SAP

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,

I recently got an email from an old friend.  He started to describe a process that his current client wanted to do, and as soon as I read it, I knew he was talking about the Exchange (advanced exchange, etc.) process.  So I thought I’d go over the basics of how to set this up:

1. Define Repairs Procedure – you will need a new repair procedure that includes
action 106 in stage 101, as a default. This will place the exchange line on the
sales order upon creation.  See the sample below.

2. Define Item Categories * – you will need a new item category for the top level
to point to your new repair procedure.

3. Define Item Category Groups * – you’ll want a new item category group to
assign to the correct material to kick off the exchange process

4. Assign Item Categories *

5. Transfer of Requirements * – be sure to go through all 3 pieces of configuration
in this section. This is how you link your service order to your sales item
categories.

6. Create your Service Material with the newly created item category group.

7. Create/Process Service Products – this will link your service material to a
plant/work center/task list.

I do want to mention, that in addition to this, you’ll need to test the movement type
of 411-E. Since the customer’s equipment will still be processed and brought into
customer stock, you will need to perform this movement on the equipment to bring it
back into your rotable stock so it can be shipped to the next customer as an
exchange.

If you need more in-depth, check out my book.  It goes into the details of how to configure all the pieces in service management.

thanks for reading,