As a global leader in high-strength fastening systems, precision parts, and assemblies for the automotive industry,  KAMAX stands at the forefront of innovation–not only in manufacturing, but also in operational excellence.

Headquartered in Homberg (Ohm), Germany, with worldwide locations, in 2024 KAMAX generated €1 billion in revenue and employs 4,000 people dedicated to serving OEMs globally.

To maintain its competitive edge, the ambitious company embarked on a transformative journey to streamline its supply chain through digitalization and intelligent logistics management. This transformation centers around the deployment of SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM), SAP Transportation Management  (SAP TM), and a comprehensive SAP S/4HANA platform, supporting superior logistics efficiency, transparency, and sustainability.

Optimizing logistics at scale

Handling approximately 400 transports daily across multiple global plants, KAMAX manages two distinct logistics flows: goods pre-packed and stored in warehouses, and a “pack-to-order” system where items are packaged just before shipment. Currently, three plants operate on SAP S/4HANA with SAP Extended Warehouse Management and one pilot plant with SAP Transportation Management integrated, while others are transitioning from SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC).

The implementation of the advanced shipping and receiving process dramatically improved logistics transparency and efficiency.

“The use of the unified package builder, which leverages real data instead of estimates, allows us to provide precise shipping information to freight forwarders earlier in the process,” Jens Hoidem, director of IT Business Solutions at KAMAX, explained. This improvement enhances truck planning and communication with carriers, positively impacting the company’s logistics operations daily.

KAMAX collaborates exclusively with freight forwarders, working with approximately 20 carriers globally. At the advanced shipping and receiving pilot plant, about 60 deliveries per day are coordinated, involving around 2,000 handling units across five to six trucks. This network supports operational responsiveness without compromising control.

On premise today, cloud-ready tomorrow

Currently, three of KAMAX’s plants run on SAP S/4HANA, with the remaining plants on SAP ECC, all on an on-premises basis designed to be cloud-ready for future transitions.

Hoidem pinpointed the critical process improvements brought by advanced shipping and receiving in combination with SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management: “The shipping registration now uses the unified package builder, relying on accurate, real data rather than estimated figures. This has substantially improved truck planning and early communication with our freight forwarders, impacting around 60 deliveries and about 2,000 handling units daily at our pilot plant.”

Over 95 percent of KAMAX’s transport is by truck. “We maintain a global footprint close to our OEM customers to optimize delivery times and costs,” Hoidem added. “We currently engage about 70 to 80 different freight forwarders worldwide, facilitating diverse and dynamic transport needs.”

Sustainability and process automation

KAMAX has a bold strategy for sustainability and aims for carbon neutrality by 2037. Implementation of SAP Extended Warehouse Management and SAP Transportation Management plays a crucial role in supporting KAMAX’s goal by enabling better route planning, efficient truck utilization, and minimizing empty runs.

“Reducing CO2 emissions through smarter transport management is a key project outcome,” Hoidem added.

The German company is also actively advancing in automation. In China, KAMAX has piloted RFID technology integrated with automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to automate intra-logistics, reducing manual labor and enhancing productivity.

Nexineer, the company’s digital subsidiary, has developed an Operator Cockpit linked with SAP Extended Warehouse Management for real-time monitoring and automated production order management. Using laser technology, KAMAX automated piece counting, saving about 40 labour hours in May at their Slovakian plant across 1,200 containers.

KAMAX plans to roll out SAP Extended Warehouse Management, SAP Transportation Management, and advanced shipping and receiving across all seven plants, progressively improving automation and digitalization of intralogistics processes. “We aim to integrate AI for advanced receiving and transportation management, continuing to optimize costs and capacity,” Hoidem shared.

A gift is always more than just a physical present; it is a thought wrapped in paper, an appreciation corporeal. The holiday season always challenges us to think beyond the material and pass along the kindness. This year, we’re encouraging you to extend the positive impact you create beyond your inner circle to your community. 

But don’t worry! This doesn’t necessarily mean buying everyone in the world a present. Truly making an impact is an easy thing that can start with the decisions you make, and the SAP community holiday gift guide can help you there. 

What if the coffee you’re gifting also encourages seniors to learn new skills and prevent their feeling of isolation? Or the sustainable pullover you find protects a UNESCO heritage skill, embroidered by women who are economically disadvantaged? Would you like to receive handcrafted, artisanal décor, knowing that its purchase sent life-saving supplies to children in need? The SAP community holiday gift guide contains more than a hundred gift-giving options that can make these dreams a reality. 

We know it can become difficult to navigate holiday shopping. Thus, the SAP community holiday gift guide is a curated list of more than 200 organizations that not only ensure high-quality goods and services but also focus their profits into increasing opportunities in their communities and ecosystems. 

As consumers, we know that our choices carry ripple effects: we buy what we support. By purchasing products from these small businesses, you aid in their persistence and innovation. You contribute to SAP’s mission of accelerating impact businesses and the development of skills. You show that you are a part of a system that values inclusivity, sustainability, and morality. 

Peruse the 2025 SAP community holiday gift guide and make a small decision that goes a long way. Feel free to share the guide with your networks and inspire them to consider the power of impact businesses, and use the hashtag #SAP4Good on social media. 

