What is SAP RD?

With SAP RD (SAP Recipe Development), companies can make their recipe development and management simpler, more efficient and at the same time legally compliant.

The module is particularly relevant in industries such as food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and cosmetics.

SAP Recipe Development (SAP RD) is a solution from SAP that supports companies in the development and management of recipes.

The tool enables the centralised recording, maintenance and provision of recipe data. SAP RD can also be used to manage ingredients and specifications. This is important not only for internal processes, but also with regard to legal requirements.

With regard to the SAP product portfolio, SAP RD is an integral part of SAP PLM (SAP Product Lifecycle Management).

The latter solution was created to manage the entire lifecycle of products - from the initial idea through development to market launch and beyond. In some industries, recipe development is an important component of this lifecycle. In such cases, RD completes the product lifecycle management.

SAP Recipe Development is particularly suitable for industries that need to manage complex recipes and extensive ingredient lists.

A typical area of application is, for example, the food and beverage industry, where the development of new products, taking into account nutritional information, allergens and regulatory requirements, takes centre stage. SAP RD can be used to efficiently manage ingredients, perform nutritional value calculations and create declarations for packaging.

Another important field of application is the chemical industry. Here, SAP RD supports the development and management of complex chemical formulas, taking into account safety regulations and environmental requirements. The solution also simplifies the management of hazardous substances and the creation of safety data sheets.

SAP RD is also used in the pharmaceutical industry. Here, the development of drug formulations must be carried out in compliance with strict regulatory requirements. This applies in particular with regard to the traceability of ingredients and the documentation of changes in accordance with GMP standards. SAP RD facilitates documentation and thus contributes to quality assurance.

In the cosmetics industry, SAP RD supports the development and management of cosmetic formulations, taking into account both ingredient regulations and consumer requirements. This enables manufacturers to ensure that their products comply with legal requirements and fulfil consumer expectations at the same time.

Other industries that can benefit from SAP RD include the paints and coatings industry, the consumer goods industry and other sectors with formulation-based production processes.

SAP Recipe Development has a range of functions relating to recipe development and the management of recipe data. The most important features include the following:

• Recipe creation: structured creation and management of recipes including ingredients, quantities and processing steps
• Specification management: centralised management of ingredients, quality parameters and regulatory requirements to ensure compliance
• Labelling and declaration management: automated creation of product labels and declarations in compliance with legal requirements (e.g. ingredient lists, nutritional information and allergen labelling)
• Compliance management: support in complying with legal regulations through automated checks and documentation
• Versioning and change management: traceable management of recipe versions and changes throughout the entire product life cycle
• Quality assurance: definition of test methods and quality criteria to ensure product quality and safety
• Formulation simulation: simulation and analysis of the formulation effect under various conditions to optimise quality and stability
• Documentation creation: automated creation of safety data sheets, product labelling and other relevant documents

Specification management in SAP RD makes it possible to centrally manage all relevant information on product ingredients and recipes.

This feature ensures that all required data is available to all departments at all times. In detail, "specifications" primarily refers to the following aspects:

• Product and recipe specifications: Recipes in their entirety, including ingredients, mixing ratios and processing steps
• Ingredient lists: detailed breakdown of the raw materials used
• Quality requirements: Limit values and test methods
• Product labelling: labelling and declaration
• Safety data: Hazardous substances and handling

Recipe development with SAP RD follows a structured process.

It centres on the creation of recipes based on raw material lists, quality specifications and legal requirements. The process involves the following steps:

1. Planning and requirements analysis

At the beginning of the development process, the foundations are laid to ensure that the recipe fulfils both the product-specific requirements and regulatory specifications:

• Data recording: recording the required raw materials, ingredients and their properties from the ERP system or the material master database
• Requirements profile: Definition of quality criteria, regulatory requirements and desired product properties
• Preliminary study: initial simulations to test feasibility and select suitable components

2. Formulation creation and formulation

In this step, the ingredients are combined in a structured way and mapped in a formulation. The aim is to create a basic formulation that takes all the desired properties into account.

In detail, the following measures are relevant for this:

• Formulation system: Recording the ingredients, proportions and processing steps
• Formulation tools: Use of special calculation tools to determine mixing ratios and physical properties
• Versioning: automatic creation of recipe versions for the traceability of changes
• Initial simulation: testing the formulation for basic physical and chemical compatibility
• Validation: testing for adherence to the specified quality and compliance requirements

3. Optimisation and testing

Once the formulation has been created, it is optimised through changes, tests and simulations. The aim is to improve product quality and optimise the cost structure.

