FIS-SAP lab at the FHWS: Counteracting the shortage of skilled staff with SAP teaching
Train IT-supported planning in industry during your studies: In the new FIS-SAP lab at Campus Ledward in Schweinfurt, students of the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS) can gain valuable experience for their professional future. Christian Lang, member of the management of FIS Informationssysteme und Consulting GmbH (FIS), officially opened the new FIS-SAP lab on 17 November 2020 together with lab manager Prof. Dr. Alexander Dobhan. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, however, the first lectures in the new lab will not be able to take place until next semester.
The SAP Lab of the Faculty of Business and Engineering at the FHWS was founded in 2013 as part of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Lab by Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Loeffelholz with the aim of illustrating the IT-supported business processes of a company in a lab context for students and investigating new developments in the ERP area. This approach has been continued since 2017 by the lab manager Prof. Dr. Alexander Dobhan.
As a lecturer, Jan Senner ensures that students can experience the SAP lab surroundings. In the last two years, for example, SAP has been introduced with Senner as project manager in the c-factory of the FHWS. An SAP-controlled miniature factory and an "Assemble by light" system (a process for system-guided assembly) with connection to the SAP software have been put into operation.
"In times of progressive digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), the importance of ERP software as a digital centre for planning, document creation and data transformation is increasing. Teaching and research in this area is correspondingly important. As market leader, SAP plays a decisive role in this. At the same time, there is a shortage of skilled staff in this area, so that the corresponding training of skilled staff must be promoted. The aim of this cooperation is to promote SAP education at the faculty and to show possible career prospects for students of the Faculty Business and Engineering as well as FHWS-wide," comments Prof. Dr. Dobhan on the background to the cooperation between the FHWS and FIS.
Since September 2020, the lab now exists as FIS-SAP lab. Due to many years of expertise in the consulting and implementation of SAP projects and its own development of innovative SAP-based solutions, FIS has proven to be the perfect partner for the cooperation. Within the scope of the cooperation, the existing activities are to be expanded and, above all, the efforts towards a hands-on SAP teaching and an expanded research participation of the FIS-SAP lab are to be accelerated.