Every medical product label must carry the right manufacturing date, expiry date and identifying information. At one leading New Zealand medical device manufacturer, getting that information onto the label depended on teams keeping two disconnected systems in step by hand.
The company manages tens of thousands of material records in SAP and is replacing the platform used to create and print its regulated labels. Thousands of materials sit within the first scope, with deployment planned in phases over two years.
Adaptiv worked closely with the company to design and implement an integration solution that would meet its immediate labelling requirement, and which was fit for the long term. Following an evaluation of the available solutions, the Boomi Enterprise Platform and Boomi for SAP were selected as the best technologies to deliver this solution. The Boomi Enterprise Platform provided the integration and monitoring foundation, while Boomi for SAP enabled seamless connectivity to SAP using SAP’s native capabilities.
One label depended on two systems
Under the previous process, staff created or updated a material in SAP and then maintained matching information in the labelling platform. Production orders, specification changes and delivery information created more handoffs as the product moved towards labelling.
Manufacturing teams also had to keep dates, quantities and picking information aligned across both systems. The number of steps varied, but the underlying problem did not: information already held in SAP had to be entered or checked again before the labelling team could create the right label.
The manufacturer wanted to remove the manual gap without changing the work around it. Teams still needed to create materials, release orders, pick products and print labels in familiar systems, with SAP retaining control of the underlying records.
Designing the handoff around the teams
Adaptiv brought experience in both Boomi and traditional SAP integration to the project. Adaptiv Architect Adam Oelofse worked within the delivery team to connect SAP to the new labelling platform, preserve the manufacturer’s controls and create a pattern for the wider rollout.
The Adaptiv team mapped six data flows around the work already taking place. Four send product, specification, production order and delivery information from SAP to the labelling platform. Two return manufacturing dates, expiry information and country of origin after labelling.
Boomi for SAP allowed standard SAP services to be used, keeping the manufacturer’s existing controls in place. Boomi’s centralised monitoring gives support teams one place to trace a failed transaction, correct the source information and run it again.
“The biggest value is that information maintained in SAP can flow to the labelling system rather than requiring teams to re-enter the same information.” Adam Oelofse, Adaptiv Integration Architect.
Proving the pattern with production orders
The Adaptiv team started with production and rework orders because the process had to handle both new records and later changes. A released order triggers the first handoff. A scheduled check finds later updates and sends them through the same business process.
“For the production and rework order integration, we built the core create and update capability using Boomi for SAP in about two days. From my experience, a traditional approach would have taken two weeks.” Adam Oelofse, Adaptiv Integration Architect.
A missing component changed the route
The customer’s SAP environment did not include every component needed for Adaptiv’s preferred real-time design. The flexibility of the Boomi solution allowed the team to combine immediate updates for key events with scheduled checks for other changes, ensuring the project could continue without waiting for an environment upgrade.
The same approach helped during testing. When one data relationship produced the wrong result, Adaptiv corrected it through the Boomi for SAP configuration and resumed the work without a separate SAP development cycle.
The first build reshaped the wider estimate
The first process gave Adaptiv a basis for estimating the wider scope. Adaptiv estimates that the Boomi for SAP integration work will require about 30 days, compared with about 75 days under a traditional approach. That represents about 45 days avoided and an estimated 60 percent reduction in SAP integration delivery effort.
Preparing for a two-year rollout
At go live, teams will maintain core information once in SAP and use it through the labelling process.
The manufacturer now has a design that can expand across thousands of labelled materials over the planned two-year rollout. The same foundation supports its future move to SAP S/4HANA and gives the project team a consistent way to connect later processes.
For the people creating and printing labels, the change is more direct. They will spend less time maintaining the same information in two systems and more time working from product and production data that has already passed through the manufacturer’s SAP controls.
“Boomi for SAP, and the wider Boomi Enterprise Platform, have been key to the success of this project. We have been able to deliver faster and with more flexibility – and our customer has seen the benefits. This has reinforced our confidence in Boomi for SAP as the best solution for SAP integration.” Philip Durrant, Adaptiv Principal Consultant.