The following points are important here:

• Analysing formulation variants: Creation and comparison of different formulations to select the best variant
• Cost optimisation: evaluation of production costs based on raw material prices and processing methods
• Quality assurance: checking the recipe using defined quality parameters
• Simulation tools: Carrying out stability and shelf life forecasts to ensure product stability

4. Release and documentation

In this step, the formulation is approved and comprehensively documented. This ensures that the recipe fulfils all legal requirements and can be used officially.

SAP RD performs the following in this phase:

• Release process: approval of the recipe by the responsible departments in a structured workflow
• Documentation: automated creation of recipe documents, safety data sheets and labels
• Centralised storage: storage of the final recipe version and all associated documents in the central SAP system

The approved recipe can then be transferred to production (often SAP PP). There they are used for production planning and control.

They can also be used in SAP QM for monitoring production processes and quality assurance. The same applies to batch documentation for traceability.

SAP RD is a component of SAP PLM (SAP Product Lifecycle Management). Accordingly, the functional scopes do not overlap, but complement each other.

• SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) covers the management of the product lifecycle in general. This includes features such as project management, document management, quality management and change management.
• SAP Recipe Development (SAP RD), on the other hand, focuses specifically on the development and management of recipes.

SAP RD is therefore an extension of the PLM portfolio that was created to support industries with complex recipe requirements in product lifecycle management.

SAP Recipe Development supports compliance with legal regulations by centralising the management of relevant data and enabling it to be kept up to date at all times.

In addition, there is a range of functions that have been specially created to fulfil international regulatory requirements:

• Automated compliance checks: Checking compliance with various legal regulations (for example REACH, GHS, FDA) and alerts in the event of problems
• Seamless documentation: Tracking of all changes to formulations and specifications for audits and official inspections
• Automatic declaration creation: generation of ingredient lists, nutritional information and other required information for product labelling
• Allergen management: automatic identification of allergens in recipes and generation of corresponding warnings
• Certificate management: management of information on religious certificates, organic certifications and other quality standards

SAP Recipe Development works closely with a number of other SAP modules. These include, above all, SAP PLM (SAP Product Lifecycle Management) and SAP EHS (SAP Environment, Health and Safety).

Integration with PLM is important for several reasons. Firstly, SAP RD requires certain master data for recipe creation. This can be easily obtained from PLM thanks to the connection between the two modules. Conversely, recipes are transferred from RD to PLM so that they are available for all product-related processes.

Changes to recipes are recorded and versioned in SAP RD. However, the actual release and management of changes then takes place via SAP PLM. The interaction between the two modules is also important for documentation: SAP RD creates recipe documents such as safety data sheets and product labels. These documents are managed centrally in SAP PLM and used there for product release, labelling and quality assurance.

Integration with SAP EHS is also important. This module is used to manage safety and health aspects throughout the entire product life cycle.

It can obtain some of the data required for this directly from SAP RD. This applies, for example, to ingredients that SAP EHS uses to create safety data sheets and carry out risk assessments.

Furthermore, EHS can automatically check formulations from RD with regard to environmental and safety regulations. In addition, formulation data in EHS can be used to create hazardous substance labels and warning notices.

Firstly, companies need an SAP S/4HANA environment and SAP PLM, as SAP RD is designed as part of this platform.

The SAP Activate method is generally used for implementation. It comprises the phases Prepare, Explore, Realise and Deploy.

• In the preparation phase, the project scope, requirements and project team are defined.
• The exploration phase comprises the configuration of the system according to the specific company requirements, including the definition of recipe types and calculation models.
• In the realisation phase, the actual implementation, tests and integration with other SAP modules such as SAP PLM and SAP EHS take place.

SAP recommends using preconfigured best-practice processes and content to shorten the implementation time. SAP provides special migration tools for migrating data from older systems such as SAP Recipe Management. Finally, user training and change management measures are crucial for a successful implementation.

To summarise, the use of SAP Recipe Development brings the following benefits:

• Increased efficiency in product development: faster development of new products through centralised data management, reuse of information and automation of calculations
• Cost savings: Optimisation of formulas, reduction of redundancies, process optimisation, automation and reduction of interfaces through integration
• Quality improvement: consistent management of formulations, comparison of different formulations, automatic calculations and adherence to quality standards
• Compliance security: automatic compliance checks, complete documentation and correct product declarations to minimise compliance risks
• Accelerated time to market: optimised development processes, reuse of existing formulations and smooth transition to production
• Improved collaboration: centralised data storage, intuitive user interface and efficient communication between different departments and locations