One of the more common scenarios that we find with manufacturing customers is the need to connect Product Lifecycle Management systems (SAP PLM, Windchill, TeamCenter, Agile, Oracle PLM, etc.) to Manufacturing, ERP and Supply Chain systems so that Materials and related information (BOM, Approved Vendors, Manufacturers, Routings, etc.) can be enriched, validated, and created/updated in ERP solutions like SAP. The following picture shows typical scenario(s).
PLM System to SAP via ZFlow
PLM systems such as Agile, Windchill, TeamCenter are the source of Item/Part and related information (Drawings, 3D files, BOMs, Approved Vendors, Approved Manufacturers, etc.) . PLM systems support version, revision management and release management. Items/Parts and related information are typically released for downstream processes (for Purchasing, MRP…) in a controlled manner using Engineering Releases and Engineering Change Notices. Engineering Releases and Engineering Change Notices release a set of Items/Parts and related information. Below show examples of Engineering Release and Engineering Change Notices.
Engineering Release
Engineering Change Notice
The picture below shows how ZFlow workflows connect PLM releases and engineering change notices. ZFlow workflows incorporate data enrichment, validation and governance rules as well as seamless integration to SAP to create materials (basic and different views based on material types), extend materials, create/update BOM, new revisions, and more.
