ERP for machine and plant construction: every order a one-off, and the costing review still dependable
Batch size one, special-purpose machines, design changes in the middle of manufacturing: machine and plant construction breaks the assumptions a standard ERP system and a spreadsheet costing review are built on. SAP Business One covers that reality with beas Manufacturing and MARIProject – from quotation costing through manufacturing to the plan-versus-actual comparison per order and project.
In brief: SAP Business One in machine and plant construction
SAP Business One for machine and plant construction is not a product of its own but a combination of the SAP Business One ERP core and two certified extensions: beas Manufacturing for manufacturing depth – multi-level bills of material with revision management, finite scheduling of resources, shop-floor data capture and cost accounting down to batch level – and MARIProject for commercial project control: work breakdown structure, budget control in project purchasing, work in progress and the invoicing models customary in plant construction, including warranty retention.
The cut depends on the business model. A series manufacturer with short lead times needs manufacturing depth but rarely project controlling over months. A builder of special-purpose machines working to engineer-to-order needs both. Which modules actually carry their weight is something we establish before the quotation, not after it.
- ERP core
- SAP Business One
- Database
- SAP HANA or Microsoft SQL Server
- Manufacturing
- beas Manufacturing (Boyum IT Solutions)
- Project control
- MARIProject (MARINGO Computers)
- Documents
- B1ECM (in-house development of init consulting AG)
- Deployment
- cloud or on-premise
- Typical production type
- one-off, small-batch and make-to-order production, engineer to order
- Implemented by
- init consulting AG, SAP Business One Gold Partner
What this feels like on the shop floor
The film shows SAP Business One in manufacturing generally, not specifically in machine and plant construction. For a first impression that is enough: the core is the same – orders, material and costs in one system rather than in spreadsheets beside it.
What applies specifically to one-off and make-to-order production is set out in full on this page:
- Why one-off production breaks the ERP standard
- How quotation, manufacturing and costing review work together
- What the solution does not cover
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Why one-off production breaks the ERP standard in machine construction
In machine and plant construction hardly any order resembles another. Customer-specific configurations, multi-level assemblies and design changes during manufacturing are everyday business. These four points come up most often in first meetings.
Profitability shows up too late
Whether an order made money is often only clear weeks after delivery – when nothing in the project can be corrected any more and the next order has already been costed on the same assumptions.
Dates come from gut feeling
Without reconciling resource capacity and material availability, the delivery date is estimated. The result is commitments that manufacturing has to carry – and rework in planning with every change.
Changes break the bill of material
Assemblies, sub-assemblies and customer-specific adjustments in the middle of manufacturing create parallel versions without revision management: which version applied to the assembly already built, and which to the next?
The documentation sits beside the system
Drawings, bills of material, test records and multilingual manuals live on network drives rather than on the document. Anyone searching for them years later in a service case searches for a long time – and does not always find the version that was shipped.
The ERP system for machine builders: project-capable and deep in manufacturing
Three building blocks, one set of data, one interface. Both extensions are certified by SAP for integration into SAP Business One and are implemented and supported by init consulting AG.
SAP Business One
The commercial core
- Finance with fixed assets and banking
- Purchasing, sales and business partners in one document chain
- Inventory management and stock control
- Production and material requirements planning (MRP)
- Service and customer care
- Web client for access without an installation
beas Manufacturing
Manufacturing depth for discrete manufacturers
- Revision management of multi-level bills of material, several active versions per item
- Advanced planning and scheduling: finite scheduling against resource capacity and material availability
- Production planning and control with MRP I and MRP II, based on production plans and real-time stock
- Shop-floor data capture through terminals at a PC or on mobile
- Cost control: actual against standard costs for material, labour, machine and overhead
- Quality inspections in every manufacturing and warehouse phase
MARIProject
Commercial project control
- Work breakdown structure with phases, sub-phases, milestones and dependencies
- Quotation costing with overhead costing and a direct margin display
- Project purchasing with budget control, approval processes and supplier comparison per item
- Resource planning in a Gantt chart, including absences
- Internal cost allocation and work-in-progress valuation
- Service desk for faults, maintenance and servicing after handover
Where needed, there is also B1ECM, the in-house development of init consulting AG: drawings, test records and certificates are filed out of SAP Business One, indexed and found again by barcode – on the document rather than on a drive.
What the solution actually does in machine construction
Every statement comes from the respective vendor's documentation. Which module covers what is noted beside each feature – so that the first meeting does not have to start by establishing what is in the licence and what is not.
Multi-level bills of material with revisions
Several active bills of material can be held in parallel for one item, and the effect of each revision can be traced. That is exactly what you need when design changes while the first assembly is already built.
beas ManufacturingFinite scheduling instead of estimates
Capacity planning through advanced planning and scheduling plans utilisation against resource capacity and material availability. Production dates are carried along, and planned downtime sits in the resource maintenance calendar.
beas ManufacturingCosting review down to batch level
Actual and standard costs are recorded, allocated and compared – material, labour, machine and overhead, including the effect of scrap and of by-products and co-products.
beas ManufacturingWork breakdown structure with milestones
Phases with any number of sub-phases, milestones and dependencies. If dates move, phases can be shifted automatically; scheduling conflicts are flagged.
