Looking to the Future
For a long time, the synonym for smart mobility was K.I.T.T.—driven by David Hasselhoff in “Knight Rider.” Today, it’s C.A.S.E.—and it’s being driven forward largely in Waldkraiburg, Upper Bavaria. For automotive supplier MD ELEKTRONIK, the keywords behind the C.A.S.E. megatrend are the driving force behind its operations: Connected, Autonomous, Shared & Service, and Electric. They describe the future market for data transmission in vehicles. Currently, MD ELEKTRONIK installs approximately 400,000 kilometers of cable for this purpose, employing more than 6,000 people across six plants on three continents—and promises on its website: “We enable the mobility of tomorrow.”
Visionary: MD ELEKTRONIK has its sights set on the future of data transmission in vehicles.
Of course, this requires today’s technologies. For a digital factory in the spirit of Industry 4.0, for example, the networking of systems and machines—or the collection and analysis of data in real time—is indispensable. SAP’s latest Manufacturing Execution System (MES) focuses precisely on these aspects of future manufacturing: the SAP DMC (Digital Manufacturing Cloud). It focuses on the execution, data analysis, control, and integration of manufacturing processes as the promising foundation of a digital factory. Its key feature: it is completely cloud-based.
For MD ELEKTRONIK, the new software is highly relevant, as the experts at io determined. They conducted an implementation study for MD ELEKTRONIK—as one of the very first SAP partners to do so. The case study kicked off in 2021. For one month, MD ELEKTRONIK was put through its paces, including monitoring of ongoing processes using SAP DMC under the project leadership of Veronika Schmid-Lutz (see also p. 9). How does that work? “First, of course, you focus on the client,” reveals Christian Kaufmann, who participated in the case study as a member of io’s executive board. “What are their current processes? What target processes are emerging, and what gaps exist? How do you close the gaps that arise? During the ‘Discover and Explore’ phase, we continue to analyze the market. Of course, we proceed within a certain framework.”
Nevertheless, every client must be considered on a case-by-case basis. Our work is always partly tailor-made. This time, it was pioneering work anyway—after all, it was our first DMC project. And not only that: it was, in general, one of the first DMC projects ever carried out.”
Everything from the Cloud
According to Kaufmann, SAP DMC allows for the management of the entire manufacturing process—without the need for a dedicated server. “Everything comes from the cloud.” In addition, the DMC software solution enables extremely agile operations. “Take resource planning, for example. If a machine breaks down or staff are absent due to illness, you can react extremely quickly and flexibly.”
“Even when capacities are fully utilized or there are overlaps, SAP DMC allows for fine-tuning at short notice,” adds Sinan Demirci, who also participated in the project as an SAP consultant at io. He highlights the fact that he and Kaufmann worked closely with SAP’s DMC development department during the case study as a particular highlight. In this way, the customer project contributes to the development of the program to some extent—which is quite common: “The product is new—and still growing. SAP brings us on board to close gaps that arise in specific cases—tailored to the customer’s needs—or to make targeted enhancements to the SAP standard.” For MD ELEKTRONIK, this also brings things full circle for its future high-end manufacturing operations: The company has given the go-ahead for SAP DMC. io is already in the starting blocks for the implementation.
