A Practical Guide to Low-Code Apps for SAP Manufacturing

SAP systems form the powerful, strategic core of manufacturing operations. Still, clipboards, paper checklists, and technicians trekking back to a desktop terminal to manage a clunky interface remain a stark reality in this sector.

According to a recent whitepaper by Neptune Software, 92% of manufacturing leaders admit that their digital investments have failed to deliver the expected ROI, with integration complexity being the primary challenge. Additionally, although 80% of manufacturers view mobile access as critical, only a third have implemented it.

For many, SAP Fiori was supposed to be the answer as its vision of a modern, consumer-grade user experience for SAP was compelling. However, teams encountered common roadblocks, including the complexity of navigating 20-30 screens for a single work order, a lack of offline capability in areas with spotty Wi-Fi, and the scarcity of specialized developers, which slowed projects to a crawl. The result? Pilot projects never scaled, and manufacturing teams returned to the tried-and-tested paper processes.

Path to a Paperless Plant

According to the whitepaper, the challenge isn’t SAP, but the bridge between its complex backend and the frontline workers who need it to be simple, fast, and reliable. This is where SAP-native, low-code application development that makes a real impact.

Under this approach, instead of trying to build complex integrations or writing endless custom code, platforms like Neptune enable businesses to extend their existing SAP landscape directly. Organizations can build mobile and web apps that reuse their current SAP logic, roles, and authorizations. This approach offers three key advantages over traditional development:

1. Apps are designed for the harsh realities of the plant floor, ensuring technicians and warehouse staff can keep working in basements or remote depots without a connection.
2. By using side-by-side extensibility, businesses avoid polluting their SAP core with custom Z-code, making future upgrades to SAP S/4HANA less painful.
3. Organizations can move from an idea to a production-ready app within weeks.

From Theory to Tangible ROI

A successful example can be found in the case of Rust-Oleum, which built over 40 mobile apps through Neptune DXP for its warehouses in just four months, achieving 100% paperless operations. Fonterra, the dairy co-operative, is another example. The company saved over $3 million in 12 weeks by mobilizing its maintenance teams with Neptune.

However, the real story lies in the adoption of these apps. In Fonterra’s case, maintenance workers were so impressed with their new mobile app that they began checking their next day’s work schedules from home, on their own time, a powerful indicator of genuine user adoption.

Thus, when the tools an organization provides are so intuitive that its team wants to use them, it has moved beyond the bottleneck and started transforming its operations from the ground up.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Accelerate time-to-value by targeting high-friction processes first. The traditional, large-scale transformation project is failing to meet the needs of manufacturers. SAPinsiders in the manufacturing space must pivot from big bang rollouts to a more agile approach. Instead of waiting for multi-year projects, identify a single, high-friction process and digitize it in weeks. By utilizing a low-code, SAP-native platform like Neptune DXP, organizations can leverage existing SAP logic and roles, reducing development cycles by up to 70%. This strategy allows organizations to deliver measurable results and build confidence quickly.

Preserve your clean core to de-risk your SAP S/4HANA journey. The Neptune whitepaper advocates for an approach that modernizes frontline operations while actively protecting the digital core. By utilizing a platform that runs directly within SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA and employs side-by-side extensibility, organizations can develop applications without requiring custom code to be added to the core system. This eliminates the need for costly middleware and ensures every solution is clean-core compliant. This strategy enhances the current system’s stability, making the eventual upgrade or migration to SAP S/4HANA significantly less painful and more predictable.

Drive user adoption by building for the reality of the shop floor. The most sophisticated app is useless if technicians and warehouse staff don’t use it. Therefore, the key is to build solutions with an offline-first design, acknowledging that connectivity is often unreliable in factories, basements, or remote depots. Combining this with consumer-grade UX can reduce training time from weeks to hours and ensure teams utilize the tools they are given. This leads to tangible gains, such as technicians closing work orders up to 30% faster.