Until 2027, many customers will still need to choose a deployment plan for the S/4HANA transformation. Private cloud, public cloud, or on-premises? That is the key deployment questions most organizations face. It is clear that a SAP S/4HANA cloud solution is necessary due to the growing demands in the areas of automation and scalability. This post seeks to clarify SAP guideline's regarding this core decision.
Fit-to-Standard & Clean Core
The clear advantage of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the fit-to-standard approach:
standardized processes and best practices—in contrast to an on-premise setup, which usually involves complex customization—make it much easier to maintain the cloud product than on-premise landscapes and lead to long-term savings in effort and resources alike.
Moreover, SAP's clean core strategy—primarily used for cloud products—helps customers obtain a future-proof and stable core within their systems. This allows for seamless integration of new technologies, such as side-by-side extensions, without causing disruptions to core business functions, thereby maintaining vital process integrity over time.
In short, the clean core approach enforces a system structure that minimizes custom manipulation. Organizations not adopting the public cloud approach often have heavily customized SAP ERP systems with numerous custom Z-tables—user-defined tables that bypass standard configurations—adding complexity and maintenance overhead. This setup complicates the integration of new solutions, frequently requiring external consulting support.
SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Modules – Overview of ERP functions
SAP's S/4HANA Public Cloud offers a fully standardized ERP solution with all important modules such as finance, supply chain, and asset management in one solution. These modules enable seamless mapping of business-critical processes. In the graphic below you can see all modules included in the SAP Public Cloud solution.
The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud enables production processes to be mapped end-to-end just as efficiently and completely as in on-premise solutions, but with the advantages of scalability and automation.
Production Processes & Best Practices in the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud
The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud offers numerous best practices for production processes that enable companies to standardize their processes and make them more efficient. For SMEs in particular, the implementation of such processes is an important step in order to benefit from a high degree of standardization and automation .
The following best practices are available in the cloud:
Custom production - finished goods sales and final assembly (BJE)
Custom-made production - process production (3OK)
Custom-made production - semi-finished product planning and assembly (1BM)
Custom production for sales packages with variant configuration (4OC)
Custom production with variant configuration (1YT)
Custom Production - Discrete Manufacturing (BJ5)
Custom-made production - series production (BJH)
Custom production with variant configuration (21D)
Stock production - process production based on process orders (BJ8)
Stock production - process production based on production orders (2UG)
Stock production with co-products and by-products - process production (3L7)
Stock production with silo material - process production (3UL)
Assessment of production capacity (31L)
Production Capacity Evaluation and Alignment - Consumer Goods (5OI)
production capacity balancing (3LQ)
Production operation with Manufacturing Execution System (1Y5)
Production order processing with drop warehouse management (2RU)
Production Contract Processing - External Processing (BJK)
production volume recording (4AG)
These best practices cover a large part of the production processes required in SMEs.
Another advantage of SAP's public cloud is the redesigned user interface: instead of the confusing old-fashioned SAP masks, Fiori apps are used, which guide the user through the system more efficiently.
The embedded analytics tools also enable users to more easily monitor all production activities, which in turn leads to increased efficiency. This integrated KPI dashboard view reduces that need for data warehousing and additional analytics software.
Conclusion: Benefits of SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud for modern production processes
The SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud offers an excellent opportunity to map various production processes efficiently and in a future-proof manner. Of course, you have to stick to the fit-to-standard approach, but that is often what brings the best results: standardized processes create space for automation and simplify maintenance. The enforced greenfield approach often forces companies to rethink their current processes - and that is usually an opportunity to modernize old structures.
The Fiori interface provides an intuitive and user-friendly experience that is significantly more pleasant than the traditional SAP interfaces. This means fewer clicks, more efficiency . Overall, the public cloud solution offers enormous advantages in terms of scalability and flexibility and is an attractive choice for many companies.
Curious? Please feel free to contact us and find out how the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud can optimize your production processes .
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