http://www.hp.com/pressrel/05mar96a.htm (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
Palo Alto, California. March 5, 1996
Hewlett-Packard Company today announced a new software product, HP Enterprise Link, a data-mapping middleware product that integrates SAP's R/3 with various process-control systems, laboratory information systems and other applications that require real-time communications with R/3.
HP Enterprise Link is the latest product in HP's Advanced Process Execution Program that is designed to close information gaps between planning, execution and control levels in a manufacturing environment. The new, open real-time integration framework is targeted for the process industry and is designed to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications with plant-floor technologies from many of the leading control vendors. SAP's R/3 will be the initial ERP application, with others to be announced at a future date.
HP Enterprise Link integrates real-time control systems, such as HP RTAP,(1) with SAP's R/3 through the PP-PI(2) module. Laboratory Information Systems (LIMS) can integrate with R/3's PP-PI through HP Enterprise Link. The new framework is designed for process manufacturing environments in the pulp/paper, food/packaged goods, chemical and pharmaceutical industries and over time will extended into other related industries.
Companies in the process industries need software solutions to link plant functions for all three levels of manufacturing: planning, execution and control. In the past, these three layers of manufacturing exchanged information infrequently, with little or no automation. In today's manufacturing environment, information exchange is an all-day, everyday necessity.
Manufacturing may be called upon to shift production from one product to another many times in a day -- where before, it was once a day or once a week. For manufacturing to run smoothly, information from the planning function needs to drive the batch-management or execution layer, which, in turn, governs the controls layer of plant automation. Conversely, information from the controls layer needs to be delivered in a timely manner to production-planning functions for decision support and cost accounting.
"HP has worked with our process-industry customers to develop a total solution for their enterprise resource-planning requirements," said Keith E. Goodwin, general manager of HP's Manufacturing Industries Business Unit. "HP is closing the information gap between the planning, execution and control functions."
"HP demonstrated SAP R/3's PP-PI to controls functionality at Sapphire 1994," said Bill Swanton, senior analyst at Advanced Manufacturing Research. "Now HP has wrapped that knowledge into an R/3 communication object that can be paired with any control system in the HP Enterprise Link framework. Control vendors using it are shielded from the complexity of PP-PI internals and API changes in new releases."
"Monsanto has selected HP Enterprise Link from several alternatives as the most open and flexible Plant Integration Enabler (PIE) available," said Son Huynh, integration technology manager for Monsanto Company. "We intend to use it throughout our company to link real-time information and business-planning systems to work for the benefit of Monsanto."
By simplifying R/3's data structures, HP Enterprise Link provides visual point-and-click data mapping between R/3's PP-PI module and other systems. Real-time message triggers drive a data server that operates reliably across local and wide area networks to seamlessly integrate what until now have been diverse systems.
In relation to SAP R/3's PP-PI data structures, HP Enterprise Link provides visual point-and-click data mapping between R/3 and the control vendors listed below.
According to HP, customers who use the HP Enterprise Link solution can unify diverse control systems in a single architecture and integrate them with the R/3 application, increasing plant efficiency and flexibility while reducing production costs. The R/3 modules that handle sales and distribution, inventory management and similar functions can be updated with the latest production data automatically, in real time, to support key business metrics such as the cost of manufacturing a batch of any particular product. Customers also can reduce inventory and time to market by linking their planning functions to real-time process-control systems through control recipes held in the planning function.
"With HP Enterprise Link framework, HP plans to lead the world in providing open, flexible middleware to integrate the mix of real-time technologies that most customers have with ERP systems with SAP's R/3 as the first implementation," said Gerhard Schmid, marketing manager for HP's Lake Stevens Division. "Channel Partners who use HP Enterprise Link can leverage their leading products while taking advantage of HP's certification, reliability and worldwide support for the long term."
HP RTAP, a supervisory-control software product, can be used as the default real-time system, but can be replaced in the HP Enterprise Link architecture by communication objects written for other control systems. With R/3, HP Enterprise Link communicates through the PP-PI module using SAP's standard remote function calls.
HP Enterprise Link -- which initially will run on UNIXr systems from HP, DEC, Sun and IBM -- is slated to be released on Microsoft's NT in the future.
PP-PI is an integral part of the SAP R/3 system. It provides a powerful suite of integrated planning tools comprising resource, recipe and process management, process planning, and production information management. The open interfaces to process control systems, for example, via HP Enterprise Link provide timely and accurate information through every step of the production run.
"HP has worked closely with our PP-PI development team since 1994, first with HP RTAP, now with the innovative HP Enterprise Link as part of our complementary software program." said Dr. Gunther Moeckesch, SAP development director. "SAP is pleased to see a global player like HP taking this initiative to unify multiple process-control systems and integrate them with R/3 through PP-PI. This will help SAP customers achieve the benefits of enterprise-wide integration."
