New Maintenance Service Process in SAP S/4HANA 202...
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[2022-12-05 Added download URL for the presentation material]
Hello SAP Community members,
I put together this quick blog post to give you some insight into the SAP Community Call I will co-present with Chief Product Expert, SAP S/4HANA Service, o.frick on the topic of Service in SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.
Thank you for letting us know of your participation in the this SAP Community event listing and thank you for engaging in the livestream. Much appreciated. You can find the presentation material at this URL.
Key Details
What: 30-minute presentation on Service in SAP S/4HANA followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. You will have the opportunity to submit your questions in the chat during the call.
Many SAP customers rely on the Customer Service module of SAP ECC, and service capabilities of SAP Customer Relationship Management, for their after-sales service processes.
This is Part II of a two-part series, focusing on aspects of continuity from SAP ECC and SAP CRM. We will be looking at the new process variation that we call Maintenance Service. It is a service process that combines the best of SAP S/4HANA Service and Asset Management. This scenario is especially useful for industries where maintenance technicians maintain complex assets owned by their organization (maintenance management) and the same technicians also provide maintenance services for external parties and need to bill these services. The maintenance service order (MSO) and maintenance order (MO) are the core business transactions used in the maintenance service process. When a maintenance service item is released, a corresponding maintenance order is created. After service completion, the billing process is carried out through the Dynamic Item Processor (DIP).
Part I of the series was conducted on April 27, 2022. Be sure to check out this blog article discussing a business background in view of an industry trend. In it, you can also find a link to the YouTube recording and follow-up responses to questions.
Follow the SAP S/4HANA Community page for updates on upcoming SAP Community Calls and related blog posts.
Looking forward to the call and taking your questions!
currently the maintenance service quotation and the maintenance service order only supports one item type, the maintenance service item (item 10 in your example). For every maintenance service item, a maintenance order is created when the item is released.
The spare part item type is not supported on the MSO, item 20 above is not possible. Spare parts are managed on the Maintenance order [PM order], together with the operations for the service. DIP will pick up spare parts from the Maintenance order.
I will also explain this in the upcoming session. See you there,
This will work for resource related billing scenario. But when we want to do a fixed price billing[for the amount given in the quotation], which includes both maintenance item, spare parts and expenses.
How do we bill in this scenario, since we can't use DP92, as we want to do fixed price billing
We are currently looking at the migration of an ECC MRO (CS/PM) process which is using the RAS sales order type, to S/4HANA.
This is a summary of the process:
We receive an unserviceable part for maintenance, repair, or overhaul from a customer
We create a notification then a repair order (RAS) on which we manage the inbound from customer, the repair, the outbound to customer and the billing.
We create a maintenance order, with various operations. Then the system creates a purchase requisition for external repair and overhaul service.
In the purchase requisition, the system creates an item with the subcontracting item category L for each part to be repaired.
The system enters the material and quantity both as the item and as components for the item.
We convert the purchase requisition into a purchase order for the external repair and overhaul service.
The individual purchase order item contains the part that is expected back after the repair service. This could be the same part or a different one.
We send the part to be repaired to the subcontractor via an outbound delivery.
The parts that are provided to the subcontractor are managed as stock provided to vendor (subcontracting stock). The provision represents a transfer posting from unrestricted-use stock to the stock of material provided to vendor (subcontracting stock).
The subcontractor repairs, exchanges, modifies, or replaces the part and returns the serviceable part to us.
We create a goods receipt posting for the end product with reference to the subcontracting item in the purchase order, and a consumption posting for the components from the subcontracting stock
We complete the maintenance order
We receive and check the invoice related to the repair
We return the now serviceable part to the customer.
We could not find anything in the new S/4HANA Service matching the functionality of the RAS order type.
Could you provide any outlook on how this would be performed in S/4HANA Service?
