SAP Digital Manufacturing for OEE optimisation and detailed planning

Durable, a medium-sized company specialising in the development and production of office supplies and modern workplace solutions, is facing the challenge of optimising production processes in the area of injection moulding. The aim of the project is to reduce downtime, improve quality through data-based process parameter settings and optimise detailed planning through up-to-date production knowledge.

The project involves the use of the MES SAP Digital Manufacturing (DM). The aim is to implement an end-to-end process for automatic data processing in the MES, integrating the injection moulding plant and SAP, in order to automatically record and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). In addition, the detailed planning options (resource orchestration) of SAP DM are to be realised and the general features of SAP DM are to be implemented and explained.

Up to now, the optimisation of production processes and the adjustment of injection moulding machines has been based on the experience of long-standing employees and not on the basis of existing machine and company data. In order to digitise and optimise this process, existing data is to be used to derive types of loss and optimisation potential. In addition, Durable sees great potential in the optimisation of set-up times and resource planning.

The project involves the use of the SAP Digital Manufacturing (DM) MES. The aim is to implement an end-to-end process for automatic data processing in the MES, integrating the injection moulding plant and SAP, in order to automatically record and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). In addition, the detailed planning options (resource orchestration) of SAP DM are to be realised and the general features of SAP DM are to be implemented and explained.

adesso provided Durable with comprehensive support for the project. Together, a suitable injection moulding machine was selected and successfully connected to SAP DM. The main services included:

• Development of a suitable (machine) data model and the associated data structure
• Integration of relevant master data such as materials, work centres, work plans and production parameters in SAP S/4HANA and SAP DM using SAP Integration Suits
• Connection of the injection moulding machines to SAP Digital Manufacturing via an OPC-UA interface based on the Euromap 77 specification
• Mapping of real-time and historical OEE key figures in SAP DM based on production data
• Development of a detailed planning tool that enables the creation of production orders in S/4HANA and links them to SAP DM
• Consultancy on the technological advantages and possibilities of SAP DM

The selected injection moulding machine could be successfully connected to SAP DM and the OEE key figures were correctly mapped in SAP DM. With the successful setup of the resource orchestration based on customer master data and orders, as well as the presentation of SAP DM as a proposed solution, adesso laid the foundation for future design decisions at Durable. This opens up long-term cost optimisation potential, while the available production data is used to make processes more efficient, reduce set-up times and secure competitive advantages. In the long term, this data will also enable the use of AI-based solutions, and further optimisations and automations can be pushed forward in the area of resource planning and OEE.

Among others, the following technologies were used for the project implementation:

• SAP Digital Manufacturing
• SAP S/4HANA
• SAP BTP
• SAP Integration Suite
• SAP Cloud Connector
• SAP Production Connector
• SAP Analytics Cloud
• Euromap 77
• OPC UA
• MQTT
• Node-RED
• MySQL
• Grafana