I recently got a question on my linked-in account about the difference between Equipment Records & Functional Locations. So I figured, what better way to answer it than to post it on the blog so everyone can see it :). And it gives me an idea of what to write about, which some days is easier than others. So equipment vs functional locations.
So, onto the question. An Equipment Record and a Functional Location are very similar as far as SAP functionality. They can both do pretty much all the same things, hold the same data etc. The difference between these items is really more fundamental in terms of what they represent.
Equipment: this is typically any piece of equipment, say an Iphone, a printer, a laptop. They can be anywhere, with anyone etc. Typically serialized, etc.
Functional Location: This is typically more of a permanent structure. For example, this may be a punch press machine, a central office for your cable company etc. A functional location is just that, a fixed location. It can often contain equipment records (especially in the case of a central office, there may be racks, switching devices, fiber optic routers, etc.). In my experience, I tend to see FL’s used much more in plant maintenance for items that are fixed in the plant.
If anyone cares to comment further, please add it to the post.
Thanks for reading, and please keep shooting me questions,
Mike
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike
The place I’m currently at has actually created a custom partner type called a “site” record and reconfigured partner determination to assign ship-to records based on that instead of the sold-to account. (Sounds strange, doesn’t it?) They then have a corresponding functional location (using the same number) that generated & maintained by workflow to store their equipment against to build out their install base information. For them the “site” is everything and how they manage their customer relationships rather then sold-to. In fact, I’m putting in changes at the moment to allow them to use their site oartner records for pricing discounts as they’ve been manually managing those discounts for the past decade with duct tape, pixie dust, and tribal knowledge.
Important to note that the solution they used is entirely ECC based. Curious to see how implmenting SAP CRM 7.0 and true installation base records will change this approach over the next few months…..
Hey Jer,
Thanks for the comment. I’d be very curious to see it in action. I’ve heard of places using the functional location connected to a ship-to party, but never instead of a sold-to. I’m always learning something new =)
Mike