Process Manufacturing Cockpits (SAP Library - Process Management (PP-PI-PMA))

Process Manufacturing Cockpits

Use

Process manufacturing cockpits are screen templates that you can define in Customizing using process instruction characteristics.

You can use cockpits, for example, for the following:

You can use a cockpit as an input template to record measurement readings or malfunction reports and send this data to plant maintenance using process messages.
You can use a cockpit as a toolbox to make information and function calls that are needed over and over again available at a central position.
You can define different cockpits for different purposes, for example, one in which a specific Internet page is displayed. You can then include these cockpits in PI sheets.

Note The same cockpit may be used more than once at the same time.

You can:

Integrate cockpits in PI sheets and other cockpits
Use cockpits as separate input templates

Prerequisites

To be able to use the process manufacturing cockpit correctly, you must install Microsoft® Internet Explorer Version 5 or higher and make a few security settings in the Internet Explorer. For more information, see Setting Up the Browser for PI Sheets and Cockpits.

Features

Functions

You can do the following in process manufacturing cockpits:

Display information as a long text, such as instructions on how to carry out a particular process step
Use process messages to report current data to another R/3 application, such as malfunction reports to plant maintenance
Use dynamic function calls to:

Call up other R/3 applications from within the cockpit, make entries there, and afterwards return to the cockpit
Display documents from the document management system in the cockpit
Perform calculations (such as, calculate dates of time intervals)

Use user-defined function modules to start a dialog or retrieve data from internal or external applications

You use process instructions of type 0 to define these functions in Customizing. For more information, see Process Instructions for Process Manufacturing Cockpits.

The standard system contains a number of predefined process message categories and dynamic function calls. Most of them have been designed for use in the PI sheet. Values can be assigned automatically to many data of a process message or parameters of a function module in the PI sheet or even in the process order.

You can use the order-related standard message categories and function calls in the manufacturing cockpit, too. However, you must assign the values of the order-related data manually.

For more information about process message categories and dynamic function calls, see:

R/3 Integration Using Process Messages

Type 0: Definition of Dynamic Function Calls

Layout

You can define your own layout for process manufacturing cockpits. To do so, you must declare a layout in Customizing for cockpit definitions. For more information, see Layout Definition for PI Sheets and Cockpits.

If you do not specify a layout definition, the system uses the standard layout defined for manufacturing cockpits. For more information on the structure of process manufacturing cockpits in the SAP standard layout, see Process Manufacturing Cockpit.

Activities

Defining Cockpits

You define process manufacturing cockpits in Customizing for Process Management. For more information on the procedure, see Defining and Starting Process Manufacturing Cockpits.

Copying Cockpits Between Clients

To copy manufacturing cockpits from the logon client to any other client, you need to execute the RCOPOC_COCKPIT_CLIENT_COPY report program. The cockpit is then copied to the same plant in the target client to which it belongs in the source client.

Copying Cockpits Between Plants

To copy manufacturing cockpits between the different plants of a client, you must execute the RCOPOC_COCKPIT_PLANT_COPY report program.

SAP plans to make the above report program functions available as Customizing activities in the next functional release.