Fujitsu Limited and SAP Japan Co., Ltd. announced their agreement to collaborate in the solutions business, targeting manufacturing facilities, and setting their sights on expanding to global markets.
This collaboration will combine SAP's scalable supply chain solutions, which, building on existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for manufacturing, sales and procurement, can manage manufacturing performance, together with Fujitsu's systems integration services, which utilize its manufacturing expertise in a range of industries and operations. These integrated offerings will be made available by both companies in Japan.
The partners will offer two products from SAP's scalable supply chain solutions in the manufacturing domain:
SAP Manufacturing Execution is capable of managing entire processes in manufacturing facilities, analyzing them in real time, and issuing reports. In addition, the system manages manufacturing performance for each production operation on-site, as well as information on quality and traceability, enabling the user to build a foundation for ensuring market quality and improving facilities.
SAP Manufacturing Integration & Intelligence enables connection with, and data collection from, manufacturing execution systems (MES), systems that collect data from production lines, and a variety of on-site devices, such as PLCs(1), DCSs(2), SCADAs(3), and inspection equipment, as well as core systems such as ERP. At the same time, it supports optimal decision making through the analysis and visualization of a wide variety of data from manufacturing facilities.
The increasing complexity of operations in manufacturing facilities has fragmented systems across departments, creating difficulties in connecting data from various operations and sharing information in real time. By deploying these solutions, however, operations data that was divided between various departments can be linked across the entire length of the supply chain, from sales to procurement, production and manufacturing, enabling visualization and resolution of the various incidents which occur in manufacturing facilities.
The two companies, working toward Industrie 4.0, are considering offering these connected manufacturing solutions not only in Japan, but to Asia and other regions around the globe.
