Comprehensive configuration management at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems
As the technology and service leader of the European naval industry, thyssenkrupp Marine Systems is consistently driving forward its goal of the "digital shipyard".
Contents
|
Customer |
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH |
| Industry |
Naval shipbuilding and electronics |
| Products and services |
System provider for submarines and naval ships |
| Location |
Bremen, Emden, Flintbek, Hamburg, Kiel, Wedel, Wismar |
| Size |
6000 employees |
|
Website |
thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH is the leading European system provider for submarines and naval ships. As the technology and service leader of the European naval industry, thyssenkrupp Marine Systems is consistently driving forward its goal of the “digital shipyard”. In order to master the complexity of product development in technologically demanding, long-running projects, the company is pursuing comprehensive configuration management.
The project in brief:
| Challenge:
|
Introducing configuration management with the interaction of various systems |
|
Task and objective: |
Introduction of configuration management using SAP PPG |
| BDF products deployed and SAP modules used: |
SAP iPPE, SAP PPG |
|
Customer benefit: |
Complete configuration structure for the product in the SAP system |
Configuration management across the entire product lifecycle
By definition, “configuration management is a management process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product’s performance, as well as its functional and physical attributes, throughout the entire product lifecycle” (freely translated after ANSI/EIA-649-A).
The objectives of configuration management are:
- To guarantee the integrity of the product
- To reproduce earlier configurations at any time
- To make the content and differences of various configurations viewable at any time
- Traceable and trackable changes
- Adherence to planned costs and the planned scope
To meet these objectives, the information distributed across the system landscape (SAP ECC, authoring systems, requirements systems) is to be unified in a configuration structure within the SAP system via middleware.
SAP Product and Process Governance by BDF, the core of the configuration structure
To map configuration management, SAP Product and Process Governance by BDF (SAP PPG) and its configuration structures are used. The PPG node with its PPG variants forms the nucleus of the configuration structure and offers the ability to bring together various SAP objects, information and processes within it.
Active planning of processes or objects
| Planning of objects | Planning of processes |
|
|
Depending on the customising, the PPG node can be used for various tasks within a structure by assigning to it different tabs (views), links and functions.
In the context of configuration management, the PPG node is also used as a configuration unit („KE“). Here, the PPG node forms a configuration unit together with a material master assigned via a PPG variant (1-n) as well as assigned document info records and metadata. Depending on the general and item-related status, this configuration unit can be used in a structure or also restored. Alongside the project-neutral configuration unit, a project-specific configuration unit („KE usage“) is also used in the configuration structure to map project-specific information; for example, the KE usage assigns only the one material master actually used at this point.
The configuration unit and the configuration unit „CU usage“ are largely defined by the engineering. To map the further detailing of the individual materials created by the service, the Last Replaceable Unit (the final component that can be replaced individually) is used. This can further detail the configuration unit (project-neutral) or the configuration unit usage (project-related) to any depth. The configuration structure for a product is built up from these building blocks as well as further structuring levels. The structure and materials used come directly into the configuration structure via an integration to a middleware from the authoring and requirements system.
Alternatively, the entire structure or parts of it (for example a structuring branch or the Last Replaceable Units) can be loaded directly into the system via a load file, creating new structures or changing existing structures. Especially for the migration of existing products, this is a suitable way of bringing them up to the current process status.
Different information is held at different levels within the structure and objects are linked, creating an overall picture of the configuration that goes beyond the design view. The direct integration with logistics (purchasing and production), as well as with internal quality management and the as-built status (mapping of functional locations and equipment), completes this picture.
Based on this structure, baselines (which describe, among other things, a series of released documents with specific revision levels that fully define a configuration at a particular point in time) can be planned to map the individual milestones within the product lifecycle, with their scope defined, recipients defined and automatic generation.
All information on the product configuration in one central place
The configuration structure gives the configuration manager an adequate view of the status of the product. Through integration with the authoring and requirements systems, the current data from the system landscape is always available in one place. This achieved a reduction in the effort needed to gather information. In addition to mapping the target configuration, the structure can also be used to plan and track the planning status over time using progress tracking (for example, an “As Sold” comparison with the current target structure status). The structure information can also be used as a product structure for integration into logistics processing. By bringing the data together, extensive baselines of the product can also be created and used for internal development progress and for communication with external partners. From a change management perspective, dependencies in changes can be easily identified and their effects determined. Changes can then also be forwarded to the respective objects and their feedback processed. Finally, by applying the functional location and equipment structure linked to the configuration structure, the manufactured product is also represented in its serialised build state.
About thyssenkrupp
thyssenkrupp AG is an internationally positioned, diversified industrial and technology group headquartered in Essen and Duisburg. The company is deeply rooted in the heavy industry of the Rhineland and Westphalia and emerged in 1999 from the merger of Fried. Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp with Thyssen AG
About BDF EXPERTS
BDF EXPERTS is the brand of bdf consultants GmbH, a leading SAP Silver / SolEx partner with comprehensive end-to-end expertise in Digital Supply Chain and Corporate Finance & Treasury (CFT).
For more than 25 years, BDF EXPERTS has been helping companies, on the basis of SAP ERP and S/4HANA, to achieve measurable value creation through fully digitalised processes. In Digital Supply Chain, BDF EXPERTS has developed particular expertise in holistic data management.
With SAP PPG (Product and Process Governance), BDF EXPERTS offers an innovative solution for centrally managing all product and process data in SAP, thereby laying the foundation for data-driven business models.
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