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With this Blog I introduced the new capability Configuration Management in SAP Enterprise Product Development (SAP EPD) last year as an additional functionality for all SAP ERP and S/4HANA customers.
This time I would like to highlight a few new features and improvements that our never resting colleagues developed in the last three months.
Already in the 2302 release the possibility for 3D viewing of individual components of a baseline got introduced. While this was already an important step with regards to improved user experience, now in addition the possibility to display the entire baseline in the 3D viewer was added.
As a pre-requisite of course the CAD files need to be available in the connected backends. The files get created there via the CAD direct integration provided by the SAP Engineering Control Center (ECTR). And this is already everything you need, no additional conversion on premise is required – the complete handling of the visualization is happening automatically in the background now by the SAP EPD Visualization Service.
Please pay attention that you must set some settings to tell SAP EPD which types of documents and which file-types should be taking into consideration. This is being explained in the online help.
Online-Help
SAP Enterprise Product Development is mostly about developing products. And for this activity it is often helpful to identify the products just on the first look. To achieve this, thumbnails are typically used. Therefore, this release is also introducing thumbnails to the baseline structure. The thumbnails are also automatically being generated by the SAP EPD Visualization Service, similar to the previously mentioned assembly viewing.
The 2302 release introduced the history feature on baseline level. With this it was then possible to see, who has done what, which parameters were used to upload the BOM, who changed a status and so on.
The history feature is now also available on configuration plan level. This provides the same insight into the events that happened to the configuration plan – like a status change or the creation of a lifecycle phase.
Online-Help
A main goal for a baseline is to have an agreed and approved structure that can be used for communication across various departments. Since the first day of Configuration Management it has been possible to take the URL for a baseline and forward it via mail. But with this release we introduced a much more powerful way of communication – the integration to the SAP EPD Collaboration functionality.
From a baseline it takes now only one click of a button to link it to a collaboration using a so-called reference object. This makes the baseline available for the many functionalities that the collaboration can provide. Most important ones are the possibilities to assign workflows and to start tasks – which adds automation. The release process for the baseline or sending an already released baseline over to other teams for information now becomes easy and can be directly tracked.
Online-Help
With every release we are now adding important functionalities, simplifications and innovations to the Configuration Management. So please stay tuned to see more and more areas covered in the next releases.
Additional information:
This time I would like to highlight a few new features and improvements that our never resting colleagues developed in the last three months.
- Assembly Viewing
- Thumbnails
- History on Configuration Plan level
- Integration with Collaboration
Assembly Viewing
Already in the 2302 release the possibility for 3D viewing of individual components of a baseline got introduced. While this was already an important step with regards to improved user experience, now in addition the possibility to display the entire baseline in the 3D viewer was added.
As a pre-requisite of course the CAD files need to be available in the connected backends. The files get created there via the CAD direct integration provided by the SAP Engineering Control Center (ECTR). And this is already everything you need, no additional conversion on premise is required – the complete handling of the visualization is happening automatically in the background now by the SAP EPD Visualization Service.
Please pay attention that you must set some settings to tell SAP EPD which types of documents and which file-types should be taking into consideration. This is being explained in the online help.
Online-Help
Thumbnails
SAP Enterprise Product Development is mostly about developing products. And for this activity it is often helpful to identify the products just on the first look. To achieve this, thumbnails are typically used. Therefore, this release is also introducing thumbnails to the baseline structure. The thumbnails are also automatically being generated by the SAP EPD Visualization Service, similar to the previously mentioned assembly viewing.
History on the configuration plan level
The 2302 release introduced the history feature on baseline level. With this it was then possible to see, who has done what, which parameters were used to upload the BOM, who changed a status and so on.
The history feature is now also available on configuration plan level. This provides the same insight into the events that happened to the configuration plan – like a status change or the creation of a lifecycle phase.
Online-Help
Integration with SAP EPD Collaboration
A main goal for a baseline is to have an agreed and approved structure that can be used for communication across various departments. Since the first day of Configuration Management it has been possible to take the URL for a baseline and forward it via mail. But with this release we introduced a much more powerful way of communication – the integration to the SAP EPD Collaboration functionality.
From a baseline it takes now only one click of a button to link it to a collaboration using a so-called reference object. This makes the baseline available for the many functionalities that the collaboration can provide. Most important ones are the possibilities to assign workflows and to start tasks – which adds automation. The release process for the baseline or sending an already released baseline over to other teams for information now becomes easy and can be directly tracked.
Online-Help
Summary
With every release we are now adding important functionalities, simplifications and innovations to the Configuration Management. So please stay tuned to see more and more areas covered in the next releases.
Additional information:
