SAP Business One
Production in SAP Business One, finally fit for the shop floor
Caesar is the production add-on for SAP Business One: it runs manufacturing orders, captures shop-floor data at the machine and writes everything back to SAP B1 natively.
SAP Business One is a strong ERP for inventory, purchasing and finance. In manufacturing, however, the standard stops where the actual work begins: the production order exists, but nobody on the shop floor can see it. Confirmations travel on paper, in spreadsheets, or not at all. The posting happens days later in the office, from memory.
Caesar closes exactly that gap. Instead of replacing SAP Business One, it adds the shop-floor layer on top: order control, shop-floor data capture, quality checks and traceability, operable on a tablet next to the machine. All master and transactional data stays in SAP B1, where it belongs.
Where the SAP B1 standard falls short
The shop floor cannot see the order
The SAP client is an office tool. There is no licensed Windows workstation at the machine, so the order gets printed. From then on it is a sheet of paper that reports nothing back.
Confirmations arrive too late
Times, quantities and scrap are collected and posted later. Until then the system state is an estimate. Anyone who wants to know mid-shift where an order stands has to walk the floor.
Batches are painful to prove
Traceability is mandatory in regulated industries. Without continuous capture per operation, every enquiry turns into archaeology through paper folders.
Custom extensions break on upgrade
Solutions built directly on the SAP database are a liability: they bypass the business logic and are up for renegotiation with every upgrade.
What Caesar delivers as a production add-on
Caesar runs in the browser, on any device, with nothing to install at the machine. Every action lands in Business One through the official SAP Service Layer.
Order control
Manufacturing orders from SAP B1 are picked up, prioritised and shown to the shop floor in the sequence they are actually worked in.
Real-time shop-floor data
Start, stop, good quantity and scrap are captured at the workstation. The system state matches what is happening in the hall, not what happened last night.
Batch postings
Recurring confirmations can be posted in bulk instead of carrying each line through a form on its own.
Order tracking
Every order shows its progress across all operations, for production management and for the sales team that has to commit to a delivery date.
Quality control
Inspection steps belong in the workflow, not in a separate form. Results are captured where the inspection happens and stay documented on the order.
Traceability
Batches and serial numbers are carried along the operations, so the path of a part can be reconstructed without gaps later on.
Native integration via the SAP Service Layer
Caesar does not touch the SAP database. All communication runs through the SAP Service Layer, the official REST and OData interface of SAP Business One. Every posting passes the same business logic as an entry in the SAP client.
That has three practical consequences: no additional middleware to operate and license. Data ownership stays entirely with SAP B1, so no second source of truth emerges. And an SAP upgrade stays an upgrade instead of turning into a migration project.
An ecosystem, not a single tool
Caesar is the control system, but it does not stand alone. Cleo answers questions from the shop floor by voice and turns emails into orders without anyone opening a form. Lorica is an IP 65 industrial tablet with around twelve hours of battery, a stylus holder and a calliper mount, built for the workshop rather than the office. Brutus adds sensors for machine and process data and is currently in development.
The parts can be used individually. Together they make a production that explains itself instead of needing to be explained.
From the shop floor, not the drawing board
Caesar is built in daily shift operation at Efinger-Instruments, our reference plant. Features are built where they are needed and reviewed by the people who operate them all day. What does not convince in the hall does not make it into the software.
Caesar-Solutions GmbH is based in Spaichingen, Baden-Württemberg, in the middle of the medical-technology and precision cluster around Tuttlingen. Our strategic partner for SAP Business One is Versino AG.
FAQ
Does Caesar replace SAP Business One?
No. Caesar adds the shop-floor view to SAP Business One. Orders, bills of material, stock and postings stay in SAP B1. Caesar provides the interface and the processes for manufacturing and writes all results back there.
Do I need an SAP licence for every workstation?
Caesar runs as a web application in the browser and talks to SAP Business One through a central Service Layer connection. How many SAP licences you need depends on your licensing model. That is exactly what we clarify in the demo for your specific case.
How much effort is the rollout?
Caesar is a central web application: one login screen, any browser, any location. Nothing has to be installed at the machines. The native SAP B1 connection via the Service Layer keeps integration effort low because no interfaces have to be hand-built.
Does it work with SAP Business One HANA?
The SAP Service Layer is the official interface for both variants. We check the specifics of your installation together up front so there are no surprises.
What does a production add-on for SAP Business One cost?
The price depends on scope, number of users and the modules you want. We discuss it in a free demo on a real shop-floor case so you get a defensible number rather than a ballpark.
See it on your own order
30 minutes, live from the reference plant, no slides and no script. Bring a real manufacturing order and we will show it in Caesar.
