Author: piehlm

Next, we’ll talk about configuring the service order to be allowed for refurbishment processing.  This is ultimately what allows the service order to work in our in-house scenario.  The refurbishment processing is simply the act that takes in a material and allows you to perform a repair, a fix, an upgrade or whatever, and then deliver the product back out again.

This piece will copy setting if you perform a copy from service order.

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Maintenance and Service Processing->Maintenance and Service Orders->Functions and Settings for Order Types->Indicate Order Types for Refurbishment Processing

From here, if you want to use refurbishment, just check the box.  If you copied an existing order type like SM03, this field will already be checked.

Thanks for reading,

Now that you are familiar with creating an order type, the next most important piece of configuration is the number range.  Without the number range, your order type is pretty much useless.  So in this lesson I’m going to over the transaction OION, which the service order numbers range in configuration.

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Maintenance and Service Processing->Maintenance and Service Orders->Functions and Settings for Order Types->Configure Number Ranges

Now once you enter the transaction, there are several key areas to visit.  Since I’m a fan of going backwards in configuration, why change tradition 🙂  The first thing I recommend is pressing the mountain button (Overview).  This will show you what number ranges are assigned to each group.  It’s rare that you will create a new group or a new number range, but if you need it, have at it.  This will show what’s been used where.

For example, the standard service orders get connected to Modules.  If you didn’t know that, you could quickly find out here because you can see that the standard SM01, SM02 & SM03 along with the PM and QM order types are all part of this number range.

Now that you know what range you’d like to assign your service order to, you come into the maintain groups.

If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you will find any order types that haven’t been assigned to a number range.  Take special note, even if you copy from an existing service order type, the number range is NOT assigned to the order type.  This must occur every time (and in every system, since transporting a number range is usually a big no-no, unless it’s a new implementation with no data in it).

So in that case, find your order type.  Click on it, and press the select element button .  Then scroll up until you find the group you want to assign it to.  Check the box in front of the group name and press the Assign Element/Group button  and save.

Now, in the event you need a new group, you can use the menu group–>insert.  But, make sure the number range exists before you do this (since it will be required to create the new group).

So for giggles, here’s the number range screen if you haven’t seen it before:

You would just need to go into edit interval to create a new number range interval.  Remember, it can’t overlap with any existing ranges, so in this screen, it could be challenging since there are so many different number ranges already.  Regardless, this is all there is to setting the number range for your service order.

Thanks for reading,

This first piece is the most vital to everything. It is creating the service order type.
Like many areas of SAP, I encourage you to copy from an order type that is close to
what you want. In our case, the SM03 order type is the standard order type provided
by SAP for in-house repairs. So it’s the perfect place to start.

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Maintenance and Service Processing-
>Maintenance and Service Orders->Functions and Settings for Order Types->Configure
Order Types

Here we see the available order types. I’ve already created a copy of SM03, called
ZS03, but for this example, we’ll look at the original SM03.

Now, most of these fields are pretty obscure to me, so I’ll do my best to explain them,
and most importantly what you need to worry about.

• Open Item Management : is used for commitment management. This is used
  when you use budget functionality directly for Maintenance orders or when you
  want to have budget functionality through PS. If that is flagged then
  commitments like Purchase Requisitions which are generated from Maintenance
  Orders are checked when budget availability control is active
• Revenue Postings : this is important because if you are using Repair sales
  orders, all of the revenue is captured at that level, and you cannot capture
  revenue at the service order level. So for in-house repairs, this must remain
  unchecked.
• Settlement Profile : this is a financial setting, so I always defer to my FICO
  experts. Initially, just leave it as 80.
• Budget Profile : The budget profile enables you to define budgets for individual
  orders. You should also activate the funds availability check. This allows you to
  monitor order-related budgets without using the project system. I have not
  personally used this function.
• Object Class : You can set the object class of Investment, Overhead Cost,
  Production or Profitability Analysis.
• Residence Time1 & 2 : Residence time 1 determines the time interval (in
  calendar months) that must elapse between setting the delete flag (step 1) and
  setting the deletion indicator (step 2).
• Release immediately : This determines if the service order is immediately
  released upon creation. I prefer to leave this unchecked so that planning can
  occur before release.
• Screen RefObject : This defines what type of object will be associated with the
  service order. Typically, this is left blank, but you can define the object type.
  It’s the same screen that allows you to enter the object type into the
  notification.

I haven’t used the budget aspects of the service order. If you are looking to
implement simple in-house service, the important fields you must be concerned with
are Revenue posting = blank, settlement = 80 (unless you are told otherwise by your
FICO group), and release immediately.

Thanks for reading,

I recently encountered an issue that had me baffled for longer than I care to admit.  I would run through the RAS service process, get all the way to the outbound delivery, but the delivery would always issue a warning about the complete delivery flag.  So I quickly went to my own system, did an example and couldn’t replicate the same issue.  So I started checking configuration

• requirements type
• schedule lines
• item categories
• order types
• deliveries
• delivery item category
• etc…

Every place I looked was set up the same.  Finally, I had no choice to but to go into Debug.  So after spending a while in there, finally found a reference to a flag LIPS-UPFLU.  I didn’t recognize this field, when to look at it and found it was talking about update the document flow.  Lightbulb!!!  I finally decided to look at copy control to the delivery.  It turned out for the newly created item category, the update document flow check box was blank.  As soon as I updated this to X, the delivery created without the message.  Even after all these years, I still run into things I haven’t seen before.  Hard to believe what a big difference one little checkbox can make 🙂

Thanks for reading,

I just discovered a requirement for DP80 (perhaps DP90 as well).  If you wish to have your actual materials pulled into the quote, rather than a generic material that sums up everything, you must have the Material Origin flag set to X in the material master.  This field exists in the Costing 1 screen.  MBEW-HKMAT is the technical field.

Not being a FICO expert, I’m not sure what other implications this field has, but I do know that if you don’t check this, your materials will not be pulled onto a Resource Related quote.

Thanks for reading,

Well, I was recently helping out on a new service implementation, and ran into the the error SE729, customizing not maintained.  It’s surprising, but I haven’t run into this before.  It happened anytime I went into IW42.  I checked my confirmation configuration, and everything seemed fine.  So I finally went over to OSS and found the following note:

2051088 – IW42 – Customizing incorrectly maintained

The basics are that table T162V contains entries that correspond to a table control on transaction ML81N.  I’m a bit confused how this impacts IW42, but they must share some screen elements.  Regardless, you need to go into T162V in SM31 and update the table entries to match what the table control shows.  For all the details, check out the note.

Thanks for reading,