SAP PM Equipment FAQ

Q1: How do you distinguish, in a simple manner, between Equipment that is being charged and not charged for service?

A1: Define different equipment categories. Standard equipment reference categories for 'Internal Machines' and 'Customer Equipment' exist.

Q2: How do you distinguish between company and customer owned equipment? Equipment on land owned by the company and land leased by the company?

A2: Same as Q1. Explore combinations of equip. category and equipment types to achieve the design objective.

Q3: How do you define equipment/material loaned/leased to a customer?

A3: Read documentation on 'Structuring Technical Systems' in 'Plant Maintenance / Service management' modules. You need to define sales area (sales org/dist channel/division) for an equipment with equipment category being one for which the equipment reference category is 'Customer Equipment'.

Q4: How can we block service to a customer? It has to be done through the FL, since most of the Equipment belongs to the company and is loaned to the customer.

A4: Deactivate the FL. This allows no further creation of transaction data (service orders, etc.). However, the existing
orders can be processed and closed. The deactivation can be reversed at a later date.

Q5: Where is a Service Contract assigned to a piece of equipment?

A5: Service contract is assigned to a material. Material is assigned to the equipment in the equipment master. This functionality is not intended for managing equipment bought from vendors (where we are getting service rather than providing service).

Q6: Is purchasing information (Vendor, date of purchase, etc.) copied from MM to the equipment when it is being created?

A6: Not in the standard system. But it can be done with ABAP batch jobs.

Q7: When you maintain an assembly in a piece of equipment, is it possible to get maintenance history of the assembly? Do you have to create it as a piece of equipment?

A7: As maintenance orders are created for FL/equipment only, maintenance history can only be tracked at that level, not at assembly level. Assemblies are mere structuring devices to have spare parts linked to an equipment in a structured manner. However, in PM orders, you can mention the assembly along with the FL/Eq. Depending on your reporting needs, an
ABAPer could use the 'PM Assembly' field in PM orders.

Q8: What is the use of the field "Standing order"? What kind of order is it?

A8: Standing orders are used to carry out on-going maintenance jobs and settle them at month end rather than creating a fresh PM order every time. Using order hierarchies, you could attach sub-orders to the standing order and settle them to the standing order to provide you with more precise recording of maint costs at sub-order level as well as a budget monitoring at the standing order level.

Q9: Is it possible to accumulate maintenance history for an assembly (not part of an equipment) for which no equipment record exists?

A9: No. But, if the assembly is included in a FL BOM, then PM orders at the FL can be used to carry maint at assembly level (no equipment is required).