PDM and ERP integration methodology using digital manufacturing to support global manufacturing

Global manufacturing companies must implement manufacturing engineering with proper consideration given to the manufacturing process and resources that are appropriate for the particularities of each manufacturing site. Particularly for effective enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation under a global manufacturing environment, the product data management (PDM) integration for product data is one of the important keys to success. For such product data integration, engineering bill of materials (EBOM) needs to be transformed to manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM), but the MBOM transformation must be done in such a way as to fit the particularities of each manufacturing site. In this process, a methodology appropriate for integration and transformation is required. This paper proposes digital manufacturing as the key tool of data integration between PDM and ERP. Digital manufacturing, as a technology possessing the physical and logical computer modeling and simulation technique for actual manufacturing, provides the methodology for transforming EBOM to MBOM that fits the particularities of each manufacturing site, based on the process and resource models which reflect the particularities of each manufacturing site. It also provides the methodology for MBOM verification and the process and resource model integration. Using such method, the MBOM and the process and resource data, verified and appropriate for each manufacturing site, can be sent to the ERP system.