Today’s plant operators and managers are tasked with a multitude of challenges, any of which—if not handled carefully—could lead to downtime, lost production, and/or higher operational costs. To reliably mitigate these risks and keep your plant running smoothly, you need to implement a solution that provides efficiency and scalability. A solution like SAP Plant Maintenance (PM).
SAP PM is designed to help tackle the challenges faced by modern plant managers and operators by helping to drive effective plant equipment optimization. In this article, we’ll cover the core components of SAP PM, who in your organization will benefit from it, and how to get started with it.
Let’s dive in.
What is SAP Plant Maintenance?
The SAP PM application component is a tool that ensures all maintenance activities are performed. It’s closely integrated with other SAP modules like Materials Management (MM), Quality Management (QM), Production Planning (PP), Sales and Distribution (SD), Finance (FI), Controlling (CO), and Human Resources (HR).
With SAP PM, you can automate repairs and facilitate maintenance requests. The module also allows you to document, identify, manage issues with, and perform asset management for any required asset, streamlining the whole process. SAP PM comes with three submodules to help perform these activities:
- Planning of maintenance tasks
- Managing technical objects and equipment master record
- Managing workflow notifications and work orders under maintenance order management
Even better, thanks to SAP PM’s integration with other SAP modules, the data in the module is kept current and will trigger processes in other functions when required. Additionally, you can use SAP Plant Maintenance to record problems, plan labor and material activities, and record and settle costs.
Core Components of SAP Plant Maintenance
SAP PM is made up of three main components that help companies maintain their systems or equipment: Inspection, Preventive Maintenance, and Repair. Here’s what each one does.
Inspection
The Inspection submodule establishes the current condition of the system or equipment.
Preventive Maintenance
The Preventive Maintenance submodule helps maintain high availability for the system or equipment. It includes work scheduling activities and maintenance planning for technical objects to ensure a key piece of equipment isn’t down right when you need it most.
Repair
The Repair submodule, as the name suggests, involves everything needed to restore the system or equipment to its ideal condition. Proactively, you can use this submodule to create purchase requisitions and work orders to reduce downtime, as well as take action in planning stages such as work scheduling, resource planning, and initial costing. But if a sudden need arises, you can also respond immediately to an event by shutting down production.
Who Benefits from SAP Plant Maintenance?
While every client and system is different, we find that there are four typical groups of users who benefit most from SAP PM: Maintenance and Operations Managers, Maintenance Personnel and Technicians, Production Line Workers and Equipment Workers, and Purchasing Departments.
Maintenance and Operations Managers
Maintenance and operations managers can use SAP PM to gain information on equipment performance or maintenance requests. The module can simplify maintenance decision-making by providing reports on planned, in-process, or completed work. Management can also use it to budget for equipment replacement by having up-to-date data on maintenance history and relative cost.
Maintenance Personnel and Technicians
SAP PM helps maintenance personnel and technicians to improve processes and efficiency overall.
Production Line Workers and Equipment Users
Production line workers and equipment users can use SAP PM to quickly and effectively manage maintenance issues so that production is not affected.
Purchasing Departments
Purchasing departments can use SAP PM to purchase spare parts and services needed for maintenance work, before they become an issue.
Getting Started with SAP Plant Maintenance
Every business that has a manufacturing operation requires maintenance tools to keep production operating efficiently. SAP PM is a comprehensive solution for all maintenance activities, and it supports preventative or risk-based maintenance and provides outage planning and work order management.
Getting started with SAP PM and making sure it integrates with all of the other complementary SAP modules can be a challenge, but it’s not one you have to take on alone.
How Can We Help?
Get the most out of your SAP investment by teaming up with experts who can design a solution that works for your specific business needs. Our implementation experts and dedicated SAP Plant Maintenance consultants can help you implement the solution seamlessly.
And, we’ve included a sample profile of one of our SAP PM consultants to help you know what to expect when partnering with us:
Surety Senior SAP Plant Maintenance Consultant
- US Citizen
- 25+ years of SAP Plant Maintenance experience
- Strong configuration experience; Good with integration points into other modules
- Excels with MPS, MRO, Order Types, and BOMs
- Completed 15 SAP PM Full Life Cycle Implementations
- Well-versed in SAP S/4HANA
Contact us today to get started.
