SAP-certified enterprise integration gateway

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team May 17, 2005

Brooks Software and SAP AG today announced the availability of the Brooks Integration Gateway, now certified through the SAP "Powered by SAP NetWeaver" programme

Brooks Software, a division of Brooks Automation, and a leading provider of real-time enterprise applications for discrete manufacturing environments, and SAP AG today announced the availability of the Brooks Integration Gateway, now certified through the SAP "Powered by SAP NetWeaver" programme.

The Integration Gateway will enable interoperability of Brooks real-time manufacturing software with SAP business solutions.

This increased interoperability improves a manufacturer's responsiveness to changes in customer order demand and other unplanned events that occur throughout their global supply chain.

"Based on our years of experience in the manufacturing industry, SAP is a leader in providing plant-to-business and business-to-business interoperability," said Raymond Homan, vice president, High Tech, SAP AG.

"Due to the dynamics in supply chain structures, including both offshoring and outsourcing, high-tech manufacturers are demanding top floor integration with 'any' shop floor.

We view this partnership and the convergence of P2B and B2B as a key differentiator for the SAP distributed manufacturing solution".

"Even with all the investments in enterprise business applications, manufacturers are still struggling to match their resource allocation with customer order mix," said Joe Bellini, executive vice president and general manager of Brooks Software.

"As product lifecycles continue to get shorter and product mix increases, this problem becomes even more complex.

The relationship between SAP and Brooks and the applications we are developing will finally give manufacturers a way to address these fundamental issues".

Brooks SAP-Certified Integration Gateway, available now, is the architectural framework of Brooks Enterprise Interoperability Hub, which integrates Brooks real-time manufacturing applications with SAP business solutions.

The Integration Gateway provides a Web-service integration solution that is aligned with Enterprise Service Architecture, the SAP blueprint for service-oriented architecture, and enabled through the use of ISA-95 Standards.

For example, now customer orders can flow seamlessly from mySAP ERP into the FACTORYworks Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

FACTORYworks Enterprise Integration Gateway 3.3.1 was certified for deployment on SAP WebAS 6.40 and for its integration to the SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 via iView technology.

Brooks plans to release ISA-95-based process support for production performance, production schedule and production definition information later this year.

These Smart Adapters will enable real-time manufacturing visibility to allow manufacturers to fully realize the benefits of their ERP implementations.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sumitomo Mitsubishi Silicon Corporation (SUMCO) is the world's second largest silicon wafer manufacturer and is a joint customer of both SAP and Brooks Software.

SUMCO has an extensive global supply chain operating 12 manufacturing facilities located in Asia, Europe and the United States.

"As a leading global manufacturer, SUMCO must react quickly to changes in market conditions by increasing visibility of those events and driving them back into manufacturing," said Chuck Wallace, VP CIO.

"As a customer of both SAP and Brooks Software, SUMCO is pleased that these two market leaders are working together.

Their cooperation will facilitate the integration of our manufacturing applications and enterprise systems so that we can respond in real-time to changes in our supply chain." Manufacturers have long recognized that daily production plans have little visibility to real-time events occurring in the supply chain and real-time changes in customer demand.

As a result, the production schedule that drives the shop floor activity is obsolete shortly after it arrives.

This impacts the manufacturer's ability to deliver customer orders accurately and on-time.

The first step in addressing this problem is to provide an S95-enabled interoperable real-time link between the enterprise and the shop floor.

Brooks Software will be attending and sharing further information at SAPPHIRE '05, the SAP international customer conference, being held in Boston, Massachusetts, May 17 - 19, 2005.