In an effort to help discrete manufacturers increase efficiency in engineering and manufacturing, SAP AG today announced its new plan for authoring tool integration, including a strategy to simplify and expand its offering by integrating authoring tools into the SAP® Product Lifecycle Management application. The SAP® Engineering Control Center integration tool is planned to help companies deliver innovative products and services in a shorter time to market and aims to support a new way of developing products. This ties in with the broader aim of “idea to performance,” a holistic business approach to managing the entire life cycle of a product, from design to service.
The pace of technological advance is constantly increasing and puts pressure on manufacturers to be more innovative. Products are becoming more and more complex and are often a combination of mechanics, electronics and software. Product data is stored in multiple repositories, making it difficult for engineers to keep track of product data and to ensure data consistency. SAP’s strategy aims to help increase efficiency in engineering and manufacturing through a new comprehensive and flexible integration platform for all authoring tools. SAP Engineering Control Center is intended to provide a 360-degree product view, including mechanics, electronics, software and simulation, offering total transparency across engineering disciplines and promoting visibility of new product introduction process criticality. It is also planned to integrate a heterogeneous authoring tool landscape into SAP Product Lifecycle Management for fewer interfaces and consequently a reduction in maintenance costs.
“Using this new integration tool and integrating data from several authoring tools directly into the product development process is envisioned to enable companies to benefit from faster innovation cycles and simplified R&D processes and handover to manufacturing,” said Nils Herzberg, senior vice president and global head of Discrete Industries, SAP AG. “With this planned offering, manufacturing companies shall be able to generate consistent product designs and achieve higher product quality. The tool integration framework is intended to help companies to create a holistic product description, ensure data consistency and reduce operating of their IT landscape.”
The integration tool is planned as part of SAP’s broader effort to strengthen relationships with its integration partner ecosystem, enabling partners to address even the most complex customer challenges. SAP Engineering Control Center is planned to leverage the experience of DSC Software AG, a long-established development partner of SAP, while other CAD integration partners, including CENIT, CIDEON and .riess engineering, intend to leverage this platform to provide new interfaces to leading authoring tools.
