End-to-End Process Orchestration for New Product Introduction (NPI) Master Data - Global Pharma
A life sciences leader retired a mostly manual process that relied on Adobe Forms, emails, and many manual tasks — replacing it with process orchestration, error-proofing, enrichment, validation, and direct integration to SAP ECC for duplicate checks, creating new materials, extensions, BOMs, recipes, quality inspection plans, and production versions.
The Opportunity
New product introduction is one of the most cross-functional events in a life sciences business. Creating and extending material master data for finished products, artwork, and packaging brings together Finance, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Logistics, and the Master Data team, each contributing and reviewing data in the right sequence. The company ran this process well for years using Adobe Forms and email, and saw a clear opportunity to make it faster, simpler, and easier to get right the first time.
Where There Was Room to Improve
- The Adobe Forms captured information but couldn't guide users toward the right values for each material type
- Data collected on the forms had to be re-keyed into SAP ECC by hand
- Coordinating six functions through email took time and effort to keep on track
- Without built-in checks, small errors could surface later and create rework
- There was limited end-to-end visibility into where a request stood across six regions
Forms that collect, but don't guide
The Adobe Forms recorded what people typed, but they didn't understand the product itself — which fields mattered for a given material type, who should own them, or how they connected across SAP. That left a lot resting on each contributor's knowledge.
A manual handoff into SAP ECC
Because the forms weren't connected to SAP, the information they gathered had to be entered into the system separately. Each manual step added time and another chance for a typo to slip through.
Coordination outside the process
Approvals and reviews happened largely over email and offline, alongside the form rather than inside a single shared process — which made consistency across regions harder to maintain as volumes grew.
The Solution
The company replaced the forms and email coordination with a single end-to-end NPI process orchestrated in ZFlow and governed by ZMDM. The process is built around comprehensive Product, SAP Material Master, and Manufacturing domains — covering finished products, artwork, and packaging along with their related plant extensions, BOMs, recipes, quality inspection plans, and production versions — so it guides each team to provide the right information at the right step. Most importantly, it puts the business in the driver's seat: the people who own the data contribute, assess, and review it directly through simple, intuitive screens, and the validated result flows straight into SAP ECC.
Business Teams Own the Data, End to End
- Finance, Purchasing, Manufacturing, QA, Logistics, and MDM each contribute and review their part of the material master through guided, easy-to-use screens
- The same workflow covers extended master data — plant extensions, BOMs, recipes, quality inspection plans, and production versions — not just the base material
- Each step shows only what that role needs, so contributors aren't faced with fields that don't apply to them
- Built-in guidance and error-proofing help people get the data right as they enter it
- Reviewers can see, assess, and approve the full picture before anything reaches SAP
What Made It Work
- The process understands the product domain, so it knows which fields matter for each material type and who should own them
- Validation and duplicate checks run as the data is entered, catching issues early instead of after the fact
- Direct SAP ECC integration creates and extends materials, BOMs, recipes, inspection plans, and production versions without manual re-keying
- Routing across the six functions runs automatically — in parallel where possible, in sequence where required
- One shared process is adapted per region, replacing six ways of doing the same thing, with full status visibility and an audit trail throughout
- The process is validated and meets the stringent compliance requirements of FDA 21 CFR Part 11, including electronic records, electronic signatures, and a complete audit trail
The Results
Moving from forms and email to a single guided process changed both the speed and the quality of new product introduction. The business now owns the data directly, the process runs the same way in every region, and information is checked before it ever reaches SAP.
Before
- Adobe Forms that collect but don't guide
- Manual re-keying into SAP ECC
- Coordination by email across functions
- Checks happen after the fact
- Limited end-to-end visibility
After
- Guided screens the business owns directly
- Direct, validated writes to SAP ECC
- Automated cross-functional routing
- Error-proofing and checks at entry
- Full status visibility and audit trail
Business Impact
- NPI material setup cycle time reduced by roughly 80%, from weeks to days
- Manual re-keying into SAP ECC effectively eliminated
- Business teams contribute and review their own data through simple screens
- Six functions coordinated inside one process rather than over email
- Errors caught at entry, reducing downstream rework and corrections
- One consistent process across all six regions, with a full audit trail
Key Success Factors
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