Creating Data Collection Concepts

The data of the reports depend on the process design and is collected during the process execution in SAP DM. A good data basis is the root of continuous improvement. As visualized in the image of the innovation cycle below, a suitable data collection concept and a refinement are essential. A data collection concept includes, for example, the SFC activities like the start and completion of an operation activity including the timestamps. Also, the data collected during the process by a machine or by the operator, assembly data, and nonconformance can be part of the data collection concept.

Before digging into the analytics options, let‘s have a look at the data set-up for our Bicycle TR180. In the bicycle example, the data was generated by a production process design in SAP DM and is the basis for the analyzed data of the Line Monitor POD (Unit 4 - Collecting Manufacturing Data), the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) (Unit 5 - Using the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE)), and the embedded SAP Analytics Cloud (eSAC) Dashboards (Unit 6 - Building Dashboards with embedded SAP Analytics Cloud (eSAC)). To get a better understanding how the data logging works in SAP DM, there is an exercise below that shows the order execution in the Work Center Production Operator Dashboard (POD). The data logged during the order execution in the Work Center POD is the basis for the Operational Reports (Unit 3 - Managing Operational Reports).

The process data comes from building the Bicycle TR180, which is shown in the first image. The bill of materials (BOM) components are assembled during the production, while during the assembly of the Shift component, one of the three available manufacturers is selected. The shop floor design of the Bicycle factory is visualized in the second image below and consists of four Work Centers (WELDING, PAINTING, ASSEMBLY, and INSPECTION). Each Work Center has one Resource as a member where the operation activities of the Bicycle are actually executed (see Training Executing Processes for Discrete Industries in SAP Digital Manufacturing for more details about the shop floor design).

Beside the BOM, the production order includes a routing with the four operations Welding, Painting, Assembly, and Inspection. The operations are executed in a sequence. From each operation, the actual start and end times are logged and each operation has data collections attached. The data collections are either process parameters directly logged by the machine or typed in by an operator. Also, nonconformances are logged when there are deviations compared to the predefined process. The nonconformances are categorized by Nonconformance Codes (NC-Codes) and can be linked to follow-up activities like rework or scrapping. The following video visualizes the data collection concept of the bicycle example.

Besides the mentioned NC-Codes, there are also Reason Codes. NC-Codes are able to control the process and can have multiple stages (see Training Configuring SAP Digital Manufacturing for Execution: Basic Data and Configuration for more details), while Reason Codes are logged including a time loss. Reason Codes can be of the type Availability, Performance, and Quality and support drill-down monitoring. The Reason Codes are mainly applicable in the context of the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), see Unit 5 for more details. In the bicycle example, there are some Reason Codes assigned to the resources which are logged in case of deviations to the predefined process, for example, unscheduled machine downtime. Also, there are NC-Codes which lead to rework or scrap activities. For scrapping, it is possible to link a Reason Code to a NC-Code and if the NC-Codes has scrapping as a follow-up activity, the Reason Code for quality is logged, as well (for example, Welding issues).​

You will execute a Production Order using the Work Center POD. The generated data will be discovered during the next exercises.