New POD 2.0 Framework: Certificate Check

This blog post is part of a series on SAP Digital Manufacturing new POD 2.0 framework, the new generation of SAP Digital Manufacturing worker UIs.

New POD 2.0 Framework Blogs

Introduction

In manufacturing environments, ensuring that only properly qualified personnel perform specific production activities is critical for maintaining product quality, regulatory compliance, operational safety, and workforce accountability. Organizations often need to verify that operators possess the required certifications before allowing them to execute tasks on the shop floor, particularly for specialized equipment, regulated processes, or safety-sensitive operations.

SAP Digital Manufacturing provides built-in Certification Management capabilities that can be associated with manufacturing objects such as Operations, Work Centers, and Resources. Combined with the flexibility of POD 2.0 and Production Processes, these capabilities can be used to automatically validate worker qualifications during production execution and prevent unauthorized activities from being started.

In this blog post, we will explore how to implement a certification validation mechanism in SAP Digital Manufacturing using a Production Process and POD 2.0 actions. By the end, you will have a configurable solution that checks operator certifications before a phase is started and displays a meaningful error message whenever the required qualifications are not assigned to the worker.

Setup

First, create new Certifications in Manage Certifications app, and assign to the Manufacturing Objects like an Operation Activity, Work Center and/or Resource, etc, where these Certifications are required to be assigned to individual workers, before they can start any manufacturing activities.

For this example, I create the two Certifications below:

Next, assign Certifications to Workers via Manage User Assignments app. In this example, I assigned only one of the Certifications to my own user.

Then, create a Production Process to perform the Certification Check using Production Process Design app.

The Production Process should have Input Parameters including: inMaterial, inOperation, inPlant, inResource, inUser and inWorkCenter, all of type String and marked as required.

On the left hand side, under ‘Services and Processes’, drag and drop ‘Certification Check’ service to the design canvas and map the INPUT parameters as follow:

Add a Condition control, and define (1) as ‘Service_Certification_Check#isCertificationForbidden' == true:

Click ‘…' on the top-right corner, and select ‘Manage Error Codes':

And create an Error Code like:

Add an Error End control, select the newly created Error Code, and link the Condition output (1) to it. Link the Else (2) to the End control.

Finally, click “…” for the Cloud Process, select ‘Edit Header', and enable ‘Publish to Service Registry', so this Cloud Process can be triggered from the POD 2.0.

Save and deploy it.

Next, open Manage PODs 2.0 app and open / create a POD. In this example, I´m using an Order POD.

Select the PhaseList plugin and click on ‘Edit Actions' under ‘Start Phase' on the right-hand side Properties panel:

Click ‘+' to add a new Action, select ‘ProductionProcess', map the newly created Production Process, link the Input Parameters to Variables from POD Context and make sure you use the Arrow Up button to move the Production Process up, before the StartPhase action, so it runs before the phase start and can prevent it in case of failure:

With all this setup in place, you should be ready to test it.

Run

To give it a try, click Run (Play button) in Manage PODs 2.0 app to load the POD, and then filter, select and open a order where the master data matches the assignment of the Certifications created in Manage Certifications app, and click ‘Start'.

If the User has the Certification assigned, it should work just fine and the phase should be started:

However, if the Certification is not assigned, the Production Process should fail, fall on the Error End, and display the Error Code message defined:

Then, as soon as the missing Certification is assigned to the User in Manage User Assignments app:

The Phase Start should work just fine as well:

Conclusion

By combining SAP Digital Manufacturing Certifications, Production Processes, and POD 2.0 actions, manufacturers can implement robust certification controls directly within production execution workflows. This approach ensures that only appropriately certified workers can perform specific manufacturing activities, helping organizations improve compliance, reduce operational risk, and maintain consistent process quality.

As demonstrated in this example, the Certification Check service can be seamlessly integrated into the phase start process, allowing qualification validation to occur automatically and in real time. When certification requirements are not met, execution can be prevented immediately with clear user feedback, while certified operators can proceed without additional manual verification steps.

This pattern can be extended to a wide range of business scenarios, including safety-critical operations, regulated industries, specialized equipment usage, and workforce qualification management.

Leveraging the extensibility of POD 2.0 and Production Processes enables organizations to build powerful governance mechanisms while maintaining a streamlined and user-friendly operator experience.

Do you like this post? Please let me know in the comments section what you think. Any feedback is highly appreciated.
Or, if you have any questions, please check SAP Community Q&A Area, or comment down below.

Thanks,
Manoel Costa

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