A product data management strategy that leverages the integrated and innovative capabilities of SAP Business Suite provides unmatched value across your entire supply chain.
The ability to prioritize collaboration, compliance, and sustainability, while providing the product data backbone for the entire organization, transforms how companies unlock the value of unified product information in process and discrete industries.
To support our customer needs, the SAP strategy for our solutions is centered around customer choice and within the product lifecycle management market category, we will have the following focus areas:
- Product Data Management as part of our Business Suite and
- Integration with external PLM and CAD systems
In this blog we will now look at how the SAP Business Suite becomes the product data backbone for discrete industry customers. In further blogs we will also talk about integrating third party systems as well as how to manage product data management in process industries.
Understanding the Landscape of Discrete Industries
Customers in discrete industries have needs to not only manage and control product data that defines their products, but also to directly integrate their authoring tool systems (MCAD and ECAD). Customers are looking to also streamline the transition from Engineering BOM to Manufacturing BOM and fosters the ability to readily collaborate on the product related data between design, sourcing and manufacturing.
When organizations can release initial designs and incorporate design changes effortlessly – production readiness is enhanced, rework is reduced, and supply chain efficiency is boosted!
The Challenge of Product Data Creation
The main challenge for customers starts with getting an accurate product definition out of engineering and to have it readily available when the rest of the organization needs it to complete their launch readiness tasks (costing, sourcing, quality planning, manufacturing planning, etc.). When we consider the complexity of product designs these days – this is not a task for the faint of heart!
The challenge often starts because the product data management capabilities within organizations are lacking the direct connectivity to their ERP system and as well the needed sophistication to support rapid time to market initiatives because data is being stored on network drives and managed by paper-based processes which causes delays and data inaccuracy.
To address this challenge, SAP offers capabilities that seamlessly connect to a wide array of MCAD and ECAD authoring tools. This direct integration allows the SAP Business Suite to become the product data management solution for an organization. CAD files and their structures are easily stored and managed with full version and design history management along the evolution of the product definition. All of this is made available from the comfort of the designer’s workspace within their authoring tool. Providing ultimate flexibility and efficiency that yields maximum results for all parties involved!
Not only does SAP provide the ability to manage the CAD files and structures, but it facilitates the creation of the master data within the SAP Business Suite that is needed by the rest of the organizations (i.e., material masters, bills of materials, etc.) while keeping it in sync with the original CAD definition – creating the digital thread in SAP right from the start and available to everyone!
These structures can be baselined as the design evolves allowing for the ability to explode the versioned product structures according to the various validity dates and original baseline. When coupled with natively integrated visualization, the product developer can easily visually navigate the structure along its lifecycle – greatly reducing the time and effort to analyze the product definition and decision-making processes.
Product Development doesn’t happen in a vacuum
Product centric companies need enterprise collaboration with design or sourcing enterprise collaboration with all relevant information, insights and stakeholders to accelerate product development. As a product developer, I want to collaborate with team members and business partners to exchange and collaborate on product details (documents, specifications, bills of materials, etc.) to reduce lifecycle cost. SAP provides the ability to easily share this information in a secure and workflow driven workspace that encourages the visual review of information and the ability to easily incorporate information back into the product definition. As technical buyer or seller, I want to exchange product data with suppliers and vendors to “exchange” product data for sourcing related processes.
Now let’s build it
Once design is complete, the product design needs to be made available to the supply chain for manufacturing. SAP streamlines the transition from Engineering BOM to Manufacturing BOM. Through tight collaboration between design and manufacturing, the initial release of information into production and the incorporation of design changes is effortless because the product data is already within the SAP Business Suite. This enhances an organization’s production readiness — while reducing rework and boosting efficiency.
When we build the seamless bridge between engineering and manufacturing with the SAP Business Suite, we foster better product quality, stay consistent even when frequent changes appear and enable the reuse of engineering data for manufacturing – enabling us to be quicker to market when launching new products.
Revolutionizing Design to Production
SAP revolutionizes the design to production process, offering advanced solutions tailored to enhance product development processes in discrete industries. By leveraging SAP’s product data management capabilities, companies can overcome the challenges faced in optimizing product development through utilizing the full native capabilities of the SAP Business Suite across the supply chain with its seamless connectivity with compliance, sustainability, and network functionalities. This comprehensive integration facilitates not only faster time to market, but also provides the ability to make real-time and informed decision and to align processes with broader business strategies based on a solid product data foundation.
The Road Ahead
As we advance into the future, the landscape of discrete industries will undoubtably continue to evolve, driven by innovation that will present new challenges and opportunities. SAP stands at the forefront, preparing companies with the necessary tools to navigate and lead this transformation. Our focus for these customers is to continue to enhance essential product data management capabilities within the SAP Business Suite and to extend these capabilities beyond the SAP Business Suite with differentiating capabilities, such as collaboration, product structure management, product handover and others, all while being network aware.
Leveraging the SAP Business Suite as your product data management solution fosters not only the efficient sharing of product data across the value chain but also supports the bi-directional change management process critical for all organizations need to get to market faster with new innovations.