Baan LN → SAP migration • daily/weekly deltas • warehouse integrity • audit-ready reconciliation



Note: This case study reflects our delivery experience as part of the ThoughtFocus program and uses public context only. No confidential information is disclosed.

Executive Summary

  • Client: The Boeing Company — global aerospace & defense manufacturer.
  • Period: 2010–2014 — phased transition of legacy Baan LN footprints into Boeing’s SAP landscape.
  • Scope: ETL pipelines, hand-off APIs, daily/weekly delta refreshes, warehouse integrity controls, and cutover governance.
  • Outcome: SAP‑ready data with traceable lineage; operational continuity across plants & warehouses; audit‑ready reconciliation packs.

The Companies (public background)

  • Boeing revenues: ~US$64.3B (2010) and ~US$90.8B (2014) in public filings.
  • ThoughtFocus Technologies LLC (USA): IT consulting & digital engineering; SAP services (ECC, HANA/S/4HANA).

Business Context

  • Consolidate legacy Baan LN footprints into SAP while preserving operational continuity across manufacturing plants, depots, and multi‑warehouse distribution.
  • Reconcile organization‑system data with physical inventory for internal controls and external audit requirements.
  • Manage coexistence where selected features remained live in Baan during transition.

Key Challenges

  • Heterogeneous Baan data models (materials, BOMs, routings, open POs/SOs, production orders, serial/lot histories, warehouse balances).
  • Time‑boxed cutover windows around quarter ends and program milestones.
  • High data freshness: daily/weekly delta replenishment to keep SAP environments current.
  • Multi‑warehouse integrity: warehouse‑level tie‑outs to physical stock.
  • Parallel run: controlled coexistence to avoid data drift.

Our Role (within the ThoughtFocus program)

  • Baan extraction & canonicalization — repeatable ETL jobs for masters, open items, and historical movements into a SAP‑readable staging schema.
  • APIs & handshakes — flat‑file/REST packages with checksum/row‑count controls for SAP loaders (IDoc/BAPI/LSMW/HANA).
  • Delta refresh cadence — daily/weekly refresh cycles Baan → staging → SAP for near‑real‑time readiness.
  • Warehouse integrity — control reports (stock by plant/warehouse/bin, movement mismatches, negatives), reconciled to physical counts.
  • Governance — business sign‑offs, data quality KPIs (completeness, accuracy, validity), and audit trails.

Solution Design (high level)

    Data Scope:

  • Masters: Material, Plant/Warehouse, Vendor, Customer, BOM, Routing, GL mappings.
  • Open/transactional: Open POs/SOs, production/work orders, reservations, deliveries, on‑hand balances by warehouse/bin, serial/lot master/history.

    • Pipelines:

  • Extract (Baan): view/program exports with change‑capture keys; timezone‑aware timestamps.
  • Transform: mapping to SAP objects; UoM normalization; valuation/batch/serial flags; referential integrity enforcement.
  • Load (SAP): IDoc/BAPI/LSMW/HANA loaders with post‑load validations and trial runs. • Controls & Reconciliation:
  • Controls & Reconciliation
  • Cutover checklist: freeze window, last‑good extract, final delta, post‑load reconciliation, business sign‑off.
  • Row‑count & hash checks; dress‑rehearsal loads and performance tuning.
  • Warehouse tie‑outs to physical stock; exception workflows for variances.

    • Coexistence:

  • Synchronization fences/read‑only snapshots in SAP; controlled write‑backs from Baan where required.

Data-Object Migration Matrix (illustrative):

Object Source (Baan) Target (SAP) Mechanism Refresh Cadence
Materials (Item Master) tcibd001, item attrs MM (Material Master) Extract → Transform → IDoc/BAPI/LSMW Weekly + pre-cutover
Vendors & Customers tccom / tcacr BP/Vendor/Customer Flat-file → BAPI/IDoc Weekly
BOM & Routing tcibom / tcrout CS01 / CA01 Mapped flat-file → LSMW Per mock + pre-cutover
Open POs & SOs tppur / tpsls ME21N / VA01 equivalents IDoc (ORDERS/ORDRSP) / BAPI Daily
On-hand by WH/Bin Warehouse tables + twhin MM-IM / WM / EWM stock Custom load → reconciliation Daily
Serial/Lot History Serial/lot history tables Batch/Serial objects Custom load + checksums Weekly

Outcomes

  • SAP‑ready data across sites with traceable lineage from Baan extracts to SAP load IDs.
  • Operational continuity: daily/weekly deltas maintained until go‑live, minimizing dual entry and rework.
  • Audit readiness: reconciliation packs (row counts, hashes, exception logs, sign‑offs).
  • Inventory integrity: organization‑system data aligned to physical stock during/after cutover.
  • Reusable patterns for future Infor/Baan LN → SAP migrations.

Association & Credits

  • Client: The Boeing Company.
  • Prime partner: ThoughtFocus Technologies LLC (USA).
  • Our role: Data migration engineering and warehouse integrity controls within the ThoughtFocus delivery team (2010–2014).

Public References (context only)

Historic Baan-at-Boeing coverage (1990s–2000s); Boeing revenues (~US$64.3B in 2010; ~US$90.8B in 2014) from public filings; ThoughtFocus SAP credentials (public announcements).

Disclaimer

This case study reflects our delivery experience supporting ThoughtFocus and uses public facts for context. It does not disclose confidential information nor imply endorsements. Names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.