difference between SAP MII and MES

[Former Member]

Hi experts,

I am new to SAP MII. I would like to knw the advantages in SAP MII while comparing with Manufacturing execution System. It would be more usefull if someone clear my doubt.

Advance thanks

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can study link below for MII

[MII|http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/xMII/SAPxMIIfortheManufacturing+Industries]

MII has no redy infrastructure using as manufacturing execution system.

You must do some development in MII environment to get an MES application.

But Sap ME has redy to use infrastructure for manufacturing execution .

It needs only parameter regulations to adapt target shop floor.

MES generally has no integration system to integrate with sap or other systems.

It requires some integration plathform like MII/PI to integrate with another systems.

MII has dashboard development capability.But mes generaly has fixed dashboards.

Mes generally must use MII/PI to get data form machines or other systems.

MII is used for centralizing the integration for Mes or other systems and it can record the logs for every step of integration.

regards.

Edited by: cml_bzl on Feb 28, 2011 1:52 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey,

MES stands for manufacturing execution system and thats what it does is execute manufacturing funtions.

MII stands for manufacturing integration and intelligence so it integrats manufacturing systems into SAP R/3.

We moved to SAP and scrapped our old homegrown MES and used the web functionality in MII and built our own MES system inside MII. So MII can become a MES system if you have the need for such cutomizations.

Jasper

[Former Member]

This is a very common question we receive about MII and its relationship to MES. Some of the contributions in this thread properly position MES in terms of supporting shop floor execution processes. While we often think about packaged MES solutions that embody the shop floor business processes with industry specific schemas for local data management, there are countless companies that have their own homegrown MES solutions based on MS SQL or even Access out there.

SAP MII is a composite development framework which bridges plant operations to the enterprise. Its ability to connect to shop floor systems is unique, and the pre-built templates for ERP integration provide fast time to value for building applications that are sometimes delivered in an MES system (e.g. Order Visibility). MII provides both integration (data connectivity and transformation) and intelligence (user interface and manufacturing analytics) in a real time environment. We often position MII as a framework for delivering light MES functions - but it is not a full fledged MES application. MII often integrates to home grown or packaged MES, as well as other plant systems to synchronize operations with ERP.

At SAP, our MES solution is SAP ME - which has deep industry support for complex assembly operations in discrete manufacturing. This is a pre-built application containing a wide number of useful solutions for managing orders, work instructions, routings, rework, documentation and quality - in an enforced environment. It further provides detailed tracking and genealogy to assure quailty. SAP ME leverages built in MII transactions for integration to ERP as a product. All the Orders, BOMs, Routings, etc needed for SAP ME functionality are pre-packaged and fully integrated to the MES applications delivered with ME.

[Former Member]

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[Former Member]

Hi,

Even I am a beginner in SAP MII.But I would like to share from whatever knowledge I have gathered in SAP MII,the basic difference between SAP MII and MES is Manufacturing Execution Systems(MES) basically manages the manufacturing operations in industries,i.e,monitors the happenings of every shift in industries like material availability and consumption,capacity availability and utilization,schedule changes,product lifecycle management,quality management,measurement of KPIs(Key Performance Indicators),OEE(Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and a lot more functionalities related to manufacturing.

Whereas MII from its name itself basically does the job of integrating shop floor systems with the enterprise systems,i.e,its main purpose is to electronically link enterprise business processes & master data with plant manufacturing processes.It ensures Adaptive Manufacturing and manufacturing excellence.MES has no such feature of integration.Manufacturing integration enabled by Manufacturing Integration Platform(MIP) enables the connection between MES and the enterprise business processes(ERP).

[Former Member]

Please be carefull if you are thinking to build MES system from MII. Theoretically it is possible depends of the functionality of the MES you are talking about. However this is not MII's position of doing MES's works.

MES could be a very complicated systems such as SAPME or other products such as WorkStream, Siview etc where it specifically dealing with products movement in shop floors. I am working in a lot of projects involving MES, equipments and integration in Semiconductor industry, and I would said NO, there is NO WAY you can build an MES system from MII. So reconsider your thought.

For eg, SAPME does provided integration to SAP ERP via SAP MII technology. Search for further information on this, if you are thinking to have MES system.

[Former Member]

Hi Seng,

Thank you very much for your information.It was indeed very useful.

Thanks,

Shawna

[Former Member]

I agree with Seng, but there are times when you require the flexability of a development environment to build custom execution. Like us for example we build advanced custom telecommunication equipment and our test infrastructure is just as complex. There is no ME system out there that will handle our situation so we were forced to either build one outside of MII like our old one in ASP.net or use the web capabilities of MII and build it there.

If you can find a system that works for you I would recommend you use it because that saves months of development work and all you have to do is build the links in MII between your MES system and SAP.

[Former Member]

I would say MII is more oriented to integrate (and not substitute) MES systems with ERPs and to give business people a dinamic view of what's really happening @ shop floor lever through web portal (grids, charts, etc etc).

is there someone who has MII directly communicating with PLCs ???

regards

[Former Member]

Yes you can integrate MII with PLC but only through OPC client server architecture. Additional you must have Pco in between if you like the OPC server to trigger MII transaction. This can be done through Pco.

[Former Member]

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