Integrated Product and Process Engineering (iPPE) provides a new form of creating and processing master data for design, construction and production.

The use of iPPE is particularly recommended for products with many variants that are configured-to-order and produced on takted production lines.

iPPE is basically made up of abstract elements, which are especially shaped in Customizing for specific business applications. The basic elements of iPPE are:

• Nodes
• Variants
• Alternatives
• Relationships

The applications of iPPE are:

• Product structure for reproducing BOM data
• Process structure for reproducing routing data
• Factory layout for reproducing data for production lines and resources

The iPPE elements are assigned to different applications in iPPE Customizing. This assignment defines which task an element has within iPPE. Each application is identified in Customizing by its application object type.

• The application object type ACT is for the process structure, or routing, in iPPE. The process structure describes and structures the activities needed to manufacture the product.
• The application object type CMP is for the product structure in iPPE. The product structure describes the structure of a product and the components from which it is made.
• The application object type FLO is for the factory layout in iPPE. The factory layout represents the structure of the resources and the production equipment.

The objects are also assigned to one of the levels in iPPE. The three levels are:

• Access level
• View level
• Structure level

This assignment allocates the object its function as the header of a structure, a view on a structure, or a part of a structure.

The relationships link the iPPE objects to form the structure.