Creating a Customized POD

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to learn how to create a POD that suits your needs.

The Creation of a Production Operator Dashboard (POD)

You can either create a new POD with the Create Button in the POD Designer or you copy an existing POD and adjust it. One of the most straightforward ways is copying a standard POD and customizing and adjusting it to your requirements afterward. This is a good approach, especially in the beginning to get a feeling for the POD Designer framework and start prototyping. Also, this speeds up and streamlines the POD designing process compared to creating a new POD from scratch.

Note

There is preview functionality, which can be found on the top right of the POD Designer. This preview functionality is the perfect tool for prototyping the POD you have just been creating. By selecting the goggle button, the status of the POD gets opened in a separate window – from the user perspective. At the top of the screen, there's a row of buttons. Starting from the left, you have the Save button, followed by the Delete button. Next to the word URL is an icon of a pair of eyeglasses, highlighted by a red box.

At the top of the screen, there's a row of buttons. Starting from the left, you have the Save button, followed by the Delete button. Next to the word URL is an icon of a pair of eyeglasses, highlighted by a red box.

Exercise: Build your own Production Operator Dashboard According to Defined Business Requirements

Business Requirement

Setting: Bike factory with an option to customize the bike frame with a customer-specific engraving

Business User Story: You are an operator in the Welding workcenter. You need the customized engraving data which the customer defined to be shown in the shop floor control (SFC) work list.

Also, you want to have the ability to work with SAP Digital Manufacturing Tool Management, which means that you want to select a tool and record its usage. Additionally, you want to have the possibility to check the Tool Management section in the SAP Digital Manufacturing Help Page with one click if needed (hotkey) and navigate back to the main page.

As an SAP DM Consultant working on these business requirements, we start with copying the Template PODs.

Let's discover how to meet these customer requirements through the following video:

Now we successfully copied the Standard Operation Activity POD to create our own tailored POD. The first business requirement is configured in the POD Designer. From now on, the operator gets the specific engraving data in his work list and has the right operation and resource already preset in his own Welding POD.

Now let’s proceed further with the second requirement: adding the Tool Management.

Note

There is no possibility to delete a created list. Also, custom fields can only be shown in the work list, not in one of the operation lists.

Add a New Page and a Navigation Button to the Main View

We are progressing towards realizing the second requirement. We successfully added a new page to the POD and a navigation button to navigate to this page.

Let's bring the functionality of Tool Management to life.

Add Splitter, Plugin Container and Plugins

Now, the plugins are set on a new page as they fulfill the second business requirement.

One requirement is still missing. Let's tackle the requirement for the link to the SAP Digital Manufacturing Help page so that the operator can get help right on demand.

Create a Custom Button that Triggers a Transaction (URL) and a Navigation Button Back to Activities View

Nice! Also, the access to the SAP DM Help page is made in a smart and suitable way for the operator. Congratulations - We successfully created a tailored POD for the Welding Operator in the Welding workcenter.

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