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.
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
