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SAP · Process Mining · Supply Chain

ERP Competition —
Ford Motor Company

April 2025

Project Overview

Competed in a university ERP challenge executing full Order-to-Cash (O2C) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cycles in SAP ECC 6.0 for a simulated Ford Motor Company scenario. Used Celonis process mining to surface logistics bottlenecks and SQL/Splunk log analysis to design a targeted replenishment strategy, achieving measurable improvements in inventory turnover and process transparency.

Competition Timeline

01
Competition Kickoff
April 2025 — Week 1
Received Ford Motor Company simulation brief; established team roles, mapped competition scope, and set up SAP ECC 6.0 environment.
02
SAP ECC 6.0 Setup & O2C Cycle
April 2025 — Week 1
Executed the complete Order-to-Cash cycle including sales order creation, delivery, goods issue, and billing document processing.
03
P2P Cycle Execution
April 2025 — Week 2
Ran end-to-end Procure-to-Pay from purchase requisition through vendor invoice verification and payment processing.
04
Celonis Process Mining Analysis
April 2025 — Week 2
Extracted ERP event logs into Celonis to visualize process deviations, identify conformance gaps, and pinpoint logistics bottlenecks.
05
SQL & Splunk Log Analysis
April 2025 — Week 3
Queried transaction data to quantify lead times and inventory turns; analyzed Splunk logs for system-level anomalies affecting throughput.
06
Strategy Presentation & Results
April 2025 — Week 4
Presented findings and a replenishment strategy to judges; demonstrated measurable process improvements from process mining insights.

Tech Stack

⚙️
SAP ECC 6.0
🔁
O2C Cycle
🔁
P2P Cycle
📊
Celonis
🗄️
SQL
🔍
Splunk
📋
Excel

Problem Statement

The simulated Ford Motor Company supply chain was experiencing logistics bottlenecks causing excessive inventory turnover delays and inflated lead times. Transaction data existed in SAP but there was no visibility into where processes deviated from expected flow, making it impossible to target corrective actions at the actual source of inefficiency rather than symptoms.

Approach & Solution

1

Execute Full O2C and P2P in SAP

Ran complete end-to-end cycles to generate realistic transaction event logs that Celonis could analyze for process conformance.

2

Celonis Process Visualization

Used Celonis to visualize the actual process flow against the expected "happy path," surfacing deviations, rework loops, and bottleneck nodes.

3

SQL & Splunk Data Interrogation

Queried underlying transaction tables in SQL to quantify bottleneck impact; cross-referenced Splunk log data for system-level timing anomalies.

4

Targeted Replenishment Strategy

Designed a replenishment recommendation backed by data from the analysis, specifying where in the supply chain to intervene and what changes to make.

Key Outcomes

📈
Improved
Inventory Turnover Rate
⏱️
Identified
Lead-Time Reduction Opportunities
🔍
Full
Process Transparency via Celonis Mining

Lessons Learned

  • Process mining transforms abstract ERP transaction data into actionable business insights — without Celonis, the bottlenecks would have remained invisible in rows of SAP tables.
  • Cross-module integration is the key to O2C and P2P accuracy; any misalignment between MM, SD, or FI configuration creates invisible gaps that only show up as downstream delays.
  • Data-backed replenishment recommendations are exponentially more persuasive than intuition — the combination of Celonis visualization and SQL quantification made the strategy immediately credible to the judges.
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