Not a harmonious pair

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), the generic term for all the individual components of digital product development, such as CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering), among others, is nowadays a heavyweight. Electronic components are built into almost all products, whether cars, machines or medical devices.

This makes the design process more complicated, because the electronic and mechanical design must be combined - ideally into a complete mechatronic system that also includes the necessary software components.

If we really want to achieve Industry 4.0 in our production halls, we must first use mechatronics to bring together the mechanical (M)-CAD and electronic (E)-CAD systems and connect them with a uniform interface to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

In addition to a functionally strong interface, this also requires powerful design tools that support the bidirectional flow between M-CAD and E-CAD in the sense of collaborative product development - and these are no more available on the market today in the form required than the interface.

So digital product development is currently still leading a thankless double life: On the one hand, it is a central component of Industry 4.0 - at some point, anyway. On the other hand, it has so far only been implemented in rudimentary form in some large companies.

3D CAD systems, of course, exist. These are also wonderfully integrated into numerically controlled plants. But when it comes to CAD integration in Industry 4.0-specific business processes, we are at the very beginning of a long and arduous journey.

The development and change process in product development must first be set up and implemented. And that requires time and money, because the effort for customizing, licensing and maintenance costs will increase, and that neatly.

But it's not just the integration of existing and new system components that I'm worried about - I also find it difficult that customers and external developers have hardly been integrated into the business processes in the CAD-CAE environment to date. Even SAP has some catching up to do here; the keyword here is collaboration in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

But at the end of this long road, thanks to the optimized processes, there are then savings that quickly make all the efforts forgotten: Because then manufacturers can guarantee that their M-CAD system, which is responsible for mechanical design and 3D modeling, interacts smoothly with E-CAD, which in turn is responsible for everything electronic such as circuit boards and controls.

The data from both systems flows into the bill of materials located in the ERP, the product is manufactured and both customer and manufacturer are happy.

There is a lot for SAP to do. SAP ERP, CRM Sales and Service, PLM, SCM and of course the CAD interface - SAP has more than enough tasks. Where highly integrated systems should be available, there are still big holes in many places.

The SAP Engineering Control Center (SAP ECC) is a first important step towards an integrated interface, which has also already solved a few of the pain points already mentioned.

If SAP takes its customers with it and the companies take their employees with them, then the future looks a little brighter. After all, Industry 4.0 and the human-machine system also require well-trained, motivated and creative people - and not just optimized and integrated CAx processes and IT landscapes.