Gourmet cuisine is all about the perfect fusion. Ingredients blend to create the ultimate flavor that transcends the mere sum of the individual ingredients. People, kitchen tools and processes form seamless interplay to achieve the optimum result: a delicious meal for the customer.
Now you are probably wondering why I am telling you this.
I think Product Lifecycle Management is somewhat like gourmet cuisine. It’s all about the perfect fusion: not just by integrating product data from different sources into your PLM system, but also connecting the PLM system itself with related business processes that are mapped in ERP.
For many companies, it has already become a matter of course to manage their product data centrally in SAP PLM. They benefit from intelligent processes in engineering and the direct integration of their authoring systems with the help of SAP Engineering Control Center.
The new release SAP ECTR 1.2 for SAP S/4HANA enables companies to go one step further and pursue a comprehensive digitalization approach.
SAP PLM and SAP S/4HANA continue to grow together. The existing strengths in the engineering environment have been further expanded in a targeted manner. In addition, a variety of new ERP-near PLM capabilities pave the way for true end-to-end processes.
In short, the new release of SAP ECTR will help PLM and ERP to amplify each others‘ strengths in order to enable streamlined processes.
So, in which way does SAP ECTR spark the fusion of SAP PLM and SAP ERP?
For example, by providing ERP-near PLM capabilities like the creation of material BOMs or end-to-end change processes in an integrated and flexible manner.
In his blog, my colleague Dominik Maier talks about his top 4 highlights of SAP Engineering Control Center 1.2 for S/4HANA in detail.
Here’s the short version of the top 4 capabilities:
- The change record in SAP ECTR
The change record, which is so important for change processes can now be created directly in SAP ECTR. This significantly simplifies the handling of changes. - The creation and maintenance of PLM master data
Also, the maintenance of PLM objects can now be done directly in SAP ECTR which makes life for users much easier. No need to navigate to the SAP GUI or SAP Fiori apps to create or maintain objects or to just get essential information. - New ways to copy classifications
This saves valuable working time: Now, users can easily transfer the classification of a source object to several target objects and copy the characteristic value assignment.
- The possibility to edit Bill-of-Material (BOM)
With SAP Engineering Control Center 1.2 for S/4HANA, we now also enable editing of the BOM directly in SAP ECTR.
But there are also other powerful features that allow engineering to grow closer with other business units. For example, a plant view indicator:
For material masters, users can now see whether a so-called plant view exists and if so, for which plant. The plant view is a prerequisite for the MBOM and simplifies the creation of the BOM directly in SAP ECTR.
In the fast-paced world of the kitchen, time is of the essence. In business operations, quick access to relevant data is equally important. This is where the role of SAP ECTR becomes vital. The solution acts as a catalyst, making data that simmers in the ERP system visible and readily available for the users, facilitating efficient decision-making and enabling end-to-end processes to flow seamlessly.
Interested in learning more about SAP Engineering Control Center?
Join our webcast on September 26th that features the highlights of the latest SAP ECTR release. You will have the opportunity to ask questions to our SAP ECTR experts during an interactive Q&A session.
Register here for the webcast in English and here for the webcast in German language.
Recordings will be available under the same links.
About the author
Nadine Hülsen is responsible for Marketing Content Strategy at DSC Software AG, an SAP Platinum Partner for SAP Product Lifecycle Management.
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