Today, educators across disciplines face a common challenge: preparing students with the analytical skills employers increasingly demand.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, analytical thinking ranks as the top sought-after skill in the job market. Yet traditional teaching often struggles to connect theory with practice in a way that truly engages students.

It’s not a shortage of content or tools; rather, it is a gap in relevance and inspiration that leaves students disengaged from the very skills that could define their careers. Learning needs to be anchored in real-world data, meaningful contexts, and hands-on experience that sparks curiosity and excitement. The best learning doesn’t come from memorizing concepts, it comes from doing, especially when theory is tied to a topic that learners care about.

This is where Business Builders, in collaboration with the NHL, comes in.

We have created a new Business Builders game that brings hockey into the classroom—not just as a sport, but as a rich, real-world data environment for teaching analytics and critical thinking.

In this latest edition of games under the Business Builders umbrella, students take on the role of a hockey analyst responsible for identifying the factors that drive goal scoring using real NHL Game data.

“Hockey is fast, dynamic, and full of rich data, a perfect environment for teaching critical thinking,” said Brant Berglund, senior director of Coaching and GM Technology at the NHL. “Leveraging a strategic partnership with NHL, SAP, and HEC Montréal, we’ve created a pathway for universities to access approved NHL.com data for academic initiatives, without compromising the integrity of the League‘s data.”

Through our collaboration with the NHL, we provide a learning platform for educators that is full of authentic data students can relate to. The NHL generates just under 1.5 million data points per game, including about 120 shot attempts, 1,000 passes, and 5,000 puck touches—raw material for deep, practical analysis.

Business Builders can ignite an interest in STEM and help students build real data skills. The hockey-focused game was developed by the team at ERPsim Lab at HEC Montréal led by Prof. Pierre-Majorique Léger, as well as the support of academics from other universities. This reinforces a core principle of Business Builders: It is created by educators, for educators.

“When the question feels meaningful, learners lean in, stay focused, and keep pushing forward,” Léger explained. “For students in sport management or business management, real sport data can also elevate the learning experience. It adds context, complexity, and constraints that traditional teaching methods cannot provide. Students learn to judge what truly matters, justify their decisions, and manage trade-offs. This develops professional judgment, confidence in analytics, and the ability to communicate strategy and decisions clearly. These skills translate directly to real careers in sport management and business.”

Students explore questions such as:

• What sets top NHL scorers apart?
• Does shot angle affect scoring?
• Which NHL players lead in goals scored, and from what distances?
• Which shot speeds and shot types yield the highest goal conversion rates?

By analyzing these scenarios with SAP Analytics Cloud, students learn to interpret visualizations, tell compelling data stories, and sharpen their data-driven decision-making and critical-thinking skills.

For professors, the platform is equally powerful. Business Builders supports active learning at scale by enabling educators to manage and evaluate larger groups more efficiently while gaining visibility into student engagement. This makes grading easier, supports discussion-based learning, and helps instructors understand how students interact with data.

By introducing a modern, meaningful learning experience—far more dynamic than slides alone—professors bring real-world relevance into their classroom and elevate the impact of teaching.

SAP’s role in this collaboration reflects its broader commitment to education, skills development, and preparing students for the future workforce. In a rapidly changing world shaped by AI, data, and digital transformation, access to practical learning tools that build real competencies is essential. Through the SAP University Alliances program, SAP works with educational institutions around the world to help bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world practice.

“Access to business software and real data is essential for preparing students for the future,” said Dr. Katharina Schaefer, head of Academic Partnerships at SAP. “With free learning platforms like Business Builders, we empower educators to bring enterprise analytics into the classroom and help students develop the skills that are increasingly in demand across industries, and in a world where data and AI define the competitive advantage. Today’s learners need more than conceptual understanding; they need practical experience with real software and real data to build confidence and readiness for work life.”

One of the educators closely involved in shaping this new game is Prof. Olivier Caya from the University of Sherbrooke, who contributed his perspective as both a faculty member and practitioner.

“What makes this experience so powerful is that it all happens in SAP Analytics Cloud, the same solution used by thousands of organizations worldwide,” Caya said. “This creates a strong connection between what students do in the classroom and what they will encounter in professional practice. Students are not working with software detached from reality; they are developing skills with the same software used in real business environments.”

The result is a learning experience that is fun, interactive, and relevant. Educators can stand out with a state-of-the-art platform that connects passion with pedagogy, while students gain highly sought-after skills using real software from a global technology leader.

Business Builders is provided free of charge to educators and students and includes access to SAP Analytics Cloud. It is designed from beginner-friendly introductions to more advanced analytical challenges optimized for master’s-level courses.

After using Business Builders, students can deepen their analytical knowledge through access to SAP Learning Hub, student edition, a free learning platform that offers guided learning content, practice systems, and up to two SAP certification exam attempts per year, helping them to boost their career opportunities even further.

Business Builders is about connecting passion with education. Together with academic and industry partners, SAP is making analytical thinking tangible and memorable—empowering the workforce of tomorrow with the skills that matter most today.

Founded in 1995, Howdens Joinery has become one of the UK’s premier kitchen and joinery suppliers, producing over 4.5 million kitchen cabinets annually and distributing more than 44 million pieces through its extensive supply chain network.  

