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SAP S/4HANA Service Scenarios
When we introduce S/4HANA E2E Service we always speak about three E2E processes:
Customer Service to Field Service as more as the ad-hoc procession from request to field service to billing.
Service Contract to Recurring Service which starts with long running service contract, maintenance plan with automatic generated service order(s).
Return to In-House Repair which handle equipment are returned back and repaired in-house and, after the repair process, are sent back to the customer.
The three processes are rung with one integrated service E2E process. The new integrated service order process contains the service, sales, planning, execution and analytics parts.
The purpose of this blog post is to introduce the new Return to In-House Repair process which is available with S/4HANA 2023.
Process overview with Advance Execution
The In-house Repair Process with Advanced Execution is integrated with Advanced Return Management (ARM) process and uses capabilities from both of area: inbound- and outbound delivery from Customer Returns Management and Maintenance Order from Maintenance Management.
The process starts with triggering Returns Order and getting the equipment through an inbound delivery which is created automatically in ARM process and continuous with performing the inspection steps.
As a result of the inspection can be the creation of Repair Quotation which can be sent to the customer for approval or, if there is a contract for this part with the customer or it is not needed the costs to be approved by the customer, the process can be started right away with the Repair Order.
The commercial part of the process is triggered in the Repair Order: the planning is performed and costs are cumulated. At this point is the In-House Repair process is integrated with ARM and continuous with the Advanced Execution part.
The system creates the Maintenance Order in which the Maintenance Planner does a more detailed planning for tasks and components that are required to perform the repair process. After the Maintenance Technicians performed the actual repair and confirmed it, the goods issue for the spare parts can be posted.
After the confirmation the process goes back to the commercial part where the In-House Repair process is completed and finalized.
Since there is an integration with ARM the equipment needs to be sent back to the customer. An outbound delivery is created to manage the logistics process and send back the equipment to the customer and billing document requests or debit memo is created for billing the consumed and confirmed costs and components .
After the invoice is created and paid by the customer the process is closed with payment receive.
Benefits and additional features for Service with Advanced Execution
In-House Repair with Advanced Execution uses the capabilities that are provided by Maintenance Management and also take advantages from Customer Returns Management.
The planning and execution of the repair process can be triggered in the Repair Order. The creation of the Repair Order can be triggered from the Returns Order as the creation of the Return Order can be also triggered from the Repair Order.
Customer Returns for advanced execution process enables to use inbound- and outbound delivery to manage the logistics process for the repair object.
By using the functionalities by Maintenance Management, task lists and resource-related billing can be added to the follow-up Maintenance Order which is used to execute the actual repair process.
The Repair Order can collect and record the costs and revenues that occurs during the repair process for billing and financial analysis.
The In-House Repair with Advanced Execution process is delivered with standard but the whole process is customizable in SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud and On-Premise. The In-House Repair with Advanced Execution offers a full transparency during the whole process about every objects and current process stage and also easy access to the related transactions.
In-House Repair with Advanced Execution process flow
In this scenario the process starts with creation of Customer Returns Order which is used for the logistics part of the process and continuous with creation of Repair Order which is used to perform the In-House Repair. The repair is executed in the Maintenance Order which is created automatically from the Repair Order due to the integration with Maintenance Management in the Advanced Execution Process. After the repair is finished by the Maintenance Management it can be billed to the customer and the In-House Repair can be completed.
Step 1: Create Returns Order for repair objects
The process starts with creation of Returns Order by using Fiori app Manage In-House Repair where the Customer Service Representative can trigger the logistics process for Repair Objects.
As first initial step the Customer Service Representative can decide to create a Returns Order, Repair Quotation or a separate Repair Order for one or for all of selected objects*, or can also set one or more selected objects to completed.
In this process a Returns Order is created for the three object selected before. By creation the Returns Order the logistics process is performed for the repair objects in parallel in the in-house repair process.
*New feature available from release 2023
In the Manage In-House Repairs and Perform Prechecks apps, you can now perform the following actions for multiple repair objects simultaneously:
- Create Returns Order
A returns order is created for all selected repair objects - Create Outbound Delivery
An outbound delivery is created for all selected repair objects that have the same ship-to party - Set Repair Object to Completed
- Create repair orders
- Create fixed price repair orders
- Create repair quotations
- Create fixed price repair quotations
- Add the repair objects to a repair quotation or fixed price repair quotation that has already been created for a repair object in the same in-house repair.
When the Returns Order is created the Availability status of the object shows immediately that the object is on the logistics side and the logistics process (delivery creation) can be performed for repair objects.
Step 2: Perform Prechecks
The logistics process for repair objects can be triggered in the Perform Prechecks Fiori app (or in Plan Repairs Fiori app).
In this step the Customer Service Representative can decide whether a repair order is created that can be used to plan and perform diagnosis or repair, or whether a repair quotation is provided.
