Hello everybody,

I am just starting to work on a project concerning SAP. What I would like to do is to manage our tools with different maintenance criteria (e.g. one group should be maintained once in a year)).

As I am only starting to work with SAP, and as a matter of fact I don't really know where to start... ;-) , I am wondering if you could give me a hand...

At the moment, we manage our tools in SAP MM. But maintenance issues are not managed within SAP.

1. What is the difference between PM and EAM? I have the feeling that a tool is more an asset and what I need would be finally EAM. On the other hand I read, that PM has become EAM...

2. Do you think that PM is the right module for adding a preventive or a situation depending maintenance when talking about tools?

3. What are the major benefits that PM is delivering? Or in other words: What does PM concretely do?

4. Would it be possible to manage the reservation for a tool with PM? I don't think so... but the thing is that it would be great that an operator could define a requirement of an important tool some weeks in advance. Which module could do this?

Thank you for your help!

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

PM vs EAM?
PM = Preventive Maintenance = Time Based maintenance

EAM = Enterprise Asset Management - PM is not the only maintenance that EAM considers.

Read the boards under "Improving Reliability" for definitions of PM and EAM. Good magazines like Uptime, Plant Services, others; a handbook is handy also.

Tools?
You mean equipment requiring maintenance, not screwdrivers, wrenches, hammers, hand drills used to perform maintenance?

2. If you mean equipment, yes the PM Module is the right one for entering maintenance tasks list and schedule PM orders, also to manage corrective maintenance orders.

3. Again, read the boards, there a lot of information already discussed here and there.

4. There is an option to reserve tools using SAP R/3; when we check it out during our implementation project we opt to do not use it. Basically the tool availability get connected to the order. I mean for SAP R/3 the tool is in use until the order is closed, no one can reserve it for another job until the first order is closed. Then we evaluate the tool may be free at the shop, stored at its case after the first hour of the first order, but since the order requires thirty six hours of work to be completed, for SAP R/3 the tool is not available to be reserved / used at a second order.

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

Thank you very much for your answer. Great discusion board with very competent persons! Concerning the different points:

1. I will have a look at it as soon as I have the time. If anyone has got a link, don't hesitate to put this link down here... ;-)

2. Yes, I am meaning equipment (for example a test system in order to test that all circuitry in our products work properly).

3. Same thing as Question No. 1

4. So, if I got the point, once an equipment is ordered by someone who needs to work with it, nobody else can book it. In fact, this would not at all reply to our requirements: I imagine a system where I can book and reserve equipment even if someone else actually uses it or the maintenance of this equipment is planned to be executed between when I am booking the equipment and when I need it finally. Could you please precise if that is for sure that there is no way to do so?

5. Having read several pages of the SAP online help, I am starting to wonder in which module this equipment is finally managed. In order to precise this question: As we need our equipment only occasionally for different projects, we always have to put them back in our equipment warehouse. As I already said, this is managed with MM. So, as you said, by declaring our equipment in SAP as piece of epuipment, we can add the maintenance tasks list and schedule our PM orders. But in which module will we continue to track them? Still in MM? Or in PM from this moment on?

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

What is your company's business? Is it manufacturing of electrical & electronic products?

I guess you mean PM= SAP Plant Maintenance?

10000 tools are a lot to handle! Do you mean workshop tools & machines, excluding plant equipment & apparatus? Pls give examples of your tools. My understanding is that tools are required for doing maintenance works while lant equipment & apparatus are used for manufacturing works.

I think the way to manage these tools in SAP PM is using the PRT (Production Resource/Tool). Have to register all the tools in SAP PM as master data.

For movement & reservation or booking of these tools in each work order, I guess you have to itemise your operations and specify which job step requires the specific tool. After this job step completed, the user can return the tool to the workshop & complete that particular operations in the work order so that the tool is available for other work orders. Also by doing this, maybe you allow for advanced reservation or booking for the tools and PRT will check for time clash which will be prompted to users. I'm not sure whether PRT will allow for tool borrowing from one WO to another.

What do you think? If these tips do not work, maybe can contact SAP PM PRT expert?

Hello John,

You are right, I mean Plant Maintenance. In fact, we are producing power plant modules (for example turbines)... so you can imagine why we are talking of so many tools. And last but not least, it is moreover assembly (not really manufacturing, as most of the parts are delivered). So, finally, I think that the term equipment is more adequate.

"For movement & reservation or booking of these tools in each work order, I guess you have to itemise your operations and specify which job step requires the specific tool" - Yes, we are just starting to reflect about this for our most important eqipment.

"After this job step completed, the user can return the tool to the workshop & complete that particular operations in the work order so that the tool is available for other work orders. Also by doing this, maybe you allow for advanced reservation or booking for the tools and PRT will check for time clash which will be prompted to users." - Perfect, that is what I need. It would be nice if somebody could give me a short idea about PRT as I am thinking that this component will definitely be part of my work as this notion occurs over and over again in SAP. Especially it would be interesting to know which modul runs PRT in SAP.

"I'm not sure whether PRT will allow for tool borrowing from one WO to another." - Sorry, I didn't get this. WO = Work order? I don't think that we are the only business needing the same equipment at several places over time, having to maintain these equipments sometimes.

So, to conclude, I don't need an SAP PM PRT expert, as I have really advanced with your help! ;-)

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

You assemble turbines, they are your product. The parts/assemblies you receive from other plants or suppliers are your materials. These are managed at the MM and WH modules.