HP is teaming with leading control vendors to complete the solution for process customers. Companies such as Allen-Bradley, ABB Industrial Systems, Honeywell Industrial Automation & Control, Moore Products and Siemens Energy & Automation are endorsing HP's Enterprise Link product for integrating their leading products with SAP's business system.
HP's Professional Services Organization (PSO) will provide IT infrastructure design and integration services through its SAP Consulting Practice for HP customers installing R/3. The PSO is a leading supplier of open, client/server consulting and systems integration for process-industry manufacturing solutions.
Rust International has significant system integration experience with HP Enterprise Link in the Americas. In addition to the process industry, Rust has expertise in integrating manufacturing execution systems for other industries. Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group has extensive expertise in the process industry and SAP implementations.
According to Advanced Manufacturing Research, an independent consulting firm in Boston, 45 percent of R/3 licenses are on HP servers -- nearly double that of the next hardware platform. With many of these sales in the process industries, an open-systems solution is a very strong customer requirement.
HP is the world's leading supplier of open enterprise computing and is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer revenue of $25.3 billion in its 1995 fiscal year. HP has been delivering PA-RISC(3)-based business computers since 1986 with high reliability, data integrity, data availability and systems availability.
Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 105,200 employees and had revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.
Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.
(1) RTAP stands for Real-Time Applications Platform.
(2) PP-PI stands for Production Planning-Process Industry.
UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.
(3) PA-RISC stands for Precision Architecture, reduced-instruction-set computing.
Allen-Bradley
"Allen-Bradley partnered with Hewlett-Packard in the original live demonstration of PP-PI integration," said Maryanne Steidinger, Allen-Bradley's HP Alliance Manager. "Coupled with RSI's Interchange API, we see Enterprise Link as a key component in driving MES into the real world -- bringing the controls of AB, the execution of HP and the planning of SAP into an integrated solution."
Asea Brown-Bovreri
"ABB plans to use HP Enterprise Link to provide integrated solutions to our Advant OCS customers faster and more efficiently. HP's experience with SAP and the SAP certification are key and ensure reliable, long term support on a global basis," said David E. Bachman, product manager for integration products ABB Industrial Systems, Inc. "Customer response to HP's Enterprise Link has been very positive -- they are excited about the possibilities with the new R/3 connectivity products."
Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group
"We expect Enterprise Link to provide a viable solution for linking enterprise planning to execution and control systems," said Clive Weightman, vice president, Process Industry Center of Expertise at Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group/ICS. "Through the combination of Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group's extensive process industry expertise, HP's Enterprise Link, and SAP's PP-PI module, we can provide clients such as Monsanto best-in-class MES solutions for their vertical industry."
Fisons Instruments
"We at Fisons LabSystems Division have recognized our customers' needs to connect in-process laboratory data to the SAP enterprise," said Patrick Tormey, business development manager of Fisons Instruments LabSystems. "In addition to efforts which directly connect our LIMS and SampleManager to SAP's QM module, resources have been specifically allocated to interface our LIMS to HP's Enterprise Link. By providing the vehicle to transfer all process-related data back to R/3, HP's Enterprise Link emerges as the core of the execution system."
Moore Products Company
"Moore utilizes RTAP as the foundation for our UNIX operator interface in our APACS Open Control System [OCS]" said Steve Young, Manager of Control Systems for Moore Products Company. "HP's direction with Enterprise Link ensures that our existing and new Moore customers, will not only be PP-PI-ready, but that they will have built the ideal vertical connection to PP-PI through their operator interface. Our uniquely integrated architecture has been a major influencing factor for corporations seeking a competitive advantage through tighter alliances with OCS venders."
Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control
"As a provider of integrated plant solutions to the process industries worldwide, Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control uses best-in-class components from leading suppliers to achieve superior results," said Chris Reid, vice president of Honeywell's Chemical Industry Business Unit. "HP's Enterprise Link falls into that category in that it enables the integration of SAP R/3 to our real-time control environment. Our mutual customers can look to HP and Honeywell to work together to meet their needs."
Rust International Corporation
"HP's Enterprise Link is a great tool for unifying diverse control systems and integrating them with PP-PI," said John Weeks, vice-president of Rust's Automated Systems Division. "It simplifies the integration problem, which means less work, less cost, and less risk for us and our customers."
Siemens Energy & Automation
"HP knows how to integrate with SAP systems. We prefer to reuse that knowledge rather than reinvent it," said Bob Nelson, process control marketing manager for Siemens Energy & Automation. "HP's Enterprise Link architecture is the right kind of middleware, designed for extensibility and long-term support."
