A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

SAP has a magic technology to improve enterprise integration

SAP has a magic technology to improve enterprise integration
Oleg
Oleg
4 December, 2014 | 2 min for reading

digital-integration

Integration is a big deal. When it comes to enterprise organizations and specifically manufacturing companies of different kinds, enterprise integration is one of the major challenges that influence broad PLM adoption and ROI. Enterprise integration isn’t a simple problem to solve. It requires a diverse set of tools to support data exchange and process orchestration. PLM vendors are providing a diverse set of solutions for that. On the side of the strategic position, re PLM companies are expanding their data reach by attempting to cover larger scope of data and process. You can read about it in my post about ECO and EBOM/MBOM synchronization complexity.

My attention caught by betanews article – SAP launches new manufacturing solution to improve enterprise integration. It speaks about new technologies developed on top of new SAP HANA in memory database to manage real time integrations. Here is the passage that gives you a glimpse of what is that about:

SAP Manufacturing Execution includes the SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) application and SAP Plant Connectivity software. This allows it to provide machine-to-machine integration and orchestrate intelligent manufacturing. Using the existing SAP HANA platform it offers global visibility into operations by making manufacturing big data more accessible and enabling predictive analytics capabilities to be used in house or in the cloud. This gives businesses advanced problem solving ability and ease of access to manufacturing data so they can make improvements in cost, quality, asset utilization and performance.

I’ve been touching SAP HANA topic before in my post – Future PLM platforms and SAP / Oracle technological wars and Is SAP HANA the future of PLM databases.

I’ve made a trip to SAP MII website to dig for more information about integration architecture. Here is an interesting document (with lot of technical details) that worth looking if you are interesting in SAP MII HANA integration – SAP Process Integration Act as Adapter for SAP MII integrating with Enterprise Applications. The document is available here. I captured the following architecture slide that give you a detailed view. More information is available here. From that picture you can see SAP’s view on how PLM and other business apps are going to be integrated with manufacturing and shopfloor system.

sap-mii-architecture

What is my conclusion? Modern manufacturing requires high level of integration. It goes from design and engineering to manufacturing and operation. Data integration and transparency will allow to companies to optimize performance, save cost and streamline processes. However, to make it happen is not a simple job and it requires lot of hard-wiring, data transformation and openness. PLM vendors’ demand to have control over MBOM to make vertical integration easier. As you can see on pictures and documents above SAP is working to create a grand vision of data integration from shopfloor to business applications and services. How and where PLM and ERP vendors will meet to create an integrated manufacturing solution is an interesting question to ask.

Best, Oleg

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
19 September, 2012

I was long time I didn’t write anything about SharePoint. I’ve been tracking SharePoint for the last 5-7 years very...

2 June, 2021

Earlier today I had the privilege to present at a virtual PLM organized by Matrix, a reseller of PTC in...

28 July, 2010

iPad sales are skyrocketing. I read “Global CIO: Top 10 Reasons Steve Jobs & Apple Are The Future Of IT”....

25 September, 2018

The news just came – Aras is acquiring Comet Solutions. Check Aras press release for more details. Here is a passage...

11 January, 2017

Cloud was one of the main “debated” topic in PLM for the last 2-3 years. All PLM vendors learned how to...

20 May, 2014

One size doesn’t fit all. This is especially true in enterprise software. It also applies to engineering organization and manufacturing...

21 November, 2021

The weekend is a good time to catch up on multiple publications and social posts. There are a few that...

6 April, 2010

Oh, yes… iPad is finally here. Do you think it will create new opportunities to PLM vendors? This is a...

25 January, 2018

There are not so many pure PLM events in this world. Product Innovation (PI) formerly known as PLM innovation is...

Blogroll

To the top