There are multiple products that make up and enable SAP Intelligent Asset Management (IAM). They cover a wide range of capabilities, from collaboration to predictive maintenance and machine learning. One of the products that is key to IAM is the SAP Asset Intelligence Network (AIN), which integrates into the SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC digital core via SAP Asset Central.

SAP AIN is a cloud-based collaborative tool. It enables key stakeholders such as the asset operator, the original equipment manufacturer, procurement vendors, and service providers to electronically exchange technical asset and maintenance in a secure space.

The goal for AIN is to improve data reliability and reduce master data maintenance by having that single space for asset information exchange. In turn, this should lead to higher asset availability, as maintenance information is easier to locate and more accurate. This data is also meant to be easily accessed through an SAP Fiori-based user interface.

Creating a Common Asset Language with AIN

Traditionally, asset information is inconsistent among key players. The manufacturer may have a different asset taxonomy than the engineers or service providers. That causes confusion in systems which may restrict the ability for stakeholders to work together, harm data integrity, and ultimately be detrimental to the asset.

With AIN, there becomes a single version of the asset truth—one taxonomy for assets no matter the collaborator. That means less time on data maintenance, and less guesswork on asset maintenance. Having all those stakeholders in a single place also gives you the change to assess your preferred providers and manufacturers and form the partnerships that will be most beneficial to you through optimizing equipment availability.

Here’s an example of collaboration between manufacturer, service provider, and operator.

  1. The manufacturer publishes the model with relevant content, such as manual, drawings, instructions of installation, instructions of repair, spare parts, attributes, counters.
  2. The supplier adds their piece by providing data on things such as spare parts.
  3. The operator bringing all the data across to the equipment. There’s no need to enter it manually, it is pulled automatically from AIN.
  4. The service provider accesses the same equipment and from there starts to do the service activities.
  5. A common Asset Taxonomy is developed based on SAP AIN standards.

This sort of process isn’t possible if the stakeholders aren’t speaking the same asset language. AIN enables this dialog with information sharing, which increases efficiency and reliability throughout the asset lifecycle.

Building Digitized Assets

SAP often talks about the concept of a Digital Twin for assets. This means establishing a digital version of an asset, with all relevant asset information that includes both operational and IT business data (e.g. maintenance history). This allows you to have a view of your asset without being in its physical location.

AIN through Asset Central provides the foundation for a Digital Twin by being that single source of the asset’s data, while also being a simple way for users to access the information.

Building to Intelligent Asset Management

AIN is one piece of the pie in Intelligent Asset Management. In this series, we’ll continue to go over the key products and IAM use cases, and how they connect to SAP S/4HANA and the Digital Core.

SAP will continue to grow the IAM portfolio through quarterly innovation cycles. As for AIN, a major innovation coming at year end will be Value Packages, enabling the sale of data between partners.

For more on AIN and Intelligent Asset Management, contact Rizing.