Let`s get down to nitty-gritty of "Manage Workflows for Maintenance Orders"-S4 HANA Asset Management

[Pardhasaradhi_Reddy_Chelikam]

In this blog, I would like to provide a brief outline about how maintenance orders can be approved through a flexible workflow process with in S4 HANA - Asset Management while processing using phase model.

My Business use case: I have considered scope item 4HH (i.e. YA01-Reactive Maintenance) with phase model activated, and would like to trigger workflow during "Approval Phase" of the order. So I have created a "Team" and workflows with conditions, Viz:

• Team named as "Calcination Maintenance Team For 4HH"
• Approval Hierarchy for 4HH Maintenance > 1000 USD
• Approval Hierarchy for 4HH Maintenance < 1000 USD 

The flexible workflow allows maintenance team to have either the automatic one-step or even, multi-step approval. If there are several workflows are available, system checks the start conditions in the order that the workflows are defined in the app "Manage Workflows for Maintenance Orders". As soon as the start conditions for the defined workflow are met, system uses the respective workflow.

The Manage Workflows for Maintenance Orders app consists of front-end components and back-end components and both must be installed in a system landscape that is enabled for SAP Fiori.

Why wait...let us dive in...

First things first, let us have Business Partner & Employee Code & SAP User ID integration for all the maintenance team members to have them as part of manage flexible workflow for maintenance orders.

For example:

Now, let us proceed for Scope ID 4HH Activation:

OData Service Activation:

also activate UI5 application component "NW_APS_BPM_SWE".

Scenario Activation: SAP delivers predefined workflow scenario WS02000019 for approving the maintenance orders that are processed by phases. 

The conditions are predefined in order to use as start conditions in the manage workflow app. Organization can have custom conditions too if the predefined ones are not sufficient.

Ensure the approval workflow by indicating the approval step in combination of maintenance order type and maintenance planning plant:

Configure "Manage Teams and Responsibilities" for the approval of maintenance orders: 

With this app, maintenance team can manage teams or team members for the cost approval of maintenance orders. The team and team members can be mapped as responsible for an activity type with in the workflow scenario. A team member is a business partner associated with an SAP User (a Business User). As I mentioned earlier, creating a team named as "Calcination Maintenance Team for 4HH",

By default SAP provides team type as "MAINT_P_E" with five predefined functions to model cost approval authority in an organization. Choose "MAINT_P_E" using value help.

Enter Responsibility Definitions,

Now, Maintain the Team Owner. System displays the list if the business partner is integrated with user - Assign respective business partner as a team owner using value help.

Now assign the required team members(Business Partners) for predefined functions to model cost approval authority - Select the function using value help and activate the check box against respective team member.

before proceeding to create, the workflow must be Enabled by choosing the status "Enabled".

Once the workflow is enabled, the team hierarchy can be viewed using option "Show Hierarchy".

Now, the team "Calcination Maintenance Team for 4HH" can be assigned to the Flexible Work Flow - Maintenance Order cost is greater than 1000 USD.

Using this app, configure the approval process for maintenance orders - start with Maintain Header Information & Properties for the workflow.

Mention the start conditions for this workflow:

As part of create workflow steps, provide header and recipient details. Under recipients sections, we can assign either "Role"  or "Individual User" or " Team". As , I have created a TEAM named "Calcination Team for 4HH" and in this case I have assigned the team to this workflow. Team details can be chosen using value help and I have chosen "All of the recipients" to have step to be completed.

Create a deadline for the workflows to analyze overdue workflows.

Create exception handling situation when one of the recipient rejects the workflow item. I have chosen an option as "Restart the Workflow".

Now, save and activate the workflow. Workflows can be de-activated or deleted.

In the above event, I have assigned recipient as "Team"  and now let us look at the work flow steps when individual users are assigned -  For this, I have created  a workflow named as "Approval Hierarchy for 4HH Maintenance  < 1000 USD".

Note: If organization has defined several workflows, the start conditions are checked in the sequence that the workflows have defined. As soon as the start conditions for a workflow are met, system uses the workflow in sequence and ensures that only one workflow from the given list(active ones) gets triggered, even if there are several active workflows have matching criteria.

If the maintenance team is lean and organization has decided to have an automatic approval for the phase based maintenance orders, it can have default workflow, i.e. "Automatic Approval of Maintenance Order".

Now let me walkthrough the transactional data, for instance, I have created a reactive maintenance order (post screening of reactive notification) and has committed certain material for the maintenance work, so the maintenance order has got an amount of 2600 USD as a planned cost. So, as per the configuration settings, system should trigger a workflow for the maintenance order.

Post submission for approval, system triggers the workflow and work items will be available for level-1 approver in "My Inbox". 

As per the exception handling configuration in "Manage Workflows for Maintenance Orders", post rejection of the workorder, system restarted the workflow for the maintenance order 4000046 and same can be viewed using "Show Log" option.

This is all about "Manage Workflows for Maintenance Orders" App.

😊I hope my blog provides useful insights to maintenance team and I look forward to seeing maintenance teams using it effectively...

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Yours Sincerely,

Pardhasaradhi Reddy.C

My LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/pardhreddyc