ShopConnect — SAP-Integrated Manufacturing Execution System
Your ERP knows what was planned. ShopConnect shows what is actually happening — on every machine, at every work centre, on every shift. While SAP S/4HANA tracks production and consumption at the day or shift level, what happens between those checkpoints — every piece produced, every batch started, every machine signal generated — is typically invisible to your back office.
ShopConnect is 2iSolutions' SAP-integrated Manufacturing Execution System, purpose-built to close that gap. It captures granular shop floor events in real time — serial numbers, batch assignments, machine readings, in-process quality data — and exchanges this data with SAP at the right touch points, giving production managers live visibility and giving the ERP accurate, timely data to plan against.
Developed and maintained by 2iSolutions, ShopConnect runs on SAP BTP and integrates natively with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business One. It is deployed across manufacturing, consumer electronics, automotive components and other discrete manufacturing environments where per-piece traceability and label printing are essential requirements.
From production order to goods receipt — ShopConnect at every step
ShopConnect sits between your machines and your ERP. Production orders flow in from SAP. As goods move through each work centre, ShopConnect captures what happened — serial numbers assigned, batches confirmed, machine readings taken, labels printed — and feeds confirmed production and quality data back to SAP in real time.
Six ShopConnect capabilities
ShopConnect covers the full manufacturing execution lifecycle — from production order receipt through work centre tracking, machine data capture, quality recording, label printing and SAP confirmation posting.
Three manufacturing scenarios where ShopConnect delivers the most value
ShopConnect is not a generic MES — it is designed for discrete manufacturers using SAP who need granular shop floor data that their ERP cannot capture at the required frequency or detail level.
What ShopConnect delivers that SAP alone cannot
ShopConnect — built by an SAP Gold Partner with 21 years of manufacturing ERP delivery.
2iSolutions develops and implements ShopConnect as part of an SAP-specialist practice that includes S/4HANA, Business One, BTP and manufacturing module consulting — so the MES and ERP are configured by people who understand both.
ShopConnect: questions we hear most
SAP production confirmation records that a quantity was produced against an order — typically at the end of a shift or day. ShopConnect operates at a finer level: it tracks individual units or batches as they move through each work centre in real time, capturing serial numbers assigned, machine readings at that operation, quality checks performed and labels printed. This data is captured on the shop floor as it happens, not entered retrospectively by a planner reviewing paper records. The SAP confirmation is the downstream outcome — ShopConnect provides the in-flight visibility and per-unit data that SAP alone cannot capture without custom development at every work centre. For industries where customer audits or quality investigations require "show me exactly which machine produced unit X and what the readings were," ShopConnect provides that answer; standard SAP confirmation does not.
Yes — ShopConnect supports both SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business One. The integration approach differs: S/4HANA integration uses SAP BTP and standard ODATA/BAPI interfaces for production order download, confirmation posting, goods issue and goods receipt. Business One integration uses the SAP Business One Service Layer and DI API. The shop floor experience — work centre screens, barcode scanning, label printing, operator confirmations — is the same regardless of which ERP is at the back end. For organisations running Business One in manufacturing and planning to migrate to S/4HANA, ShopConnect provides continuity across the transition because the shop floor layer does not need to change when the ERP changes.
Machine integration connects ShopConnect to production equipment to read data that would otherwise require manual entry — or would never be captured at all. Supported integration approaches: OPC-UA for modern CNC and manufacturing equipment that supports the standard, REST/HTTP API for machines with a network interface and built-in API, and file-based integration (CSV/XML dropped to a shared folder) for older equipment that does not support real-time protocols. Typical data captured: cycle counts (how many units the machine has produced since the last reset), measurement outputs (dimensions, weights, test readings), pass/fail signals from testing equipment and alarm or fault signals. The benefit is twofold: operators do not need to enter data that the machine already knows, and the captured data is more accurate than manual entry because it comes directly from the sensor. Machine integration scope is assessed during implementation — not every machine on every line requires integration; we identify the ones where automation delivers the most accuracy and productivity benefit.
Yes — multiple label formats is a core ShopConnect capability. Labels are configured as templates: each template defines layout, data fields (serial number, batch, material number, description, production date, quantity, customer part number) and barcode or QR encoding. Multiple templates can exist for the same material — a standard internal label, a customer A format, a customer B format, an export compliance label — and the correct template is automatically selected based on the sales order or customer assignment in SAP. The label data populates from SAP master data and the ShopConnect production event (serial number generated at that point, batch confirmed, date of production). Label printing triggers automatically when a unit reaches the packing work centre, or can be triggered manually by an operator scan. Printer routing is configured per work centre — the right printer receives the job without operator selection.
A standard ShopConnect implementation — shop floor visibility dashboards, serial/batch tracking, label printing for a single production line, and SAP integration for production order, goods issue and goods receipt — typically takes 8–12 weeks. This includes: requirements workshop (work centres, tracking points, label formats, SAP integration touch points), configuration and customisation, SAP integration setup and testing, user acceptance testing on the production floor and go-live support. Larger implementations with multiple production lines, machine integration and complex label configurations: 12–20 weeks. The most variable factor is machine integration scope — if machines support OPC-UA and have good documentation, integration is fast; older equipment with proprietary protocols requires more engineering time. We assess machine integration feasibility during the requirements phase so timeline estimates are based on actual equipment, not assumptions.
ShopConnect runs on SAP BTP — it is a cloud-native application. The application layer, database, integration runtime and monitoring run on BTP. The shop floor UI is browser-based and accessed from work centre terminals, tablets or industrial PCs on the factory floor — no thick client software to install or maintain. For machine integration where direct network connectivity is required, a lightweight edge connector component can run locally within the factory network, bridging machine signals to the BTP-hosted application. This hybrid architecture means: no on-premise application servers to maintain, automatic updates through the BTP managed service model, and the security and availability characteristics of SAP's cloud infrastructure. Factory network requirements are a local LAN or Wi-Fi connection from work centre devices to the internet — the same connectivity most modern factories already have for SAP access.
Ready to give your shop floor the visibility your ERP cannot provide?
Talk to the team that built ShopConnect and implements it — 2iSolutions brings both the product and the SAP manufacturing expertise to make the implementation work for your production environment.