Hi, How is your day going?
I will continue talking a little bit about the equipment master in SAP Plant Maintenance. As I said in my last Blog, the equipment master is the master record and holds the data for an asset.
Just a note of warning as well, the equipment master can be configured to display only that data that your company set up. The decision on what data was to be displayed was probably taken during the initial implementation and maintenance professionals may not have had any say in it.
I am also talking about version 4.6c, but earlier versions will still have much of this capability If I am talking about a screen or field that you cannot see, talk to your system administrator about it. They may be able to set it up for you. While you’re at it, ask if they can show you all the fields that are available. This is easy to do in the IMG, which is where the system configuration is done.
Work centre
In the Location tab, there is a field called work centre. This is a for the production work centre that the asset is situated in. It is the link to the Production (PP) module. If your system is configured for this scenario, by selecting the System Condition for “shutdown required” in the work order the scheduled maintenance time is blocked out in the PP schedule.
Sort Field
So what is the sort field and what can it be used for? Pretty much anything is the short answer. Localised identification numbers or identifiers or other search criteria. It is a free text field, so care must be taken with spelling etc when entering the data. I’ve seen it used for tag numbers mainly. Either tag numbers from other systems or historical tags but also various types of registration numbers as well. Use it sparingly; look for the correct field for the data first, before using it.
Warranties
Warranties can be managed in SAP. They can be set up at either functional location or the equipment level and can either be inherited or passed on or both. Warranties can be inherited from higher level technical objects and displayed with the warranty of our equipment during warranty check
And;
The warranty can be selected to pass on to lower level equipment. A maximum of two higher technical objects (a piece of equipment and a functional location) can be displayed.
The functionality is a bit average though, as the warranty is only displayed once when you create the work order or notification. Therefore, if a maintainer, maintenance clerk or Supervisor creates a work order, the planner may not be aware of the warranty on the product and not claim it.
Classification tables
Classification tables are quite powerful and can hold a lot of data. The equipment can be classified into more than one class. The classification table has characteristic descriptions that are modifiable and values can be put against these tables. This provides technical data that is not held elsewhere in SAP.
An example for an earth moving loader could be
o Shovel Capacity_m3
o Lease Number
o Bore Diameter (mm)
o Compression Ratio
o Cylinder Arrangement
o Tyre size
Other technical data can be added as required.
There are also classification tables in the Materials Management module in the material master, so a decision needs to be made as where to store which items of data. You don’t want to duplicate any data. The Material Master is easily accessed from the equipment master by clicking on the “Ser Data” tab then double clicking on the material number and selecting the classification view
That’s all for today folks, in the next note, I will talk about equipment history in SAP
If you have any questions on what fields are used for, please drop me a line to mick@windsorbusinesssolutions.com.au
Keep safe & kind regards
With compliments
Mick
Mick Windsor
Windsor Business Solutions Pty Ltd
E-mail: mick@windsorbusinesssolutions.com.au
Web site: www.WindsorBusinessSolutions.com.au