Automated testing cut supply chain test cycles from 32 hours to 4
A consumer goods leader's most critical supply chain tests were automated end to end, cutting each cycle from 32 hours to 4, running overnight, unattended, 8x faster than manual testing ever managed.
The Opportunity
This $12B consumer goods leader runs its supply chain on SAP, the system deciding what gets made, shipped, and restocked across a global network. Every change to that system had to clear one gate: a full manual test cycle, run by hand, taking 32 hours. That's not a QA inconvenience. That's four working days where a release sits and waits, where an urgent fix queues up behind a testing calendar instead of shipping, and where the people running the tests are doing repetitive, error prone work by hand.
The cost compounds quietly. Slower releases mean supply chain issues get patched slower. Manual testers, however careful, don't catch everything a mission critical workflow needs before it reaches live operations. And every SAP update ahead, and there's always another one, meant signing up for the same 32 hours all over again.
The Transformation
The testing process was rebuilt as an engineered system, not a faster version of the manual one. Working on Tricentis' model based automation platform for SAP, the full supply chain test suite was automated end to end, every scenario that used to need a person clicking through screens now runs unattended. The suite executes overnight, so a cycle that used to eat 32 working hours now finishes in 4, while everyone's asleep.
The part that matters for the long run is what happens when SAP changes. Traditional test scripts break the moment a screen, field, or workflow shifts underneath them, which is exactly what happens with every SAP update. Tricentis' model based approach abstracts the tests from the underlying UI, so routine changes don't require rebuilding the suite from scratch. The automation doesn't just run faster, it stays fast.
End to End Automation, Not Scripted Shortcuts
The full mission critical supply chain test suite, every scenario that used to be run manually, was automated end to end, cutting each cycle from 32 hours to 4. Eight times faster, with nothing skipped to get there.
Testing That Happens While the Business Sleeps
The entire suite now runs overnight, unattended. The team arrives to results, not a queue of work, zero business hours spent waiting on tests to finish.
Defects Flagged Before They Reach Operations
Automated coverage flags issues in the test environment instead of live supply chain workflows, protecting the processes that decide what gets made, shipped, and restocked on every single release.
Speed That Survives the Next SAP Update
Built on model based test automation, the suite adapts to routine SAP changes instead of breaking under them, so every future update inherits the same 4 hour cycle instead of resetting the clock.
Faster testing, 32 hours down to 4
Business hours lost to testing, the full suite runs overnight
Of the mission critical suite automated end to end
Future SAP updates inherit the same automated speed