Smart trio for central parts management

Engineers need about 18 hours a week to search, configure, or newly create parts, say CADENAS experts. This means that every year, countless hours are spent on work that does not add any value. Additionally, the new creation of parts generates high design and procurement costs. The solution? Find own parts, purchased parts, or standard parts within seconds and manage them within the SAP system – thanks to the integration of Strategic Parts Management PARTsolutions in SAP Engineering Control Center | SAP ECTR. On July 6, DSC Software AG and CADENAS GmbH demonstrated the advantages and saving potentials of this smart combination in a well-attended webcast.

The experts of DSC and CADENAS used a cool example to explain the interplay of PARTsolutions, SAP, and SAP ECTR: “Imagine PARTsolutions is a supermarket for engineers, and SAP or SAP ECTR is a compact fridge. In the supermarket, you can shop for goods; in the fridge, chosen goods are stored and can be accessed quickly. In our modern times, the supermarket and the fridge are of course connected. You can see at a glance which goods are on stock and which goods need to be replenished,” says Jürgen Heimbach of CADENAS. Apart from this vivid description, the numerous advantages of the solution were demonstrated hand-on on the system.

PARTsolutions and SAP ECTR complement the existing PLM process in SAP with the easy access to over 800 manufacturer-verified catalogs of standard and purchased parts – accessible either directly from SAP ECTR or from the different CAD systems. Several combinable search methods simplify finding CAD models along with large amounts of metadata. If parts only exist in PARTsolutions and not in SAP, they are stored there. Depending on the process, they can be linked to a material master either immediately or later.

New parts can be introduced in a controlled manner, which promotes standardization and reuse, and prevents unnecessary changes of the BOM. An integrated check for actuality automatically registers whether manufacturer parts have changed or are no longer available. This information is sent directly to the SAP system, the experts informed and continued to address the questions of the webcast attendees directly.

In the GUI of SAP ECTR, current business and technical data of the respective part is displayed centrally. Which parts are currently in stock? Can the part be replaced by a similar, cheaper part? The user always gets a full overview, as the experts of DSC and CADENAS demonstrated directly at the system. All employees can access the same multi-CAD engineering data, depending on their authorizations. Productive work time can be doubled this way. The reuse of standard parts also leads to a lower rate of errors as well as optimized processes.

„Through this integration, you can lower your parts quota and increase the standardization of your components,” explain the experts of DSC and CADENAS. The conclusion of the webcast: The trio of PARTsolutions, SAP, and SAP ECTR is definitely worth it.