Is there something in the pipeline for 2023 version?
the Maintenance Service process that we described in the session uses "Maintenance Service Order" for the commercial process, and the "Maintenance Order" for service execution. Steps 3-9 all happen within the Maintenance Order, and there is no change.
Steps 1 and 2 describe the inbound logistic for the repair object, and then the creation of a repair order. We are still working on the integration of the "Advanced Returns Management (ARM)" with the "Maintenance Service Order". ARM will manage all logistic for the repair object, and then launch a Maintenance Service Order as the repair order. In the Maintenance Service Order we have the Maintenance Order for steps 2-9.
We plan to release the integration of the "Advanced Returns Management (ARM)" with the "Maintenance Service Order" with the release 2023 or SAP S/4HANA.
We have scenario in the old CS module, in which we do advance exchange to customer, because we are not able to meet the TAT. As you mentioned above about using the ARM to receive the part in for repair, how can we ship exchange part to customer and keep the part in repair as plant stock after making it serviceable.
We have one another scenario, where we receive 10 qty for repair from customer, in that during the course of repair only 7 is repairable and 3 needs to be scrapped. The scrapped qty needs to be received in separate sloc till customer agrees to receive them. We need procure new part for the scrapped part, when the new part is procured and received it will go to the store and wait for the 7 repairable part to come after making it serviceable. How can we initiate the scrap replacement part demand in logistic side for procuring and shipping it out to customer.
in your scenario 1 you are sending the customer a loaner or replacement device even before inspection of the returned device has happened. This process should happen in ARM / SD, it is still in the logistics phase of the process rather than in the service / repair process part.
In your scenario 2 you do the inspection of the returned devices and then decide what to do. The inspection process is supported in the new Inhouse Repair process through an Inhouse Repair cockpit where the follow up processes are triggered and coordinated. The best practice document on https://rapid.sap.com/bp/scopeitems/3XK gives an idea about how this looks like. The integration of the Inhouse Repair cockpit with the Maintenance Service described in this session is planned for the SAP S/4HANA 2023 release.
In scenario 1, we are giving the replacement after the part is in repair process, and the repair is going to take time, we decided to send a replacement. The replacement or exchange is initiated from the shop floor, therefore how we can update the logistic process and make sure the exchange part is shipped back to customer. Once the repair part is repair completed, we need to bring it back into store as it will be plant stock.
In the scenario 2 also, the scrap can happen anytime during the repair process not necessarily during the initial inspection, therefore when the scrap happens in the repair process, we need to send a replacement to customer connecting with logistic process. Also we need to bill customer in one billing for both repaired parts as well the replacement part.
Thank you for the detailed video on the maintenance service process innovations.
I have a general query on the roadmap for the installed bases in SAP S/4HANA Service.
Based on your slide, Functional location / Equipment has been represented but the installed bases is not included.
Can you please suggest if the installed bases functionality can be used in SAP S/4HANA Service for storing the assets at a customer site or it is only recommended to use functional locations & EQuipments?
If you are referring to the installed bases in SAP CRM, they do not exist in SAP S/4HANA. Master data such as functional locations, equipment, and serial numbers can be used for the same purpose.
all processes in SAP S/4HANA Service only support Product, Functional location and Equipment as descriptions for reference objects (assets). Installed base is not supported in these processes. There are also no plans to do so as we would like to keep the close integration to Plant Maintenance processes, and these processes also do not support Installed base.
Thank you Noboru for the update. It has helped me clarify that the roadmap is to use the functional locations, equipment's and Serial Numbers for both internal and external assets.
Thank you Oliver for the clarification. It has helped me clarify that the roadmap is to use the functional locations, equipment's and Serial Numbers for both internal and external assets.
i have a question regarding configurable materials. Will it be possible in the future to have configurable materials as components within the Service/Maintanance order?
Now the Message IW292 appears which is also described in Note 1926667 .
