3    Manufacturing

Most of the functionality enabled via SAP S/4HANA in the manufacturing space falls in the traditional SAP ERP Production Planning module. In some cases, the functionality is very similar to the SAP Business Suite but has been enabled via SAP Fiori apps. However, some new functionality has been added to enhance planning and production execution business processes.

Today’s manufacturing world faces numerous challenges, such as short lead times with end customers and ever-increasing complexity in customer requirements, rapid changes in manufacturing technologies, and growing numbers of regulations.

SAP S/4HANA offers many great tools to help the manufacturer adapt to the always-changing manufacturing landscape. SAP S/4HANA allows for more modern and advanced planning tools so organizations can better plan, manage, and monitor production. Performance improvements in traditional MRP programs allow for planning departments to see data in near real time and react accordingly. These performance improvements also allow planning departments to perform more what-if analysis.

In discussing manufacturing, this chapter highlights the business processes enabled by SAP S/4HANA’s manufacturing functionality. It begins with an overview of the manufacturing process and explains important master data simplifications (the material master and bill of materials [BOM]). The chapter then explores the manufacturing functionality (material requirements planning [MRP] and production), calling attention to places where substantial improvements have taken place and to relevant operational and analytical reports and SAP Fiori apps. The chapter ends with an explanation of the manufacturing reports on equipment effectiveness and real-time manufacturing the data.

3.1    Manufacturing Basics

Within SAP S/4HANA, the fundamental Production Planning functionality hasn’t changed. SAP S/4HANA offers enhanced functionality to make the processes more robust, and the addition of the SAP Fiori apps allows for an improved end-user experience. These SAP Fiori apps address the traditionally limited functionality in SAP ERP, such as capacity planning and MRP exception management.