S/4HANA Simplifies Maintenance

By Kristina Gordon, Illumiti

With more companies now upgrading to SAP S/4HANA, maintenance departments everywhere can become more mobile and efficient. SAP announced some time ago that it would stop supporting SAP ECC in the year 2025. This has created a push for companies to upgrade to the new cloud platform, opening doors to mobility, real-time data, and analytics, along with a user-friendly front end that functions like a smart-phone app.

The first step in a good work-management process (WMP) is to identify work and create a notification. In the ECC system, creating a notification was cumbersome. SAP has simplified these transactions by first taking away the transaction input and creating tiles that are easy to use on a desktop or a mobile device. Second, the screen layouts and data inputs have also been made intuitive.

Creating a work notification is the first step. The steps below show how to complete this task in SAP S/4HANA. Notice that maintenance roles are easily visible across the top. They are called groups and are basically the security roles that encompass the tiles the user is authorized to use.  Request Maintenance takes the place of a standard work notification in the R/3 SAP ECC system. Once you click on a tile, a screen will pop up that asks only the relevant questions needed to enter a work-notification request.

Maintenance-request inputs are intuitive. When entering a technical object, use a hit word such as valve. A list will display allowing you to see all equipment masters that contain the word valve. You can also scan an equipment barcode or enter the equipment number.

The Type and Description fields are required. The Type field is a drop-down selection. Description is a free-text field.

A new feature on the Long Text box provides a standard template of questions that allow the user to answer questions, without guessing about needed additional information. The Location field is also open text, allowing detailed description. Effect is a drop-down selection that will inform maintenance of problems the issue is causing. Date & Time and Reported By will automatically populate.

The bottom portion of the notification adds the ability to attach documents from any existing file, including those on a mobile device. It’s also possible to add a photo from any mobile device. The attachments and pictures will follow the notification as it is submitted to the maintenance department and will stay as history throughout the entire process. EP

Kristina Gordon is SAP Principal Consultant at Illumiti, Thornhill, Ontario (illumiti.com). If you have SAP questions, send them to editors@efficientplantmag.com and we’ll forward them to Kristina.