Asset Management
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Maintenance is like a good referee—efficient but inconspicuous.
Efficient maintenance is not characterized by attention, but by reliability. Systems run smoothly, maintenance is planned, and malfunctions are rare. In practice, however, you often face other challenges: on-call notifications, manual processes, few evaluations. The rule of thumb is that good maintenance works best when it is hardly noticeable – like a good referee who directs the game in the background and is rarely noticed.
Do you perform regular maintenance or unplanned repairs on your own company equipment and need to keep track of the personnel time required, spare parts used, and costs incurred by external service providers? If so, you can use the maintenance functions in SAP. You can use maintenance plans to control maintenance cycles or use measuring points on your equipment and machines to predict the next maintenance date. The maintenance scheduling functions provide you with automatically generated maintenance notifications or orders, which you can use to advance your planning. Organizational and costing responsibilities can be automatically derived by storing a reference object (functional location and/or equipment) in the order. Even without maintenance plans, maintenance orders serve as cost collectors and planning objects. The order offers the option of blocking the required machine times at work centers, reserving the necessary spare parts, or starting the procurement of additional machine parts or external service providers at an early stage. Recurring work steps can be predefined in separate work plans in the maintenance area and reused for each order. The repair work is documented in the form of booked working hours, material withdrawals, and measurement records. The activities performed and the costs incurred for maintenance work can be evaluated for each reference object using SAP standard reporting.
The SAP PM module offers a preventive maintenance system that allows you to maintain and monitor your operating resources based on time or performance. Use statistical methods to identify deviations at an early stage and implement predictive maintenance. With SAP Asset Management, we support you in designing your maintenance processes in a structured, digital, and forward-looking manner and preparing them for the future. 4process offers tried-and-tested solutions and comprehensive expertise from extensive project experience.
The basis of any functioning maintenance system and the first step toward intelligent maintenance: the quality of the master data determines success.
Only with clean, structured, and well-maintained data can processes run efficiently, evaluations be meaningful, and digital solutions such as SAP Asset Management reach their full potential. The new SAP Asset Management focuses on user-friendliness. A clearly structured representation of technical objects in the system, from the plant to the installed equipment, creates the basis for good orientation in the system. Those who are confident in navigating the system work more efficiently, avoid errors, and lay the foundation for stable processes.
No matter how user-friendly the interface and how forward-looking the planning, without clean master data, the foundation is missing. That is why it is crucial to carefully maintain technical locations, equipment, characteristics, and links in order to create a reliable basis for all processes. Below, you can see which master data you should keep an eye on in SAP Asset Management:
Technical locations and equipment
SAP uses the structure of technical locations and equipment to map your asset hierarchy in the system 1:1.
Installation history
SAP comprehensively records when equipment was installed, where it was installed, and when modifications or replacements took place. This history provides transparency regarding the useful life and costs incurred per object.
Cost transparency
In the SAP system, maintenance and repair costs are automatically assigned directly to individual technical objects. This allows you to identify early on which assets are incurring above-average follow-up costs and take targeted countermeasures.
Document linking
Important documents such as instructions, test reports, or service reports can be stored directly with the object. This ensures quick access in the event of maintenance and greater safety during operation.
Classification and characteristics
Technical objects can be described and grouped in a standardized manner using classes and characteristics. This facilitates targeted evaluation, filtering, and the derivation of maintenance strategies.
Parts lists and links
Material parts lists enable relevant components and spare parts to be directly assigned to an object. This reduces the amount of searching required and speeds up repairs.
Clean, well-maintained master data is the key to efficient, transparent, and future-proof maintenance processes. It prevents duplicate entries, ensures clarity in everyday maintenance, and creates a solid foundation for planning, analysis, and strategic decisions. But what about your master data? A quick self-check can give you an initial idea of the quality of your data.
If you answered “yes” to four or more of these questions, your master data is already in very good shape. It forms a solid basis for efficient processes—and we are happy to support you in further optimizing it and leveraging additional potential through targeted automation.
