What is ERP?

ERP is a package with the techniques and concepts for the integrated
management of business as a whole, for effective use of management
resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. Initially, ERP was
targeted for manufacturing industry mainly for planning and managing core
business like production and financial market. As the growth and merits of
ERP package ERP software is designed for basic process of a company from
manufacturing to small shops with a target of integrating information
across the company.

History and Evolution of SAP .

SAP Initiation -

SAP, started in April 1st 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim,
Germany, states that it is the world's third-largest independent software
vendor. It started with a vision: to develop standard application software for
real-time business processing. They wanted to develop and market a
standard enterprise software which would integrate all business processes,
because they had noticed that client after client was developing the same or
very similar computer business programs which though were not really
integrated with each other .

SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products (Systeme, Anwendungen

und Produkte in the original German) in Data Processing, this definition
turns you towards a fact that SAP creates a common centralised database
for all the applications running in an organization .

SAP R/1 -

The first version of SAP's flagship enterprise software was a financial

Accounting system named R/1.

SAP R/2 -

This was replaced by R/2 at the end of the 1970s. SAP R/2 was in
a mainframe based business application software suite that was very
successful in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was particularly popular with
large multinational European companies who required soft-real-time
business applications, with multi-currency and multi-language capabilities
built in .

SAP R/3 & SAP R/3 Enterprise -

SAP R/3 was officially launched on 6 July 1992. With the advent of
distributed client-server computing SAP AG brought out a client-server
version of the software called SAP R/3 (The "R" was for "Real-time data
processing" and 3 was for3-tier) .

The client/server three-tier architecture composed of a database, software

applications and a common graphical user interface (GUI). This new
architecture is compatible with multiple platforms and operating systems,
such as Microsoft Windows or UNIX. The client-server concept, uniform
appearance of graphical interfaces, consistent use of relational databases,
and the ability to run on computers from different vendors meets with
overwhelming approval .

SAP R/3 through version 4.6c consisted of various applications on top of

SAP Basis, SAP's set of middleware programs and tools. Though when SAP
R/3 Enterprise was launched 2002, all applications were built on top of the
SAP Web Application Server. Extension sets were used to deliver new
features and kept the core as stable as possible. The Web Application Server
contained all the capabilities of SAP Basis.

SAP R/3 was arranged into distinct functional modules, covering the typical
functions in place in an organization. The most widely used modules were
Financials and Controlling (FICO), Human Resources (HR), Materials
Management (MM), Sales & Distribution (SD), and Production Planning
(PP). Each module handled specific business tasks on its own, but was
linked to the others where applicable. For instance, an invoice from the
billing transaction of Sales & Distribution would pass through to
accounting, where it will appear in accounts receivable and cost of goods
sold.

SAP typically focused on best practice methodologies for driving its

software processes, but more recently expanded into vertical markets. In
these situations, SAP produced specialized modules (referred to as IS or
Industry Specific) geared toward a particular market segment, such as
utilities or retail.
Releases -

SAP R/3 Release 3.1I

SAP R/3 Release 4.0B Release Date June 1998
SAP R/3 Release 4.5B Release Date March 1999
SAP R/3 Release 4.6B Release Date Dec 1999
SAP R/3 Release 4.6C Release Date April 2001

SAP R/3 Enterprise Release 4.70 Release Date March- Dec 2003
.

SAP ERP & mySAP ERP -

SAP used the name R/3 until the 5.0 release (SAP ECC 5.0 ERP is the
successor of SAP R/3 4.70).

As a result of marketing changes and changes in the industry, other

versions of SAP have been released that address these changes. The first
edition of mySAP ERP (SAP ERP) was launched in 2003 and bundled
previously separate products, including SAP R/3 Enterprise, SAP Strategic
Enterprise Management (SEM) and extension sets. The SAP Web
Application Server was wrapped into NetWeaver, which was also introduced
in 2003 .

A complete architecture change took place with the introduction of mySAP

ERP edition 2004. R/3 Enterprise was replaced with the introduction of ERP
Central Component (SAP ECC). The SAP Business Warehouse, SAP
Strategic Enterprise Management and Internet Transaction Server were
also merged into SAP ECC, allowing users to run them under one instance.
Architectural changes were also made to support an enterprise services
architecture to transition customers to a services-oriented architecture. The
most current version as of November 2009 is ECC 6.0.
Thus with the Internet becoming pervasive, SAP responded by providing
companies with the software they needed to sell goods and services online.
Their product portfolio got a Web interface and was rebranded MySAP.com.
MySAP was designed to be a corporate Web portal with role-based
permissions for employees . The company promoted how SAP "solutions"
could link commerce conducted over the Internet (e-commerce) with
traditional bricks and mortar commerce to provide one seamless view of the
business.

What is SAP NetWeaver -

The SAP Web Application Server was wrapped into NetWeaver, which was
also introduced in 2003.

Came thus the SAP NetWeaver, the company’s development and integration
platform and middleware component, and Business Suite, a bundling of
SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship
management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), product lifecycle
management (PLM) and supplier relationship management (SRM)
applications. In 2008, SAP purchased Business Objects, a French enterprise
software company that specializes in business intelligence (BI), which
marked a major change in the company’s BI strategy, which was previously
focused around SAP's Business Explorer tools.

SAP NetWeaver can be defined in one sentence as a service-oriented

technology platform (SOA) for integrating information and business
processes across diverse technologies and organizational
structures. NetWeaver provides the foundation for other SAP software
bundles.

