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SM – Configuring the Equipment Category – Serial Number Profile

01SepAugust 23, 2016

Now, we get to a really piece. The serial number profile. Without a doubt, one of my favorite areas.

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Technical Objects->Serial Number Management->Define Serial Number Profiles

Like always, I suggest making your own profile, I’m going to show you the Z002 profile that I created. You’ll notice on this first screen there are several fields that control the functions.

Description – We will call this self explanatory.
– If you check this, it means that you must first create the equipment record before it can be used. If you don’t check this box, the system will generate the equipment record automatically.
Cat – equipment category that will be generated.
StkChk (or stock check).

You’ll see that you have a few options of how the stock can be checked. If it’s blank, the serial number is not validated in inventory, if it’s 1, it warns you, if it’s 2, then it’s required that the serial number be used for inventory and be checked before movements can occur.

Next we move onto the details of the serial number profile.

You’ll notice that there are only 3 fields that control this very powerful piece of configuration. First is the procedure.

Here are some notes on the commonly used procedures.

SDAU – This procedure makes possible the use of serial numbers in sales orders, inquiries and quotations.
SDLS – This procedure makes possible the assignment of serial numbers for deliveries.
SDCC – This procedure makes possible the assignment of serial numbers when performing completeness checks for deliveries. This checks for the serial number upon Goods Issue
SDRE – This operation makes possible the assignment of serial numbers for returns deliveries.
SDCR – This procedure makes possible the assignment of serial numbers when performing completeness checks for returns deliveries. This checks for the serial number upon Goods Reciept
PPAU – makes possible the use of serial numbers in production and refurbishment orders and defines how they are assigned
PPRL – makes possible the assignment of serial numbers when production and refurbishment orders are released. If serial number requirement exists and no or not all serial numbers have been assigned, the order cannot be released

Here is the complete list of procedures that you can assign to your serial number profile. If any of these are included in the profile then it means that serials either can or must be entered for the transaction. You’ll notice there are a lot options. Be sure to include each of these procedures that you want to include serial numbers.

The remaining 2 fields control how the procedure behaves.

The usage determines if it’s none, optional, obligatory or automatic. This field is pretty self explanatory, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.

Finally the last field:

This last value determines if it’s just a serial number record (01) or if it’s an equipment record (02). I’m a fan of the equipment record because it contains additional views. You never know when you might need the info.

The last piece is to assign this profile to a material number (sales and Distribution: Plant Data). Once that happens, all the transactions will start to behave based on this profile.

thanks for reading,

SM – Equipment Category – Assign Partner Determination

31AugAugust 23, 2016

I wanted to keep going with the different pieces of configuring the equipment category.

Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Equipment Category *

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Technical Objects->Equipment->Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Equipment Category

tech obj - equip cat 07

We will drill into the details to explain what can happen here.

tech obj - equip cat 08

Partner Determination Procedure: this is very straightforward. Enter in the appropriate partner procedure that should have been defined already.
Vendor: You only need to populate this if you plan on serializing your vendor’s equipment. Be sure the partner type you select is defined as unique in the profile.
CurrCust.: This is the current customer for the serial number.
Cust.: The partner function for the customer within the equipment master. Be sure the partner type you select is defined as unique in the profile
EndCust.: The partner function for the End User within the equipment master. Be sure the partner type you select is defined as unique in the profile
Operator: The partner function for the operator within the equipment master. Be sure the partner type you select is defined as unique in the profile.

thanks for reading,

Service Management – Configuring the Equipment Category – Define Number Range

30AugAugust 23, 2016

This is another short and sweet post.

Define Number Ranges *

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Technical Objects->Equipment->Equipment Categories->Define Number Ranges

tech obj - equip cat 05

Following the same pattern as all other number ranges.

tech obj - equip cat 06

Here you can see the number range that each equipment category is assigned.

Thanks for reading,

Service Management – Configuring the equipment category (2)

29AugAugust 23, 2016

Today I wanted to continue talking about configuring the equipment record. This is a short one, but no less important.

Define Additional Business Views for Equipment Categories *

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Technical Objects->Equipment->Equipment Categories->Define Additional Business Views for Equipment Categories

tech obj - equip cat 04

Here is the configuration that allows for advanced selection of views.

