In a previous article, I discussed the initial product release of the SAP-Teamcenter interface, opening the door to seamless product lifecycle management and enterprise resource planning (PLM-ERP) integration opportunities—essential PLM-ERP data continuity towards building the so-called Digital Thread. Building on this foundation, a second release of the interface was issued in April 2022, followed by a third release in December 2022.
As a reminder, the SAP-Siemens strategic partnership was officially launched in July 2020, followed with the release of a joint development roadmap in July 2021—publicly available for consultation on the SAP Roadmap explorer website (note that registration is required to browse the future product portfolio). The partnership was set up to focus on discrete manufacturing first, and to focus on non-competitive scope of both SAP and Siemens (i.e., excluding process manufacturing, MES and other ERP capabilities already extensively covered by both vendors).
Most would agree that building a bridge across enterprise platforms is rather complicated, especially across multiple vendor platforms—and even more so with brownfield legacy implementations. Despite available out-of-the-box connectors and APIs, integration scenarios are never trivial, in addition to requiring costly implementations and licensing models. When two major enterprise software vendors join forces, this is an opportunity for them to build something uniquely aligned to their respective product strategies. Moreover, this brings new opportunities for them to enhance their respective core product portfolio to meet strategic alignment requirements (i.e., by fixing gaps and inconsistencies).
In this post, I review recent SAP announcements on the third release of the SAP-Teamcenter interface and elaborate on what it means for the wider PLM-ERP ecosystem.
There is no “one size fits all” scenario across the scope of PLM and ERP, as different master data strategies can be implemented by combining multiple platforms and apps to support the relevant integration. PLM-ERP interfaces rely on usage patterns, starting from how and where BOM data is kept synchronised across PLM and ERP, based on:
- Where product configuration is mastered.
- How change management is integrated.
- How supplier and cost data is fed from ERP into PLM.
- How PLM processes are automated to drive ERP-based procurement activities, and more.
PLM and ERP Integration Scope
The scope of PLM and ERP have drastically expanded as major vendors developed their product portfolio; even to the point that they now significantly overlap and interconnect. As such, enterprise integration has become a business capability. On the one hand, SAP covers ERP, MES and elements of PLM—whereas Siemens covers PLM, MES and elements of ERP. Also keep in mind that PLM and ERP interfaces have multiple flavours: from a functional perspective, covering a broader or narrower scope, supporting back and forth data flows and enabling business scenarios which leverage master data strategies across the enterprise.
Typical PLM-ERP integration scenarios cover bidirectional data connectivity use cases to drive:
- How engineering and manufacturing bills of materials (BOMs) are aligned across PLM and ERP.
- Where the engineering BOM (EBOM) is mastered, typically on the PLM side; however, some organisations decide to master their product configuration management on the ERP side and push the information upstream to the PLM side for several data authoring reasons.
- Where the manufacturing BOM (MBOM) is mastered, either on the PLM or ERP side, or a combination of the two (typically, on the PLM side to simulate it, and on the ERP side to drive its final planning and downstream execution).
- Which level of synchronisation is expected between PLM and ERP, based mastership decisions, on the rate, type of change and more.
- Where supplier information is mastered, typically on the PLM side for detailed collaboration, and on the ERP side for financial performance management.
- How product cost information is shared from ERP to PLM for consumption, i.e., should-cost planning and more.
- How product weight information is shared back-and-forth across PLM and ERP for simulation, planning, forecasting or actual tracking.
Variations of the above will exist, or co-exist, based on the industry and the product type (e.g., process versus discrete manufacturing or a combination of the two). Per the following diagram, the integration scope presented in July 2020 was essentially about discrete manufacturing use cases and has not changed.
Delivering Upon the Promise of the SAP-Siemens Integration Roadmap
The SAP-Teamcenter integration roadmap was initially presented as a 3-step release plan, gradually building on functional and data alignment towards a bidirectional interface with integrated item, BOM and document change management to feed downstream processes:
- 2021 Q4 (release one): product engineering one-way PLM to ERP interface.
