Discrete vs Process manufacturing - what is the difference?
“You can disassemble you car in to its discrete parts but you cannot convert orange juice back to oranges”
SAP is used to plan & execute manufacturing of many mechanically-engineered products (think planes, trains and automobiles). But it is also used to orchestrate manufacturing of chemically-engineered goods (think milk, eye drops and engine lubricants). At first, SAP supported discrete industries with production orders. Later, it expanded to supporting other industries with process orders (for example food & beverage, pharmaceuticals and oil & gas). Lastly, today SAP also supports a special technique called repetitive manufacturing (think simple items which are produced in huge lots, like styrofoam coffee cups).
Some companies are conglomerates which combine multiple manufacturing techniques mentioned in paragraph above (think medical product manufacturer which makes & sells liquid medicine as well as surgical equipment.
There are many complexities in this area, as you can imagine, which companies must address during their SAP implementation or optimization endeavors.
Reach out if your enterprise needs help in this area.
Best, SAP10x
— Proverbs 29:25