Tips for a Successful SAP MII Implementation

Practical InSights

Antonio Vera

Systems Integration Manager

Henry Costa

Tips for a Successful SAP MII Implementation Part I – Prior to Kick Off

Global MII Practice Leader

Today’s manufacturing companies are pressured by customers, competitors, and vendors to produce more, with better quality, in less time and at a lower cost. Operational excellence, real time visibility and shop floor to top floor integration to have a single version of the truth have become decisive factors for successful companies. SAP MII (Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence) helps companies move towards these goals. MII environments for development and production are mandatory (quality environment is optional) on any project and in most cases the architecture is defined to have an additional production MII server per plant.

As with any SAP implementation, SAP MII projects should be planned carefully and executed using best practices in order to achieve the desired benefits and have a quick ROI. Here are some tips for companies to consider prior to kicking off an SAP MII implementation.

“Active participation of the production, quality, plant maintenance and other business owners (depending on the scope) is critical, especially during the discovery and blueprint phases where the functionalities are specified and during the user acceptance testing phase.” Have

your

infrastructure,

licenses,

and

Before beginning the project, Basis resources were

access to shop floor and corporate systems

needed to install servers and configure Netweaver.

ready prior to kick off

Basis resources may also be sporadically used throughout the project to support with other

Before bringing the MII implementation team, it is

Netweaver related tasks.

important to make sure that the infrastructure is

It is very important to have a strong functional

ready and licenses have been acquired. The SAP

consultant with enough knowledge of manufacturing

Basis team must have installed the MII server

processes who can help define the scope and the

and must have done some initial Netweaver

functionalities to be developed using MII. Also, an

configurations in order to have an MII environment

experienced MII architect that can make decisions

ready. MII environments for development and

on the solution is a must. Bad architectural

production are mandatory (quality environment

decisions in the beginning of the project can be the

is optional) on any project and in most cases

difference between a smooth successful project

the architecture is defined to have an additional

and a difficult and failed project.

production MII server per plant.

One of the most important pieces on any MII

If the scope of the project includes integration

project is to have the business owners engaged.

to automation equipment to extract data, it is

Active participation of the production, quality,

important that the automation equipment is up

plant maintenance and other business owners

and running and even better if there is simulation

(depending on the scope) is critical, especially

software (with usable data) that can be integrated

during the discovery and blueprint phases where

to the MII development environment. Make sure

the functionalities are specified and during the user

you have your PCo (Plant Connectivity) licensed

acceptance testing phase.

and installed close to the shop floor data source.

If the scope of the implementation includes integration to shop floor systems, participation of

Another important piece is to verify that the MII

an automation SME (who knows the local lower

server has network connectivity to SAP ECC and

level systems such as SCADAs, Historians, HMIs,

the shop floor systems (historian, SCADA, LIMS,

labeling systems, scales, printers, etc) will be

custom databases, etc.) it will integrate with.

required at different times during the project. Also, keep in mind that on demand support for SAP

Having the right combination of skills is essential for a successful MII implementation.

If SAP ECC manufacturing modules are not up

PP / PP-PI, QM, PM, or other modules may be

and running and will be implemented in parallel

required by the MII team in order to make decisions

with MII, it is important to have access to the

on how to develop a functionality or what is the best

blueprint on how ECC is going to be configured

way to do it based on local ECC configurations. In

as the MII development may have dependencies

some cases, where requirements are very specific,

on this. And the most important part is to make

some customization will be needed on the ECC

sure the business is committed to the project and

side and an ABAP developer will be required to

that there will be an active participation from both

create custom functions (RFC / BAPI).

the business and IT players.

Having the right combination of skills is essential for a successful MII implementation.

Having all of these points ready prior to beginning the MII project will make it a very smooth start. Understand

the

required

skills

when

assembling your team

References

Although this might seem an obvious factor for any

SAP AG. (2007, February 07). SAP xMII Best Practices Guide. Retrieved from SAP Community

project, in the case of SAP MII implementations

Network: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-1742

there is a huge variety of resources that may be required to achieve a successful project.

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