SAP ERP

Enterprise Asset Management -- Maintenance & Operations

The following business goals and objectives can be achieved through the implementation of these processes:

Managing Fixed Assets & Resources

•   Improve return-on-investment (ROI) of fixed assets

•   Optimize capital equipment and asset utilization

•   Reduce down-time

Reducing Operating Costs & Increasing Efficiency

•   Improve asset and maintenance management

•   Improve procurement processes

Enterprise Asset Management offers a far reaching structuring solution for the technical objects in a company. The display of objects can be object-based, function-based, structured by type or individual object, single-level or multi-level.

Technical Assets Management includes the following capabilities: Serial Number Management, Material and BOM Management, Classification, Change Management, Variant Configuration, Document Management, Approvals, Warranties, Management of Production Resources and Tools, Measurement Points and Interfaces to Industry-Specific Systems.

Enterprise Asset Management offers you an integration to the employee administration, with the option of integrating your employees in the technical work centers and having access to information on their competencies and skills.

Enterprise Asset Management enables companies to plan preventive and predictive maintenance activities, based on time, counter, condition, or risk. It also lets them schedule individual maintenance tasks and allocate required resources, tools, and materials, and plan shutdowns or turnarounds as large-scale maintenance projects.

To ensure optimal asset condition, a process control system can be integrated with the Supervisory Control and Data Aquisition interface (SCADA), so that critical data is monitored and, if required, immediately transfered to the Asset Management system.

Furthermore, with the integration to Quality Management, calibration inspections can be created to determine whether or not a piece of equipment meets previously specified requirements. 

Configuration Variants

Work Order Management features notification processing, work order resource planning, work order costing, process-integrated refurbishment, catalog and materials management integration, updates on technical documents and drawings, execution and completion, and solution database management.

Configuration Variants

This process enables companies to contract an external maintenance company to perform maintenance for an entire facility or a piece of equipment. This can be a long-term engagement or only a single job. It includes contract negotiation and execution, contractor administration, confirmation of executed work, and payment.

Configuration Variants

Offline processing  on a mobile device, e.g. recording counter readings, processing notifications and work-orders, van-stock mangement, installation and dismantling of equipment. 

RFID Enablement

This process facilitates the optimization of material stock according to usage and availability.

From engineering and design in a CAD system, you can branch directly to the maintenance of master data in the asset management system, where you can conversely display the engineering and design documentation.

You can link a geographical information system (GIS) that offers you information about the geographical position of objects and create malfunction reports.

Furthermore you can transfer data from process control systems or supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA), which describe the condition or use of an object, directly to asset life-cycle management.

This process provides a permit-to-work system to ensure that safety preparations are carried out for maintenance activities. Work Clearance Management controls and regulates critical processes with approvals management which is integrated with maintenance execution.

Configuration Variants

A shutdown or turnaround is always a critical production outage event which has to be planned thoroughly. This process helps you achieve a safe shutdown in the shortest possible time, at minimum costs.

ERP also provides an interface to shutdown planning with external project systems for planning and developing very big projects (for example, in the chemical industry, mineral oil industry).This interface offers the following advantages:

• Universal solution for planning and executing big projects
• Consistent data in both SAP ERP and in the external project system (for example, internal project planning dates using the external system, and schedules for suppliers and service providers using SAP ERP.
• Flexible and prompt reaction to changes, such as, rescheduling, daily progress inspections, and extension of the scope of work.

In asset intensive industries are carefully tracked and monitored throughout their life cycle. This is done to ensure safety compliance.

During their life cycle the technical objects are moved between various business partners, for example, if they are sold or repaired. If receiving business partners needs to keep track of configuration changes and ensure punctual completion of required maintenance tasks, they must set up or adapt a detailed technical object structure in their IT systems and define all the maintenance requirements for the technical object and its subordinate components. This could be for a complete new technical object, for example, an aircraft, or a set of repaired components.

Takeover/handover of technical objects supports the user in setting up the data for new, used, or repaired technical objects in the ERP system.