Hello everyone,
Greetings!
In this blog, I am going to highlight the IAM functionality and its association with Industry 4.0. I hope you might have read my earlier blog on “Industry 4.0 in a Nutshell”.
If not, you may refer
https://blogs.sap.com/?p=1113838
IAM is a blend of Digital twin, Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Data Analytics.
Before we get into details, in short, I want to touch base on potential takeaways with IAM,
-
Helps to manage the entire life cycle of physical assets with the help of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) within SAP
-
IAM is a cloud-based solution that helps organizations achieve operational excellence by predicting potential operational problems before they occur
-
It enables cost control along the Asset life cycle (but
It is debatable)
At first, let us look at the components available under the IAM portfolio.
-
Asset Intelligence Network (Spelt as AIN)
-
Predictive Maintenance Service (Spelt as PdMS)
-
Asset Strategy and Performance Management (Spelt as ASPM)
The symbolic view of IAM (Intelligent Asset Management):
When we look at the above picture, we come across the term “Asset Central”, in my view I can say it is the heart of the IAM suite.
-
It enables the foundation between IAM and Plant Maintenance component in EAM/S4 HANA
-
It helps business partners to access and collaborate in the cloud-based network
Asset Central foundation integration with Plant Maintenance Component in EAM/S4 HANA:
A new Asset Central tab is introduced for objects such as Equipment, Functional Location, and Notification that are applicable for the SAP GUI transactions. In the Asset Central tab for equipment and functional location, we can view the following information:
-
Header Information
-
Announcements
-
Instructions
-
Indicators
SAP Notes enabling “Asset Central Tab” in EAM/S4 HANA
Post-installation, the additional function should be activated.
-
Activate Additional function AC_INT
By activating this, we get Asset Central Tab at Equipment/Functional Location/Notification level
-
Equipment/Functional Location
Note:
Post configuration of SAP EAM to get Asset Central Tab, one should configure SYCLO, which is an add-on to ERP to synchronize Equipment/Functional Location/Notification, etc., to IAM tenant.
Let us have a quick glance at focus points (a few) of Industry 4.0, as they clearly define the role and association had with IAM components viz., AIN (Asset Intelligent Network) and PdMS (Predictive Maintenance Services)
-
Interconnectivity:
Connecting Machines, Devices, Sensors and people (Operators/Manufacturers/Service Providers) to communicate with each other using the Internet of Things by collecting/Exchanging reliable data
-
Transparency:
By collecting/Exchanging data at various operating conditions of an Asset, it provides valuable insights to operators to make firm decisions at the right time to improve the efficiency of the physical asset and thereby improving production efficiency.
-
Predictive Maintenance:
By usage of IIOT sensors and the technology of interconnectivity, the healthiness of an Asset can be identified in life and allows machine operators to perform cost-effective maintenance rather than adopting the Run to Fail concept.