On the roadmap I have seen the "Ability to consume serialized parts through service and repair confirmations"
I have a feeling that you have a very specific usage of RE-FX objects and PSCD Contracts in mind – I am assuming you are talking about them in a single process for service, rather than two separate process (one for RF-FX, and the other for PSCD).
Would you mind sharing what usage you have in mind to clarify your question?
The ability for serialized parts is not related of configurable materials, so it will not be a solution for the restriction described in the note.
What is a concrete scenario you have in mind that requires configurable materials as components service/maintenance orders?
I would have thought that configurable materials are not suitable as components to be consumed in the maintenance process, as you would like to manage the inventory of such components.
The scenario is that we have for example Battery as configurable materials which needs to be mounted. These type of batteries have a wide range of specifications because of this we use them as configurable materials.
It is not necessary for the technician to configure them, this will be done by backoffice. But it would be good to add them as component to be able to consume them.
We are currently facing a requirement for intercompany process in the Maintenance Service order. In the restriction note (3209741) it is mentioned that intercompany billing is not supported for MSO and it is in the 2023-Q4 Roadmap.
Will the intercompany process be implemented according to plan and would there be any possibility to get some additional information on this process or access to a demo system?
intercompany for MSO is still on the roadmap for the SAP S/4HANA 2023 release, scheduled for release in October 2023. The capability is still under development, so a demo is not possible yet.
But the intercompany mechanism will basically work like the following: if an item in the MSO is declared as intercompany (i.e. delivered by a different company code), an MSO order will be created in the target company to trigger execution.
I see that the scope items 6AU and 6F1 are released to S/4 Hana DE and US only at this stage. What is the implication of this on a customer working in the United Kingdom (S/4Hana 2022) who wishes to investigate this new functionality?
Please note that not all scope items that are available for a given country/region are localized to comply with business and legal requirements in the given country/region. Some of the available scope items can only be used for standard business processes based on the preconfigured settings.
From my experience, you would have the following options:
Manually configure the scenario
Manually load the Best Practice content into the system and then adjust the configuration where necessary
Which option is more efficient would probably depend on how far the target country content (UK) differs from US/DE.
For the on-premise deployment of SAP S/4HANA, there is a fully-activated appliance (a system image that let you easily establish a fully configured S/4HANA instance on a Cloud infrastructure such as AWS, Azure, and GCP). For investigative work, you might like to consider it. Even if you decided not to go with it, the demo guide might still be useful: "Maintenance Service: 2022" (from the linked page above).
As I understand it, this is a question on two different and very specific features that exist in SAP CRM: (1) one with RE-FX integration with CRM, and (2) the other PSCD integration with CRM. Is this a correct understanding?
As a general remark, SAP S/4HANA Service is not a one-to-one replacement of the service capabilities that SAP CRM has had.
Regarding RE-FX integration with SAP CRM, if I understand it correct, the integration has been rather basic and is meant to be more for a sales process of real estate objects e.g. apartments, and not necessarily for service processes. There is no concrete plan to cover it in SAP S/4HANA Service. As such, I don't think we have a specific "migration path" for this feature.
The other scenario about PSCD... I am not very familiar with it, but is it related to social services? If so, might I suggest that you ask the question in a forum related to social services? This way, I believe you could get responses more relevant to your interest.
Unfortunately, Oliver and I did not cover this specific industry in our demo and presentation, and I am not sure if we can be useful for you in this context. Wishing you best of luck.
Could you please expand on your question, please? I suppose "ITSM" could stand for different things in different context. How is this related to the context of our presentation?
Our presentation was pretty much focused on asset maintenance services mainly in asset-intensive industries. Technically, the context was our ECC module called "Customer Service" or CS, and how similar capabilities are provided within SAP S/4HANA.
New S/4 HANA Service is simplified solution, but it has come up with lots of limitations, down the line of 5 years do not have many improvements. Even basic features like warranty check not works properly.
