Client story

Intelligence and efficiency: Festo optimizes supplier management with Wavestone

  • SAP
festo-supplier-management

As Festo approaches its 100th anniversary in 2025, the automation leader is advancing its internal digital capabilities to match the performance and innovation it delivers to its global customers. With more than 20,000 employees and over 300,000 customers worldwide, Festo partnered with Wavestone to modernize and streamline its supplier managementprocesses using SAP Ariba SLP and SAP S/4HANA.

Challenges before the redesign

Festo faced several challenges in managing its global supplier network due to outdated structures and fragmented tools:

  • Fragmented supplier qualification, with country-specific workflows
  • No integration with certificate management
  • Manual onboarding handled outside the core system via SharePoint
  • Underutilized SAP Ariba/S4HANA interface, causing data inconsistencies and manual corrections
  • High effort for the Shared Services Center and an overall poor user experience

Transforming Festo’s global supplier processes

Working with Wavestone, Festo redesigned its entire supplier management approach into a fully integrated, globally scalable solution:

  • Implementation of modular questionnaires adapted by region and material category, reducing manual effort
  • Seamless integration of certificate management into the process
  • Direct onboarding of suppliers within SAP Ariba, enriched through Dun & Bradstreet lookup for key company data
  • Standardized master data transfer from SAP Ariba into SAP S/4HANA
  • Bidirectional data exchange between systems, enabling self-service for suppliers via the SAP Business Network
Portrait Philipp Janicki, Leitung Purchasing Process Ex. & Governance, Festo

The greatest strength of the new process lies in its clarity: the company now works with consistent standards, reduces time spent on supplier qualification, and improves data quality at the same time—a real value-add for teams and the organization as a whole.

Philipp Janicki, Lead Purchasing Process Ex. & Governance, Festo

Key results: Greater efficiency in supplier management

The modernized process offers clear operational and strategic advantages:

  • Qualification lead times reduced significantly
  • Greater transparency across supplier profiles, tenders, and contracts
  • Less manual effort thanks to automation
  • Reusable questionnaires for cross-country onboarding
  • Unified qualification template for production and non-production materials

Future-ready integration for a unified supplier network

Thanks to the integration of SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA via the SAP Integration Suite (Managed Gateway), the data-driven process is seamless and scalable. Qualified suppliers are created directly in the ERP system, with country-specific master data that supports smooth procurement and invoicing processes.

With this solution, Festo has built a high-performance platform that significantly enhances efficiency, data quality, and standardization, while offering the flexibility required by a globally operating company. Internally, Festo now benefits from the same intelligent, high-performing processes it delivers to its customers worldwide.