HEADQUARTERS: MUNICH, GERMANY NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 154,000 MARKET CAP: ~ US $ 60.9BN NUMBER OF COUNTRIES: 140 +

number of seconds between each car rolling off BMW’ s Regensburg assembly line while SAP mapped these into their S / 4HANA platform and industry solutions.

“ As part of our partnership with SAP, we have transferred key corporate processes to a service-oriented, cloud-based platform, achieving a new level of efficiency, quality and automation,” notes Alexander Buresch, CIO and SVP of BMW Group IT.

This collaborative approach created what procurement professionals call“ value multiplication”, where shared standards enable collective problemsolving and co-development of solutions. When other automakers eventually adopt similar standards, BMW will automatically benefit from new SAP releases and innovations.

Michael Nikolaides, Head of Production Network and Logistics at BMW Group, adds:“ The global digitalisation of our production logistics significantly increases transparency and standardisation, allowing us to respond more quickly to changes in demand or supply shortages.”

The standardised cloud infrastructure provides the consistent, unified data structures essential for AI implementation. This forward-thinking procurement approach ensures BMW won’ t need another major overhaul when AI capabilities become mission-critical.

Hendrik Haas, Senior Vice President, General Manager and Head of Customer Services & Delivery Middle and Eastern Europe at SAP, adds:“ The collaboration with our lighthouse customer BMW is making waves in the market and demonstrates how digital transformation in production logistics can be successfully implemented.

“ BMW’ s Regensburg factory was an important step, with extraordinary commitment from both sides of the partnership.”

procurementmag. com 73