You need cranes to hold, carry, or move the turbines being assembled. Your cranes are equipment, you need to create your cranes at the Plant Maintenance module as equipments (transaction IE01) and enter the task lists for the maintenance the cranes require (for example annual inspection and certification).

Other equipments for PM module: conveyor belts, forklifts, pallet jacks, pneumatic drills?, maybe industrial robots or other assembly line machines. They are the equipments that may require preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance. In addition, your plant have utility equipment like boilers, pumps, air compressors, tanks, fans, motors, weight scales at warehouse, instruments requiring calibration.

That is right Eugene! But the remaining question is how I track the location of all these equipments that require preventive maintenance (or equipment that doesn't need maintenance at all). Because when SAP tells me that I have to maintain an equipment, it would be nice to know where it is.

In addition, and that is my last question, we would like to permit our assembly staff to book the equipments which they need, so that they can be sure that they can really have them when they need it (or in case when several people want the same equipment at the same time, this would at least help them to coordinate themselves). I think this is the point where PRT comes in the game... but I don't know how exactly...

Thank you for all replies!

For fixed equipment you have a Location field at the equipment master data where you can document the room number or other location code.

For portable equipment I held the Operation Area Supervisor (equipment owner) responsible to know and make available to Maintenance their equiopment for the scheduled maintenance orders. Is the Warehouse Supervisor/ Warehouse Operator the responsible to know where the forklift is, not the Maintenance Mechanic who has a PM order. I send in advance, a report to the Area Supervisors with the orders that will be executed during the following month on the equipment under his/her responsibility. This way he/she can prepare and locate them for us.
If he/she did not locate the equipment, the event is documented at the order and the order is rescheduled. If the month ends without receiving the equipment for the PM, the Area supervisor must respond a deviation report because of his/her negligence the PM Schedule was not complied at 100%.

Even if you setup a field at the equipment master data to record the changing or actual location of the equipment I doubt that Operations will keep it updated each time they move the equipment to another room or location within the plant.

No data on the PRT.

Hello Eugene,

thank you for your response... The maintenance department sends a request to the supervisor to make avaliable their equipment for maintenance - that's a good idea!

That is why we are having the interest to track all our equipment and to introduce a booking function. So the supervisor can tell the concerned operator that his equipment has to be maintained in for example 2 weeks.

I found the following information about PRT:

PRT (WM): (Production Resources and Tools) = a material used, but not consumed, within an activity. A PRT is reserved to a certain activity but once the activity is completed the PRT is put back into circulation. Examples are specialized cranes and drills. These item's availability are limited throughout the organization.

I finally think that I'll have to declare my tools as equipment, when adding the maintenance intervalls, maintenance activities and notifications in SAP PM. After that I suppose that activities and the booking functions have to be implemented in SAP PS.

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

Just found a link about PRT that prooves that we are not to wrong...

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_45b/helpdata/en/93/9b853478...b38f83b/frameset.htm

In fact, I think that we are talking about "an equipment PRT". This category is particularly useful for those production resources or tools which you must maintain yourself or which must be serviced at regular intervals.

With PRT, you can allocate production resources/tools to internal and external activities. You use the allocation to determine:
- The quantity
- The operating time
- The dates
of the PRTs required to carry out the activity.

Using the PRT option, or a table in MS Excel with equipment ID, description, serial number and actual location the critical thing to make it work is keep the system updated at real time.

When Monday morning shift start and Joe Mechanic takes his clipboard with his scheduled orders for the day, he goes to the SAP R/3 runs the PRT transaction (or open a Excel file) to read the actual location of the equipment impacted by the scheduled orders ... what he will find:
* correct actual location?
* Last Thursday data which today is not longer true?

Hello Eugene,

you are a bit too pessimistic. In fact, if Joe Mechanic would find data with the name of the person who had the equipment last thursday, this would be really really fine!

In addition, you should not forget that finally the space around a turbine is limited... so normally you'll find it very quickly, even if you're only having the name of the turbine.

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

Hello everybody,

I managed to advance a lot in my project - but I am back with another question.

As you might remember, a basic requirement to maintain your equipment is to locate it before.

Therefore, I thought to use the functional location as a spatial criteria to say where to find our equipment. In order to have real time data with the correct location, let's suppose that we have barcode readers. When somebody takes for example a test equipment to another part of the building, all he has to do is to scan the barcode of the test equipment and the barcode installed in that zone.

The difficulty that I am having now is that I can't put an equipment in a functional location as long it is handled in SAP MM as being in stock. Knowing that it would be fine to keep SAP MM for stock reports for our warehouse, I don't have a real idea how to solve this problem...

Maybe anybody has a idea how to handle this problem. I was also thinking about saying that even the warehouse is a functional location - but I am not really convinced that this would be a good idea. So, any comments are welcome!

Mad Max:
* MM is for materials, MM "thinks" that the equipment is in a "storage location", a shelf in a warehouse; not around the production floor being used at the assembly of a turbine XYZ123 this week, and will be move to the other production room where turbine XYZ125 will be completed.

* If you declare the Warehouse as a functional location, you are preparing yourself to be able to plan/execute orders for painting the warehouse walls, install additional racks / shelving units at the warehouse; and you can attach the forklifts and other docking equipment of the warehouse to its functional location. But attaching portable production equipment to the warehouse will not solve the problem.

See the "Asset Tree" discussion on how to use functional locations.