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Data in an Enterprise System 31

• Production planning is carried out.
• Service or maintenance is performed.
A plant can be a factory, a warehouse, a regional distribution center, a
service center, or an offi ce. It can be a part of a building, an entire building,
or a collection of buildings. In addition, a single building can house multiple
plants. Consider, for example, a company that has several offi ces in a build-
ing. Different services or activities, such as processing customer returns and
providing technical support to customers, are performed in these offi ces. Each
of these offi ces is defi ned as a separate plant. Just as a client can have multiple
company codes, a company code can contain multiple plants. However, a plant
can belong to only one company code.
As illustrated in Figure 2-7, GBI operates fi ve plants for the manufacture
and storage of bicycles and accessories. Three plants are located in the United
States—in Dallas (DL00), San Diego (SD00), and Miami (MI00). The Dallas
plant is a manufacturing facility, whereas the other two are distribution centers
from which products are shipped to customers. The Dallas plant ships prod-
ucts to customers as well. The other two plants are located in Germany—in
Hamburg (HB00) and Heidelberg (HI00). The Heidelberg plant operates as
both a manufacturing facility and a distribution center, while the Hamburg
plant is exclusively a distribution center.

®
Business Processes in Practice 2.1: Coca-Cola
Enterprises

Coca-Cola Enterprises provides us with a good example products, are then shipped to regional distribution cen-
of a company that has several types of plants. Coca- ters for storage until they are transported to end cus-
Cola operates factories that produce both raw materials tomers, such as retailers. The syrup factory, the bottling
and fi nished goods. Some factories produce the syrup factory, and the distribution center are all considered
that forms the basis of the Coca-Cola products you are plants in Coca-Cola’s SAP ERP system.
familiar with. Other factories combine the syrup with
Source: Coca-Cola Company Reports & CCE CIO presentation
carbonated water during the bottling process to make
at SAP Sapphire 2008.
the fi nished Coca-Cola products. The fi nished goods,
which consist of cases of bottles and cans of Coca-Cola

MASTER DATA
Master data represent entities associated with various processes. For exam-
ple, processes involve buying materials from vendors and selling materials to
customers. In this example, customers, vendors, and materials are represented
in an ERP system using master data.
The most commonly used master data in an organization is the material
master. Materials are used in numerous processes. They are purchased, sold,
produced, and planned for. They are used in maintenance and service, and
in projects. Consequently, material master data are some of the most com-
plex and extensively utilized data in an ERP system. In contrast, other master

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