MARIProjectProject reports as they stand today
Because project and accounting data sit in one system, key figures and dashboards are available at the push of a button – the percentage of completion or the remaining volume of a running order, for example.
MARIProjectProject purchasing with budget control
Quoted prices are compared at item level, purchasing costs are allocated to the project automatically, and the purchasing status per item stays visible across the project. Approval processes can be put in front of it.
MARIProjectQuality inspections in the flow
Inspections can be planned and carried out in every phase of manufacturing and on stock movements, rather than run as a separate step beside the system.
beas ManufacturingWork independent of location
Web client and app give access to customer and project data from the office, the assembly hall or the site. Project hours can be recorded on mobile, protected by two-factor authentication.
MARIProjectDocuments on the document
Drawings, test records and certificates are filed from SAP Business One into ELO, indexed and found again by barcode – multi-company capable and with a connection to Crystal Reports.
B1ECM, in-house development of init consulting AGInvoicing models that actually occur in plant construction
An order running eighteen months is not settled in one invoice at the end. MARIProject proposes every item billable at a given date for invoicing automatically. These models are documented by the vendor.
| Invoicing model | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Time and material | engineering work and commissioning, where the scope is not fixed at the outset |
| Fixed price | a clearly delimited scope of supply and services with a defined specification |
| By milestone | design release, factory acceptance, shipping, commissioning at the customer |
| By cut-off date | periodic invoicing of ongoing work, independent of project progress |
| Advance payment and down payment | pre-financing material and bought-in parts where procurement times are long |
| Payment request | drawdowns on a payment plan agreed in the contract |
| Pro rata | proportional distribution across the project term |
| Warranty retention | an amount retained until the agreed warranty period expires |
For plants under construction, MARIProject additionally calculates work in progress. Carrying that into the commercial-law view belongs in the project work and is agreed with your tax adviser or auditor – see the section Where the limits are.
From the quotation to the costing review across an order
This is what an order looks like as it runs when manufacturing and project control sit on one set of data. Every step produces the data the next one needs – nobody transfers anything by hand.
Quotation and costing
Items and services come from the master data with their description and current price. The overhead costing shows the margin before the quotation goes out. Existing bills of material can be imported.
Project structure and procurement
The work breakdown structure with phases and milestones is created from the order won. Project purchasing compares supplier quotes per item and allocates the costs directly to the project.
Scheduling against real capacity
Finite scheduling reconciles resource capacity and material availability. Bottlenecks become visible before they turn into late delivery – not in the week of shipping.
Manufacturing, assembly and confirmation
Times and quantities are confirmed at a terminal or on mobile. Design changes run through revision management, so it stays traceable which version went into which assembly.
Invoicing and plan-versus-actual
Billable items are proposed automatically. Alongside that, the comparison of planned and actual costs is available – at order level from manufacturing, at project level from controlling.
Four starting situations, four different cuts
Requirements differ considerably by production type. These four situations are the ones we meet most often in machine and plant construction.
Special-purpose machines in one-off production
Every plant runs as its own project with an individual bill of material, budget and milestones – from design to acceptance at the customer. Here both extensions carry their weight: manufacturing depth and project controlling.
Variant production in series
Standard machines with customer-specific options. For building variants without a separate bill of material per combination there is the product configurator, an add-on module of beas – see the limits section.
Replacing the spreadsheet costing review
Project costing lives in spreadsheets that have grown and that nobody fully understands any more. The move runs step by step: first the cost types cleanly, then the plan-versus-actual comparison in the system.
International large-scale projects
Multilingual documents and documentation, several currencies and companies. SAP Business One brings multi-currency capability; the documentation runs through B1ECM on the document.
What the solution covers – and where additions are needed
This boundary is set out here because otherwise it comes up in the first meeting. Knowing it beforehand lets you plan the budget properly.
Included in the scope described
- Multi-level bills of material with revision management and parallel active versions
- Finite scheduling against resource capacity and material availability, MRP I and MRP II
- Shop-floor data capture at a terminal and on mobile devices
- Plan-versus-actual at order level, cost recording down to batch level
- Work breakdown structure, budget control in project purchasing, resource planning in the Gantt chart
- Every invoicing model customary in plant construction, including warranty retention
- Work-in-progress calculation and internal cost allocation
- Service desk for maintenance and servicing after handover
Where something has to be added
- Variant configuration. The product configurator is an add-on module of beas Manufacturing, not part of the base scope.
- CAD connection and PLM. Design systems are connected through an interface. Scope and effort belong in the project, not in a licence list.
- Scanner-based warehouse logistics. For order picking and material staging by scanner, a logistics solution is added.
- WIP under German commercial law. The calculation is documented; carrying it into the commercial-law valuation is agreed in the project with your auditor.
- Series call-offs and EDI to VDA. If you also supply as an automotive supplier, that belongs to AUTOMOTIVE ONE, not to this combination.
- Machine and plant connection. Data capture from external sources is provided for; the specific connection per machine is project work.
