Highvalue Network Service
NISSAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Operation flow was improved
using
ConnectPlus implementation example
NISSAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Driving SAP R/3 linking innovation :Using SAP R/3 in Japan always comes with a
connected reporting tool. But developing an add-on connecting interface costs a lot of
money and causes maintenance issues. We interviewed Nissan Chemical Industries,
Ltd., which not only improved their reporting system but also improved their operational
flow using ConnectPlus. ConnectPlus provided Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. with
solutions to the problems related to adding an add-on interface.
Issues after installing SAP R/3
Department of Nissan Chemical Industries, said, “We analyzed
Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd. was founded in 1887 as the
the system usability and functional problems through the
first Japanese agricultural chemical maker, which is based on
research provided by users after the SAP system went live to
technologies like organic precision synthesis technology and
group companies and we found out that one of the problems was
nanoparticle control technology. Nissan Chemical Industries, Ltd.
the analysis report”.
has three major business products; chemical products,
They installed almost all of the available SAP R/3 modules (the
The problem was a ‘bottleneck’ of
information exported to the analysis
report from SAP R/3
accounting module, human resources module, and
Analysis reports are the quality specifications of the chemical
manufacturing module) at the same time in the ‘big bang style’ in
products like elements of measured values, which should be
April 2002. It took only fifteen months for SAP R/3 to go live.
attached to the product at shipment. It is the output data from the
Considering that they were no longer using the legacy system
QM (Quality Management) module of SAP R/3. The reporting
anymore after installing SAP R/3, the transition was
system was designed for users to access the SAP R/3 system
accomplished at an enormous speed. On the other hand, there
directory to print out the report. Additionally, the reporting
were some problems left unsolved after the system change. Mr.
system was available only to authorized users who have control
Yoshinori Tamashima, a manager of the System Information
over the factory’s quality management.
agricultural chemical products, and medical chemical products.
Their business ranges from production to sales.
The problem was how to export the analysis report to a nongroup shipping point. These shipping points are warehouse
companies, which store products in inventory from different
vendors including Nissan Chemical Industries.
More specifically, the problem was the printed date of the report.
Because the third party warehouse companies couldn’t print
reports from SAP R/3 directly, They needed to request the report
from each of Nissan Chemical Industries, Inc. factory’s quality
assurance department when they received the customer’s
shipping order.“The objective of this new reporting system was to
speed up the reporting transactions and utilize the third party
warehouse companies for the shipment work.” said Mr. Kouji
Masuyama of the General Affairs Department of Nissan
NISSAN CHEMICAL
NISSAN CHEMICAL
INDUSTRIES, LTD.
INDUSTRIES, LTD.
Yoshinori
Koji
Tamashima
Masuyama
Chemical Industries.
Operation flow was improved using
ConnectPlus has experience and a
specific approach
As in this case, there are many needs to export reports using
stored data in SAP system. “The project might face a negative
Nissan Chemical Industries asked Fuji Xerox Information
impact if the ABAP add-on was chosen to use for connecting
Systems Co., Ltd. to propose the solution to the problem.
between SAP R/3 and reporting tool.” said Mr. Tamashima, “It
Mr. Tamashima said, “They introduced us to System Integration
costs money and takes extra time to develop an add-on to
Service Co., Ltd. and their product, ConnectPlus.” System
connect other systems with SAP R/3. Also, we have to check
Integration Service Co., Ltd. has several customer references of
compatibility with each add-on programs when we have to
solutions making links between SAP system and other tools.
upgrade the version of SAP R/3. “ConnectPlus needs only to
The product ConnectPlus is adopter software specialized in SAP
activate IDoc interface in the SAP system. It was attractive
systems. One of the reasons why Nissan Chemical Industries
because that reduces cost”, said Mr. Tamashima.
choose System Integration Service Co., Ltd. was that their
Additionally, Mr. Masuyama said, “Our Company had to do
proposal was easy to understand compared with other vendor’s
almost nothing. It was a smooth to process to complete the
proposal”.
project compared with other solutions”.
This comment gets right down to the heart of the matter,
Achieved reporting tool link with
ConncetPlus
ConnectPlus focuses on only connecting to SAP. . It is a simple
and basic tool to make interface to the SAP system for any other
internal subsystems.
The actual system structure is similar to figure 1. To create
analysis reports, SAP R/3 exports standard format data called
IDoc to ConnectPlus. ConnectPlus from IDoc style to CSV style
for reporting system. At this time, SVF (WingArc Technologies,
Inc.) is used for the reporting tool in this solution. Using
ConnectPlus to connect with the reporting tool, you can create a
Reporting
server
report from SAP system without an ABAP add-on program.
SVF (printing tool) changes data to PDF format automatically
Shipping
order
CSV
style
and the web system, which was made by Nissan Chemical
Industries checks whether there are mistakes in the PDF data. If
Analysis report
printing program
the web system can’t find any mistakes, the PDF based analysis
report is sent by email from the system to shipping points.
Convert data from IDoc style to
CVS style and send it to the
reporting server
Operation improvement found at all
shipping points
Convert data from
CSV style to reporting
format by SVF.
Furthermore, convert
it to PDF
automatically.
Analysis
report
PDF
Check the exported
PDF report via the
web system.
Check analysis report
After installing this system, they don’t need to keep analysis
Simple transaction flow is
available now since the analysis
report is sent by email. The
process was complicated before
since the analysis report
couldn t be printed at the
shipping points.
reports beforehand at each shipping point because the reports
are created automatically from an order-receiving center when
the shipping order is created. Only users in the order-receiving
Analysis
report
PDF
Send it via email to
shipping points if any
no problems are
found.
Shipping points
center need to check data on the web system and send an email
from the system. Mr. Tamashima said, “We no longer need to
keep administrators to print the analysis report in each our
factory.”
Delivery
place
invoice
Analysis
report
invoice
Analysis
report
The implementation project of this solution went on well without
any problems until going live on July 12th, 2005. The system is
still running now without any big problems.
Company,Product,or services names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
System Integration Service Co.,Ltd.
Kyobashi Yamamoto Bldg.
3-12-7,Kyobashi,Chuo-ku
Tokyo,104-0031 Japan
TEL 03 3538 8118
FAX 03 3538 8119
SIS-0603-01