Modular Design-Driven Lightweight Deployment Suite for SMEs’ SAP System: Development, Performance Optimization, and Industrial Validation

Abstract

Against the backdrop of global digital transformation, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face a paradox: they urgently need Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems represented by SAP to enhance operational efficiency, yet they are constrained by limited budgets, weak technical capabilities, and low server configurations, making it difficult to adopt full-version SAP systems. This study proposes a modular design-driven lightweight SAP deployment suite to address the core pain points of high deployment costs, poor resource adaptability, and complex operations in SMEs’ SAP adoption. First, based on a demand survey of 120 manufacturing SMEs across the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Bohai Rim regions, the core functions of the SAP system were decomposed into three core modules (Master Data-FI Basic Linkage, Lightweight Maintenance, Procurement-Sales Basic) and two expandable components (Inventory Early Warning, Simple Report Generation), eliminating 17 redundant sub-modules with a demand rate of less than 8%. Second, a Dynamic Resource Allocation Algorithm (DRAA) was developed, which adjusts cloud server CPU/memory resources in real time based on business volume fluctuations (e.g., order processing volume, inventory update frequency), and a Module Interface Adaptation Protocol (MIAP) was designed to achieve 99.8% data synchronization accuracy between modules with a delay of ≤5 minutes. Finally, through code compression (removing 32% of redundant ABAP code) and cache preloading technology, the module initial loading time was optimized. A 6-month controlled experiment was conducted on 30 manufacturing SMEs (covering electronics, machinery, and food industries) in three major economic belts. The results showed that compared with the traditional streamlined SAP version: (1) the annual deployment cost of the experimental group was reduced from 520,000 CNY to 198,000 CNY, with an optimization rate of 61.9% (p<0.01); (2) the deployment cycle was shortened from 45 days to 14.2 days, a reduction of 68.4% (p<0.001); (3) the peak server CPU utilization rate dropped from 80% to 42.3%, a decrease of 47.1% (p<0.01); (4) the order processing response time was reduced from 3.5 seconds to 1.1 seconds, an improvement of 68.6% (p<0.001). (Xiong, X., Zhang, X., Jiang, W., Liu, T., Liu, Y., & Liu, L., 2024) The suite has been incorporated into Accenture’s “Global SME SAP Implementation Toolkit” and promoted in 217 SMEs, creating direct economic benefits of over 65 million CNY. Future work will integrate a generative AI-driven fault diagnosis module to further reduce SMEs’ annual maintenance costs by an estimated 25-30%.