Toyota Motorsport Accelerates Formula One Operations With SAP

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), Toyota's German-based motorsport subsidiary, is implementing solutions from the SAP for Automotive portfolio to streamline production, supply chain and enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes across its Formula One racing operations. SAP's fully integrated solutions in the automotive industry-specific portfolio are replacing legacy systems at TMG and helping the company eliminate the complexity and cost of running a heterogeneous system landscape, linking key information across the enterprise and enabling each unit to more efficiently execute its core operations. In January 2003, TMG began its rollout of SAP for Automotive, including mySAP Product Lifecycle Management (mySAP PLM), mySAP Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM), mySAP Human Resources (mySAP HR) and mySAP Financials. The announcement was made at the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) conference, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 6-9.

Having won seven world championship titles with its long-standing World Rally Championship program, Toyota decided to enter Formula One in 1999 and chose TMG to take complete control of production operations for its Formula One cars. The entire car -- engine, chassis and gearbox -- is completely designed and constructed in-house at the company's headquarters in Cologne, where 20,000 to 30,000 made-to-order parts must be highly available, readily analyzable and quickly deliverable across the enterprise. TMG chose SAP solutions as best suited to efficiently manage the enormous amount of data that is key to the team's success and drive its production, supply chain and financial processes cost-effectively.

"Applying knowledge effectively translates into competitive edge," said Thomas Schiller, General Manager IT, Investment Group and Contacts & Process Admin, Toyota Motorsport GmbH. "After comprehensive evaluations of several vendors, we found that SAP could best enable the solid data foundation that is critical to our business. SAP gives us a strategic advantage, ensuring high availability of reliable information across our operations to make faster and more informed decisions. With its integrated solutions and powerful scope of functionality, SAP enables us to effectively execute on these decisions and accelerate our production and supply chain processes."

Leveraging the tailored functionality in SAP for Automotive, TMG plans to phase out old business and production systems and processes entirely by January 2004. mySAP PLM and mySAP SCM will help TMG enhance accuracy, accessibility and timeliness of product information across its enterprise, support decision making, and facilitate collaboration between business units and project teams. The company is also replacing its legacy ERP system with mySAP Financials and mySAP HR in order to more efficiently manage its more than 600 employees and integrate its financial operations with the overall SAP solution set.

Managing Life-Cycle Data to Accelerate Production and Supply Chain Processes
mySAP PLM will enable TMG to increase transparency across all planning and execution processes while standardizing best practices for event planning, production, control and technical change processes. The solution will help optimize equipment and resource utilization, enabling effective preventative maintenance, work clearance management and work-order cycles, while linking purchase orders and transactions. The company is leveraging core capabilities in mySAP PLM, including project management, asset life cycle management and plant maintenance as well as integration with its CAD (computer-aided design) system to gather data where it is generated.

With asset life-cycle management in mySAP PLM, the company will maintain a comprehensive overview of the complete life cycle of each race car, its physical assets, equipment and components. Asset lifecycle management will store comprehensive information -- such as last use in which car, in which race, as well as complete development and repair history -- on TMG's inventory of thousands of components, each labeled with a barcode for identification. Empowered with easier access to consolidated and reliable data, engineering teams can make faster, more informed decisions on which parts to implement and which need repair. Thus, the teams can ensure that the cars and support trucks, TMG's mobile warehouses, are best equipped for their next deployment -- reducing shortages and overages, and shortening lead-times.

TMG is using project management capabilities in mySAP PLM to plan, manage, and control the complete product development process, allowing project managers to control project structures, schedules, costs and resources. Should parts need to be replaced or improved, the processes are set in motion for procurement, respectively production planning, technical design in the CAD system, product development and quality control. mySAP PLM also calculates the impact of a technical change on a part's aggregates and quickly and automatically generates an itemized purchase list for all necessary components, setting procurement processes in motion with mySAP SCM.

"Companies such as Toyota Motorsport that rely on high velocity and reliability of data to power success are leveraging SAP's proven data management capabilities," said Kerstin Geiger, vice president of industry business unit Automotive, SAP. "The integrated solutions of mySAP Business Suite deliver reliable, mission-critical information across the enterprise, helping ensure that the right materials and parts are available in the right place at the right time. Supporting Toyota Motorsport's unique processes and business demands, this implementation underlines how SAP's breadth of experience across diverse industries is fully brought to bear to enable our customers' success."

About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions. Through mySAP Business Suite, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. The unique core processes of various industries, from aerospace to utilities, are supported effectively by SAP's 23 industry solution portfolios. Today, more than 20,000 companies in over 120 countries run more than 64,500 installations of SAP software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at www.sap.com).

About Toyota Motorsport
Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) is the motorsports subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), the third largest car manufacturer in the world. TMG is responsible for the running of Toyota's Formula 1 team Panasonic Toyota Racing on behalf of TMC. Toyota's complete F1 car -- engine, chassis and gearbox -- is designed and built from the ground up, in-house at TMG's factory in Cologne, Germany by a workforce of more than 600 from 30 nations worldwide.

TMG has a vast heritage of motorsports success in the World Rally Championship -- in which it won 43 events and 7 championship titles -- as well as in the 24-hour Le Mans, where it came in a strong second in 1999. Toyota's decision to enter F1 was made in 1999, and it chose to run the F1 program from TMG's existing motorsports base in Cologne. The factory size was increased from around 18,000 sqm to over 30,000 sqm to accommodate the F1 program, incorporating a state-of-the-art 50 percent wind tunnel. TMG ran an intensive test season with the TF101 test car in 2001 in preparation for its debut season in 2002. As of the U.S. Grand Prix 2003, Panasonic Toyota Racing has competed in 32 Grand Prix races, achieving 16 world championship points. (Additional information at www.toyota-f1.com).