One signal

Sensor maker ifm has chosen SAP Digital Manufacturing to replace a patchwork of site-specific factory applications. SAP says the standard platform can cover most of more than 100 functions ifm had built in-house, including production execution, scheduling and tracking.

The company says a pilot deployment succeeded and it is preparing to expand the system across its global production network. The reported benefit is less custom development and maintenance, with production orders and product availability visible in a shared digital environment. That’s a useful computing story about standardisation in manufacturing, though the account comes from SAP’s own customer-marketing article. The promised global rollout is the next test: factory software is only standard until it meets a factory.

Discuss: For a global manufacturer, is standardising on one platform worth giving up site-built tools tailored to local needs?

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