MES & Shop floor

Production control is traditionally carried out via an MES (Manufacturing Execution System), and Industry 4.0 scenarios are also usually located there, as the machines and workstations connected to an MES generally provide the necessary data and information.

However, if you look at the shop floor from the perspective of continuous end-to-end processes, the following problem often arises in practice: Processes upstream or downstream of production (procurement, detailed planning, etc.) run in (SAP) ERP. However, if a third-party solution is used as an MES in a company, the up-to-dateness of the shop floor-related data in SAP stands or falls with the synchronization between MES and ERP. Due to interface problems, this synchronization is complex and only takes place once or twice a day in many companies. However, this means that - apart from these synchronization points - the ERP is never up to date, which is why upstream and downstream processes always have to work with outdated data.

A good example of this is detailed production planning, which under such circumstances can never be based on the actual situation on the shop floor: If there are backlogs in order processing somewhere on one day or if orders run faster than planned, this cannot be taken into account in the planning for the next day. With an SAP-integrated shop floor solution, this problem does not exist.

We would like to provide you with two products that can be integrated precisely for your particular application and solve the above-mentioned challenge with regard to synchronization.

SAP DM is the cloud-based MES solution from SAP. It is the successor to SAP ME and SAP MII (Manufacturing Integration & Intelligence) and also offers the Plant Connectivity functionality for machine connectivity. SAP DM combines all three solutions in a new cloud platform and forms the core of the digital factory in the SAP world. It enables real-time data-based communication with other SAP modules, i.e. the integration of SAP EWM or Ariba, for example, and thus the mapping of efficient, continuous end-to-end processes.

In addition, Digital Manufacturing enables a one-MES strategy across all plants, as they can all be connected directly to the cloud platform (plant connectivity). DM therefore enables, among other things

• Production control and planning using planning boards via shifts and resources (workers/machines)
• Production execution via worker guidance
• Individualization and expandability through low-code/no-code
• Real-time synchronization with SAP
• Real-time analytics KPI
• Root cause analysis
• Machine integration with machine data and machine control (automatic process sequence)

Important added value lies in process automation and optimization, increased productivity, anomaly detection and the implementation of Industry 4.0 scenarios such as condition monitoring or a digital twin.

For companies that do not require a fully comprehensive MES, there is also the SAP Industry Cloud Solution All for One Smart Factory, which can be used to digitize individual processes - such as worker feedback - and integrate them into SAP.

All for One Smart Factory is divided into several functional areas that can be licensed independently of each other - such as production data acquisition via an intuitive UI for workers and machine data acquisition.