Here’s to a gift that makes everyone smile—from the supplier’s beneficiaries down to your chosen recipient. With more intentional and sustainable gift giving, we can help the world run better, together. 

Mia Naval and Franziska Holstein are part of the Social Responsibility, Inclusion, & Commmunities Team at SAP.

Adding SAP Preferred Success to a deal goes far beyond technical support—it can create a smarter, more resilient path to customer success. For partners, this can mean putting customers at the heart of every interaction while unlocking time to focus on strategic work, sharpening insights to drive action, and driving momentum to expand their services footprint.

SAP partners have always played a critical role in helping businesses unlock the value of cloud solutions. However, technical expertise alone isn’t enough. Projects face increasing scrutiny, high customer expectations, and constantly evolving business goals. To stay ahead, partners need access to the latest tools, insights, and best practices to deliver results at scale and without overextending their teams.

That’s where the SAP Preferred Success plan can come in. More than a support offering, it’s a shared growth strategy that can give partners the expert guidance, enablement, best practices, and bandwidth to be able to deliver meaningful outcomes again and again.

Efficiency gains that drive value

SAP Preferred Success helps deliver significant efficiency gains by taking on critical, behind-the-scenes tasks—such as release planning, usage monitoring, product best practices, and the identification of customer-relevant innovations. Such support can allow partners to stay focused on strategic implementations, drive innovation, and solve complex challenges without being bogged down by operational overhead.

Partners that work closely with SAP experts can receive targeted, data-driven guidance tailored to actual usage patterns, industry needs, and solution capabilities. Doing so helps reduce unexpected effort, accelerate delivery timelines, and enable high-value implementation work that delivers measurable results.

SAP Preferred Success also helps simplify the complexity of frequent cloud updates from SAP. Guidance focused on what matters most to each customer helps partners zero in on relevant innovations while enabling smoother implementations, continuous feature adoption, and faster time to value. As a result, customer relationships can grow stronger and new opportunities can naturally emerge.

According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) study, SAP Preferred Success reduces internal implementation effort by 10% and release preparation time by 25%. These efficiency gains contribute to a three-year, risk-adjusted value of US$467,000 in savings for the average customer organization.

Enhanced visibility for proactive delivery

SAP Preferred Success can give partners the visibility to better support proactive delivery and identify new service opportunities. With targeted functional insights, partners can spot adoption gaps early, respond to issues before they escalate, and identify areas where customers may benefit from additional capabilities or services.

That approach helps open the door to more meaningful conversations, ranging from solution extensions and new feature adoption to strategic guidance. And the results speak for themselves: Forrester cites that organizations using SAP Preferred Success achieve a 10% faster time to value and reduce implementation timelines by up to one month.

Confidence that sustains long-term growth

By helping to keep projects on track and customers engaged throughout the journey, SAP Preferred Success can build confidence. Consistent and fast access to expert guidance helps ensure fewer disruptions and less risk of costly delays, budget overruns, or unplanned efforts. Moreover, partners can stay focused on making their customers successful.

Forrester reports that customers using SAP Preferred Success experience a 24% boost in user productivity. This empowers partners to move beyond troubleshooting to deepen the adoption of key features and capabilities, even after the customer goes live.

By supporting stronger project continuity and minimizing risk, SAP Preferred Success can enable partners to scale more predictably and build lasting, trust-based customer relationships.

More engagement, more services, more growth

When customers understand how to get the most from their solutions and apply new capabilities to business needs, they see their ROI on SAP solutions increase. Access to prescriptive guidance, tailored enablement, and structured learning paths empower customers to actively participate in their transformation journeys.

This can lead to more frequent interactions with the partner team, more opportunities to demonstrate value, and stronger, lasting relationships. Customers that adopt more features and pursue new goals often require additional services, such as strategy workshops, integration work, or even new solution deployments.

SAP Preferred Success helps create a more predictable and positive customer experience that can support a stronger value journey and can enable stable, recurring revenue streams that partners can rely on. Forrester research shows that customers with SAP Preferred Success have better solution adoption and are more likely to consume a greater share of their licensed capabilities to help achieve business goals.

Furthermore, SAP Preferred Success isn’t one-size-fits-all. It includes tailored elements that partners can integrate into their delivery methods, whether focused on ERP, human capital management, procurement, supply chain, or industry-specific cloud solutions. It’s an adaptable foundation that helps strengthen the customers’ transformation as well as the partners’ client relationships. 

Shared success, scaled impact

At its core, SAP Preferred Success helps unlock the full value of the cloud for customers and partners. It helps partners deliver faster, support smarter, and build stronger relationships that drive long-term customer value.

More important, SAP Preferred Success represents a shift in mindset. It’s a recognition that customer success is a shared effort. With the right tools and collaboration, partners can do more than implement software—they can lead transformation with confidence, continuity, and clarity.

Ready to accelerate your customers’ outcomes with SAP Preferred Success? Contact your SAP partner manager or visit the SAP Partner Portal site for program details and incentives.

Kiron Satyavarapu is global solution owner of SAP Preferred Success at SAP.