- 2022 Q2 (release two): manufacturing engineering two-way PLM-ERP interface.
- 2022 Q4 (release three): closed-loop engineering and manufacturing with extended impact assessment capabilities, link to MES (SAP side) and integrated project management.
In a SAP blog from November 2021 entitled “The new generation of SAP and Teamcenter integration: architecture highlights,” Thomas Elsaesser, chief development architect at SAP, referred to “separation of concerns” to facilitate the Teamcenter-SAP integration modularity. This approach is based on an intermediate “meta domain model” as a layer to “reduce complexity and allow continuous innovation on both sides.” In principle, this approach allows changes to be made on one side of the interface without much disruption to the other side.
Furthermore, in a SAP blog from December 2021 entitled “Functional highlights of the new integration between Teamcenter and SAP,” Espen Leknes, product manager PLM at SAP, mentioned the focus on out-of-the-box capability alignment: “Together with Siemens, we deliver a set of content in Teamcenter / T4ST and SAP S/4HANA. This means the integration works with some basic features out-of-the-box.”
Subsequently, Leknes elaborated on the scope of release two of the integration in another SAP blog from April 2022 entitled “Functional overview of release Two of the PLM System Integration for Siemens Teamcenter and S/4HANA,” covering:
- Variant configuration across the integration.
- Change process—originating in Teamcenter and SAP.
- Data federation—enabling a view from Teamcenter into the transactional world of SAP and vice versa.
- Transfer of materials to parts and items in Teamcenter.
- Model unit effectivity.
- Manufacturing engineering in Teamcenter.
More recently, in a SAP blog from November 2022 entitled “SAP and Siemens: The journey so far and how it will increase customer value,” Gareth Webb, Digital Products and Project Solution Expert at SAP, highlighted that “release [three] and a small enhancement in February 2023 marks the completion of our first phase of development and the full delivery of scope defined two years ago.”
Per the latest public SAP roadmap [last accessed, December 2022], release three of the SAP-Siemens interface includes the following features:
- Transfer of a BOM with information on geometric instance occurrence.
- Support of engineering snapshots for manufacturing engineering.
- Exchange of supplier information based on vendor information.
- Transfer bill of process to manufacturing engineering.
- Ability for product development to maintain BOMs under version control.
- Exchange of product model for rules for variant configuration and engineering constraint rules.
Subsequent integration phases between the two software giants are set to cover additional capabilities and scope over the next two years.
2023 candidate features:
- Ability for maintenance of BOMs with sub-items in product development.
- Ability for product development to maintain BOMs with substitutes.
- Leveraging of the benefits of MDM-driven master data creation process.
- Support for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.
- Transfer of class schema from SAP to Teamcenter.
- Transfer of class schema from Teamcenter to SAP.
- Transfer of inspection characteristics.
2024 candidate features:
- Advanced structure version for data federation.
- Basic integration of SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management with an external PLM system for R&D Projects.
- Many-to-many system cardinality.
- Support of basic ETO processes.
While I am taking the availability of these features at face value, it is not trivial to comprehend how they link together in a business process context and how to deal with interim scenarios until further enhancements are introduced. It is essential to consider the associated value stream and associated user story that they serve, as well as the relevant adoption and migration path(s) to enable them. This is a matter of both functional (process change) and transition (data transformation) to ensure successful deployment of concurrent new interfaces and product enhancement solution elements.
Understanding the existing organizational context is also important, as not all PLM or ERP digital implementations are equal—especially when it comes to mastering engineering and manufacturing data across the enterprise, as every organization is unique. For any out-of-the-box enterprise interface to be effective, it must bring its de facto “best practice” use cases, driving the rationale for allowed variations and possible customization. This will be the only way to move away from costly and lengthy third-party implementation and leveraging a ready-made aligned data model with clear master data scenarios.