SAP EAM Data Migration Part 1 – Introduction

Hello to the SAP Community,

I am starting a series of blog posts around the migration of SAP Plant Maintenance data from SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud. In this series you will learn some of the key table relationships, tricks, tips and processes for migrating your data using the files approach. I hope you will enjoy this series and learn what it takes to successfully migrate SAP Plant Maintenance data.

Links to future blog posts will be updated as they are published

Part 2 – Work Centers can be found with this link Part 2

Part 3 – Characteristics and Classes can be found with this link Part 3

Part 4 – Functional Locations and Equipment can be found with this link Part 4

Part 5 – Bills of Materials can be found with this link Part 5

Part 6 – Task Lists can be found with this Link Part 6

Part 7 – Maintenance Items and Plans can be found with this Link Part 7

Part 8 – Open Notifications (Future Topic)

Part 9 – Open Work Orders (Future Topic)

Introduction

I was recently a team lead for the SAP Enterprise Asset Management work stream that was part of a larger effort to migrate a Customer from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Cloud version 1709. Overall, it was a very successful go-live, though not without some stress and headaches. I am writing a series of blog posts to walk through in some detail the methodology that was used to extract, transform and prepare the objects/files for loading into the new system. This Customer did not use SAP Data Services, nor was the Team allowed to directly connect to the legacy system. This required us to use the Files method to migrate the data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Hopefully you will find it to be an interesting journey and I hope you will tag along to see how it all ends up.

The General Process

The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Version 1709, SAP Data Migration Cockpit did not have all the SAP Plant Maintenance Data Objects that the Customer needed to use to migrate their data. A hybrid approach was undertaken to leverage what was available in the SAP Data Migration Cockpit and supplement with the SAP Legacy System Migration Workbench Tools as well as some Custom Development for the attachments to objects, open notifications and work orders.

Generally, the overall process involved the download of tables using transaction code SE16N and other transactions from the Legacy SAP ECC System for SAP Plant Maintenance business processes to local drives. Once downloaded, there were steps to review, sort, clean-up, transform and select the records relevant for the conversion. After the tables were scrubbed, further steps to link tables based on key field relationships, extracted the relevant data records, aligned the records for the load file templates and then populated the load files for upload into SAP S/4HANA Cloud using the combination of tools already discussed above. While the SAP Legacy System Migration Workbench Tools are no longer supported in SAP S/4HANA, some still worked and provided a way to augment the SAP Data Migration Cockpit. There was an extensive effort to test, validate and check the data converted using the SAP Legacy System Migration Workbench Tools to ensure the data was converted completely and correctly. Subsequent releases of SAP S/4HANA and the SAP Data Migration Cockpit expand the capabilities and provide a more robust tool.

EAM Data Objects Supporting the PM Business Process

I would like to start with a basic review, so that it is clear what objects may be involved to enable the SAP Plant Maintenance Business Processes. The following diagram describes how the master data is integrated into the Planning and Work Order Processing functions for SAP Plant Maintenance. This is a simple diagram to identify the core objects. Master Data (orange) and Business Transactions (green)  are shown as follows:

Planning and Work Order Processing

PM Data Object Relationships

The following graphic shows the general relationships between some of the SAP Plant Maintenance Objects, master data (orange) and business transactions (green). It is similar to the above diagram and contains additional details and relationships to be considered. Not all of the objects are identified as the graphic would be too complex and the Customer did not use all of the objects,

PM Data Object Relationships

Objects Extracted from SAP ECC

The following objects were extracted from the Legacy SAP ECC System.

• Work Centers
• HR Employee Assignment To Work Centers (Manually Created And Assigned in SAP S/4HANA Cloud)
• Characteristics
• Classes
• Characteristic Values assigned to the technical objects.
• Functional Locations
• Equipment
• Materials (Coordinated with the Materials Management Team)
• Equipment Bom
• Material Bom
• Functional Location Bom
• General Task Lists
• Equipment Task Lists
• Functional Locations Task Lists
• Maintenance Items
• Maintenance Plans
• Maintenance Plan Scheduling
• Open Notifications (Custom Extract and Load Program)
• Open Work Orders (Custom Extract and Load Program)
• Purchase Orders (coordinated with the Procurement Team)
• Attachments (Services For Objects)
• Long Text For Some Objects

This is the start of a series of blog posts that will go into further details regarding the relevant objects, tables extracted that were used for the migration process and the key table relationships. Not all SAP Plant Maintenance relevant objects were used by the Customer. The above list focuses on the ones that were relevant.

In the next blog post, A Journey in Data Migration Part 2 – Work Centers we will dive into the objects for the work centers, identifying the key relationships, tables and methods used to extract, clean-up and prepare the load files.

DISCLAIMER:

This series will not be a complete how to do every step needed, it is a collection of notes, comments, tips. and process steps from each object extracted to provide consistency and document what was done.This Document does not contain an exhaustive list of all the SAP Plant Maintenance Objects and how to extract them. This was based on a scope from a specific Customer, based on their needs and covers many of the core SAP Plant Maintenance objects that a typical conversion would need.

I hope you will stay tuned for further blog posts and I look forward to your comments, feedback and engaging conversations. Please follow my profile to get updates as new content is added.