Creating Resources

The Bike Company needs different types of equipment for manufacturing bicycles, ranging from assembly and inspection stations to drills. Each manufacturing operation needs specific equipment, and only the equipment needed for an operation should be available for selection.

In SAP Digital Manufacturing, a resource is a machine or piece of equipment that does work at an operation to manufacture a product. A resource can be something as simple as a drill, or as complex as an automatic component feeder. A resource can also represent something like a workbench or a basic processing area where operations are performed.

Resources are set up using the Manage Resources application. Like work centers, the resource information is also distributed between tabs.

On header level, the resource is defined on plant level and described by a main name, for example, R-ASSEMBLY-A-00. On the Main tab, you can maintain the description and check the status. The following resource statuses are available: 

• Enabled (default): Operators or machines can work on SFC numbers at the resource.
• Disabled: The resource is no longer used. Operators or machines cannot start SFC numbers at the resource.
• Productive: Operators or machines can process SFC numbers at the resource. The system logs the time in minutes that a resource is in Productive status as the utilized machine time. The system uses this value to determine the utilization percent for a resource.
• Scheduled Down: Operators or machines cannot start SFC numbers at the resource. This status is due to scheduled maintenance.
• Unscheduled Down: Operators or machines cannot start SFC numbers at the resource. This status is due to unscheduled maintenance.
• Unknown: Operators or machines cannot start SFC numbers at the resource. This status is due to unknown reasons.

The resource status cannot be manually defined through the Manage Resources application. Instead, use the Resource Status with Reason Code plugin to change the resource status.

Usually, a resource is only used by a single operator. The same operator starts and stops working on a material at this resource. However, there are production setups where the operator of a shift starts the material at a resource and the operator from the following shift finishes the material at this resource. For example, an oven in which components are heated over several hours. In this case, the process resource indicator must be set and it's then possible that different operators start and stop processing a material in this resource. When a resource is a discrete flow resource, the same operator must start and complete the materials at the resource.

If there's a restriction on the number of materials that can be simultaneously processed, you can define how many materials can be processed at this resource. Furthermore, you can define if the resource status changes immediately or after the last material is completed.

Resource types are used to categorize similar machines or other resources into groups, such as drills or assembly stations. A resource type can have many resources assigned to it, and a given resource can have many resource types. The resource type determines which resource is available for selection for the shop floor worker when starting an operation in SAP Digital Manufacturing. The resource type must be maintained as well when setting up an operation. As an example, let's assume that on the first manufacturing step the shop floor worker has to drill holes. On the operation level, the resource type drills are assigned. If an operator starts the drilling step, the system offers all drills assigned to the resource type drill for selection. The resource types are created in the Manage Resource Types application.