CIMdata review on SAP's PLM cPDm program (PDF) - Large ...

SAP has taken advantage of the integrated nature of
mySAP PLM by providing the Order Change
Management (OCM) module, a solution originally
developed for the E&C and Aerospace market, which
is now generally available for all engineering-to-order
and made-to-order businesses.
Essentially, OCM extends the existing change management
capabilities of mySAP PLM to provide automated
modifications to production or purchase orders and
planning information. The process is triggered either
by a change raised by a customer, which will effect the
sales order, or coming from an engineer which will
cause a change to master data (see Figure 9).
OCM manages this situation in the following steps
(e.g., for complex change management):
• An ECR is created
• The ECR will be approved and converted to an ECO
• Objects will be changed and the ECO will be released
• A search is made for effected production orders,
which generates a change request production order
• The nature of required changes to any active
production orders is determined, the change steps
are defined, any active production orders that are
effected are blocked
• The derived changes (insert and delete) are checked
for conflicts and a report indicating warnings,
errors, or no conflict situations is generated
• The required changes are made to blocked active
production orders
• Change requests are closed and
the change process steps are
deleted
• A history of the changes made is
maintained on the production
order
• Production orders can be changed
and processed many times over
OCM is an advanced feature enabling
integrated change management
processes between engineering and
manufacturing. This type of functionality
is not readily found in most
cPDm solutions. Benefits are shorter
ramp-up to production, more costeffective
changes, and the ability to
react better to last-minute change
requests especially in made-to-order
environments.
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SAP’s mySAP PLM
mySAP PLM also offers Change Notifications with its
release 4.6C services. Notifications are used in many
areas of the mySAP PLM solution (e.g., for quality
notifications, claims, or within change requests).
Via the Web interface, a company's customers can
issue change notifications or claims (see Figure 10),
which are routed directly to the corresponding project
manager via Workflow. Project managers can perform
cost impact analysis and then trigger the corresponding
follow-up actions, such as the creation of an ECR. This
functionality can be used as a generic change request
before a formal ECR is created.
Product Structure Management
One of the major strengths of mySAP PLM is its product
structure management capabilities. These capabilities
can be divided into four primary functional areas:
• Material BOM Management
• Configuration Management (CM)
• Integrated Product and Process Engineering (iPPE)
• Internet Pricing and Configurator
To describe these capabilities, this section is divided
into four subsections, each focusing on a specific level
of mySAP PLM product structure management functionality.
Figure 10-Web-Based Notification (Claims)
<strong>CIMdata</strong> Program Assessment