SAP’s 3D Visual Enterprise is a suite of application that translates nearly any 3D CAD file into a lightweight format for downstream use. It supports specific work processes in engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance. The main challenge is to ensure the consistent and seamless experience across SAP’s Digital Supply Chain applications.

I am responsible for the the data integration and UI builder for creating 3D visual index. It’s a tool to view data analytics indexed to actual 3D parts. I started my design process by analysing the existing application and having previous experience of product designing in 3D softwares, I was able to narrow down few important pain points of the end user. I also studied the competitor 3D apps like 3D Vision by Autodesk and open source apps like Blender. We also conducted a preliminary user study with customers and then based on their feedbacks I proceeded to UI building.

Additionally, it is utmost important to understand the wide network and services offered by Digital Supply Chain(DSC). DSC is basically a digital mirror of your end to end supply chain—from design, planning and manufacturing to logistics and ongoing maintenance. These individual areas requires specifc set of tool to accomplish a business process. We believe 3D plays can be a game changer in industry and can drive the DSC network on its shoulder.

A large group of Business Users, who are integral part of supply chain, includes Operators, Shopfloor Workers,Maintenance Engineer, Design Engineers, Plant Managers, Business Administration and third party suppliers. These users are technically advanced in terms of handling their data and require specific set of tools to perform their tasks. Challanges includes, but not limited to, DSC network's diversity and required customization with respect to specific industry, figuring out a common story to stitch all use cases together in a application suite.

We follow Design-Led-Development, where going through UX standards check is necessary for any product to be release to the customers. The design process starts early on, by gathering feedback from stakeholders and after conducting few rounds of end-user interviews, we re-define the use case further to improve and optimize the workflow.

For example, a technician who has come to repair your washing machine would get to know all the details of a specific part, required for maintenance, Voila!, in a 3D model. Based on such user's inputs, we were able to file a Patent for a new interaction paradigm in an interface involving 3D models. And I still believe there are much more things to find out in this niche field of business data management involving 3D. Our idea is simply to associate the digital supply chain data to a 3D model for its better accessibility and visbilty.

As mentioned earlier, each part of the 3D model have associated supply chain data, so We took a WYSWYG approach to configure a 3D model according to end-user's requirements. Currently, the product is still in beta, please feel free to contact me to know more in details.

I am currently running a design sprint for SAP Integrated Product Design's(IPD) Collaboration application. Collaboration app plays an important role in releasing of a product line up. Right from the marketing team, design engineers, CAD modeler, product managers to suppliers, all are part of some collaborations in a product development. Here, 3D models play a crucial role while working on new designs and discussing around minute changes needed in a product. Working with two teams, 3D Visual Enterprise and S/4 HANA Collaboration App gives a great future opportunity to break the boundaries of collaboration in the upcoming tech landscape of diverse medium of interactions.