Smart Warehouse Transformation for a Leading Integrated Energy Company in North America

Accelerating SAP Warehouse Management with Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management  

Our customer is a leading integrated energy company in Canada specializing in the production of synthetic crude from oil sands. As warehouse operations became increasingly complex, the organization sought to modernize its SAP warehouse management processes, improve operational efficiency, and simplify the experience for frontline warehouse users.

Employees relied on SAP S/4HANA Inventory Management (IM) and SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) to execute critical warehouse operations. However, multiple transaction screens, repetitive manual processes, and complex navigation impacted productivity and user adoption. To streamline warehouse execution while maintaining a clean SAP core, the customer partnered with Incture to implement Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management, built on SAP Business AI Platform (SAP BAIP).

Challenge:

Overcoming Complexity in SAP Warehouse Management  

The customer faced several operational challenges while managing warehouse processes in SAP S/4HANA and SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM). Routine warehouse activities required users to navigate multiple transaction codes, perform repetitive manual steps, and switch between several SAP screens to complete a single process. These inefficiencies reduced productivity and slowed warehouse execution.

The complexity of standard SAP transactions also impacted user adoption. Warehouse personnel experienced frustration using the system, while onboarding new users required significant training before they could perform daily warehouse operations independently.

In addition, the customer required warehouse processes tailored to its business requirements without introducing extensive customizations into the SAP core. The lack of mobile transaction recording further limited operational efficiency, preventing warehouse personnel from capturing and completing transactions in real time while working on the warehouse floor.

The organization required a modern SAP warehouse management solution that could simplify warehouse operations, improve mobility, reduce manual effort, and optimize warehouse productivity while preserving a clean core architecture.

Solution:

Modernizing Warehouse Operations with Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management on SAP BAIP  

Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management also supports barcode scanning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR), enabling users to scan purchase orders, inbound deliveries, and outbound deliveries to retrieve transaction details instantly. This simplifies warehouse execution while reducing repetitive manual data entry.

To address the customer’s unique business requirements, the solution leverages SAP BAIP to deliver business-specific capabilities while maintaining a clean SAP core. Performance optimization of the APIs connecting SAP BAIP with SAP S/4HANA and SAP EWM further improved transaction responsiveness and overall system performance.

Results:

Delivering Faster Warehouse Execution and Greater Operational Efficiency  

With Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management, the customer transformed warehouse operations by simplifying complex SAP warehouse management processes into intuitive mobile workflows. 

Warehouse teams can now complete end-to-end processes such as Goods Receiving, bin assignment, and picking confirmation from a single screen within seconds instead of navigating multiple screens in the standard SAP EWM interface. Goods Receiving was reduced from ten standard SAP steps to just three, significantly improving operational efficiency. 

The implementation also prepared warehouse operations for barcode-enabled processes, reducing manual effort through mobile execution and automation while improving overall system performance. Optimized stock transfer operations further enhanced warehouse productivity across daily operations. 

The simplified user interface dramatically shortened training time, enabling new warehouse users to become productive in less than one week compared to nearly two months previously. 

By implementing Cherrywork Smart Warehouse Management on SAP BAIP, the customer achieved a 60% reduction in operational time, simplified warehouse execution, and delivered a faster, more intuitive SAP warehouse management experience while maintaining a clean core architecture.