- SAP Managed Tags:
Welcome to our blog post for the SAP EWM Podcast Episode 21 – Maintenance Logistics with SAP EWM.
You can also listen to the podcast episode in English and in German on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts or Sway! Enjoy!
Maintenance is a topic that is basically closely linked to the warehouse topic: be it the forklifts, the components of the conveyor systems or other equipment that is installed in the warehouse – everything has to be maintained somehow at some point in time. And of course, there are also specific warehouses, which store the components for the maintenance of machines in production or any other type of asset – and for these warehouses a warehouse management solution is mandatory.
For this use case, it is important that Warehouse processes integrate directly with Maintenance processes, to ensure stock transparency or to enable direct picking of spare parts for maintenance orders.
A modern and intuitive warehouse management solution like SAP EWM helps those warehouses, to ensure error-free work, to automate processes and to gain 100% transparency and traceability.
SAP Plant Maintenance and SAP Enterprise Asset Management
If we talk about maintenance logistics with SAP EWM another SAP module plays an important role. SAP Plant Maintenance (SAP PM) which is part of the umbrella solution SAP Enterprise Asset Management (SAP EAM).
SAP Enterprise Asset Management helps customers to achieve maximum asset availability with the longest possible life of the asset. This means reducing the downtime of assets and resources while avoiding costly spare parts procurement. It provides tools for managing and structuring technical objects such as assets, assemblies, equipment and so on.
And SAP EAM also supports customers in maintenance and repair. These can be planned or recurring inspections or it could be more sophisticated strategies like predictive maintenance.
In addition, SAP EAM also takes care of the execution which is usually done with the so-called maintenance order. This is a request to perform a maintenance task on a maintenance object on a specific date. In addition, the maintenance order is a tool for the documentation of maintenance tasks. The order is used to
- plan specific maintenance
- monitor the implementation of maintenance and
- record and account for the costs incurred as a result of maintenance
The data of the order is included in the maintenance history and is therefore of the utmost importance for evaluations and future planning of such measures.
Integration points between SAP EWM and SAP EAM
With SAP EWM, companies can optimize warehouse logistics for service parts and maintenance components.
Improved Stock Management
It is important especially for unplanned and urgent maintenance to have 100% stock transparency and quick access to the spare parts. In addition, maintenance often also stores expensive spare parts, which are sometimes also managed by serial numbers.
With SAP EWM, customers can manage stocks in a storage bin-specific, batch-specific, serial-number-specific, and also load carrier-specific. In particular, the batches and serial numbers are then also recorded exactly in the context of traceability during repair or replacement.
Improved Picking and Staging
As mentioned above, maintenance orders are created in SAP Enterprise Asset Management for planned or unplanned maintenance. These orders also contain the components and spare parts required for the process, which are stored in an EWM-managed warehouse. These components can be entered manually in the order or they can be determined via a task list.
The maintenance order automatically triggers a reservation for its components, for which a staging must take place. The result of the staging, if it is an EWM-managed storage location, is then an outbound delivery that is transferred to EWM.
Special document types can then be found in EWM for these outbound deliveries - technically, this is solved via a special initiator process code for maintenance, which is transferred from the ERP to EWM via the standard interface.
This makes it easy to configure special processes for picking and staging in the warehouse for maintenance outbound deliveries. And this is important because when we talk about the picking and staging of maintenance components, various processes are conceivable.
- Pick-up by a service technician directly in the warehouse
- Staging of the components to a specific asset or machine to be maintained or to be moved to a work center in a specific building
- Shipping of the components to an external address
The object "Recipient Location"
To better organize these processes, a new object – the recipient location – has been defined in the integration between EAM and EWM. It is defined at plant level and can be assigned to each maintenance component and it is comparable to the production supply area from the production supply process.
SAP EWM uses the recipient location to determine a specific staging area where, for example, the service technician can pick up the components. Therefore the following steps are required:
- Define possible recipient locations as master data in the system
- Assign recipient locations to the maintenance order items
- Define a staging area determination in SAP EWM based on the recipient location for the outbound delivery items
The actual staging and therefore the creation of the outbound delivery can take place, for example, using transaction MB26 or MIGO - automatically in background or manual.
It is not necessary to specify batches or serial numbers. The selection can be made by logistics within the SAP EWM stock removal strategy or during picking. In addition, the transaction checks whether outbound deliveries have already been created and prevents a multiple staging for the same maintenance order.
In SAP EWM features like wave management, picking order creation, packing, and staging can then be used without restrictions to optimize the warehouse processes.
With the goods issue posting, the consumption posting of the components to the maintenance order takes place.
Demo Video of SAP EWM - SAP PM Integration
The following short video shows the seamless integration for componenten staging of a SAP PM maintenance order with SAP EWM.
Video "SAP PM-EWM Integration"
Customer Stock
Another EWM function that is of interest for plant maintenance, is the so-called "customer stock". This is stock is handed over from a customer to a service provider to perform maintenance. The stock is then physically located at the service provider and can be processed there in an EWM-managed warehouse, but the stock is of course non-valuated because it is still owned by the customer.
A typical example could be an aircraft or turbine that is temporarily handed over to a service provider for maintenance. Technically, this has been possible with EWM since Release S/4HANA 2022 . Technically, stock usage B is used for this and the customer is the owner of the stock.
Helpful Links:
Plant Maintenance Supply with SAP EWM (product documentation)
Serial Number Management with SAP EWM (product documentation)
Please visit our SAP EWM Podcast Landing Page with all Episodes, Blog Posts and Podcast Notes!
1 Comment
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 10 | |
| 4 | |
| 2 | |
| 2 | |
| 2 | |
| 2 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 | |
| 1 |
