QM processes in Oil and Gas Industry- Feedback
I feel there is a dearth of discussion on the SAP Quality management functions and processes which are prevalent in the Oil and Gas Industry. During an implementation in the industry I had to face some scenarios which I would like to talk about.
The first case I would like to talk about is the usage decision scenario. A fairly simple one but since this involves the Oil and Gas Industry (Downstream) – Hydrocarbon product management – QCI (Quantity conversion interface).Whenever a UD is about to made and the stock is to be sent to either Un-restricted or blocked, it requires the QCI value to be entered; this is the normal scenario when operating in the foreground but if one need to process in the background then the BAPI provided by SAP- BAPI_INSPLOT_SETUSAGEDECISION does not fulfill the requirement.
Simply because it has no parameters for oil; this is a similar case to the goods movement BAPI; for which there is an alternate BAPI FOR Oil. Even if you run the BAPI in the background and allow it to make the stock posting automatically, the system will ask for the QCI parameters. There is no current setting within it to provide the aforementioned parameters. Will an alternative BAPI be provided by SAP to cater for this requirement in the future?
Another scenario was related to a storage location. If we were to talk about a single location or a petrol tank; we would test the quality of the product on the entire tank. Why? When liquids mix, they can create further changes in the composition of the entire stock present in that tank/location.
Therefore, one must conduct a test on the entire available stock to verify that the quality indeed meets the pre-set requirements. For this procedure, there is no way to manipulate the existing un-restricted stock within a storage location. To cater for this requirement, one needs to make a further action to move all the existing stock into quality. This inherently is done by triggering another goods movement, thus another quality inspection and thus the need to create a link between the original stock movements with the movement done for the remaining tank. Therein the need to look at the QCI values comes again at this point
There is the third scenario of actually inventory posting but that is correctly handled by SAP through MI10; whenever there is a posting of actual stock for correcting the actual quantity; it makes an adjustment to the quality stock held by an inspection lot. These are just some of the discussions which I wanted to talk about; ASUG held a joint SAP QM improvement suggestion at the end of March. There are other consortiums & seminars which handle process improvements to the current set of functionalities. I believe someone would have already made the suggestions mentioned above but I wanted to highlight it to the community
Thanks for the blog! I don't work in the OIL & GAS (Q&G) so I can't comment with specifics too much. But the issue with the BAPI doesn't surprise me. SAP can often be behind in providing BAPI's for their different solutions.
The storage location is interesting. You are propsing the capability to create an inspection lot for the material in a storage location? I guess in O&G you are not using batch management? We have this issue somewhat in chemicals.
But we usuallly batch manage everything. Often a generic batch number is used to represent a bulk batch in a particular storage location, (i.e. tank). So for tank 315 the generic batch might be T315. Any material in that tank would be batch T315. Obviously only one material is any tank at a time. If the tank is continuously being loaded and unloaded, (not unusual for chemicals), many places take a daily sample from the tanks and create manual 89 lots for testing them. These results then go on any COA's issued that day.
If you created an inspection by material and storage location, you'd have to have a way of issuing certs for it, (at least in chemicals). That might require a new transaction or a significant program change for the cert functionality.
Not sure why you mention the third issue as you indicate that it is handled by SAP already.
FF
The scenario i am working with does not have batch management on the materials.
The question is with certain oil tank procedures in the world ; these tanks are kept with one material for a longer period of time; since it needs time to settle and store; since its a longer period; reports would signify that the entire stock for that tank is currently in QI; Right now there is a significant program change; basically triggers off further goods movement for inspection lots once stock has been received.
Physical inventory dips need to be checked as well -- as to which inspection lots stock quantity the program will adjust after dipping; No Bapi here again;
For chemicals since there is a quick flurry of loading and off-loading there wont be a point of showing the stock in QI i believe; they can simply have a report which tells them that stock were held within inspection lots - instead of relying on the standard MM reports such as MMBE; is there not a requirement for you to show stock in QI?
The scenario i am working with does not have batch management on the materials.
The question is with certain oil tank procedures in the world ; these tanks are kept with one material for a longer period of time; since it needs time to settle and store; since its a longer period; reports would signify that the entire stock for that tank is currently in QI; Right now there is a significant program change; basically triggers off further goods movement for inspection lots once stock has been received.
Physical inventory dips need to be checked as well -- as to which inspection lots stock quantity the program will adjust after dipping; No Bapi here again;
For chemicals since there is a quick flurry of loading and off-loading there wont be a point of showing the stock in QI i believe; they can simply have a report which tells them that stock were held within inspection lots - instead of relying on the standard MM reports such as MMBE; is there not a requirement for you to show stock in QI?
In bulk chemicals, I don't see them concerned too much with stock in QI. (your third paragraph). Typically, material is made in smaller "batch" tanks and inspected in the batch tanks. Once cleared, it might get pumped over into larger holding tanks which ade used to load trucks, railcars, etc. In the holding tanks, the material is sampled daily for daily results since the tanks always getting new, (tested and released), batches added all the time.
I don't quite understand your second paragraph about physical inventory dips.
As far as your first paragraph, I don't understand how you keep you quality results linked to material in tanks if you don't batch manage the tank inventory. I would think that could result in a lot of issues.
FF
Physical inventory dips is related to Oil&Gas specifically; This calculates the actual quantity in the storage location.
Quality results are recorded in the inspection lots and can be called up through the lots as well; Do you mean something else?