Material BOMs are really good for exactly thesame assembly or equipment which can be for many equipment of same or different models and serial nos.

A BOM (Bill of materials) is the part list. Yes, you can enter item or position no inside the component field.

Josh

The plant is 25 years young - come from old paper system , one software with set character limits and then to SAP (mainly for accounting reasons and maintennce had to follow).

So..we have a lot of legacy stuff in SAP and this takes ages to refine and fix up. Contract cataloguers do not necc. mean a better job.

MITs is an add on - enable word/text searching thru the whole MM data. It also enables multiple selection searching.

It is my understanding that spare parts should be catalogued as per part description and model number ie very strict guidelines. We have used AUSLANG ?, now moving onto another package from another supplier.

With cataloguiing - I see a dfference between tech right and helpful to the maintainers.

For example - speed feedback for belt weighfeeders..can be called shaft encoder, tacho (meter), encoder, speed sensor and others colloqual names - some of which are used by the OEM and not by the cataloguer. Hence - this is a challenge. One cataloguer tells me that the 40 character BOM text can be used by the mainainer and use any words they like - I do not agree - as the same part could be used elswhere for different purposes. Also..we currently have the BOM 40 char text appearing on the purchase order text - people are trying to work on this to only have the PO text appear on the purchase order.

Are there guidelines on the 40 char BOM text - trying to think of how to describe a control valve complete with actuator and positioner controller - as a whole assembly.

Getting back to the BOMs - most of the field are greyed out - where do U place the position or item number - do U overwrite the iCt(? from memory at home) field numbers

Cheers


James

I think you have to contact your IT personnel on how to fully utilize the SAP PM & MM modules such as to turn on the greyed fields, to add transactions to your profile etc. Are you material or maintenance man? How long have you used SAP?

I think the issues you raised here is related to implementation rather than functionalities.

You are lucky because your management decides to use a complete business application suite rather than using "separate softwares" for different parts of business.

Why do you need the add on MIT? We can do multilple or single searching in SAP, can't we?

Btw, what version of SAP R3 are you using?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

BOMs are great, but it needs a thourough understanding of parts manuals and generic equipment and parts knowledge.

Every descent CMMS must have a function to couple parts to an equipment. One part can have different suppliers and also a descent cross-reference table must exist.

In this context a BOM project cannot not be threated as an isolated activity, but as an ongoing event that takes place everytime when an equipment undergoes "surgery".

The typical equipment parts book will have an exploded view with the parts numbered. There are parts which only can be aquired at the OEM, but there are lots of other generic parts which can be bought elsewhere and cheaper.
In most cases the parts will be referenced by the OEM in such away that they are the primary (and only ) source.
I did not find an electric motor yet where the OEM supplied the information describing the bearings as: Ball bearing SKF 3208-2Z/C3 or similar. Sometimes it will be bearing 3208, if you are lucky. Only when you open the equipment you have the change to verify. The type of bearing which almost everytime is not documented is "pilot bearing". Only when opening the equipment for the first time, using calipers, and a loupe to read the original partnumbers, a descent search in the catalogue can be done and the part linked to asset under investigation.
Other items which can give maior headache are grease and oil seals. I once kicked out a set of viton seals which at the OEM (pump manufacturer) costed $80 each, with a delivery time of more than 3 months, wich could be found at $15, but the dimensions could only be specified after physical contact with the seal.

Josh . been to IT - hence my post on this forum. Had a small muck around with fields..not much to do. Could use documents ie drawings but we keep our drawings in Notes database..much better functionality. I am in engg. Pls send me a screen dump of how U set up your BOM with heaps of entries for matching with the OEM part ID or positional numbers.

For BOM data and generic - U should always insist on the documentation stds to the vendors and lock in the $$ acc. Been there done that. we have even had Euorpena suppliers remove Parker hyd tags off valves and place their own...does not help with breakdowns replacments half way around the world. Persistance pays off. Also..U could come from the position of gathering data for VA CM activities ie need beraring and gearing data > U get more data this way. Other than that - U need to flag these items if U do stock them in the store and get them properly ID when they arrive.

Cheers

James

We use Material BOMS under Equipment/Equipment BOMs to group parts together making it eaasier for tradesmen to find. Eg. under a pump equipment there might be a material BOM for pump parts and a material BOM for seal parts. The other benefit is that material BOMs can be attached to multiple technical objects so if you have the same model pump in many locations in the plant you only need to create one material BOM and attach it to each object.

The part/item number refered to on OEM parts drawings is included in the Sort String field.

Document management using Notes database. Yeah, I experienced this but not so friendly. I think Doc mgmt inside SAP can do the same if not better for easy access when needed especially technical docs for maintenance work orders.

Anyway, why do you think Notes dababase has better functionality than SAP for doc mgmt? Have you tried SAP doc mgmt?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

Yeah, agreed some parts cannot be found in documentation & found only after overhaul etc. However, I think a BOM project will jumpstart most of the spare part lists and be updated along the way.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

OEM parts are more expensive than other vendors - I think this is a buying issue. Purchasing should be responsible to source for cost-effective parts with equivalent or higher quality. But sometimes, they just want to buy the parts for maintenance without knowing much about spare part interchangability or which vendors can supply or manufacture the parts.

To avoid purchasing from referring to OEM parts, the BOM should not specify a manufacturer for a common or interchangble item but should do so for proprietary items. The challenge is for engineers to decide which parts are common or interchangable.

Again I think maintenance should work with materials more closely.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Josh,

Also, depending on the size of your plant/facility/organization you could capitalize on your Bearing and Power Transmission contract/agreement with your supplier if you have one.

They know the parts better than we do, typically and can cross-over OEM parts to their original manufacturers much easier than the Purchasing Department or the Maintenance Department. I have seen the B&PT supplier capture the low hanging fruit of the crossover of the easy stuff (valves, hydraulic parts, fittings, fasteners, etc.).

Don't re-invent the wheel, capitalize on the knowledge of your supplier.

Or go to the manufacturer of the equipment if you are a small company. Say Goulds Pump for instance. Go to them to get a parts listing for all their pumps. Instant BOM!

This is an interesting topic I am very involved in. I sell software; so don't want to be misleading.

In any case, my software is either stand-alone or has SAP integration. In the case of the integration, it allows you to connect pictures to function locations, BoM's and the callouts (numbers) on the drawing directly to the (correct) material master. So, ultimately a maintenance person can see an aerial of the site >> click on the building they are in >> see a floor plan, and click on the right room >> zoom in and see equipment, and click on a pump for example >> see the exploded parts, and click on a bolt to see the part number/material master. Or, at that point they can bring up the SAP work order with all the information already populating all the fields. Also, using DMS (the actual repository can be elsewhere), you attach service info or whatever that is applicable to that piece of equipment or sub assembly. Ultimately, it gets rid of the huge amount of time waste of time associated with searching for and confirming if the have the correct parts (numbers) and or service info. Everything can be found locationaly. You KNOW you have what you're looking for immediately.

I know it isn't 100% proper to post such things here, but this seemed like it was so applicable that it might be ok??

If anyone wants to know more, then can let me know. And, as I said: It is stand-alone as well. It's just that the SAP integration for automated publishing of this type of content has already been built.

Again, hope I don't make anyone angry with this posting, which is why I'm not posting a company name or anything. Just wanted to let you know something like this exists.

Thanks

Rich