Exploring SAP Digital Manufacturing Automation Architecture

The manufacturing automation part of SAP DM enables two prominent use cases. The first use case is to connect to the world establishing connections to different systems around the DM. This is the basis to automate your execution using the additionally connected systems and the standard functions of SAP DM.

The first use case is to connect to the shop floor systems like programmable logic controllers (PLC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and more. SAP DM offers multiple protocols with the help of SAP Production Connector. The protocols include OPC-UA, OPC-DA, and MQTT. The current list of protocols can be found on the SAP Help Portal for the production connector(Link). Next to machine integration, manufacturing automation can also help integrate SAP systems for additional use cases, whether on-premise or in the cloud. Examples could be additional SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Batch Management, or Asset Management use cases. Lastly, it also enables the integration of third-party systems. An example of this could be an AGV fleet manager.

In the second use case, Automate your Execution, the focus is on combining the functions offered by SAP DM and the integrated systems to enable integrated and automated processes. A couple of use case examples should be mentioned here to give some basic understanding. Some of these use cases will be implemented as part of this course, and others might follow as part of different courses:

• You may configure SAP DM to react to shop floor events automatically. This could be a machine providing a machine status tag. The manufacturing automation allows you to monitor the status tag and react to changes. If the machine goes into downtime, you may automatically set the status of the resource representing that machine to unscheduled down.
• You may configure manufacturing automation for process interlocking. If you want to ensure that the production operators do all data collection before completing an operation, you may implement a production process that checks for this.
• Manufacturing automation can also help speed up data entries. In some industries, offering an Assemble All button could make sense, which assembles all components on a single button click. This would automate the work of adding them one by one.
• You may also automate further integrations by automatically requesting materials from EWM upon order release in SAP DM or sending a transport request to the AGV fleet manager when an SFC is completed at the last operation.

The use cases supported by the manufacturing automation (MA) capabilities of SAP DM are part of different levels of the automation pyramid specified in the ISA-95 norm. On level 4, covering the enterprise business processes, we find the design time of MA. Here, the integration processes and automations are centrally designed in the cloud and can later be distributed into the factories.

The execution of MA is distributed between level 3 and the lower levels depending on the use case. There are cloud processes that are executed in the cloud and automate the services offered by SAP DM and other enterprise-level software systems. Next to the cloud processes, MA also offers automation sequences which are executed in the SAP Production Connector (ProdCon), which is installed within the factory network. The installation of the ProdCon close to the machines allows for low latencies and easier access within the same network. The ProdCon does not only execute the automation sequences but also maps the machine protocols mentioned in the introduction and makes them available to the cloud. The ProdCon part of the MA is part of the lower levels of the automation pyramid. Each factory will have its own ProdCon to connect the factory's machines to the cloud.