Our institute offers two modules, in which we are closely working with SAP S/4HANA and teaching materials provided by the UCC Magdeburg:
- Business Administration and Enterprise Resource Planning: CERMEDES AG in the bachelor program Logistics and Mobility (LUM)
- International Production Management and Enterprise Resource Planning: CERMEDES AG in the master program Mechanical Engineering & Management (MEM)
Both modules consist of a weekly lecture and seminar. Compared to the bachelor course, the master course provides more advanced knowledge and expects students to work more independently. The lecture focusses on the theoretical background of the relevant business processes - project management, materials management, production planning, sales & distribution, and financial accounting - whereas the tutorial helps students to work on practical case studies in the SAP fiori interface. The modules are highly interactive and the students are expected to work on individual case studies, solve a team challenge, write a group seminar thesis, and present their results to their fellow students.
Additionally, guest lectures are provided by the global management consultancy Accenture.
SAP S/4HANA
SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing and is one of the market leading companies in providing solution for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
In our modules, we are teaching with the latest SAP software, SAP S/4HANA.
Global Bike Inc.
The Global Bike Group's is rooted in the off-road trail racing and long-distance road racing sports. For sustainability reasons, the company wants to shift it's production to a new product line - ebikes. Global Bike Groups' headquarter is located in the USA and, in addition, the company operates a subsidiary in Germany (CERMEDES AG).
In order for students to understand the basic business processes, we focus on the following:
Project Management
The implementation of SAP at the CERMEDES A is supported by a project management module. Within the scope of the seminar, the participants undertake the classic tasks of a project manager – from planning and preparation, to realization, and all the way through monitoring the project. Instruments of project management, such as work breakdown structures, milestone trend analyses, or networks, are used during the project management process.
Materials Management
The seminar participants, who are responsible for the materials management, supply the company's production with the necessary raw materials in order to build bikes. The participants select suppliers, prepare and check orders, and monitor the inventory stocks of the model company.
Production Planning
The objective of manufacturing is the most effective and cost-efficient production of bikes with the highest level of quality. The students in charge of the production planning need to check the capacity, release a production schedule, and take care of the shop floor documents, among other tasks. In this process, the students do not work isolated from the other participants – a good communication with the other teams is indispensable to realize a functioning production sequence in the CERMEDES AG.
Sales & Distribution
The sales & distribution department does not only process and plan customer orders and the delivery of the products, but is also responsible for the marketing strategy and the organization of the four Ps (product, price, promotion, and placement) of the CERMEDES AG. The modules teaches how to develop an indeal distribution system for the model company. Among other tasks, sales analyses and forecasts are performed, customer orders are processed and pricing as well as discount systems are stored in the ERP system.
Financial Accounting
The documentation of the total value of the business transactions is the responsibility of the financial accounting. Apart from a sensibly structure of the individual components of the financial accounting, such as managing vendor, customer and fixed asset accounts, the team is also responsible for the preparation of the financial statements of the CERMEDES AG. The financial accounting faces the challenge of a series of interfaces to the other modules. The seminar participants gather practical knowledge in accounting and gain deep insights into the company's value flows.
Sustainability in Business Processes
In a new addition to the seminar, we combine the classical business processes with the need of sustainable company development. We focus on how the three dimensions of sustainability - economic, environmental, and social - can be integrated into the different modules.
Economic sustainability considers how sustainable management affects costs, revenues, and the profitability of a company.
Environmental sustainability acknowledges how (natural) resources are used.
Social sustainability deals with how people in the company, consumers, suppliers, and other stakeholders are treated.
ECIU University and Challenges
The module International Production Management and Enterprise Resource Planning: CERMEDES AG is further a micro-module of the ECIU Challenges. In these challenges students cooperate with cities and businesses to solve real-life problems. The micro-modules foster the students' understanding of the background regarding the specific challenge and provide tools to find valuable and innovative solutions.
Overall, the challenges address the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Our module is part of the challenge Efficient Transport in Östergötland Region. The carbon emissions of the transport sector is a big challenge to the Östergötland region in Sweden.
Is relying on eBikes one of the ways to tackle this issue? This question leaves room for ideas and relies on the innovative thinking of interested and motivated young minds. If you are part of the module and would like to participate in this challenge, please feel free to talk to us about how to become a part in driving sustainability.