The perfect plant is an ideal not an end state.
In many organisations today, there are two distinct IT universes. One is populated by ERP and back office solutions. In the other reside the systems that help manage and monitor plant and machinery on the shop floor or out in the field. Often the two universes are not joined up at all, or they are poorly linked with one another, on a point to point base. The merging of these two worlds is part of the quest for the perfect plant, which aims to link up the systems in the production and business domains of a company and provide a clear insight into the entire production arena. No company can truly be a clear enterprise without a direct line to the data that production requires and generates.
Integrating both IT worlds
End-to-end information flow is a decisive advantage that allows companies to react faster and to manage their production processes more effectively. Today, the systems involved (on both sides) are powerful enough to provide and process the required information in real-time. What is now needed is an holistic and seamless view of manufacturing processes – from the individual machine to commercial order processing. The ERP applications and the systems for production planning and control (PPC) can then merge to become one entity.
SAP’s perfect plant concept
SAP’s perfect plant concept focuses exactly on this key area. The goal is to optimise manufacturing processes across all production plants and sites with an eye on improving production results for the entire company. In the perfect plant, decision makers can continuously monitor all core production processes. They can optimise the use of installations and order fulfilment. And they can react more rapidly to problems and their negative impact on the bottom line.
With SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII), a specific application now exists for the perfect plant concept. SAP MII enables a seamless integration of production with all the other business processes. Using open standards, the production systems are integrated with business applications, including SAP ERP, manufacturing execution, and sales force automation.
The real-time analysis in SAP MII gathers and calculates data, providing users with all decision-relevant information through events, alerts, and key performance indicators. Employees in manufacturing can access all the important information from a role-based dashboard so that they can make fast and sound decisions.
To support the Perfect Plan initiative, it is also necessary to take into consideration the role of Lean and Six Sigma. The concepts are two sides of the same coin. On the one side, Lean seeks to minimise waste and drive operational effectiveness by exposing and eliminating any activity that does not add value in the eyes of the customer. Six Sigma, on the other hand, seeks to make all processes (manufacturing, order management, and product design to name a few) capable of producing the desired quality or result in a statistically stable or repeatable way.
An endless pursuit
The perfect plant is an ideal which is meant to serve as a blueprint for transformation helping to prioritise when and where resources should be devoted to produce steady, incremental improvements. It provides both a common vision and a shared language for helping people in an organisation align their efforts.
As information flows from top to bottom – and sideways – it will begin to trigger event alerts and rapid reassessments, resulting in quicker course corrections. However overwhelming this looks in the beginning, the organisation has to start somewhere. Decide what makes a perfect plant and then find the areas in the current plant processes that do not meet the vision. Quantify the expected benefits in these areas. Determine prioritisation criteria – for instance, time to implement, difficulty, cost, expected benefit and benefit/cost – and the priorities for these areas of improvement. Then start the journey and be sure to celebrate each success, for the journey can be a long one.
As in life you would not solve all your problems all at once, as the perfect plant is a pursuit, and not an end state. You need to start now!
Interested in taking the first step? Visit http://instrumentation.co.za/+C13796A for more detail on the SAP Perfect Plant concept, the roles of Lean and Six Sigma and the value of visualisation.
For more information contact Zach van der Walt, SAP South Africa, +27 (0)11 235 6142, zach.van.der.walt@sap.com, www.sap.co.za
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