Enabling Integrated Product Development for the Process Industry
SAP's new specification and formulation management capabilities within the SAP Integrated Product Development solution enable process industry manufacturers to create compliant and profitable products. By unifying specification and formulation management, SAP ensures data integrity, traceability, and improved business performance, transforming complexity into competitive advantage. Download the Document
SAP's new specification and formulation management capabilities within the SAP Integrated Product Development solution enable process industry manufacturers to create compliant and profitable products. By unifying specification and formulation management, SAP ensures data integrity, traceability, and improved business performance, transforming complexity into competitive advantage. 1 Copyright © 2026
COMMENTARY
Enabling Integrated Product
Development for the Process Industry
SAP’s Next Generation Specification & Formulation Solution
Introduction
Formulated and specification driven products (i.e., process industry products) are everywhere. They
include food and beverage items and personal care products, through pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and
materials used in durable goods such as plastics, rubber, paints, coatings, and resins, to name a few. The
main business challenge process industry manufacturers face is to develop compliant and profitable
products that meet or exceed customer expectations.1
Formulated products require both formula and specification capabilities. Formulas are used to capture
and manage the substances, ingredients, and process steps used to define the formulas and recipes
required to produce and deliver products to market. Specifications are used to effectively manage
product data information for all product dimensions using properties and compositions. Historically,
these critical capabilities have been document-driven; spreadsheets have been used for decades to
1 Research for this paper was partially supported by SAP
Takeaways
Formulated products are found in all aspects of daily life. They include food and beverage items,
grocery store goods, restaurant meals, cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, as well
as materials used in manufactured items, such as plastics, paints, coatings, and resins.
Spreadsheets and documents are still widely used to define formulated products. However,
sophisticated companies have been leveraging PLM solutions for years to gain a competitive
advantage by effectively managing product information.
SAP recently released new specification and formulation management capabilities as part of the
SAP Integrated Product Development solution within their SAP Business Technology Platform.
SAP’s new capabilities enable the creation of formula and specification driven products and in
addition to combined products that have both discrete and process items.
SAP’s specification and formulation management capabilities enable process industry customers
to create digital threads that span from customer requirements through product development into
manufacturing thereby ensuring data integrity and traceability while improving business
performance.
COMMENTARY
Enabling Integrated Product
Development for the Process Industry
SAP’s Next Generation Specification & Formulation Solution
Introduction
Formulated and specification driven products (i.e., process industry products) are everywhere. They
include food and beverage items and personal care products, through pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and
materials used in durable goods such as plastics, rubber, paints, coatings, and resins, to name a few. The
main business challenge process industry manufacturers face is to develop compliant and profitable
products that meet or exceed customer expectations.1
Formulated products require both formula and specification capabilities. Formulas are used to capture
and manage the substances, ingredients, and process steps used to define the formulas and recipes
required to produce and deliver products to market. Specifications are used to effectively manage
product data information for all product dimensions using properties and compositions. Historically,
these critical capabilities have been document-driven; spreadsheets have been used for decades to
1 Research for this paper was partially supported by SAP
Takeaways
Formulated products are found in all aspects of daily life. They include food and beverage items,
grocery store goods, restaurant meals, cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, as well
as materials used in manufactured items, such as plastics, paints, coatings, and resins.
Spreadsheets and documents are still widely used to define formulated products. However,
sophisticated companies have been leveraging PLM solutions for years to gain a competitive
advantage by effectively managing product information.
SAP recently released new specification and formulation management capabilities as part of the
SAP Integrated Product Development solution within their SAP Business Technology Platform.
SAP’s new capabilities enable the creation of formula and specification driven products and in
addition to combined products that have both discrete and process items.
SAP’s specification and formulation management capabilities enable process industry customers
to create digital threads that span from customer requirements through product development into
manufacturing thereby ensuring data integrity and traceability while improving business
performance.
2
develop formulas and recipes, and PDF documents have been used to deliver specifications that have
been created in various office automation tools. Initially, this traditional approach is relatively easy to
manage. It’s simple for people to create and consume data in spreadsheets, and also to develop individual
formulas due to their calculation capabilities, but ’this simple approach has drawbacks. Mainly, a
spreadsheet solution doesn’t scale, its calculations are difficult to validate, and it cannot be integrated to
the end-to-end product lifecycle process. When the volume of information and the number of products
and variants grow, managing the data, the calculations, and all changes to them become overwhelming.
To be able to produce the recipe, it must be handed over to manufacturing and transformed into a bill
of material, which should be an integrated process to avoid the errors that come with each disruptive and
manual procedure.
Managing change is a critical capability all companies need for efficiency, traceability, and compliance.
Within formulated products, there are often many variants. Formulas can vary by country (e.g., to support
different regulations and consumer preferences), manufacturing plant, batch size, customer, etc.
Packaging, and especially labels, vary for the same reasons but also to support marketing and promotion.
For example, a package may have a different color or “new” label to attract attention. Each color or “new”
label adds a packaging variant increasing design and production complexity.