Another version of SAP NetWeaver

SAP NetWeaver is SAP's integrated technology platform and is the

technical foundation for all SAP applications since theSAP Business Suite.
SAP NetWeaver is marketed as a service-oriented application
and integration platform. SAP NetWeaver provides the development and
runtime environment for SAP applications and can be used for custom
development and integration with other applications and systems. SAP
NetWeaver is built using open standards and industry de facto standards
and can be extended with, and interoperate with, technologies such
as Microsoft .NET, Sun Java EE, and IBM WebSphere.

SAP NetWeaver's release is considered as a strategic move by SAP for

driving enterprises to run their business on a single, integrated platform
that includes both applications and technology. Industry analysts refer to
this type of integrated platform offering as an "applistructure" (applications
+ infrastructure). According to SAP, this approach is driven by industry's
need to lower IT costs through an enterprise architecture that is at once (1)
more flexible; (2) better integrated with applications; (3) built on open
standards to ensure future interoperability and broad integration; and, (4)
provided by a vendor that is financially viable for the long term. SAP is
fostering relationships with system integrators and independent software
vendors, many of the latter becoming "Powered by SAP NetWeaver".

SAP NetWeaver is part of SAP's plan to transition to a more open, service-

oriented architecture and to deliver the technical foundation of its
applications on a single, integrated platform and common release cycle.

Composition

NetWeaver is essentially the integrated stack of SAP technology products.

The SAP Web Application Server (sometimes referred to as WebAS) is the
runtime environment for the SAP applications—all of the mySAP Business
Suite solutions (SRM,CRM, SCM, PLM, ERP) run on SAP WebAS.

Products

The core products that make up SAP NetWeaver include:

 SAP NetWeaver Application Server

 SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence

 SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment (CE)

 SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal (EP)

 SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management (MDM)

  SAP NetWeaver Mobile

 SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI)

SAP has also teamed with hardware vendors like HP, IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens,
and Sun to deliver appliances (i.e., hardware + software) to simplify and
enhance the deployment of NetWeaver components. Examples of these
appliances include:

 BW Accelerator
 Enterprise Search

Development Tools
 ABAP Workbench (SE80)
 SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDS) based on Eclipse for most
of the Java part of the technology (Web Dynpro for Java, JEE, Java
Dictionary, Portal Applications etc.)

 SAP Netweaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI)

 Visual Composer

see also:

 Web Dynpro
 SAP Enterprise Portal Content Studio

 SAP Composite Application Framework - an environment for

designing and using composite applications

Features
 SOAP and Web Services
 Interoperability with Java EE

 Interoperability with .NET (Microsoft)

 Integration of Business Intelligence

 xApps

 Duet

Specifically, ERP is being extended by Business Process

Management Systems (BPMs) and, as BPMs takes hold as the pre-dominant
technical platform for new applications, expect to see radical changes to
ERP architecture in the years ahead. Allen Davis, a NetWeaver xMII expert,
has successfully used Six Sigma scenarios as information in real time from
shop floor control systems and used in plant quality control lab
experimental tests. The technology has been applied to a wide range of
industries and applications.
SAP's Netweaver platform is still backwards-compatible with ABAP, SAP's
custom development language.

1) Basics of SAP, Manufacturing Overview

 Basic SAP GUI Navigation
 Order-controlled production with production orders
 Order-controlled production with process orders
 Repetitive manufacturing
 KANBAN
 Further selected shop floor control topics
2) Planning Overview
 Overview of the planning process with SAP ECC 6.0 (and SAP R/3)
 Overview of the master data and transaction data required for
planning
 Sales and operations planning (SOP)
 Demand management
 Long-term planning (LTP)
 Material requirements planning (MRP)
 Capacity evaluations
 Integration with production
 Looking ahead to advanced planning (SAP SCM APO)
3) Production Planning
 Overview of the planning process within SAP ECC
 Overview of the master and transaction data relevant to production
planning
 Overview of Master Planning using Sales and Operations Planning
 Introduction to Demand Management (DM)
 Overview of Long-Term Planning (LTP)
 Overview of Master production scheduling (MPS)
 Introduction to Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)
 Introduction to Capacity evaluations (CRP)
 Order-controlled production with production orders
 Order-controlled production with process orders.
 Repetitive manufacturing
4) Capacity Planning
 Integration of capacity planning
 Analysis of capacity requirement
 Maintenance of available capacity
  Scheduling with the tabular and graphical planning board
 Scheduling strategies
 Scheduling control
 Capacity reduction
 Sequencing
 Mass processing of dispatchings or deallocations
 Links with human resources management (requirements,
qualifications)
 System settings for available capacity, capacity evaluation, and
capacity leveling
5) Flexible Planning
 Planning on the basis of the LIS
 SOP
 Flexible planning
 Comparison of level-by-level planning, consistent planning, aggregatio
and disaggregation
 Generation of master data (planning hierarchies and proportional
factors)
 Product group planning
 Planning types and macros
 Navigation in interactive planning
 Statistical forecasting technique
 Rough-cut resource and capacity planning
 Consideration of market information about results
 Generation of planned independent requirements (transfer to demand
planning)
 Mass processing for forecasts, macro calculation, and transfer
 Interface between Profitability Analysis (CO/PA) and the LIS
 Product allocation
6) Flexible Planning
 Master data
 Planning run and evaluation
 Lot-size calculation
 Forecasting in consumption-based planning
 Source determination during MRP
 MRP areas and storage locations