In-Inhouse request (REPA) it reads warranty dates from equipment, whereas in service request (SRVR) it reads warranty start date and master warranty. If same equipment used in two process (In-house and field service) logic is failed.
New In-House repair is not a good functionality, it did not have output, attachment, email, categorization, activity, task, SLA functionality, as like service request. It should be exact as similar as service request (SRVR) and actions should be add for logistic integration.
No determination of Service organization in order, system should determine it service organization as like service team.
Repair quotation and repair order do not have warranty fields.
Currently repair quotation/order supports one equipment only, no multiple equipment's
In reference object list must have warranty field, it is useful when there are multiple technical objects, so against each object warranty details can be viewed.
Service request do not have vendor/manufacturer master warranty field.
Service request do not have contract determination functionality.
There is no field for company code, planning plant in request/order/confirmation, customer not able to differentiate documents based on this important fields.
Categorization schema is not much powerful, as like quality catalogs, SAP should add functionality of use of Quality catalogs as like notification, so customer can use categorization or quality catalogs.
No integration of In-House repair with QM to trigger QM notification.
Goods issue through transaction MIGO or FIORI app Post Goods Movement, not reflect back in service order transaction history. Further control should be in place that system should not post again additional material consumption document from confirmation (backflush)
For service to SD sales order integration flexibility should be there to mention different sales document types with any number range.
When confirmation canceled it did not reset service order item statuses, currently statuses need to be reset manually.
S/4 Service do not come with any Service resource planning functionality, SAP strategy is for resource planning customer to have SAP FSM, but what if customer do not have FSM and do not want to go for SAP FSM just for resource planning?. There should be basic service resource planning functionality.
Advance shipment introduced with traditional approach same as SAP CS, looks like lift and shift from CS to S/4 Service, no flexibility to create sales order for customer and technician.
Currently One Service order = One Sales order which is poor design. There is no provision for specify sales document type in configuration.
From search service order apps there must be option of create follow up documents, currently user have to go in each transaction detail and have to create follow up.
Maintenance service order (MSO) is again not good solution, SAP recommending adopt new S/4 Service module and again introduced old concept, where MSO1 will replicate in PM order, again work with operation (task list), component and resource related billing (This introduced for customer who use heavy use of operations). In old CS resource related billing based on DIP is complex one, same again have to use, if customer choose to go with Service and MSO option.
Such limitations are posing challenges in projects, customer who are using SAP ECC CS for them it is more challenging because customer never want to lose existing functionalities.
Thank you for taking the time to communicate your experience and thoughts in detail. Your feedback has been passed to our development organization responsible for SAP S/4HANA Service. Your feedback is taken seriously, and we will strive to improve the quality of our solution to further assist business organizations.
intercompany billing for Service Orders (including MSO) will be shipped with release S/4HANA 2023 in October. We use some standard capabilities for this, so a manual work around using the same approach might be feasible.
Down payment is a more complex issue: in a full down payment scenario, a down payment should be applicable across items and orders, i.e. a customer pays a down payment, and the amount can be consumed by several service items or orders. A Down payment scenario like this is still on the roadmap. If you look for a simple pre-payment of an individual service order item, you might want to look into billing plans for service orders.
Could you please elaborate around manual work around using the same approach for intercompany scenario?
E.g. Company A - Create Maintenance Service Contract, Service Quotation and MSO. If this is the case, then what the MSO is going to record for Company A?
Company B - Create new MSO with sold-to-party Company A. MSO will record every activity performed during the maintenance.
2. I am looking for an initial pre-payment of an individual MSO. The initial pre-payment could be for 20% of the net value. The rest is going to be invoiced at the end the service. If this is the case, then billing plans for service orders is still a valid option?
Here is a schema of how intercompany service execution will be supported in the upcoming 2023 release:
Commercial company A has the service contract, service quote, and the service order - i.e. all selling & commercial entities. There will be a new service item type "Intercompany Service Item" which will trigger an additional service order in the executing company. This executing service order can be of any type, including MSO. The Maintenance Order for execution and all costs will only be created in the executing company. This will trigger an intercompany invoice.
