Selecting An Approach For Industrial SAP Data Collection Solutions

Throughout the last 25 years, the use of industrial mobile terminals in warehouse environments has become one of the most popular methods of increasing efficiency and eliminating errors. In general, mobile solutions can be defined and categorized by many characteristics, however, for the purposes of this paper we separate them into two categories: real-time and occasionally connected. The approaches discussed here are all real-time solutions and therefore are appropriate for industrial, mission-critical applications operating in high availability environments.

The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance in selecting an approach for use in implementing an SAP Data Collection Solution in industrial environments. Although some technical details are presented in support of the conclusions, intricate details of each approach are not the focus of this paper. It is not the objective of this paper to position any one approach as being the single best solution; rather the reader is provided with information for understanding why one approach might be a better fit for a given situation.

All of the technologies discussed in this paper are solutions created and maintained by SAP Labs, and are capable of creating real-time solutions for mobile devices in an SAP environment. Typical SAP host environments are SAP ERP with WM, decentralized WM, and TRM, or SCM with EWM. The focus is primarily on three approaches, SAP Console, ITSMobile and Mobile Web Dynpro. This paper does not explicitly address middleware solutions or SAP NetWeaver Mobile (formerly Mobile Infrastructure). However, in the summary section, it does offer insight into why such solutions become a viable option.