. Shankar, General Manager (HR), Corporate BHEL, MC Prasad, General Manager (HR), General Managers, senior executives and a large number of HR personnel were present on this occasion. RSV Prasad said that in todays times HR is looking at itself not only as a Service Function but is aggressively trying to be a strategic partner in business. Due to growing complexities of business scenarios it is absolutely essential that all the resources are put to most optimum use. Winning organizations execute its core business functions economically than their competitors. He said that introduction of this system will help in taking quick decisions and strengthen HR Functions in the Company.

Shankar highlighted the salient features of the system. He said that the system will improve the business processes, provide agility and speed in the operations to deliver high quality service and thereby enhance customer satisfaction. Earlier, in his welcome address, M C Prasad GM (HR), Bhopal made special mention about the new system on its capability to provide real-time data for strategic planning. During the function, a brief presentation on the work-flow of the new system was made by the Corporate SAP-HR Core team members led by Lakshminarayanan, AGM (HR) Corporate BHEL. KK Nair, Sr. DGM (HR) proposed a vote of thanks whereas Harish Bagwar conducted the programme. (pervezbari@eth.net)

ASAP Roadmap
Use
The ASAP Roadmap provides the methodology for implementing and continuously optimizing your SAP System. It divides the implementation process into five phases and offers detailed Project Plans to assist you (in Microsoft Project format). The documentation stored at each level of the Roadmap tree structure contains recommendations on implementing your SAP System and links to helpful tools and accelerators.

Purpose
When you install the Implementation Assistant you can choose from several Roadmap types and flavors. Roadmap types Implementation Roadmap flavors R/3 System (Continuous Improvement) BW APO Business-to-Business Procurement Global ASAP Upgrade R/3 System R/3 System

In your implementation project (Roadmap type: Implementation), you can bring together several Roadmap flavors in one Roadmap. The Implementation Assistant also helps you to implement a combination of software implementation projects.

Features
The implementation of your SAP System covers the following phases: 1. Project Preparation In this phase you plan your project and lay the foundations for successful implementation. It is at this stage that you make the strategic decisions crucial to your project: o o o Define your project goals and objectives Clarify the scope of your implementation Define your project schedule, budget plan, and implementation sequence

Establish the project organization and relevant committees and assign resources

2.

Business Blueprint In this phase you create a blueprint using the Question & Answer database (Q&Adb), which documents your enterprises requirements and establishes how your business processes and organizational structure are to be represented in the SAP System. You also refine the original project goals and objectives and revise the overall project schedule in this phase. 3. Realization In this phase, you configure the requirements contained in the Business Blueprint. Baseline configuration (major scope) is followed by final configuration (remaining scope), which can consist of up to four cycles. Other key focal areas of this phase are conducting integration tests and drawing up end user documentation. 4. Final Preparation In this phase you complete your preparations, including testing, end user training, system management, and cutover activities. You also need to resolve all open issues in this phase. At this stage you need to ensure that all the prerequisites for your system to go live have been fulfilled. 5. Go Live & Support In this phase you move from a pre-production environment to the live system. The most important elements include setting up production support, monitoring system transactions, and optimizing overall system performance.

After your system has gone live, you can use a separate Roadmap with six work packages, in order to optimize your SAP System continuously. These phases are the main milestones for your SAP System implementation project. Each phase has: Work packages, which consist of activities, for which project teams are responsible. Activities, which consist of tasks, which are processed by one or more team members. Tasks, which are carried out by a project team member. You can also access the How-to sections and accelerators at this level.

ERP SOFTWARE FROM SAP

A FOUNDATION TO EXECUTE YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY

A sound foundation is necessary to compete and win in the global marketplace. The SAP ERP application supports the essential functions of your business processes and operations efficiently and are tailored to specific needs of your industry. SAP ERP, an application included in SAP Business Suite software, delivers these solutions:

RUN BETTER Using SAP ERP

SAP ERP Financials SAP ERP Human Capital Management SAP ERP Operations

Centerpoint Energy, electricity and natural gas distributor in the southern United States, transformed operations, improved financial controls, and met customer needs using SAP ERP. Watch how Centerpoint Energy uses SAP ERP.

For current customers, SAP enhancement packages now offer you the benefit of improving and extending your SAP ERP software without the cost of major upgrades. For example, you can leverage SAP Master Data Governance delivered via an SAP enhancement package to help govern financial master data used in consolidation and operational chart of accounts. Tap into the interactive SAP ERP Community to keep up with the latest SAP ERP enhancements and key topics.

Financials

Human Capital Management

Operations

Meet today's challenges in finance with industry-leading financial management software in SAP ERP Financials. Complete, industry-specific, scalable and global SAP ERP Financials enables your teams to address changing financial reporting standards, improve cash flow, and manage financial risks. Support your strategic business activities with these features and functions:

Accounting and financial close Comply with evolving international accounting standards while producing accurate quarterly and annual financial reports. Treasury and financial risk management Take advantage of corporate treasury tools that work for financial risk management, regulatory compliance, and cash flow and liquidity monitoring. Invoice to pay Streamline your accounts payable process, monitor payment status, and ensure payment compliance with our end-to-end invoice management system. Receivables management Improve your accounts receivable management with sophisticated customer credit analysis, streamlined debt collection, and seamless integration. Shared services for finance Get more value from your administrative resources with a financial shared services framework and improve your control, visibility, and regulatory compliance. Travel management Standardize corporate travel processes with a single travel management solution to drive efficiency and see significant savings.

Optimize your HR processes with a complete, integrated, and global human capital management solution: SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM). With SAP ERP HCM, you get the help you need to attract the right people, develop and leverage their talents, align their efforts with corporate objectives, and retain top performers. To increase HCM efficiencies, SAP ERP HCM automates these key processes:

Service delivery Deliver business content to your entire organization and beyond via self services, shared

services, and mobile devices.

Talent management Support people through every phase of their employment, from recruitment through training, development, and retention. Workforce analytics Enable executives, HR professionals, and line managers reporting and analysis options that provide real-time insight into your workforce. Core HR and payroll Streamline and integrate essential workforce processes on a global platform. Strategic workforce management Ensure that you have the right resources, at the right time and price, to achieve your business goals. E-recruiting: Streamline recruiting with a comprehensive strategy to build and draw from a qualified, global pool of talent inside and outside your organization.

For many organizations, the SAP ERP Operations solution is the software backbone that contributes to achieve operational excellence in key business areas, including procurement and logistics execution, product development and manufacturing, and sales and service. With SAP ERP Operations, you can streamline your day-to-day operations to reduce costs, increase revenues, maximize profitability, and improve customer service all key benefits to sustain your competitive advantage. SAP ERP Operations can help you simplify, automate, and innovate the processes of your key operations:

Operations analytics Optimize the entire supply chain throughout extensive operations activities, improve revenues, and increase customer satisfaction. Procurement and logistics execution Manage end-to-end procurement and logistics business processes for complete business cycles, from self-service requisitioning to flexible invoicing and payment. SAP ERP Operations can also help optimize the physical flow of materials.

Product development and manufacturing Support the entire life cycle of product development and manufacturing. You can perform production planning, manufacturing execution integrated with shop-floor systems, product development, and life-cycle data management in a wide variety of industries.

Sales and service Manage customer-focused activities, from selling products and services, to managing professional-services delivery and internal processes such as calculating incentives and commissions.

http://www.sap.com/solutions/business-suite/erp/index.epx