When using a document driven approach, data is often created by copying or “save-as” thus creating a
new file or document. In most companies these derivative documents are linked via tribal knowledge, a
fragile internal process, or perhaps by a well-intended but often cumbersome naming and management
convention. If anything changes, such as an ingredient, finding all the documents referencing the
ingredient can be very difficult. Furthermore, tracking who made a change and who approved it can be
difficult unless a workflow system is in place to capture change authorizations and all associated decisions.
For products and processes requiring Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), or the more general GxP
framework, both eSignatures and a complete change log in which all relevant changes to e.g., a recipe,
are tracked are mandatory.
In a company of any size, there are typically multiple production lines, plants, suppliers, and customers
who all need access to the correct version of information. If each stakeholder has a copy of the document,
then there are many sources of truth to synchronize, which is prone to error and not scalable.
Fortunately, business solutions are available to address these issues and many more not mentioned. For
example, intelligent specification and formulation driven product lifecycle management (PLM) ensure that
companies capture, manage, and share data effectively
SAP’s Approach for Formulated & Specification Driven Products
SAP has built a strong reputation for providing enterprise solutions tailored to both discrete and process
industries on its established Business Technology Platform. When CIMdata attended SAP Connect, we
were impressed by SAP’s strategic direction, its next-generation product architecture, and the new and
user-friendly applications. Notably, SAP’s method of linking transactional data with artificial intelligence
(AI) helps close longstanding information gaps in business operations. Figure 1 illustrates how SAP’s
Integrated Product Development (IPD) solution supports and manages the formulated product lifecycle.
SAP Integrated IPD is built on the proven SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). The benefits of SAP
BTP include shared services and a common and robust data model. SAP BTP provides platform services
such as security, workflow, AI, integration, and development tools, and enables capabilities including
modern UI/UX, document management, collaboration, and extensions to ERP, manufacturing, and
product structures (e.g., BOMs). SAP’s AI approach includes Generative AI, and Agents. Common platform
services facilitate streamlined process deployment for companies by minimizing integration complexity.
develop formulas and recipes, and PDF documents have been used to deliver specifications that have
been created in various office automation tools. Initially, this traditional approach is relatively easy to
manage. It’s simple for people to create and consume data in spreadsheets, and also to develop individual
formulas due to their calculation capabilities, but ’this simple approach has drawbacks. Mainly, a
spreadsheet solution doesn’t scale, its calculations are difficult to validate, and it cannot be integrated to
the end-to-end product lifecycle process. When the volume of information and the number of products
and variants grow, managing the data, the calculations, and all changes to them become overwhelming.
To be able to produce the recipe, it must be handed over to manufacturing and transformed into a bill
of material, which should be an integrated process to avoid the errors that come with each disruptive and
manual procedure.
Managing change is a critical capability all companies need for efficiency, traceability, and compliance.
Within formulated products, there are often many variants. Formulas can vary by country (e.g., to support
different regulations and consumer preferences), manufacturing plant, batch size, customer, etc.
Packaging, and especially labels, vary for the same reasons but also to support marketing and promotion.
For example, a package may have a different color or “new” label to attract attention. Each color or “new”
label adds a packaging variant increasing design and production complexity.
When using a document driven approach, data is often created by copying or “save-as” thus creating a
new file or document. In most companies these derivative documents are linked via tribal knowledge, a
fragile internal process, or perhaps by a well-intended but often cumbersome naming and management
convention. If anything changes, such as an ingredient, finding all the documents referencing the
ingredient can be very difficult. Furthermore, tracking who made a change and who approved it can be
difficult unless a workflow system is in place to capture change authorizations and all associated decisions.
For products and processes requiring Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), or the more general GxP
framework, both eSignatures and a complete change log in which all relevant changes to e.g., a recipe,
are tracked are mandatory.
In a company of any size, there are typically multiple production lines, plants, suppliers, and customers
who all need access to the correct version of information. If each stakeholder has a copy of the document,
then there are many sources of truth to synchronize, which is prone to error and not scalable.
Fortunately, business solutions are available to address these issues and many more not mentioned. For
example, intelligent specification and formulation driven product lifecycle management (PLM) ensure that
companies capture, manage, and share data effectively
SAP’s Approach for Formulated & Specification Driven Products
SAP has built a strong reputation for providing enterprise solutions tailored to both discrete and process
industries on its established Business Technology Platform. When CIMdata attended SAP Connect, we
were impressed by SAP’s strategic direction, its next-generation product architecture, and the new and
user-friendly applications. Notably, SAP’s method of linking transactional data with artificial intelligence
(AI) helps close longstanding information gaps in business operations. Figure 1 illustrates how SAP’s
Integrated Product Development (IPD) solution supports and manages the formulated product lifecycle.
SAP Integrated IPD is built on the proven SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). The benefits of SAP
BTP include shared services and a common and robust data model. SAP BTP provides platform services
such as security, workflow, AI, integration, and development tools, and enables capabilities including
modern UI/UX, document management, collaboration, and extensions to ERP, manufacturing, and
product structures (e.g., BOMs). SAP’s AI approach includes Generative AI, and Agents. Common platform
services facilitate streamlined process deployment for companies by minimizing integration complexity.