Customer Success Story: Ingevity
Ingevity, a global specialty chemicals company headquartered in North Charleston, South Carolina, partnered with Westernacher Consulting to optimize its SAP Transportation Management (SAP TM) landscape and strengthen integration with SAP S/4HANA. Through a structured SAP TM health check, Ingevity automated transportation planning, carrier selection, and cost allocation while improving data integrity and governance. The result was 100% automatic planning, 95% data accuracy for S/4HANA-connected processes, and a scalable, globally consistent transportation execution model across the Americas, EMEA, APAC, and the UK.
About Ingevity – dedicated to purifying, protecting, and enhancing.
Ingevity is a global specialty chemicals company with deep expertise and a strong commitment to sustainability. The company develops high performance products and technologies that help customers address complex challenges across diverse markets.
Headquartered in North Charleston, South Carolina, Ingevity operates 24 locations worldwide and employs approximately 1,500 people.
- 1,500 employees
- 24 locations around the world
- 11 manufacturing sites
The challenge – validating SAP TM configuration, data integrity, and S/4HANA integration.
With a workforce of around 1,500 people, the volume and complexity of SAP S/4HANA orders, as well as cost allocation and billing, required greater consistency. Ingevity therefore set out to optimize key transportation processes, reduce complexity and improve data integrity – without placing an additional burden on IT.
With over 30 years’ experience of SAP in the supply chain, Westernacher Consulting was the choice of partner with whom to begin a structured SAP TM (Transportation Management) health check. The team assessed the configuration, master data, and integration points with SAP S/4HANA, and then prioritized the requirements with the business and IT departments.
Stephen Christmas, Commerical Logistics Manager at Ingevity, explains:
One of the goals that Ingevity had with the Westernacher automation initiative was a broader scope to get to a no touch order process.Explore related questions
We are moving towards exception-based management approach and as we automate more of our processes, we are getting closer to what our end goal is.
What changed?
- Automatic planning and carrier selection replaced manual road planning tasks, reducing planning time and cutting errors.
- Automated tendering and accurate cost allocation standardized the flow of shipments to carriers and how costs were posted, lowering discrepancies and improving billing accuracy.
- Integrating DAS with SAP TM synchronized time slots and yard activity with transportation plans, helping to avoid scheduling conflicts and supporting timely deliveries.
- Strengthened governance ensured reliable data management in processes connected to S/4HANA orders.
The results – driving global efficiency through automated SAP TM execution.
The project achieved 100% automatic planning and carrier selection. The accuracy of data management for processes linked to SAP S/4HANA orders reached 95%. The enhanced solution has been implemented across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the UK.
Planners now spend less time on repetitive tasks, operations experience fewer exceptions, and the finance department benefits from cleaner, faster billing. IT support requirements have decreased thanks to standardized configuration and reduced custom complexity.
Jessica di Francesco, Ingevity’s Business Transformation Office, Leader of Order-to-Cash of global business process, says:
By reducing manual work to standard, repetitive tasks, we free up our teams to work on more strategic initiatives. This also provides our supply chain management with greater organizational and vendor flexibility.
- 100% automated planning and carrier selection
- 95% accuracy of data management for processes linked to SAP S/4HANA orders
- 100% live coverage across the US, EMEA, APAC and the UK
- Spending less time on repetitive tasks
- Cleaner, faster billing
Another statement from a project stakeholder.
Jarrett Felder, Vice President Global Supply Chain at Ingevity, says:
As we have a kick out or an issue, we can put someone on that specific problem alone without having to manage every single order, every single day from soup to nuts. Westernacher has been able to reduce that amount of time that we’ve had to employ.
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