SAP Asset Intelligence Network meets SAP Engineering Control Center – The Digital Twin in the asset lifecycle
Webcast by SAP and DSC Software AG shows how to use SAP Engineering Control Center and SAP Asset Intelligence Network for greater efficiency in asset documentation and service / maintenan
Karlsruhe, December 2021 – SAP Asset Intelligence Network brings together manufacturers, asset operators, and service providers through a cloud-based platform and the Digital Twin of the devices – for providing and sharing equipment data in a standardized manner over the whole equipment lifecycle. With hands-on scenarios, SAP and DSC showed the perfect integration of SAP Asset Intelligence Network and SAP Engineering Control Center in their joint webcast on service and maintenance in times of digitalization. The overall focus was on the efficient and successful collaboration between asset construction and operation through the cloud-based platform SAP Asset Intelligence Network.
High asset availability
High asset availability, productivity, and manufacturing quality are important for asset operation, as well as low operating costs throughout the whole asset lifecycle. When an asset fails partly or completely due to malfunctions, it is crucial that the maintenance staff can immediately access up-to-date asset documentation for reducing the failure times and downtimes. Asset manufacturers are facing similar challenges regarding their facilities. Furthermore, asset manufacturers are interested in accessing their own products on the operator side to offer services for usage optimization, spare parts procurement, and on-site assignments.
Based on a fictional scenario, the webcast on service and maintenance in times of digitalization illustrated how enterprises can collaborate via SAP Asset Intelligence Network in the fields of asset maintenance and services. In the example, both the asset manufacturer and asset operator were using SAP Engineering Control Center for creating and maintaining their product and asset documentation.
Digital twin
While the manufacturer was using SAP Engineering Control Center for product engineering – in the webcast scenario for designing an injection molding tool with CAD and creating a bill of material, drawings, and 3D neutral formats, the operator’s focus was on managing the asset-related documentation. The cloud-based SAP Asset Intelligence Network allows exchanging all of the relevant product information, such as equipment data and documents, so that an up-to-date asset documentation and up-to-date information on the asset condition are continuously available to both parties.
In this use case, the manufacturer benefits from a Digital Twin, which also reflects the condition of its physical counterpart. This is the perfect basis, for example, to engineer optimized tools or provide specific asset or maintenance services. The operator, in turn, benefits from optimized tools that are individually tailored to their needs – for greater efficiency in the manufacturing process – and from maintenance services that help reduce the failure times and downtimes.
The virtual monitoring
Furthermore, the presentation demonstrated that virtual monitoring allows operators to quickly detect failures, e.g.in case of overheating due to a defective seal ring. Sensors are used to automatically check if the tools or assets are within the target values. In case of anomalies, SAP Asset Intelligence Network allows creating a malfunction report, e.g. via mobile phone. The manufacturer also uses SAP Asset Intelligence Network to provide the 3D-animated instructions for spare part installation, in our example the seal ring.
This allows the service staff on site to quickly and securely repair the asset. The operator, in turn, can update the asset’s Digital Twin by creating an equipment for the new seal ring in SAP Engineering Control Center. Both the asset and its Digital Twin are now up to date again. SAP Engineering Control Center ideally supports the necessary processes for creating and maintaining the asset documentation.
Feedback of the webcast participants
Conclusion of the webcast: SAP Asset Intelligence Network and SAP Engineering Control Center together are the perfect basis for the collaboration between manufacturers and operators in times of digitalization!
The participants also found that the topic SAP Asset Intelligence Network was very clearly presented thanks to the hands-on examples and demos. Their comments ranged from “The practical part was perfectly prepared and easily comprehensible” to “golden thread from start to finish, good examples, presentation easy to follow”.
“The benefits of SAP Intelligence Network and asset documentation with SAP Engineering Control Center are obvious for manufacturers and asset operators,” Dr. Arne Gaiser, Senior Vice President Business Development at DSC Software AG, said.
“High-quality and consistent asset master data can be digitally transferred between both parties. The direct integration into the SAP ERP backend additionally allows operators to plan and implement maintenance activities more quickly. The combination of SAP Engineering Center and SAP Asset Intelligence Network allows both parties to create and maintain the asset documentation efficiently and safely. Furthermore, SAP Asset Intellgence Network allows operators to receive additional content and services from the manufacturers. The manufacturers, in turn, can provide operators with optimal product data. Through the Digital Twin, the assets’ condition data and their changes flow back from the operators to the manufacturers. This way, spare parts or new digital services can be offered to the operators – at an early stage and in a predictive manner.”
