Utilização do MES no desenvolvimento do SAP

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10.2.4 Corporate processes in mySAP ERP and the MES system

In what follows, these functions and processes are assigned to the IT system mySAP ERP and to the MES system. For those levels situated “outside”, this assignment is conspicuous. The functions on Level 1 corporate planning are the classic disciplines of the ERP system and are covered by mySAP ERP. Even those functions for production planning and for the medium-range planning of materials and resources are for the most part implemented consistently in mySAP ERP.

The functions on Levels 4 and 5 are mostly to be assigned to the MES system or should at least be capable of integration into an MES.

Control of the production process is carried out in the MES system (process control function). This includes the classic data acquisition functions and naturally also the integration of the vital technologies for connecting machines, machine groups and process installations. The fundamental requirement is that all of the data are made available for the higher levels. This is the basis for ensuring the requirement for so-called vertical integration is satisfied.

However, since it is more and more often assumed in the manufacturing company that processes do not necessarily run in their entirety within a single system but rather need to be supported vertically over several system levels, in addition to the functions being assigned to one system a “considerably more interesting” part of system integration is the “consolidation” of functions from several systems into a single process mapping.

From the technical aspect of IT, this area of “overlapping functions” largely includes the functions of Level 3 of the present model. Depending on the production organization or sector of industry these processes can be entirely implemented either in MES systems or in SAP systems. As an alternative, however, and this does appear to be how things will be in the future, they can be broken down into sub-processes and mapped into both the SAP and the MES systems.

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Relevant processes in the MES system

As has already been mentioned, there are functions or processes which are mapped in the MES either completely or even only partially. The connection between the MES and mySAP ERP must be so flexible that the following functions, depending on the application and the production organization, can be “switched on and off” in a company.

Scheduling and sequencing, production control

While scheduling and sequencing in the sense of production control is, in the case of quantity production, for example, carried out on the medium to long-term basis - in other words, days in advance on the production plan - there are some sectors of industry and production organizations in which such plans are drawn up only just before production begins or which have to be modified while production is in progress. The term “reactive planning” was coined to differentiate between these planning methods. This term means the creation of an executable production plan which was optimized with respect to production conditions at the time of its creation. Reactive planning is necessary when, for example, different machine groups and production equipment suffer from technical restrictions on account of the materials being used. If the problematic properties of the materials are not identified until production is actually under way, it will be necessary to change the planning directly at the machine group or to do the actual planning work or production control there.

One example of this is the steel industry. Due to the properties of the material, planning changes are decided immediately before or during the production process, something that can result in over- or undersupply for the production order.

If this also affects other production stages which require the higher-level planning systems such as the SAP modules PP, MM or APO, they will have to be controlled via the systems affected. In this case it is the job of the MES to supply the SAP modules with information synchronously or to call up new planning requirements or even a new plan, or to have a new plan prepared.

Transportation management

Depending on the manufacturing sequence and infrastructure of an individual manufacturing company, the term transportation management has some quite different meanings. Transportation management definitely does not include the transportation of materials from one production plant to another, to a distribution center or directly to the final customer. Normally

these functions are handled within the SAP system by supply chain management. In certain production industries, such as the steel industry, there are also great distances to be bridged as well. Between individual production areas such as the blast furnace and the hot-rolling mill, transportation logistics within the plant are an important and completely independent task for supply chain management. The same also applies however to manufacturing companies which on account of their growth history have very difficult infrastructural conditions (parts of the plant separated by public roads, parts of the plant at great distances from each other although at the same location).

Here transportation management and transportation logistics belong partially or completely to the production process and must be handled with a similar flexibility as the production process itself. It makes sense in this case to map transportation management as an independent logistics function within the MES system. The same is also true of the typical materials arising during production (WIP = work in process). The intermediate materials thus created have only a “short life” and for this reason it is not necessary to manage them in their own planning stage within materials management (MM).

In addition to registering and tracking intermediate materials in the production process, a decisive role is played on the transportation management level by the documentation of the creation process for customer end- products. In the pharmaceutical, food and automotive industries, lot and batch tracking down to the tracking of individual parts is becoming more and more important. In the fields of tracking and tracing, SAP is providing more and more functions in its industry-specific solutions, functions which must however be integrated by the MES into the production process.

Quality management

It is increasingly true of all industries