While SAP Digital Manufacturing provides a robust suite of tools out-of-the-box, your specific manufacturing processes may require tailored functionalities not covered by standard features.
SAP Digital Manufacturing offers several options to address these unique needs.
1. Custom Production Operator Dashboard Plugin
This section explores the power of custom POD plugins to tailor the Production Operator Dashboard to your specific manufacturing needs. By developing your own plugins, you can extend the functionality of POD beyond the standard features, delivering a truly customized shop floor experience.
This approach allows you to develop entirely new functionalities and integrate them seamlessly into the POD. Imagine needing to display real-time data from a specialized sensor not currently supported. A custom POD plugin can bridge this gap, presenting the information directly to the shop floor operator within their familiar POD environment.
A POD plugin is essentially a UI5 component, leveraging the flexibility and reusability inherent in the UI5 framework. These independent components can be developed by different teams and deployed across various projects, promoting efficient code management and maintainability.
Custom plugins are created when the standard plugins just don't cut it. This happens when you need specific functionality that doesn't exist or when you need to display unique data in a way the standard plugins can't handle. A classic example is needing to visualize information in a completely new format. While developing a custom plugin requires more effort, it provides maximum flexibility. The advantages include the following: unrestricted functionality, meaning you can build precisely what you need; complete control over the plugin's design, behavior, and how it integrates with other systems; and the ability to extend SAP Digital Manufacturing without changing its core code, which helps maintain stability and makes future upgrades smoother.
2. Core Production Operator Dashboard Plugin Extensibility
Core plugin extensions are used when you want to make small improvements to existing standard plugins without having to completely rewrite them. This is a good approach if you just need to adjust how a plugin behaves or want to make sure it continues working correctly after system upgrades. The benefits of this approach include leaner plugins with simpler configurations, more control over the plugin's behavior, faster development because you're starting with existing code, a surprising amount of flexibility despite the focus on small changes, and better resilience to system upgrades because the changes are less extensive.
3. Custom Production Operator Dashboard (Side by Side)
SAP Digital Manufacturing (DM) offers the flexibility of using side-by-side extensions, with which customers can create custom applications as per their specific needs. One noteworthy application is creating a separate custom SAP DM Production Operator Dashboard.
This custom application, including a UI, can be seamlessly integrated via public APIs and extensions with SAP DM, enhancing the usability and functionality of the platform. Leveraging the Kyma runtime or Cloud Foundry runtime environments, the custom POD application can be designed and deployed. Decoupling it from the base code, the SAP Business Application Studio environment allows developers to manage, design, test, and deploy the custom application independently, without interrupting the overall SAP DM functioning.
The custom application can be fully built in any runtime environment and can be activated from SAP DM. It leverages the public APIs from SAP DM and extensions during execution, ensuring smooth interactivity and functional operation within the SAP DM ecosystem. For software developers, there is even more flexibility while creating the custom application. Apart from SAP Business Application Studio, developers can opt for their favorite intelligent development environment, providing a wide gamut of options to shape the application as per specific business need. Overall, side-by-side extensions for SAP Digital Manufacturing deployed on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) bring forth remarkable customization possibilities, allowing enterprises to tune their digital manufacturing applications as per their unique requirements.
Custom I-Flows
Custom integration flows in SAP Integration Suite play a critical role in tailoring the interaction between SAP Digital Manufacturing and SAP S/4HANA. They allow smooth communication and focused alignment between different parts of an organization, enabling businesses to automate processes, synchronize data, and optimize efficiency levels. Custom integration flows are specifically beneficial for enterprises leveraging both SAP Digital Manufacturing and SAP S/4HANA. SAP Digital Manufacturing is a comprehensive solution that improves manufacturing visibility, performance, and productivity. On the other hand, SAP S/4HANA, the advanced ERP system, enables businesses to function in real time and drive innovation.
With custom integration flows, businesses can design a seamless interoperability that leverages the power of both systems. For example, they can integrate financial data from SAP S/4HANA with shop floor data in Digital Manufacturing for more accurate and unified reporting and decision-making. They can also streamline data transfer, automate workflows, and drive real-time operations without burdening their IT resources. The facets of SAP Integration Suite like Process Integration, Cloud Platform Integration, or API Management assist in the development of such custom integration flows. The suite includes versatile tools and prepackaged integration flows that can be modified according to the unique needs of a business. With visual mapping tools and templates, developers can model integration scenarios without coding, which accelerates the deployment process. Creating custom integration flows also supports end-to-end monitoring of data exchange between the systems. This aids in spotting and rectifying errors, ensuring consistent data quality and minimizing downtime.
The SAP Integration Suite also offers security features to ensure data protection while transmitting sensitive information between the systems. In conclusion, the usage of custom integration flows in SAP Integration Suite forms an essential part of harmonizing SAP Digital Manufacturing and SAP S/4HANA operations. This customized arrangement helps companies to maximize the capabilities of both these powerful SAP solutions, thereby enhancing operational productivity and driving business growth.