Integrated Product and Process Engineering (iPPE) 

Purpose

This component enables you to collect all the data for an entire product life cycle in one integrated model. It is particularly suited to products with many variants. You can use iPPE to document data, and later re-use and update it, from early phases of the research and development process for a product. You can represent a complete production model because Integrated Product and Process Engineering allows you to keep the master data for BOMs, routings, and line design in one model. It is particularly suited to repetitive manufacturing.

You maintain the data in a functional structure, which you fill with more data at later stages in the product development, thus representing the whole product life cycle.

There is an interface for connecting time analysis products to the iPPE routing (process structure). You can determine processing times and transfer these times to Integrated Product and Process Engineering.

 

When using Integrated Product and Process Engineering, make sure you read SAP Note 945552, which controls the availability of the digital mockup (DMU).

Integration

You require the following mySAP.com components to use Integrated Product and Process Engineering:

●     Engineering Change Management (ECM)

●     Classification System

●     Variant Configuration

You must install the iPPE component and maintain the data in order to plan material requirements with the Rapid Planning Matrix (RPM). For more information about the components above, see Variant Configuration, Classification, and Engineering Change Management.

Features

●     The product variant structure and assemblies can be used to maintain BOM data for configurable and non-configurable materials.

●     You can use the process structure to maintain routing data.

●     Line design can be used to maintain the structure and setup of your production lines.

●     You can use Engineering Change Management to edit PVS variants and modes. When you use ECM, the system can make operational use of different change statuses. When you do not use ECM, there is exactly one valid status for each object in the system.

●     Material requirements planning with the RPM in the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) is based on the master data from iPPE.

●     The product variant structure and the iPPE routing can be maintained as functional structures when you begin to develop a product. It is not necessary to assign precise materials or activities, for example, at this stage. They can be added to the model at a later phase in product development.

●     You can use the network graphic display a model from Integrated Product and Process Engineering as a graphic.