SAP Asset Manager(SAM) – Part 1

Hello Everyone,

Greetings!

Presently we have lot of choices and opportunities to handle a maintenance program more effectively,efficiently across different process and manufacturing organizations, however certain choices make us feel more comfortable and beneficial to drive maintenance program intelligently.

In this blog, I would like to brief about ease of using SAP Asset Manager (Spelt as SAM) to handle maintenance shop floor activities.

SAP Asset Manager is a new feather within SAP Digital Supply Chain, which is part of the SAP Intelligent Asset Management solution portfolio.It provides online and Off-line access to enable simple/easy and timely execution of asset management activities in context of maintenance program.

To begin with,I would like to highlight about the version history of SAP Asset Manager(SAM):

• Asset Manager 2.0    : JUN 2018
• Asset Manager 3.0    : NOV 2018
• Asset Manager 4.0    : JUN 2019
• Asset Manager 1911 : Nov 2019
• Asset Manager 2005 : May 2020

Key features of SAP Asset Manager (SAM):

SAP Asset Manager is an extensive Mobile Solution for Maintenance program. With this solution one can achieve operational excellence by streamlining shop floor maintenance activities by eliminating paperwork and shortening work cycles. This mobile application accesses SAP Enterprise Asset Management(EAM) solution and empowers the workforce to install, inspect, maintain, and repair assets in the field from their mobile devices.

It works mainly on five pillars of success,which are Safety, Visibility, Compliance, Governance, and Productivity. (As a Maintenance person, I say safety is first and it is every one`s responsibility because safety is productive)

• Pillar-1 : SAFETY :

The prerequisite to attain first pillar success is, we should have comprehensive SAP Enterprise Management or SAP S/4 HANA Asset Management portfolio in place by then which must have enabled scheduling, dispatching of work flows.

We could not achieve this success if we did not have mobile devices that might work in punitive environments.

( I agree, this could be debatable, as a maintenance person I can understand about the sites where mobile devices are strictly prohibited, for example a person like me working in monomers/polymers tank yard and in resin house not allowed to use mobile device. Having said that , one must have special device to handle the maintenance work under these environments.)

• Pillar-2 : Visibility :

SAP Asset Manager records individual`s work status and progress by which it helps planners, schedulers, supervisors and other maintenance crew work safely, effectively and efficiently. It helps to see the assigned Notifications, Work Orders, manage time sheets, and can attach supporting documents , also can interact using maps.

• Pillar-3 : Compliance :

SAP Asset Manager mobile application maintenance team can efficiently perform inspections with associated measurement readings along defined routes, detect potential problems, and correct them before they occur. Also, it has an ability to create notifications and alert maintenance managers/supervisors/workers to keep an eye out for potential environmental, safety and compliance issues

• Pillar-4 : Governance :

Maintenance organizations are fully dependent on the workforce experience to handle the maintenance situations and they face severe challenges on knowledge attrition.

On day today basis, we may see the approach towards a maintenance program very differently by maintenance team despite having similar experience. This shows inconsistent on applying knowledge in their daily work.

Using intelligent mobile application and guided work flows, SAP Asset Manager helps ensure that maintenance crew work according to standard procedures assigned to each technical object. It mainly provides asset information require to install, inspect, repair safely, consistently, effectively and efficiently.

• Pillar-5 : Productivity :

All above four pillars help to achieve productivity. By having Asset Manager, maintenance crew get real-time and historical data to distribute the work load to optimize maintenance program by eliminating major challenges that we have currently, which are not limited to viz., update live technical object readings, confirm work order operations, search material availability, schedule the work order operations as per crew availability, integration of crew time sheet etc…

How does it work on mobile application?

At high level, the application tracks the status of maintenance work, time spent on work and other measurements depending on the application. When crew enter the new measurements in to SAP Asset Manager client application, the client saves the updated information on the mobile device and to update the new measurements crew must perform a sync.

A sync is a connection between the mobile device and a component of SAP Asset Manager called the SAP Cloud Platform. The SAP Cloud Platform connects to the SAP database and updates it with the new information entered on crew mobile device.

Main components of SAP Asset Manager which are not limited to,

•  Work Orders
•  Notifications
•  Maps
•  Equipment
•  Measuring Points and Readings
•  Linear Asset Management
•  Time Sheets

I also would like to give an idea about look and feel of  SAP Asset Manager mobile application components:

•  Working with Time Sheet : Time update during work hour/Time-Off/Medical leave etc.,

For an instance,I am updating the time sheet for 30 minutes to attend staff meeting during work hrs.

•  Working with Notification  :-

For instance , production operator finds leakage from the reactor bottom valve, so using asset manager mobile app, he creates the break down notification and assigns the leakage picture and also first level of malfunction information about technical object parts/damage etc., to get immediate attention from maintenance team to look after the maintenance issue.

M2 Notification creation

Updating object part details

Once notification is received by maintenance crew,the status of a notification can be chnaged from Received to one of the following statuses respectively.

:                         ● Start ● On Hold ● Complete

Once we click on start notification, the status will change to “Started” and crew can add Tasks, Activities,Work Order, Note, Reminder etc.,as per the need.

Adding CAPA (Corrective/Preventive Action)

Completing the notification tasks post field work.It is almost similar to the completion of notification tasks in SAP EAM.

Completing Notification tasks (CAPA)

Notification Completion

• Working with Work Order : Assigning the work order to the notification.

If a notification does not yet have a work order associated with it, we can add a work order to the notification. If the notification already has work order associated with it, the Add Work Order menu item will not available and we cannot add a work order to the notification. But we can create follow-up work order.By tapping the + icon on mobile screen ,we get options to add the following to the work order.

● Add Follow-up Work Order ; ● Add Operation ; ● Add Part ; ● Add Note ; ● Add Notifications ; ● Add Reminder ; ● Take Readings

Work orders in SAP Asset Manager can have statuses of Start, On Hold, and Completed. We can also Transfer a work order initially assigned to the other crew members if required.The work order header lets us know the work order status, priority, and due date.

Adding work order to the notification

Adding operation and part to the work order

Clock in and Clock Out (Spelt as CICO) function is used to capture the time for a Multi-User Work Order or Operation. Also enables multiple users to work on the same work order or operation.

Clock In and Clock Out

Confirmation of work order operations: Just like SAP EAM, Mobile application has an option to confirm and unconfirm the operations.

Confirmation of the operation

Technical closure of the work order :

Technical closure of the work order

•  Working with MAP : By adding geospatial data to the technical data of an equipment, we get a full picture of the equipment. Maps allow crew to visually see their related work orders, notifications based on priority,Due for today,Near Me

Key Note: Full use and map features vary, depending on the selected geographic information    system (GIS) supplier of the company and the implementation of the maps. Also note that geospatial data and coordinates are not maintained by SAP, they are maintained by respective company or GIS supplier.

Identifying the assigned jobs using map

• Working with Measurement point and readings :

Measuring points are associated with meters and sensors. Meters and sensors are always associated with assets attached to a work order or notification.Measuring points describe the physical or logical locations at which a condition is described.

Depending on the type of asset and the type of measuring point, enter the measuring point reading in one of three different forms similar to SAP EAM functionality with upper,lower limits :- Quantitative ; Qualitative and Combination of Quantitative, Qualitative.

Measurement Reading Qualitative/Quantitative

I hope this blog helps to understand outlines of SAP Asset Manager mobile application usage for maintenance activities.

The technical aspects of configuring Work order types, Notification types, Codes and Catalogs etc.,for mobile apllication shall be briefed in next blog.

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Yours faithfully,

Pardhasaradhi Reddy.C