SAP to integrate its PLM with Tenomatix’s process planning simulation software

Enterprise software giant SAP has entered a strategic alliance under which they will work together to improve users’ efficiency and speed across all of product design, production planning, engineering and manufacturing through collaboration and information sharing. SAP will integrate its mySAP PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) with Tecnomatix’s eMPower manufacturing process management (MPM) simulation software. The pair say the objective is to reduce the total planning cycle and speed up the move into production by enabling engineers to work concurrently on product definition, design and manufacturing process planning. mySAP PLM is designed to create the collaborative environment in which users manage, track and control product-related information over the complete product or asset life cycle. With the link-up, manufacturing engineers will now be able to harness the engineering product structures within the mySAP PLM integrated product and process engineering (iPPE) software model to create an electronic bill of processes (eBOP) in the Tecnomatix MPM environment for simulation and the rest. That done, the eBOP, with its electronic description of how the product is to be manufactured, can then be incorporated back into mySAP PLM to be passed on to production. It’s potentially quite a powerful combination for manufacturing users wedded to the SAP environment. “The biggest time savings in the product life cycle can be achieved in the ramp-up to volume phase between design and full production,” observes Claus Heinrich, SAP executive board member. “The SAP-Tecnomatix offering will create new opportunities for companies by linking process models to product data,” says Harel Beit-On, president and chief executive officer at Tecnomatix. “This relationship is significant to manufacturers who believe their competitive advantage is gained through effective management of product and process life cycles.”