If you counted fewer than four “yes” answers, this indicates that your database still has room for improvement. A clean and complete master data structure is essential for transparent processes and future-proof maintenance. Together, we will analyze your current situation and develop a sustainable master data strategy that will stabilize your processes in the long term and make them more efficient.
If you answered “no” to three or more questions, it's high time to take action. Inadequately maintained master data poses risks – from unplanned downtime to unnecessary costs. Implementing structured master data maintenance is crucial for putting your maintenance on a solid footing. Let's analyze your master data together and get it into the system!
Whether analyzing your current database or implementing a sustainable master data strategy, together we will ensure that your maintenance is built on a stable foundation. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation. We look forward to hearing from you!
Structured and forward-looking planning with SAP Asset Management.
Many companies already plan their maintenance measures. However, there is often uncertainty as to whether the usual processes can be mapped in the SAP system at all. SAP Asset Management offers significantly more possibilities than many people assume: from classic interval maintenance to sensor-based measures, processes can be designed comprehensively and flexibly. We support you in systematically transferring your existing maintenance planning to SAP.
What to expect:
In SAP Asset Management, maintenance measures can be planned flexibly, both on a time basis (e.g., every 6 months) and on a performance-related basis (e.g., every 1,000 operating hours). Maintenance plans are available for this purpose, which are linked to the respective equipment or plant.
Depending on your strategy, you can:
Depending on the settings, maintenance orders are automatically generated from these plans. In the so-called planning folders, you can plan ahead for the scheduled resources, activities, and materials. Future orders can also be rescheduled as needed. The result: your maintenance becomes plannable, repeatable, and standardized—without manual follow-up.
Simple and mobile
Well-maintained master data and well-thought-out planning form the basis for successful maintenance. Their effect is evident in simple but reliable execution. In SAP Asset Management, the entire process can be controlled end-to-end: from the fault report to the completed maintenance order.
What you can map in the SAP system:
The result: less effort, more clarity
Digital processing with SAP Asset Management avoids media discontinuity, reduces queries, and significantly reduces the effort required for follow-up work. Every step in the maintenance process is fully traceable, from the initial report to the completed order. At the same time, a valuable database is created that automatically grows and serves as a basis for analyses, optimizations, and future planning. This means you can see the processing status of an order or report at any time.
Evaluate instead of guess: your maintenance in figures
Maintenance is measurable. SAP Asset Management allows you to derive all relevant key figures directly from the system. Whether it's fault frequency, order throughput times, or plant availability: if you have an overview, you can optimize in a targeted manner.
In combination with SAP Fiori, Embedded Analytics, or SAP Analytics Cloud, these key figures can be:
You decide whether to rely on the system standard or design your own KPI dashboards.
Use SAP standard processes to manage your test and measurement equipment. We support you in designing your processes for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing test equipment based on your specific requirements. Manage your test and measurement equipment as equipment and functional locations. Create EAM orders (cost recording & CO reporting) and inspection lots (results and error recording) for their inspection and calibration. Schedule these using regularly scheduled maintenance plans and provide instructions for performing tests using your own work plans. Maintain an overview using measurement counters, result histories, and many other evaluations. With SAP Asset Management, you can manage your test equipment centrally and clearly. All relevant data, from initial calibration to regular tests and maintenance intervals, is stored in the system. Automatic reminders ensure that inspections are carried out on time and that no deadlines are missed. This allows you to keep track of the status of your test equipment, increase operational reliability, and meet regulatory requirements with ease. Integration into overall maintenance ensures that test equipment is available and ready for use at all times, reducing downtime and increasing the quality of your processes.
No. The SAP PM module is usually included in the standard SAP license and only needs to be set up. We are happy to assist you with technical questions or with basic customization.
The browser-based SAP Fiori apps also support the maintenance process on mobile devices by providing a modern user interface under S/4HANA. Please contact us if you would like to know more about the scope of operation.
Arrange your personal consultation now so that we can work together to develop a sound strategy. We would be happy to support you in designing and implementing your digitalization projects!