SAP-R 3 IN-PROCESS INDUSTRIES - EXPECTATIONS, EXPERIENCES AND OUTLOOKS/

With the novel module PP-PI, the standard software SAP-R/3 offers the opportunity to control and coordinate business processes on the plant floor. The functionality of this module covers different working field s such as material management, process order management or quality man agement and it contains some elements of batch control. These function alities are embedded in the business functions of SAP-R/3. SAP also of fers standard interfaces to lower level systems, as DCS or LIMS. Altog ether it may be considered as backbone of a Manufacturing Execution Sy stem (MES) with a strong integration into the business world. In the a pplication part of the contribution, experiences from implementation p rojects in chemical production will be reported. In the more theoretic al part, the relationships between the recipe-model of SAP-R/3 and of ISA-S88 and the resulting application scenarios of PP-PI in batch cont rol applications will be discussed. Also, general experiences with SAP -implementations, which are critical for the success of an MES-project with SAP, will be reported. Finally, a future MES-scenario will be di scussed. As the backbone of a manufacturing execution system SAP will cooperate with specialized, technically oriented subsystems, as for ex ample SCADA systems, batch control systems, scheduling systems and LIM S. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.