SAP DM: Why you should switch to the manufacturing solution

Do you want to introduce digital order processing in your company? Or perhaps you want to further increase digitalization in this area of your business? SAP DM offers great potential for companies that are not currently using digital manufacturing or are only using it to a limited extent. SAP Digital Manufacturing can be seamlessly integrated into SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) using standard interfaces. This way, for example, it is possible to automatically transfer approved production processes to SAP DM for increased transparency.

The cloud also offers additional features to support your company:

• Users can utilize the Production Operator Dashboard (POD) to access relevant information about orders and materials. 
• Diagrams and work procedures are supplied directly from SAP ERP via the cloud and are managed centrally. This helps to keep the master data required across the different systems to a minimum. 
• Users can utilize a range of plugins to carry out operational processes, such as inventory management. 
• Alerts, for example about missing materials, quality issues, or required maintenance, can be triggered in real-time via the POD. 
• You can directly compare actual and desired values against estimates and planning. 

​​​Keep track of production times: SAP ERP makes it possible to establish a Master Data Cockpit. This means that shift supervisors and technicians can receive responses to time postings from workers, which they can then approve or edit.

These features help digitalize production processes in your company, making work more efficient and cost-effective.

Resource Orchestration (REO) is SAP DM’s detailed planning tool. It fulfills the requirement of having a manufacturing execution system and allows you to precisely plan the production of orders. 

Forecast capacity with AI 

Predict future capacity with AI planning heuristics. The REO utilizes a machine-learning model, whereby the model learns from each manual action performed by the workers and is quickly able to plan orders independently. 

Flexibility when it comes to rescheduling orders and processes 

In addition to processes within an order, it is possible to plan the tools required by employees for the production process via the planning board. This allows you to react quickly to machine breakdowns or staff absences and to have flexible order and process planning. 

Intuitive HR planning 

In addition, SAP DM offers an intuitive HR planning tool, which even takes into account the qualifications and certifications held by different employees. 

Say goodbye to bothersome Excel spreadsheets – benefit from human resource planning with the help of SAP Digital Manufacturing for personnel planning and adapt shift patterns in the blink of an eye. 

The potentials offered by SAP DM as a cloud-based MES solution become even more apparent when it comes to planning personnel and processes on the shop floor. Make quick last-minute adjustments via the digital tool and utilize the intuitive rescheduling feature. 

Even in-house quality management can be improved with the help of SAP Digital Manufacturing. With standardized interfaces you are able to automatically replicate production orders from the ERP within SAP DM. 

When it comes to quality management, you also benefit from the following features: 

• You can check both quantitative and qualitative attributes. 
• Users can also carry out time- or quantity-based checks based on an inspection integration. 
• SAP DM allows you to combine classic inspection procedures with an AI-based approach. This Visual Inspection facilitates a quality review of the produced components through the integration of an external camera. 
• A process automation then makes it possible to subsequently generate quality notifications that can be passed on in digital form to the higher-level quality management system. 
• Furthermore, the manufacturing solution allows you to transfer the digital inspection data into your quality management systems.

Do you want to integrate machines into your existing system? The new solution from SAP has a lot more to offer here than its predecessor: Plant Connectivity (PCo) is no longer used for connecting machines; instead, SAP DM uses the Production Connector (ProdCon). 

​​Good to know: You can continue using PCo until 2027. Once this date has passed, maintenance will no longer be offered. At this point, you will have to switch to the Production Connector. This tool offers lots of opportunities for your supply chain management. 

The Production Connector offers users the same features as PCo, but it interacts better with SAP DM and the cloud environment. It also offers the following benefits: 

• It is compatible with OPC Unified Architecture (UA) and thus can act as a basis for communication protocols and connections from different manufacturers. 
• The Edge component serves as an intermediate buffer to temporarily store process-critical data should the SAP Digital Manufacturing cloud become temporarily unavailable. 
• In addition, users can pre-filter data points via the Edge component and only transfer the important data points to SAP DM via the ProdCon – for example, when a machine status changes. 
• The Edge component represents a key cornerstone for a future hybrid architecture. 
• Companies can establish business rules based on services and attributes to manage driverless transport systems and increase process automation.

SAP DM also offers support when it comes to process automation. The Production Process Designer supports the user with the design of production processes. Thanks to its easy-to-use, low-code approach, even users with little programming knowledge can set up and configure automated processes. 

Take the strain off employees who previously had to manually input everything into the POD. Users can also automatically trigger actions. The Production Process Designer represents an intuitive tool for users to configure individual production processes in an automated way. 

Even though a low-code approach is slightly more challenging than a no-code approach, it offers enormous potential that manufacturing companies don’t want to miss out on. Set up your production, so it is managed by algorithms, integrate shop-floor systems, and drive forward the digital transformation of your company. 

When it comes to sustainability, SAP DM includes integrated live data processing to provide a comprehensive approach to the evaluation and analysis of company data on the basis of Manufacturing Data Objects (MDO). 

Advance forecasts for your annual carbon emissions 

The live, real-time data link allows you to visualize your company’s energy consumption across all sites via a terminal or dashboard. As such, you can calculate the total expected carbon emissions for the company at the end of the year in advance, and see the impact that these figures will have on your company’s carbon footprint. 

Utilizing the power of AI to reduce energy consumption 

SAP Digital Manufacturing not only allows energy consumption to be predicted – companies can also use the SAP solution to directly influence their emissions. Here, Visual Inspection is used as a quality-based AI tool to avoid waste or prevent unnecessary energy-intensive machine starts. 

SAP DM provides companies with a digital toolbox of future-proof technologies and control systems to help them achieve their company's sustainability goals faster.