Glossary: terms from project manufacturing and project controlling in machine construction
Short definitions of the terms that keep coming up on this page and in the first meeting.
- Engineer to order (ETO)
- A production type in which the design is only created after the order is received, based on the customer's specification. Typical for special-purpose machines and plant construction. Costing and dates are by nature provisional at the time of the order.
- Multi-level bill of material
- A bill of material whose items are themselves made up of bills of material – assemblies and sub-assemblies across several levels. The deeper the structure, the stronger the effect of a change on the levels below.
- Revision management
- Management of several versions of an item or a bill of material. It records which version was valid when, so that after a design change it stays traceable what went into an assembly already built.
- Advanced planning and scheduling (APS)
- Finite scheduling of manufacturing with resource capacity and material availability taken into account at the same time. Unlike plain requirements calculation, this produces a plan that reflects the capacity actually available.
- Costing review
- A comparison of the planned with the actual costs of an order or project. In project business it is the only dependable basis for costing the next comparable order realistically.
- Work in progress (WIP)
- The value of work not yet completed – in plant construction, the value of the plant under construction. Relevant for allocating cost and revenue to the right period in projects that run across several reporting dates.
- Percentage of completion
- A figure stating what share of a project has been delivered. It serves as the basis for allocating revenue and cost proportionally and for steering running projects.
- Internal cost allocation
- Charging work between departments or cost centres of the same company. It makes visible what internal effort a project actually caused, not only what was bought in.
Who will be alongside your project
You can reach these colleagues directly – on the direct line of their office or by email, without going through a form first.
What decision-makers in machine construction want to know before the first meeting
Which ERP system suits machine and plant construction?
Five capabilities decide it: multi-level bills of material that are allowed to change during manufacturing, production planning and control with real capacity planning, a project structure with milestones and a budget, partial invoicing across long run times, and a costing review that sets plan against actual per order. SAP Business One covers the commercial core; those capabilities come with beas Manufacturing and MARIProject. Which combination carries your business depends on whether you mostly build in batch size one or in series with variants.
Is standard SAP Business One enough for machine and plant construction?
For finance, purchasing, sales, inventory and material requirements planning, yes. What the standard does not bring is manufacturing depth: revision management of multi-level bills of material, finite scheduling against capacity and material, and cost recording down to batch level. That is what beas Manufacturing is added for. Whether you need it depends on how deep your structures are and how often something changes during manufacturing.
What is the difference between beas Manufacturing and MARIProject?
beas Manufacturing works in manufacturing: bills of material, routings, finite scheduling, confirmations from production, costing review at order level. MARIProject works a level above, commercially: project structure with phases and milestones, budget control in purchasing, work in progress, invoicing and project controlling. The two do not compete; they answer different questions.
Do we need both extensions or is one enough?
That depends on the business model. Series manufacturers with short lead times often get by with beas Manufacturing. Plant builders with orders running over months that have their own budgets and payment plans benefit from MARIProject on top. We establish the need in the first meeting – and we say so when an extension would contribute nothing in your case.
How are design changes during manufacturing handled?
Through revision management in beas Manufacturing. Several active bills of material can be held in parallel for one item, and the effect of each revision can be traced. That keeps it documented which version went into an assembly already built and which applies to the next one.
How long does an implementation take?
There is no dependable blanket figure, and we deliberately do not name one. The duration depends on the scope of modules, the quality of your master data, the number of interfaces and how much time your team can put into coordination and testing. In the first meeting we estimate it against your actual case; the project cost calculator gives you an additional first indication.
What does SAP Business One for machine and plant construction cost?
The price is made up of licences for SAP Business One, the extensions chosen, the implementation and ongoing operation. Because the choice of modules has the greatest leverage, we do not name package prices here. An overview of the cost components is on Prices and costs; a non-binding quotation follows the first meeting.
How are drawings, test records and certificates managed?
Through B1ECM, the in-house development of init consulting AG that connects SAP Business One with ELO Digital Office. Documents are filed out of the ERP, indexed and found again by barcode. They hang off the document rather than a network drive – still so when a service case comes up years later.
Can our CAD system be connected to SAP Business One?
Yes, through an interface – but not as a line item from a price list. Which data should run in which direction differs from company to company: only the bill of material from design into the ERP, or additionally item masters, drawing versions and change indices back again. We establish scope and effort in the project check, before they appear in a quotation. The drawings themselves then sit on the document through B1ECM rather than on a drive.
Cloud or on-premise – which suits us?
Both are possible; SAP Business One runs on SAP HANA or Microsoft SQL Server. In practice the decision turns on organisational rather than technical points: existing IT resources, requirements on where data is held and on availability, planned sites. A comparison is on Cloud ERP.
Can we replace our existing ERP and migrate the data?
Master data such as items, bills of material, business partners and open items is regularly migrated. How much work that is depends on the data quality in the legacy system, not on the migration tool. That is why we look at what is actually there before quoting – including spreadsheet structures that have grown up beside the ERP.
Who looks after us after go-live?
The same consultants who delivered the project, together with support. Consulting, implementation, training, hosting and maintenance come from one house; you have fixed contacts at your own location rather than a changing hotline.
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