The future belongs to networked business models, which rely on high-quality master data. Companies that fail to take appropriate action will quickly run into problems in the digital transformation era, making automation more difficult or even impossible. RAMPF Production Systems GmbH & Co.KG was quick to recognise this challenge and, as part of its process excellence strategy, took a closer look at document management, data traceability, change numbers and bill of material (BOM) handling/information. Transferring BOMs from the ECAD system and the associated handling were shown to be especially time-consuming and errorprone.

LINKING ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Developed by Cideon and marketed via SAP, the ECTR interface between SAP and Eplan offered an efficient solution. As always, Cideon provided customer-specific consulting and implementation services to maximise the benefit. Electrical engineering data was linked to SAP ECTR at RAMPF to facilitate project and BOM management. The interface’s functionality was also enhanced to meet the requirements relating to BOM extraction and material creation. The SAP ECTR interface to Eplan Electric P8 ensures redundancy-free ECAD and PLM/ERP integration into SAP. This technological approach made it easy for RAMPF to link the relevant design engineering and development disciplines. What’s more, the company now has a user interface that is easy to use and a technical bridge between the worlds of engineering and business. Implementation of the interface’s basic functions in the RAMPF system was followed by a briefing for key users and a test phase that Cideon supported live on site to start with and later remotely. In the subsequent optimisation phase, the final step was to define and implement the requirements that had arisen during the project phase.

• Added value

  ■ Datafication and automation thanks to setting new, technology-neutral standards for process excellence

  ■ Elimination of error sources by storing data just once for the entire company and using automated data management processes

  ■ Additional interface functions for BOM extraction and material creation

  ■ Audit-compliant working thanks to automated attachment of revisions 

  ■ Use of incorrect drawings prevented

  ■ Speedy BOM extraction, reduction in personnel requirements, and streamlined processes

  ■ Quick to learn thanks to intuitive operation

  ■ Support and training from Cideon

   

SPEEDY BOM EXTRACTION

The technological change has established a new, streamlined process that requires fewer  personnel  resources,  has  been  shown to save time when extracting BOMs and noticeably reduces the number of errors – a significant benefit in times of scarce  resources  and  acute  material  shortages.  Thanks  to  process  control functionality, components that are needed urgently can now be ordered in advance.

All this boosts both cost-efficiency and operational excellence. RAMPF design engineers are working with the ECTR via a user-friendly interface that displays data in a similar way to Win^®Explorer. In Eplan itself, SAP functions are incorpo-rated directly via an Eplan menu, and it is rarely necessary to switch to the SAP user interface. At RAMPF, the process of transferring projects, article information and BOMs to SAP and managing them there is now automated and reliable. Björn Niebann, Consultant with Eplan, comments: “The connection of Eplan to SAP via ECTR very quickly achieves end-to-end data consistency and thus reduces possible media discontinuities”.