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The discussion is all about SAP MEINT integration to SAP ECC as a basis for integrating non -SAP ME system.
Before dig into more details first let's understand in what point SAP MEINT is different or slight away from SAP MII development environment. Below diagram is showing the position of SAP MEINT and it lies in between SAP MII and SAP ME, however closer look shows an overlap presence among three.
SAP MII provides a flexible composition platform for developing manufacturing composite applications which can address the two biggest challenges of manufacturing integration domains -one is real-time and flexible integration with plant and enterprise business systems and second one is real-time visibility and analytics on plant data present in multiple disparate sources.
SAP ME is different box altogether comparison to MII where various functionalities are defined for real-time data capture and visibility across manufacturing line and plant to track and manage work-in-progress. It optimizes plant performance, profitability, improve quality and capture the defective products etc.
On the other hand SAP MEINT is a collection of interfaces provided by SAP for SAP ME system integration with ECC etc. MEINT is kind of framework where things are already defined only configuration is required and for this it uses the MEINT database which gets populated during SAP ME configuration. These interfaces are predefined MII component base interface used for handing mainly field mapping, data transformation, visualization and delivery. This MEINT is predefined, configured and uses internal MEINT database tables. There are several MEINT interfaces for handling Floor Stock, Electronic Time Card and Sampling scope items etc also SAP is enhancing and releasing new in every next release.
SAP ERP is having all the master data info where as SAP ME handle the records for all manufacturing line. From ECC to ME connectivity point of view MEINT uses the same message listeners as the MII uses and it happen through IDoC transfer. However in reverse to post data to ECC it will call BAPI from MEINT with the input data from two database namely WIP and ODS. WIP keeps the configuration data, transactional data and production data, where as ODS handle the audit log info, historical operational data and various archived data. KPI dashboard for SAP ME also uses the MEINT interface for several reports which in turn use the SAP ME database for populating the report
So the question is when to use MII and MEINT? - MEINT can be used if SAP ME is used as plant system, where as MII can to be used wherever there is customized processed and database or different MESA (third party or home grown MES) system which needs a complete development and mapping in between. SAPME and MEINT have the readymade KPI interface which can be used for generation of the report, where as fewer components are available and it requires extend development in MII.
Now back to our original topic – if MEINT is used for non-SAP ME system then modifications, development and changes are required to accommodate newer process in existing template. As well as MEINT interface required mandatorily SAP ME database access which is inbuilt here, but in case of non-SAP ME system it is not going to use the same database as SAP ME uses. On top of these two major differences MEINT is certain process driven where as non SAP ME system can consist of complete different process and data set. So, finding option of using MEINT for non-SAP ME system required a lot of changes in the main MEINT process where as these all can be achieved easily using SAP MII custom development.
Also if SAP ME and non-SAP ME are required to present in same environment then it is always recommended not to change much (mapping may require to add/change) in this MEINT template otherwise it may unnecessarily increase the complexity of the process which has no value addition.
Nutshell MEINT is always good with SAP ME system integration and not advisable to use for non-SAP ME system integration.
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