Original Date: 06/05/2006
Revision Date: / /

The Rockwell Collins Cedar Rapids facility is developing a new automated system to analyze spend data and trends through the use of Business Warehouse, a SAP (Rockwell Collins’ Enterprise Resource Planning system) data management system that will consolidate SAP and non-SAP information in a central location to make spend analytics easily accessible and more user-friendly.

Rockwell Collins is developing a new automated system to analyze spend data and trends. In the current system, all SAP (the Rockwell Collins enterprise resource planning system) and non-SAP data are aggregated by a series of Excel and Access macros. Information is then exported to Excel files, PDF files and the intranet, and updated only on a monthly basis. Trending or historical data is not easily accessible. There are no graphs or drill-down features, only static reports in Excel and PDF. With more than 20 different reports, analyzing key performance measures is difficult and time-consuming.

The new process will take SAP and non-SAP information (spend data, invoices, purchase orders, item number, parts, delivery, quantity), and export it into Business Warehouse (BW). BW acts as a central point to make analyzing spend data more user-friendly and easy to access. Users can manipulate data in BW and focus on key performance measures of interest. BW offers a means for Web-based reporting, graphs, and drill-downs.

In BW, users can decide what level they want to drill down top-level metrics. At the highest level, users can see the last three fiscal periods and can track trends. Users can also see if items improved, did not change, or worsened compared to the actual operating plan. Data from the last fiscal month and current period is available. At the next level, users can chart data for a specific key measure. For example, supplier delivery over a 12-month period can be tracked to determine what percentage of deliveries were early, on time, or late. Supplier delivery can also be charted by plant, number of days late, the ten worst suppliers, and the ten best materials groups. This information can be further drilled down to see company code, plant, part number, manager, buyer, vendor name, purchase-order number, material group, promised delivery date, on-dock date, days late, lots closed, and closed-lot value.

All information from BW is presented via the Rockwell Collins intranet. The data is updated daily or weekly, depending on the BW rules. Key metrics are reported, and trending and historical graphs are available. Filter, sort, e-mail, and print capabilities are available, and information can be exported to Excel and PDF files. The BW system offers rapid results and a way to standardize metrics across the Rockwell Collins enterprise.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.