Production Res/Tools
Sales Equipment – this will provide the sales data tab for the equipment
Configuration Supported – if you use Variant Configuration, you will want to activate this view
Serial Data When Maintaining Equipment
Other Data Active

Like everything, don’t activate anything you won’t be using. The more you activate and leave blank, the more you will train your user to ignore things.

thanks for reading,

Service Management – Configuring the Equipment Category

25AugAugust 23, 2016

Like my last post, I wanted to continue talking about some configuration within SM. In fact, this section again is one of the fundamental building blocks of service management. It revolves around the equipment category. Without the equipment record (or you could use functional location or serial number), service loses a lot of it benefits. Let’s get into the meat of it.

Maintain Equipment Categories

tech obj - equip cat 01

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Technical Objects->Equipment->Equipment Categories->Maintain Equipment Categories

tech obj - equip cat 02

For each equipment type you have the following settings you can apply:

No Alpha-numeric Equipment Numbers
Indicator showing equipment category with change documents – I highly encourage this to always be checked
Indicator: Generate Event for Workflow – Should workflow events be generated
Parameter ID Object Info– this is from the object information key. For more information see the Advanced Configuration Guide.
View profile for tab index Customizing – Use this to determine what profile should be used.
Keep construction type and material number synchronous
Equipment Type with Change Documents During Creation – I highly encourage this to always be checked.

I have my general settings I tend to apply to the equipment, but as always, be flexible based on the business needs.

Thanks for reading,

Setting the View Profile for a Technical Object

24AugAugust 23, 2016

Today, I wanted to get a little more technical. It’s been a while since I had a chance to go over some configuration, so I wanted to start at the top of everything. The equipment record. For those of you doing this for a while, I’m sure this is either old hat to you… or you did it so long ago, you may have forgotten this is there 🙂 Until I started writing my first book, I only had a vague recollection. So, why is this step important?

First off, where do you find this in configuration?

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and
Customer Service->Technical Objects->General Data->Set View Profiles for Technical
Objects

Now we arrive at a very powerful portion of configuration. This screen is
what allows you to manipulate what your equipment master screens will look like.
This screen will allow you to create your own profile, and set screens that you want
shown. Here’s how.

Once you select the Activity and Layout, you now define what tabs will be shown, and
more importantly, what fields will be visible on each tab. I highly encourage you to
always include 110 for warranty.

Here is the entire list of screens that are available. Obviously, you will need to
structure what best fits your business, but I encourage you display all of the different
screens, to make sure you know your options and see what’s available. I think I might do another small book in the future to show all the different field options for the equipment record (much like my book on service notifications.)

This last portion is not something I typically use, but like the notification, you have
the option to add icons to each of the tabs.

That’s all for today. I’m thinking of doing more posts like this in the future. Let me know if this is something you like.

thanks for reading,

Closing the Service Notification

23AugAugust 18, 2016

One of the things I struggle with in the service process is how challenging it can be to close a service notification. If you deal with in-house repairs, you know what I’m talking about. In order to close a notification you must first make sure that all the tasks/activities have been close or cancelled, then you can complete the notification. Intuitively, this makes sense. You need to make sure all the steps have been completed before you mark it as closed.

The problem comes in when trying to figure out when to close something. This is easy if you control all the steps of the notification. Like if it is a simple customer call or followup there are no other groups involved. You know when you finished you job, so mark it as complete. But happens when you can’t complete it until customer service and the service shop have done their steps. How do you know??? Inevitably, this is why so many companies do NOT use IW58 (notification list) to see the open notifications. There is often so much junk in there, that it’s more trouble than it is worth to clean it up.

What about the nice little check mark that SAP that lets you close a notification when you Technically complete the service order? Well, this works great if you are dealing with an order created directly from a notification. However, if you use standard SM with a repair sales order, then this check mark does nothing for you.

This combination drove me mad. I guess that’s why I added this feature to Proximity, so when you technically complete a service order, it will go through and close the notification. it would finally allow you to start using the Notification List to see what is truly open, and could use the Completed Status of the notification for reporting as well.

Thanks for reading,

How can you show value?

