Primetals Technologies relies on SAP HCM

Primetals Technologies is one of the largest plant manufacturers for the metal industry, a metallurgical service partner, and a leading provider of digitalization and automation solutions. The technology group, which has one of its main offices in Linz, operates in 19 countries and is headquartered in London, UK. As a globally active steel mill builder, Primetals Technologies plays a pioneering role in shaping the future of the metal industry. At the Linz site, SAP HCM is used by approximately 1,600 employees.

A key factor in the company’s success: The employees. It was a logical step for the HR managers at Primetals Technologies to focus on digitalization in this area.

TECHNOLOGY CHANGE WITHIN SAP

Until now, some HR processes were carried out outside of SAP using an external workflow tool. These processes have been gradually integrated into the SAP Launchpad and implemented natively within SAP HCM, along with all its benefits. It is crucial to have clean master data in SAP, which serves as the foundation for all HCM processes. Working together, the Primetals Technologies team, with support from INFORMATICS, created the technological foundation and set up the Fiori Launchpad.

SAP Fiori Launchpad

The SAP Fiori Launchpad serves as a central entry point for all users via the desktop version. The rollout to mobile devices is scheduled for this fall. In collaboration with Primetals Technologies, INFORMATICS configured the landing page and activated the standard scenarios for HR management. In addition, a customized configuration of the time sheet approval process was redesigned to replace the previous manual processes. To this end, a fully digital process was implemented. A two-step approval process was established through the electronic review and approval of time records by both the employee and the manager. Once approved, the times are recorded directly in SAP TIME. As a result, the time administrator’s role has been reduced compared to the past to simply verifying the completeness of approvals via a report.

CUSTOMIZED FOR EVERY TYPE OF USER

A key advantage of Fiori over the previous customer workflow using Web Dynpro is the ability to personalize the interface for each user type. Depending on their role, the system—thanks to the integrated role concept—displays only those tiles that the employee or manager needs in their daily work. To achieve this, customer-specific hierarchy levels were implemented in the system to capture and map employee-supervisor relationships. This simplifies and accelerates approval processes in HR management. Through the digitalization project, HR processes in Personnel Time Management (PT) are standardized and reintegrated into the original SAP system, thereby increasing usability and efficiency for all stakeholders.