ME vs MII

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.

SAP Manufacturing Execution (SAP ME )

SAP Manufacturing Execution (SAP ME) is a powerful, enterprise-level, scalable,
manufacturing business solution that enables global manufacturers to manage and
control manufacturing and shop floor operations. It provides a multi-faceted set of
features that integrates business systems to the shop floor, allowing for complete
component and material-level visibility for single and global installations.
SAP ME ensures that product is designed and built right the first time, collecting data
from multiple sources and integrating data systems with shop floor activities to create
one comprehensive production record.
The result is an aggregate record of the entire product history, stored and available for
effective key decision-making and for meeting compliance requirements.
Manufacturers who implement SAP ME as part of their integrated manufacturing
operations can do the following:

- Provide users with real-time visibility across entire Enterprise

- Access to real-time manufacturing data to make quick and informed decisions
- Accurately track and manage WIP to ensure right products are being made at
right time
- Optimize plant performance and profitability
- Improve quality and reduce variation through corrective action processes that
prevent escape of defective product

https://help.sap.com/doc/saphelp_me151/15.1.3VERSIONFORSAPME/en-
US/04/510820335f4e129df327de58689a22/frameset.htm
In production planning, its high capacity for integration creates clearly more
transparency at an automation and ERP level, by providing important key performance
indicators. This includes overall equipment efficiency (OEE), first-time capability (FTC),
quality and reject rates, number of units, half-finished goods (WIP), processing time and
adherence to deadlines.
SAP ME supports you by raising the efficiency of manufacturing with:

- Lower WIP stocks

- Higher machine efficiency and personnel flexibility
- Targeted testing control and quicker detection of error causes
- Optimization of handling costs and processing times

-
https://www.salt-solutions.de/industry/sap-modules/sap-me.html
Because improving product quality while driving down costs is your ultimate goal. With
SAP Manufacturing Execution you can:

- Leverage seamless, out-of-the-box SAP ERP integration

- Control the production of every single unit to boost product quality
- Ensure regulatory compliance with unit-level traceability, genealogy, and
reporting
- Run flexible production process modeling – no programming required
- Improve nonconformance management, from in-line sampling to visual testing
and repair
- Give operators role-specific MES access, personalized dashboards, and intuitive
mobile and browser-based UIs
- High flexibility and extensibility and pure SOA based architecture

Functional Capabilities
Product quality and production
Gain real-time visibility into your manufacturing processes to quickly pinpoint and
resolve quality issues. Reduce warranty and liability risks with better production
monitoring and control.
Throughput
Increase throughput by rapidly identifying and resolving problem areas – such as
nonconforming processes, logistical issues, or material shortages.
Compliance
Meet complex regulatory requirements with best-in-class product traceability and
reporting, genealogy management, and automated data collection.
Flexibility
Get the flexibility you need to fill custom orders and meet specific customer
requirements. Adapt and shift production to meet varied and changeable demand.
Paperless manufacturing
Replace paper-based manufacturing processes with electronic systems that connect the
top floor to the shop floor. Automate data capture to eliminate errors, gain real-time
visibility into operations, and ensure consistent product quality.
Asset utilization
Increase your return on assets and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Facilitate predictive maintenance, minimize downtime, and keep manufacturing
operations running smoothly.
Technical Capabilities

- Order-based manufacturing execution

- WIP tracking and genealogy (order, lot, and serial #)
- Manufacturing process control
- Automated data collection
- Labor tracking and management
- Defect tracking and resolution
- Mobile apps for wireless bar code scanners
- As-built record optimization for produced products
- NEW: Support for HANA DB
- NEW: Operation Sub-Step activities
- NEW: Multiple Browser support

https://www.sap.com/products/execution-mes.product-capabilities.html

SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP

MII)
SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) enables you to integrate your
plant and enterprise systems and display integrated data to your employees. You can
use SAP MII to view, measure, and compare the performance of plants and assets with
different automation system infrastructures. SAP MII reduces the cost of synchronizing
plant and enterprise business processes by using the following:

- Plant system connectors

- Business logic services
- Integration scenarios
SAP MII (SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence) is an SAP application for
synchronizing manufacturing operations with back-office business processes and
standardize data. It functions as a data hub between SAP ERP and operational
applications, such as a manufacturing execution system (MES), and provides analytics
and workflow tools for identifying problems in the production process and improving its
performance.
The intelligence side is intended to provide real-time analytics of manufacturing
operations, using visualization tools and dashboards to show key performance
indicators (KPIs) and alerts. Operations managers, business executives, plant employees
and suppliers can use these features to make short-term production decisions. SAP MII
can also help manage continuous improvement programs, such as Lean Six Sigma.
https://help.sap.com/saphelp_mii151sp03/helpdata/en/57/533f692a9d4efbb9783e90
08535f44/frameset.htm

Because to succeed in the digital age, you need to build smart products with smart
machines. SAP MII delivers computer-integrated manufacturing, IIoT and machine-to-
machine (M2M) capabilities, real-time manufacturing intelligence, and more.

- Boost employee productivity by delivering actionable information to the shop

floor
- Use the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and M2M technology to create
business value
- Gain enterprise-wide insights from real-time event processing and Big Data
manufacturing analytics
- Define manufacturing metrics and KPIs – and deploy the same standardized
calculations across all sites
- Optimize energy utilization and gain insights into poorly performing assets
- Sync the shop floor with SAP ERP and SAP MES processes – out-of-the-box

Functional Capabilities

Plant information catalog

Arrange shop floor assets in a hierarchical structure. Maintain master data and let
sensors and business users add additional information.
Manufacturing analytics platform
Take advantage of an in-memory platform that supports cross-data-store analysis,
statistical process control, predictive analytics, and storage for Big Data.
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
Identify the root causes of equipment downtime, efficiency loss, and poor quality on
various hierarchy levels – and view them in business context.
Energy monitoring and analysis
Simplify all aspects of energy monitoring and analysis across different dimensions of
the plant information catalog – from buildings to manufacturing networks.
User-definable dashboards
Consume role-based production data on your desktop or mobile device. Use drag-and-
drop tools to define personal views according to plant hierarchy.
Business process integration
Tie intelligent business processes from the enterprise to production – and even to
device connections.
Event management
Get instant insight – and take quick action – with real-time event detection,
processing, and management.

Technical Capabilities
- Business logic services to facilitate the transformation and consistency of
manufacturing data across plants
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) automation
- Remote management of the entire manufacturing execution system (MES) and
plant connectors
- End-to-end system security model with monitoring, diagnostics, and safeguards
- Real-time event processing and management
- Prebuilt business transactions for shop floor and ERP data synchronization
- NEW Live 3D visualizations in user-definable dashboards
- NEW Remote configuration of intelligent plant connectivity
- NEW Energy monitoring and analytics functionality
- NEW Simplified overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) management
Deployment Options
Deploy as a standalone at the plant, as an enterprise-level application, or on SAP HANA
for in-memory Big Data analysis.