22AugAugust 18, 2016

This is a question I have wrestled with for many years. The term “Value” is so subjective, that often it changes from person to person, and it certainly changes from industry to industry. A perfect example is my dual life. I spend time consulting and I spend time developing and selling applications. The value in these 2 things is very different. At the end of the day, both of these exercises produce the same results. They improve SAP service management for a business or business unit. As a consultant, I either improve the system or the processes or both. As an application, I make things easier to use through code to improve the system or the processes. With either solution, you end up with a better service management experience within SAP. However, nearly everything else about the value proposal is different.

As a consultant, my value has everything to do with the number of years I’ve been doing this (in my opinion, a poor metric to judge by), the number of projects I’ve done, the features I’ve implemented, etc.. What is rarely taken into account is the books I’ve written, how quickly I can get the job done or how well I work with people. These are all attributes that help me AFTER I got the contract, but are rarely taken into consideration during the interview or analysis phase of a consultant.

The application world is completely different. The application is typically all about hard and fast numbers. How fast does it run? how much time will it save me? how much money will produce on my bottom line? All of these metrics are quantifiable. They can and should be measured. But in most cases, you do not know the developer or the idea person behind the solution. You don’t know how many years they have been doing this, and usually you don’t care. What you care about is if the product does what it says and will you stand behind it if it doesn’t work or you need new features. Interesting that consultants are not judged the same standards. You often pay far more for a consultant’s time as opposed to a piece of software. Just some food for thought… if you are ever looking for help, I’d be happy to work in a fixed bid model. I feel it is more fair for everyone 🙂

Thanks for reading,

Partner Types and their Tables

18AugAugust 18, 2016

I swear, once every few months I have to go digging for this, so it’s time to add it to my digital notebook. If you do any technical stuff in SAP and you deal with partner types, I’m sure you have dealt with this subject. When you deal with many different partner types you’ll notice some that customers, some are vendors, some are users or even organization units within HR. Each of those references a different table. Here’s the check list. First go to table: TPAR and get the field NRART. This will let you narrow down what type of partner you are dealing with. From here, you can use the following list to find the correct master table.

When AP: KNVK

When KU: KNA1

When LI: LFA1

When O: HRP1000 (where OTYPE = O)

When PE: PA0001

When US: USR01

Hope this helps you, I know I’ll be referring back to this post again in a few months 🙂
Thanks for reading,

Training your Email

17AugAugust 11, 2016

Well, my new Renaissance training gave me a new homework assignment yesterday. It was to start optimizing my email account. the idea is that email should NOT be my to-do list. The idea is first, you unsubscribe from everything possible. if you don’t need it, or don’t read, stop it from ever hitting your inbox. This is the first step in getting control of your inbox. I did a while ago, so more or less, this was under control for me.

Now this next part is where the challenge came for me. In fact, it’s a bit of an on-going experiment. The idea is to shift as many emails out of the inbox as possible without ever touching them. This is REALLY useful for me. I tend to use my inbox as another to-do list. So, every time a new email goes into my inbox, I either need to let it sit there on the list until I do action it, or I need to stop what I”m doing and either read it, delete it, move it, or whatever. This exercise is the next step in clearing out the inbox.

I use MS Outlook, so it has built in rules. Now the challenge is that for every email that comes in, I have to train my inbox with how to deal with it. It’s funny, the machine learning stuff I’m doing falls into this exercise. So every time a new email comes into my inbox, I need to look at it and decide what should happen (this is just like real life). The switch comes that I’m writing a rule now to handle it for me automatically. So I can look at certain addresses, certain words in the subject, or whatever I can do to try to identify the emails. Now, this is rather time consuming, but much like my first exercise in unsubscribing, every email make my life a little easier. Now, new emails show up in folders that don’t instantly distract me. I have to periodically scroll through my folders to see if any unread emails are in there. Then check on the folders from time to time. This of course means my rules keep getting a little better with each email I check. I highly recommend this exercise. it’s already reduced my inbox to a handful of emails that I need to action. The rest sit there until I’m ready to look at them. if your inbox is out of control, this will make a huge difference to make sure that you focus on critical things first, and the fluff stuff later.

Thanks for reading,