The need for SAP Business Network arises from the growing complexity and interdependence of global supply chains and increasing importance of physical assets in today's business operations.
In addition, the growing need for organizations to optimize the use and performance of those assets also necessitates SAP Business Network. By using this solution, companies can streamline their supply chain operations, improve supplier performance and collaboration, and enhance customer experience. Organizations can also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their asset management, reduce downtime and maintenance costs, and increase the overall value of their assets.
SAP Business Network is a cloud-based SaaS platform solution that enables you to collaborate with all stakeholders, such as, suppliers, asset operators, asset manufacturers, logistic providers, in a single business network. SAP Business Network provides you with the power of transparency, improved efficiency, and reduced risks and costs. In the figure below you can see SAP Business Network shares a common platform for different lines of business. These IoT applications are seamlessly integrated with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).
SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration enables effective asset management through better collaboration between operators, manufacturers, and service providers within a single network to achieve asset transparency and asset productivity with seamless information sharing and feedback on performance across and assets lifecycle.
Note: With the 2211 release SAP changed the product name from SAP Asset Intelligence Network to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration.
In the next figure you can see how SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration enables collaboration between various stakeholders and shares best practices for asset management. All stakeholders have access to a single repository for all information about your assets and share common definitions.
The manufacturer creates a model and the operator creates equipment with reference to the model. The manufacturer publishes content, such as instruction manuals, drawing, documents, and more, and shares the data connected or synchronized with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA.
The following object data is created and shared between various stakeholders:
- Templates
- Models
- Equipment
- Functional locations
- Systems
- Spare parts
- Failure codes
- Locations
- Instructions
- Announcements
- Documents
- Improvement requests
- Groups
- Notifications
- Work orders
Various industry standards have been used for decades to maintain asset data integrity and asset maintenance behavior for asset management. You can maintain the industry standards via class and subclass with associated attributes. Currently, SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration supports the following relevant industry standards:
- ISO 14224:2006: Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries collect and exchange reliability and maintenance data for equipment.
- EN 15380: Railway applications. This is the classification system for railway vehicles.
- ISO 15926-1:2004: This is for industrial automation systems and integration.
Additional industry sectors can be added or updated in future releases.
SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration integrates with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA and thus provides all real-time information from the backend.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the e-book Introducing Asset Intelligence and Collaboration with SAP Business Network by Rajesh Ojha.
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