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Enhancing the capabilities for sourcing in Plant Maintenance has been one of our biggest developments within the SAP EAM Plant Maintenance (2016) Customer Influence Opportunity program. So much so, that initially we split it into three different requirements: account determination enhancements, contract handling enhancements and sourcing enhancements. The end result is a new business function with plenty of functionality and altogether three new BAdI methods for maintenance orders.
The main goal of this development has been to make the integration with purchasing in maintenance orders easier and more automatic.
This process starts with determining what is being purchased. In case there is no material master for what is needed, the material group still needs to be determined. Choosing a material group can be tough, especially if multiple departments use different sets of material groups. So we created a way to set up a hierarchical set of material groups specifically for maintenance orders. This way, no one needs to go through all material groups, and can browse only those material groups that are relevant for the current order type and plant combination instead, just the way it has been set up!
Alternatively, for externally processed operations, we offer a more predetermined way to find the right material group or even source. We have enhanced the work center with new fields such as Material Group and Contract. If you perform external work under a specific work center, then you may directly assign the source in the work center for maintenance orders, and it will be copied automatically to the maintenance order.
So now you've got at least a material group assigned, or maybe even a material, but possibly no source of supply chosen yet. We've introduced a new customizing option to enable the automatic source of supply determination when the purchasing requisition is created. If this can determine a source of supply, then you'll see it right away in the maintenance order, as follows:
You may also need to take consider maintenance-relevant criteria that lie outside the scope of purchasing, such as availability of services and goods based on time or location. For this we offer the new BAdI BADI_EAM_SOS_DETERMINATION with which you can determine your own source of supply in maintenance orders.
We understand that in some cases, the maintenance-relevant considerations take precedence over purchasing, so we wanted to further support this. We've added a new option to enable the creation of blocked purchase requisitions that remain blocked until the maintenance order is released. With such purchase requisitions, you can already inform the purchasing department that something is coming their way without allowing the conversion to a purchase order.
We've also tweaked how contracts and info records are handled in maintenance orders for ease of use. Fields dependent on the contract or info record can no longer be changed, but all of this information is copied from the contract or info record. Note that we applied these same changes for contract handling to task lists as well.
Lastly, we have created the new BAdI method DETERMINE_ACCOUNT in BAdI IWO1_PREQ_BADI to enable overwriting of the cost element or G/L account in externally processed operations and in non-stock components. Does the existing logic for the account determination not meet your needs? Now you can create your own logic.
The new functionality is available with SAP Note 3139632 or with the upcoming support packages of Enhancement Package 8 for SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP S/4HANA 2021 and 2022. You can enable the new functionality by implementing either the SAP Note or installing the corresponding support packages, and switching on the Enterprise Asset Management Part 19 and Simplified Management of EAM Functions 19 business functions for the classical user interface and for the SAP Web UI for Plant Maintenance respectively.
For further details, please see the documentation in SAP Note 3139632 or in the SAP Help.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new functionality, so please comment if you have any questions!
To receive updates about future improvements, follow this blog post.
The main goal of this development has been to make the integration with purchasing in maintenance orders easier and more automatic.
This process starts with determining what is being purchased. In case there is no material master for what is needed, the material group still needs to be determined. Choosing a material group can be tough, especially if multiple departments use different sets of material groups. So we created a way to set up a hierarchical set of material groups specifically for maintenance orders. This way, no one needs to go through all material groups, and can browse only those material groups that are relevant for the current order type and plant combination instead, just the way it has been set up!
Alternatively, for externally processed operations, we offer a more predetermined way to find the right material group or even source. We have enhanced the work center with new fields such as Material Group and Contract. If you perform external work under a specific work center, then you may directly assign the source in the work center for maintenance orders, and it will be copied automatically to the maintenance order.
So now you've got at least a material group assigned, or maybe even a material, but possibly no source of supply chosen yet. We've introduced a new customizing option to enable the automatic source of supply determination when the purchasing requisition is created. If this can determine a source of supply, then you'll see it right away in the maintenance order, as follows:
You may also need to take consider maintenance-relevant criteria that lie outside the scope of purchasing, such as availability of services and goods based on time or location. For this we offer the new BAdI BADI_EAM_SOS_DETERMINATION with which you can determine your own source of supply in maintenance orders.
We understand that in some cases, the maintenance-relevant considerations take precedence over purchasing, so we wanted to further support this. We've added a new option to enable the creation of blocked purchase requisitions that remain blocked until the maintenance order is released. With such purchase requisitions, you can already inform the purchasing department that something is coming their way without allowing the conversion to a purchase order.
We've also tweaked how contracts and info records are handled in maintenance orders for ease of use. Fields dependent on the contract or info record can no longer be changed, but all of this information is copied from the contract or info record. Note that we applied these same changes for contract handling to task lists as well.
Lastly, we have created the new BAdI method DETERMINE_ACCOUNT in BAdI IWO1_PREQ_BADI to enable overwriting of the cost element or G/L account in externally processed operations and in non-stock components. Does the existing logic for the account determination not meet your needs? Now you can create your own logic.
The new functionality is available with SAP Note 3139632 or with the upcoming support packages of Enhancement Package 8 for SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP S/4HANA 2021 and 2022. You can enable the new functionality by implementing either the SAP Note or installing the corresponding support packages, and switching on the Enterprise Asset Management Part 19 and Simplified Management of EAM Functions 19 business functions for the classical user interface and for the SAP Web UI for Plant Maintenance respectively.
For further details, please see the documentation in SAP Note 3139632 or in the SAP Help.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new functionality, so please comment if you have any questions!
To receive updates about future improvements, follow this blog post.
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