(The advantage to take mass decision can be also used in the app which means that one Repair Order can be created in one step for more than one repair objects.)
In this process the creation of Repair Quotation is skipped and Repair Order is created.
By navigation to the details of the Repair Object the information about the Availability of the object can be checked: the Availability Status is changed to Received by Repair Center (the logistics status was “Delivery to Repair Center Pending” of the repair object in the previous step). This new logistics status of the repair object means that the inbound delivery was created against the Customer Returns Order and goods receipt was posted for the object in the background.
In the Transactional History it is showed that the Returns Order and the Repair Order created in this step are linked to the In-House Repair Order.
Step 3: Plan and perform repairs in the Repair Order
Once the precheck is finalized the Customer Service Representative can navigate to the Repair Order from the Transactional History and can start to plan the repair of the object. When they switch to Edit mode they are able to add service products are required to repair and bill the equipment. The item category Execution Order Item is assigned to the items in the Advanced Execution Process.
Customer Service Representative can also maintain or change the billing relevance under Billing in Repair Order for the execution order items. The entered billing relevance, fixed price billing or resource-related billing effects how the execution item is billed. If Itemized Billing or Summarized Billing is maintained, a DIP (dynamic item processor) has to be also entered.
Once the details are defined in the Repair Order the follow-up action can be triggered:
If it is required to specify the repair effort by means of diagnosis and start to plan the diagnoses, the action Trigger Diagnosis Planning needs to be selected. After this action is triggered the status of the repair objects is changed to Diagnosis: Plan.
If it is required to repair the objects immediately and plan the repair, the action Trigger Repair Planning needs to be selected. In this case the status of the repair objects is changed to Repair: Plan.
Once the follow-up action is triggered, the status of the Repair Order is changed to In Process and the repair objects appear in the Plan Repairs app.
(If the process has to be cancelled the action Set Repair Order to Completed has to be selected. After the Repair Order is completed the status of the repair objects is changed to Bill.)
After the follow-up action Trigger Repair is selected the status of the repair objects is changed to Released.
When the Repair Order is saved the Maintenance Order creation is triggered automatically for each Execution Order Item in the Advanced Execution Process.
After the Maintenance Order is created the repair is planned in details and performed in the Maintenance Management. The execution status in the Execution Order Item shows the current status of the repair process in the Maintenance Management.
Once the status of the Maintenance Order is set to Technically Completed (TECO), the status of the related Execution Order Item is changed to Completed and the execution status is changed to Execution Done.
If the status of all items in the Repair Order is set to Completed, the status of the repair objects is changed to Bill and the billing process can be started.
Step 4: Prepare for Billing
If billing relevance of execution order items is set to Billing on Completion the Fiori app Prepare for Billing is used to create Billing Document Request for the billing-relevant items.
In this step the Customer Service Representative triggers the billing for repairs that was performed in In-House with Advanced Execution process and complete the in-house repair process for the repair objects.
When the Customer Returns Order exists and the repair objects were received by the repair center, an Outbound Delivery is created first to send back the repair objects back to the customer.
In this case the repair objects are displayed under To Be Returned in the Prepare for Billing app. Under the Decide screen in the repair object details the delivery can be created by the Customer Service Representative. By clicking on the Outbound Delivery the delivery document is generated by the system automatically in the background.
After creation the Outbound Delivery is displayed in the Transaction History:
The next step is to be release the repair objects for Billing under To Be Released for Billing in the same app:
The items can be released for billing if the following prerequisites are fulfilled:
- The status of the repair objects is Bill
- The status of the Repair Order is Completed and the execution status is Execution Done
- The status of the related Maintenance Order is Technically Completed (TECO)
Once the Release for Billing is chosen the system generates the Billing Document Request for the selected repair objects in the background. The billing-relevant transaction data that is stored in the Billing Document Request is transferred to Sales Billing where the final Invoice is created.
The Billing Document Request is created for the Repair Object is displayed in the Transaction History:
(If billing relevance of execution order items is set to Itemized Billing or Summarized Billing the Fiori app Create Resource-Related Billing Request – Service Order is used to create the Debit Memo Request. Once the Debit Memo Request is created it is displayed in the Transaction History for the Repair Object. As in the case of Billing Document Request the billing relevant data is stored in the Debit Memo Request and transferred to Sales Billing where the final Invoice is created.)
When Outbound Delivery and the Billing Document Request are created, the status of the Repair Object can be set to Completed.
Once the status of all Repair Objects in the In-House Repair is set to Completed in the Prepare for Billing app, the status of the In-House Repair is changed to Completed automatically.
After that any In-House Repairs can no longer be edited.
The following apps were used in In-House Repair with Advanced Execution:
Manage In-House Repairs
Perform Prechecks
Process Repair Quotations
Plan Repairs
Perform Repairs
Prepare for Billing
Manage Repair Quotation
Manage Repair Orders
Manage Repair Confirmations
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