As the business expanded, so did the complexity of its operations and the expectations of its customers. The existing manufacturing development team, focused on small-scale factory applications, found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace. The data was often locked in silos or other systems. To address this, Howdens set out to automate and collect data from multiple points across its supply chain. 

Considering off-the-shelf solutions that could be tailored to its needs, Howdens Joinery needed a solution that would continue to evolve with the company. Through a detailed assessment of several manufacturing execution systems (MES), Howdens Joinery decided to replace all outdated manufacturing execution systems with the SAP Digital Manufacturing solution, making it the heartbeat of its production processes with the help of a featured partner, Eng. 

Reinventing kitchens with an innovative and customer-centric process 

The kitchen has evolved from a simple cooking space into the heart of the home. Knowing this, Howdens Joinery has adapted its offerings to meet the changing needs of its customers. “The kitchen market has changed a lot over the years,” says David Peacock, IS Manufacturing System technical lead at Howdens Joinery. “We don’t sell a kitchen; we provide a living space, the central part of their homes.” 

Howdens expanded its range beyond the standard kitchen colors and styles. This approach enables customers to experiment with various colors and styles before making a final decision. “It’s almost like a trial run,” Peacock explains. “We can see if a new color is worth adding to our main range. If it’s popular, we can roll it out on a larger scale.” 

This strategy not only helps customers find the perfect kitchen but also provides Howdens with valuable feedback on what works best. To support this expanded offering, the company invested in a new factory and upgraded paint lines. These improvements enhanced production capacity and equipped the team with new skills and expertise. 

Traditionally, the company made a stock model, but now customers can visit depots and order kitchens in any color and style they want. “We have a fast turnaround, with manufacturing and shipping taking just five days,” Peacock says. “To make this possible, we updated our entire order strategy and implemented the new system in less than 12 months.” 

By embracing innovation and listening to customer needs, Howdens Joinery has successfully transformed its business to stay ahead in a competitive market, making it easier than ever for customers to get the kitchen they truly want. 

“Having our own homegrown MES provided us a clear view of what needed to be produced on each production line,” he says. “In real time, operators could start or stop orders and receive confirmations. And we continued to add more features and functionalities to our MES.”

Reducing order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days 

Howdens Joinery faced two major challenges as it transformed its approach to kitchen manufacturing. The company sells the individual pieces of a kitchen, such as cabinet doors or shelves, that are ordered separately. 

Highlighting that the company is sales order-driven, Peacock further adds, “When you convert the sales orders into production orders, you get a sort of production order per piece. Tracking this is easier said than done.” Each piece follows a specific route through the factory, depending on its shape and the machinery it needs to pass through. Since the company isn’t selling finished panels that are simply waiting on a shelf, tracking each part and keeping everything together was a great challenge. 

Another major hurdle was managing the concept of process lots. Because of the specific routing required for different components, orders often needed to be split and sent down two separate production routes. These production orders would then be grouped into SFCs (shop floor controls), but this sometimes made the process more complicated rather than simpler. 

“We are potentially in a one-for-one relationship with the production order, so the SFC number became a bit redundant,” Peacock explains. The complexity increased when multiple orders were launched simultaneously. He adds: “We might be launching different production orders at a time, but we did not want in [SAP Digital Manufacturing] the guys on the shop floor to press start 40 times.” This led the company to create a mechanism for efficiently grouping orders, allowing, for example, all orders of a certain color to be processed together on the same production line. 

“When you purchase [SAP Digital Manufacturing], you’re not just buying manufacturing, but you’re buying the ability to build a manufacturing landscape. So you can do your own customizations,” he adds. 

With SAP Digital Manufacturing, Howdens Joinery enhanced operational efficiency and achieved a supporting mechanism to support both make-to-stock and make-to-order production models. 

Continuous improvement as a key driver for the future of manufacturing 

Howdens Joinery is leveraging diverse technologies in production systems. Particularly as a company expanding its manufacturing capabilities, this requires the integration of IT and operational technology, as well as seamless communication with machinery and the automation of production workflows—such as custom SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) processes and production connectors.  

With this integration, Howdens Joinery achieved direct communication with various types of machinery, thereby enhancing production efficiency and reducing the need for manual intervention. 

“With SAP Digital Manufacturing, we gained operational excellence in our supply chain processes, leading to more efficient planning and an enormous increase in production. We reduced order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days in 2023 to 2024, contributing to faster customer fulfillment,” Peacock says.

Moreover, Howdens achieved a 99.98% service level from primary sites to depots in 2024, demonstrating near-perfect product availability. “We will continue this journey of continuous improvement to deliver the best products for our customers,” he says. 

The innovative manufacturer plans to replace its legacy MES systems with a fully digital manufacturing solution, ensuring streamlined and efficient operations. With robust data quality and a flexible approach to integrating new technologies, Howdens Joinery is planning to integrate AI into its manufacturing processes as the next step. Its proactive approach to utilizing new technology for operational excellence is a great industry example for the broader manufacturing community.  

To learn more about Howdens Joinery’s transformation story, check out the full customer story here. 

Oyku Ilgar is part of SAP Supply Chain Management Thought Leadership & Awareness.