Manufacturing Network - Ariba's smart supply chain

With Manufacturing Network, Ariba and SAP have unveiled a cloud-based platform that brings companies together with manufacturing service providers to seamlessly collaborate from design to purchasing.

By working together in a coordinated way on design, manufacturing and procurement, participants can optimize production processes and costs, unlock additional innovation potential and introduce new operating models such as 3D printing and manufacturing-as-a-service.

"Modern manufacturing is more distributed and global than ever before in human history"

Vasee Rayan, vice president of solutions management at Ariba Network, explains.

"More than 3.3 million buyers and sellers use the Ariba Network to process more than $1.6 quadrillion worth of transactions per year.

With Manufacturing Network, they can now draw not only on a powerful, wide-ranging and fast network, but also on SAP's expertise to collaborate in novel ways to transform manufacturing."

Ariba-SAP link

As part of the SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud Suite, Manufacturing Network is the link between Ariba Network and the cloud-based SAP Distributed Manufacturing solution.

Producers and manufacturing service providers, OEMs and certification companies can thus collaborate efficiently throughout the entire manufacturing process, from design and quality assurance to parts production and purchasing.

Producers can consolidate and centrally manage their design, sourcing, manufacturing and purchasing processes on the new platform. For example, they can collaboratively solve design tasks, link design-related discussions and data to requests for quotations (RFQs), obtain part prices from one or more vendors and initiate the purchasing process, and integrate data and processes required for manufacturing part approval into the sourcing process.

It is also possible to share data and KPIs with all relevant parties and coordinate manufacturing changes with suppliers.