The SAP consulting company IBsolution and the smart factory specialist FORCAM will jointly support manufacturing companies in the digitalization of their production in the future. The contents of the partnership include ERP shopfloor integration, predictive maintenance scenarios, and sustainability solutions.
In order to strengthen their competitiveness, manufacturing companies are required to optimize their internal value chains. Seamless integration of digitally captured production processes and business management processes offers enormous potential for this. In the future, IBsolution and FORCAM will join forces and jointly support companies in automating their production and integrating production and planning, shopfloor (MES) and topfloor (ERP).
Bundled competencies for the integration of shopfloor and topfloor
“More efficient, flexible production and higher plant availability are crucial requirements for manufacturing companies to be successful in the future,” says Loren Heilig, Managing Director of IBsolution. “With FORCAM’s expertise in machine connectivity and MES software, as well as our extensive SAP expertise, we are able to tightly integrate manufacturing processes and business operations to drive operational excellence.”
Oliver Hoffmann, co-CEO of FORCAM, added: “Our partnership offers crucial added value for manufacturing companies. We bring together our core competence for production control with IBsolution’s capabilities in SAP integration. This combination creates completely new perspectives for our customers around SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud. The integration of real-time machine data into an existing IT landscape enables flexible, individualized production in the sense of Industry 4.0.”
Important step towards data-driven production
FORCAM as a specialist for machine data as well as MES software and IBsolution as a leading expert for SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) jointly enable the seamless integration of sensor data from the machine level into the SAP landscape. By using real-time data from the factory in the higher-level ERP software, companies take an important step towards data-driven manufacturing.
Avoid unplanned downtime, use planned downtime more effectively
Bidirectional data exchange between the shopfloor and the topfloor creates comprehensive transparency throughout the entire internal value chain. Companies have an overview of the performance of their plants at all times. With the data from the factory, desired reports and analyses are automatically triggered in the ERP system, and certain follow-up activities are initiated, such as technician assignments. Unplanned downtimes can thus be avoided.
In addition to shopfloor ERP integration, predictive maintenance is one of the focal points of the collaboration. Condition-based maintenance planning based on the digital twin increases the availability of manufacturing equipment because planned downtimes such as maintenance and changeovers can be effectively planned and used.
Sustainable manufacturing becomes possible
The digital twin is also central to data-driven production. The digital image of production makes it possible to virtually analyze waste and errors in manufacturing plants in real time and optimize them in real terms. The digital twin also opens the way to efficient and sustainable manufacturing. For example, timely and demand-oriented maintenance extends the service life of manufacturing plants. This strategy pays directly into the concept of the circular economy, one of the aims of which is to use existing materials, products and machines for as long as possible and to ensure that they retain their value.
Networked, data-driven manufacturing thus contributes to higher energy efficiency, better resource conservation and targeted waste avoidance. In the long term, shopfloor-to-topfloor networking and the synchronization of business processes will enable largely self-organized, digital manufacturing. With the combined portfolio of IBsolution and FORCAM, manufacturing companies create the conditions for lasting success by taking advantage of all the opportunities offered by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
IBsolution is a consulting company specialized in SAP with headquarters in Heilbronn and further locations in Germany, Bulgaria, France and Switzerland. The company offers a holistic consulting portfolio ranging from strategy to process and technology consulting. IBsolution considers itself an expert for transformation projects and technologies in the areas of ERP, Data & Analytics, Cyber Security, Customer Experience and Digitalization. Already since 2003 – independent and owner-managed. More than 200 dedicated employees at IBsolution create process innovations based on the latest technologies that simplify the work life of business users and IT. Customers receive business benefits wrapped in fixed-price packages, nearshore offers and products that ideally complement the SAP portfolio.
Press contact: Daniel Schumacher – daniel.schumacher@ibsolution.com
FORCAM GmbH is a pioneer of Industry 4.0: Since 2001, FORCAM has been helping industrial companies worldwide to sustainably increase their competitiveness. To this end, FORCAM offers modular solutions for data-driven manufacturing based on the FORCAM FORCE product family. The solutions enable transparency of all processes in production and planning through comprehensive connectivity, higher efficiency through the digital twin of production for hybrid edge/cloud infrastructures as well as free composition and collaboration of IT systems through open interfaces (Open API). FORCAM customers include Audi, Bizerba, BorgWarner, Daimler, Krones, Lockheed Martin, Reich GmbH, Schaeffler and Swarovski Optik. FORCAM is headquartered in Ravensburg (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), with offices in France, the USA and China.
Press contact: Matthias Kasper – matthias.kasper@forcam.com