Could you recommend some documentation about the functionality of Contracts for Maintenance Service Orders in S/4HANA 2022? *or even something from 2023 version...
In the DEMO, Oliver mentions that basically pull pricing conditions from the contract but also assign controlling of the maintenance service order to the contract and all the commercial terms remain in the contract not in the MSO.
But I am still not able to find detailed information about this.
One thing I forgot to mention: the Service Management capabilities, specifically the MSO option, have a number of gaps in the 2022 release. Note 3209741 describes some of them, the note will be extended over time. The release SAP S/4HANA 2023 comes with a large numbers of innovations to close many of these gaps. But this release also comes with changes in the Service Management area that make an upgrade of a productive system from 2022 or earlier to 2023 or later more difficult for the Service Management objects.
To this end, we strongly recommend to use release SAP S/4HANA 2023 or later for productive usage of the Service Management capabilities.
Generally, Service Contract management is not different if used with a "standard" SRVO order or an MSO order. If a contract is found, price conditions will also be pulled from the contract. The commercial terms of the service order (e.g. MSO) will still be valid and be applied.
The MSO scenario (which will be re-named to "Service with advanced execution" in the 2023 release) has introduced a new controlling scenario called "item based accounting". Here the service order item becomes the controlling object, but the contract is also stored in the accounting record so that contract controlling is still possible:
We are still working on the 2023 documentation where this will be described in more detail.
Is part of the roadmap to allow "service with advanced execution" to partially or fully invoice the service contract at the beginning and then recognise revenue based on the execution of the MSO? Similar to the "Recognise Revenue on Cost Based Percentage of Completion (POC)" or "Recognise Revenue on Revenue Based Percentage of Completion" method for projects.
I know there is a time based revenue recognition method for a service contract, but I am looking for a hybrid method so that I am allowed to invoice and then perform my revenue recognition based on the progress of work performed through the maintenance service orders. Or is this possible now?
For something related to the production system, I would suggest you use the normal product support channel for our customers. I am not entirely certain about this error, and we cannot investigate your production system as part of the community.
The scenario we demonstrated in this session was called "Maintenance Service Order", and is planned to change the name to "Service with Advanced Execution" as of the upcoming release 2023.
In this scenario, the execution is done through the maintenance order, which already has the standard connectivity with SAP Service and Asset Manager. I trust that you are aware of this. This maintenance order is linked to a service order. At present, however, the standard connectivity does not bring the data on the service order to the mobile device (such as the customer number and name). This could be done as part of the enhancement in a customer project.
Adding this to the standard functionality is currently under discussion with no timeline.
For features related to revenue recognition in the context of maintenance service order, I suggest you refer to the following resources available in SAP Road Map Explorer:
For the available item, you can open the tab named "Features" and get the following links for further resources:
With this release, Event-Based Revenue Recognition is integrated with SAP S/4HANA Maintenance Service. Hence, you can now conduct Event-Based Revenue Recognition for maintenance service orders.
Please take note of the disclaimer in both of the items. Especially for planned item:
All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
What's really surprising is the absence of functionalities such as batch management or separate valuation in the case of repairs (very important functionalities in the aeronautical industry).
What about a mixed in-house repair scenario where part of the service has to be done by an external vendor (subcontracting), for example when shop doesn't have full repair capability available.
For this piece of repair when service is performed externally, can we trigger a purchase requisition/service subcontracting PO creation from the maintenance order described in scope item 3XK (assuming that the component/part to be repaired is first received at the main shop for initial inspection, then service will be finalized at vendor service provider location)?
Would it be possible to have few "operations" to be processed internally (at repair shop) and another one to be processed externally (subcontracting vendor), similar to what we have in old ECC SAP CS?
