Unlocking Data-Driven Innovation in SAP Recipe Development with Virtual Data Models



In today’s digital manufacturing and process industries, data is the new formula for innovation. Whether you’re developing new chemical blends, food formulations, or pharmaceutical recipes, one truth holds constant — how you manage and analyze your specifications defines your product development success.

At Vibuh Solutions, we enable organizations to transform their SAP Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) environments through HANA Live Virtual Data Models (VDMs) — giving R&D and quality teams the ability to unlock deeper insights, faster decisions, and total transparency across the recipe lifecycle.

What Is the Specification VDM?

The Specification Virtual Data Model (VDM) under SAP HANA Live is designed to provide the analytical backbone for Recipe Development (PLM-WUI-RCP).

Every company’s product development journey is unique — ingredients, compliance requirements, and regional regulations vary dramatically. SAP’s reusable VDM views allow organizations to extend core models and build custom analytical and reporting queries that fit their specific processes.

In simpler terms: ➡️ You can finally analyze recipes and specifications across plants, categories, materials, and formulations — all in real-time, directly from SAP HANA.

Answering the Right Business Questions with Data

With the Specification VDM, teams can quickly find answers to critical operational and R&D questions, such as:

  • How many specifications exist per plant or specification type?
  • Which raw materials are assigned to semi-finished products?
  • Which specifications contain a specific ingredient per region or country?
  • How many specifications exist per product category?
  • What’s the nutritional and compositional breakdown of each recipe?

This model forms the data foundation for performance dashboards, regulatory analytics, and composition tracking — all key components of a modern PLM system.

Inside the Virtual Data Model: Structure and Logic

The Specification VDM is thoughtfully divided into two core pillars:

1️⃣ Specification General Data

These reuse views provide insights available under the General Data tab of Specification Management in the PLM Web UI. They include fundamental information such as:

  • Specification header, status, and authorization data
  • Material assignments and plant data
  • Identifier inheritance and application usage
  • Quantitative calculation structures

These reusable components form the base layer for all reporting and data modeling related to specifications.

2️⃣ Specification Value Assignment Data

This group deals with the detailed characteristics, properties, phrases, and compositional data of each recipe. It supports the functionality of the Properties tab in the PLM Web UI and covers:

  • Ingredient composition and nutrient mapping
  • Value assignment instances with inheritance
  • User-defined texts, characteristics, and phrases
  • Standard and nutrient composition calculations

Together, these enable deep insights into formula structure, composition analysis, and regulatory compliance.

Business Objects Behind the Model

The VDM leverages business objects like:

  • Specifications (used in Recipe Development PLM-WUI-RCP)
  • Material Master
  • Plant Data

This layered structure ensures a single source of truth for analytical queries, regardless of whether the use case is R&D performance tracking, formulation optimization, or compliance verification.

Key Measures and Attributes

The richness of this model comes from its comprehensive measures and attributes, including:

Specification-Level Data:

  • Specification ID, type, substance nature, validity, and authorization group
  • Material assignments, creation/modification data, and access control context

Composition-Level Data:

  • Ingredient and nutrient breakdown, target/actual values, and unit of measure
  • Inheritance and usage information for hierarchical recipes

Identifier and Phrase Data:

  • Category, language, listing position, and screen-level mapping for multilingual, multi-market recipes

This enables R&D leaders, quality managers, and regulatory teams to collaborate on the same dataset with confidence and accuracy.

Filters and Intelligent Querying

SAP’s intelligent filter design ensures precision in data retrieval. For example:

  • The Identification view selects one identifier per combination of category, type, and specification, ensuring language and inheritance logic is respected.
  • The Usage view dynamically separates identifiers by relevant position, enabling consistent downstream integration.

The result? Cleaner queries, consistent results, and less manual data wrangling.

Powering Data-Driven PLM with SAP HANA Live

The Specification and Recipe VDMs collectively connect data from core SAP tables like ESTRH, ESTRI, ESTVA, ESTVH, and TCG11, transforming them into business-ready datasets.

For organizations running SAP S/4HANA, these models deliver:

  • Real-time reporting without replication
  • Custom analytics tailored to product categories, ingredients, and geographies
  • Data governance and traceability embedded in the PLM layer

This makes SAP HANA Live the digital nervous system of Recipe Development — enabling your teams to move from static reports to dynamic, insight-driven decisions.

The Vibuh Solutions Edge

At Vibuh Solutions, we specialize in implementing and customizing SAP PLM Recipe Development, Specification Management, and HANA Live Analytics to help process industries achieve:

  • Faster product innovation ✅
  • Audit-ready regulatory compliance ✅
  • Real-time composition and labeling insights ✅
  • Cross-plant specification visibility ✅
  • Seamless integration between R&D, Quality, and Manufacturing ✅

Our consultants don’t just configure systems — they architect data ecosystems that drive smarter, safer, and more sustainable products.

Final Thoughts

In a world where every formulation, ingredient, and label must meet growing consumer and regulatory demands, data-driven specification management is no longer optional — it’s essential.

The Recipe Specification VDM empowers businesses to move beyond static spreadsheets and siloed data, giving them the power to innovate faster and operate with clarity.

At Vibuh Solutions, we help enterprises transform their SAP PLM and HANA Live environments into intelligent, connected systems — where every specification tells a story of innovation, compliance, and excellence.

Let’s Innovate Together

Whether you are modernizing your R&D processes, centralizing formulation data, or seeking end-to-end recipe lifecycle control, we can help you transform SAP PLM into a into a competitive advantage.

📩 Get in touch: admin@vsol.in