Efficient warehousing and robust BOM (Bill of Materials) structures are the foundation of manufacturing uptime, ensuring that maintenance shifts from emergency logistics for a missing part to a predictable, automated, and scalable workflow. Our client, a large refinery and energy manufacturer with multiple locations across the Rocky Mountain region, faced critical maintenance inefficiencies and high downtime risk due to incomplete BOM data and a rapid SAP S/4HANA implementation.
This client required additional advisory and project support to transform from reactive “overnight shipping” maintenance to a proactive, data-driven strategy that can be scaled across multiple refinery locations. Surety Systems provided the expertise to conduct comprehensive SAP BOM development, field verification, and integration for key objects and processes in SAP S/4HANA, ensuring maintenance efficiency and scalability across future locations.
The Challenge: A Rapid Transition with Data Gaps
Following their acquisition of an older petroleum corporation with roots in the same region, our client completed a rapid two-month SAP S/4HANA implementation that skipped key requirements-gathering and legacy data-transfer steps across existing data sources. Their internal maintenance team lacked the inventory knowledge and bandwidth to efficiently consolidate data from each system, resulting in approximately 900 critical SAP BOM tables being missing or incomplete.
This data gap forced the refinery into a high-cost, reactive maintenance model, in which parts were often identified only after equipment failure and then shipped overnight to minimize downtime. The absence of a standardized Bill of Materials led to heavy reliance on the existing knowledge of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), whose limited availability became a bottleneck in field verification and approval processes.
Additionally, the mismatched part naming across the three regional facilities meant that identical components, such as ball bearings in various sizes, were often categorized under different descriptions. This double-edged issue results in mismatched part names and a lack of differentiation across product variants (e.g., different material compositions, sizes, etc.), preventing the plants from sharing inventory or leveraging their geographic proximity to reduce part replacement costs.
Our Approach: Restoring Order to the Material Master
To address the critical “SME bottleneck,” the project transitioned from relying on internal personnel with scarce bandwidth to a strategic resourcing model that leveraged the Surety Systems team for hands-on field verification. This approach played a critical role in reconciling legacy data with physical warehouse counts, as many refinery assemblies prior to the modern ERP landscape lacked comprehensive documentation.
By partnering with our dedicated SAP team, the client’s internal staff was able to physically identify components, determine current costs, and verify resource availability across the warehouse. This methodology not only ensured real-time inventory visibility but also established the necessary data foundation to move the primary facility from a reactive maintenance posture to an automated inventory system.
Three-Pillar Methodology:
- Assessment: The Surety team conducted an in-depth review of the client’s existing SAP equipment hierarchy to identify where assemblies are either missing or partially documented. This stage is essential for identifying data redundancies and quality issues that stemmed from the initial SAP implementation to ensure the project addresses high-risk gaps first.
- Standardization: To enable cross-plant compatibility and scalability, the Surety team helped internal staff normalize part descriptions and classifications, resolving discrepancies where different facilities use different terminology, such as “spheres” versus “ball bearings,” for identical components. By standardizing item numbers and accounting for product variances, the client can now accurately calculate safety stock levels and leverage the proximity of the additional refineries to easily share replacement parts as needed.
- Integration: Our team helped the client build validated BOMs into their existing SAP S/4HANA landscape and link them to approved vendors and material master tickets. This process includes working with Warehouse personnel to establish precise inventory levels, which allow the system to automate reorder points and reduce the need for manual tracking.
Results & Value Realization
Before this optimization initiative began, maintenance was largely a “firefighting” operation. When a part broke, the client’s internal team had to scramble to identify it and source it, often resulting in expensive overnight shipping just to keep things afloat. Rather than just handing over a standardized optimization strategy, the Surety team provided the actual “boots on the ground” to tackle the work that the client’s team lacked the bandwidth to handle.
Improved Planning Efficiency
Our team helped the client secure SAP BOM coverage for critical equipment assemblies that were previously missing or incomplete. By documenting every component, purchase source, and cost, the refinery has significantly reduced the time maintenance teams spend on manual parts identification and increased overall efficiency for parts planning and maintenance.
Inventory Automation
With standardized part descriptions and classifications in place, the facility can now accurately calculate safety stock requirements based on actual usage volume across equipment. This data integration enables the automation of reorder points within the existing SAP system, triggering new orders automatically when stock dips below pre-determined levels and reducing the need for manual physical tracking.
Automated inventory tracking also enables the client’s internal team to track both individual parts and part usage demand, allowing for more efficient identification of material requirements and safety stock levels across their refinery locations.
Significant Cost Avoidance
The shift from a reactive maintenance model to a structured, proactive inventory system has resulted in significant time and cost savings across the client’s primary location. The standardization of parts and classifications across all plant locations also allows for a shared inventory pool, potentially replacing expensive shipping with on-demand shuttle services.
Future Outlook: Scaling for Success
What started as a targeted solution for the client’s primary refinery has evolved into a strategic blueprint for regional success. By standardizing data across other nearby facilities, the client can now offer a parts-sharing service, eliminating the costs and delays of emergency overnight shipping. To protect this investment, we helped implement a long-term governance model that ensures SAP BOM accuracy remains a permanent organizational asset.
If your organization is looking to move beyond reactive maintenance and establish a scalable, data-driven inventory strategy, the Surety team is ready to partner with you. Contact us to discuss how we can help streamline your SAP S/4HANA environment and optimize maintenance operations for the long term.
