I am implementing a CMMS program at my plant and the corporation has not given any guidance as to descriptions of the equipment and inventory other then use what works best for you. The problem is I don't know what will work best for us and am asking what other companies have done. For the equipment, we decided to go with what the operators call it.

Our system is setup to automatically number the inventory items so I am limited to using the description for identifying parts. What I want to do is come up with a description scheme based on the equipment model so that if this pump for example is used in several places in the plant, I can stock one set of parts for the group of pumps instead of how the plant did it in the past and had item numbers for each location. As you can imagine, inventory got out of control that way.

What would you suggest for a part specific to a particular model of pump? What I ended up doing for bearings is Bearing, size, clearance etc. For equipment specific parts, I was thinking of using the model number as the first identifier and then a description of the part, ie JS2100-Ouput shaft - manufacturers part number, but the mechanics know the machines by a location name and not the model number.

Is this what others are doing? I am open to suggestions.

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

The best practice says that we use the attributes for defining the exact material. As in case of Motors we define some attributes which are required (mandatorily) to conclude on which motor we are looking for. The attributes may include...Motor Speed, No of Poles, Frame Size, Insulation Class, RPM, Duty etc. These can be agreed upon as per the local usage conditions.

I think it is important to start your descriptions with a primary identifier, in your case "SHAFT". If you want to find the shaft then entering "SHAFT*" in the search window will give you a list of all the shafts. With your proposal you would need to use "*SHAFT*" search which would also pick up shaft sleeve, shaft key, shaft seal etc.

Then you can add a qualifier to further describe the part: "SHAFT,OUTPUT" - note we use a comma to separate and no spaces.

Next we would add the Manufacturer but only if this is important to identify the part: "SHAFT,OUTPUT,MFR"

Then we would add the manufacturer's part number: "SHAFT,OUTPUT,MFR,PART NUMBER"

The model number and other data that maybe relevant to purchasing the item would be included in the long text.

Mechanics would find the material via Bill of Material assemblies via the functional location structure transaction so there is no need to include location descriptors in material descriptions.

A BOM assembly would be created for the JS2100 model and attached to the relevant equipment items.

Here is an extract from one of our documents on material cataloguing.

Material_Naming_Convention.doc (27 KB, 13 downloads) Material Naming Convention

I would also recommend you have some structure behind your naming of equipment. Calling them what the operators call them is going to create a mess. Also do all your operators call them the same thing, ours don't.

The key again is to start the description with a good primary identifier. In your case "PUMP". This can then be followed by the model number and size information.

In our plant it is the Functional Location that describes the process location. Again consistent naming conventions are required here. Think how users are going to find the location. In our case we start with the location tag number followed by the official description of the location. An example is "P4903 REACTOR 28 OUTER COOLER PUMP"

Thanks David and VinMan, you have been a big help. I inherited a partially completed system that had little forethought and it is nice to see how someone else is doing it. Some of the existing descriptions are driving me crazy figuring out what they are. I see the advantage to using your system for machine specific parts as well.

Just so I am clear on your naming convention, do you name a shaft sleeve SLEEVE,SHAFT,... and a shaft key KEY,SHAFT,..., etc?

After thinking over your comment about the equipment naming, I decided to change that as well and retrain the operators and mechanics.

Thanks again for the advise.

Your database should have cells for manufacturer, part number, catalog number and many other identifiers for the part. Why would you build these into the description?

I think your example should go more like SHAFT,KEY and SHAFT,SLEEVE. I believe the modifier follows the main description.

Wally,

The main description is "KEY" or "SLEEVE". The modifier is "SHAFT". Therefore "KEY,SHAFT" and "SLEEVE,SHAFT" are correct.

Okay, sorry about that then. What about the other concerning mfg, p/n, cat no, etc?

I have heard that in the new release ERP 6.0 they have text based search that allows search of equipmetn/floc/material / calssification notification/orders based on netweaver search. Have you tried that?

Probably with would help you to at least search this things

Dear Colleagues,
As i said above as well, approach has to be towards 'Attribute'ization of the Material or Equipment.
As Attributes of a motor are concerned which may include

Motor Speed,
No of Poles,
Frame Size,
Insulation Class,
RPM,
Duty

These can be made as variables which needs to be filled up when looking for a particular. This will simplify the search process since we would be able to pinpoint the characterstics of the motor we desire thus saving HUGE amount of time in looking through the "Material Text" or "Purchase Order text".

This facility is available in mySAP ECC6.0 as well as traditional R/3 systems. In my knowledge people claim its predominant feature in Maximo too.

Cheers,

We also use Equipment Classes and Classifications to record equipment attributes. However, we still include them in the material purchasing text when this information is part of the key identifier of the item. Thus the manufacturer is only included if this manufacturer is the only one we can purchase the item from and equivalents from other manufacturers are not acceptable.