SAP EAM Data Migration Part 4 – Functional Locations and Equipment

Hello All,

This is Part 4 in the series on the migration of SAP Plant Maintenance data from SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud. In this blog post, I will review the functional locations and equipment objects and the key table relationships, tricks, tips and processes for migrating your data using the files approach.

Part 1 – Introduction can be found with this link Part 1

Part 1 has the links to the other Blog Posts.

Functional Locations and Equipment

Functional Locations

A functional location is an object typically used to structure other technical objects in a hierarchical manner according to spatial, process or functional needs. The Functional Location and Equipment records are very similar and function in similar ways. To me the biggest difference is a Functional Location typically stays in place for a long time and Equipment is installed and dismantled from functional Locations as they are repaired or replaced.

Additional information can be found in the link to the SAP Help files – Functional Locations

For conversion purposes, the following objects can be linked to the Functional Locations:

• Classes and Characteristics assigned
• Long Text (Covered in a separate document)
• Documents (through services for Object (GOS))
• Document Info Records (not relevant for this Customer)
• Equipment installed
• Bills of Material (Material BoM’s are linked through the Construction Type Field SUBMT)
• Functional Location BoM’s are linked internally.
• Task Lists (both General and Functional Location Task Lists)
• Maintenance Items
• Permits (not relevant for this Customer)
• Object Networks (not relevant for this Customer)
• Master Warranty (not relevant for this Customer)
• Inbound / Outbound Warranties (not relevant for this Customer)
• Reference Functional Locations (not relevant for this Customer)
• Industry Specific Objects (not relevant for this Customer)
• Other SAP Module integration, FI, CO, MM, PS, QM etc.

Data Relationship Diagrams

In this series, I have included diagrams to explain some of the key relationships between the tables. The legend for the diagrams is as follows:

Data Relationships between Tables and Objects – Functional Locations

This specific Customer has over 100 different Structure Indicators (edit masks) that were used extensively and were explicitly linked to the superior Functional Location. There was virtually no system assigned hierarchy, mostly all manually assigned. They also used alternative labeling to change the functional location as they need to due to initial incorrect identification or improvements in the naming conventions as needed to simplify the identification of the relevant objects. These two items made the conversion a bit more complex than normal and a few additional steps were needed to address the peculiarities that this imposed.

File Preparation – Functional Locations

We needed to get the explicit structure extracted from SAP Enterprise Central Component (SAP ECC) so that we could make sure the loading of the functional locations was in the correct order. We used transaction IH01 to get the Structure for exporting. Transaction IH06 was used to clean up the list of valid Functional Locations.

IH01 – Structural Display of Functional Locations

1. Run Transaction IH01 for Plant XXXX, no selection of Equipment or Bills of Material. Just want the functional location structure.
2. Expand all.
3. If needed add columns for Structure Indicator/Edit Mask, Superior Functional Locations, Location, System Status and any other fields that you might need.
4. Download to spreadsheet. The entries will be spread out across many Columns and will require clean-up and consolidation.
5. Insert Column in column A, called INDEX. Enter 1 to N for each row in the structure. Keep this for later sortation back to original list. Our list has over 100K entries.
   • (NOTE: If multiple structure Indicators are used, you cannot sort the list by functional location or by Superior Functional Location and get the relationships correct, you require the index to maintain the proper alignment of the superior to lower level functional locations.
6. Sort by columns, b, c, d, e to AV, etc., and move rows until all are aligned (this is a time consuming and painful process!)
   • We aligned all the entries so that we had one column each for INDEX, Functional Location, Structural Indicator, Superior Location, Location and Status.
7. Make sure the keep the index for the load file sequence in the Load File Template. Tell the Data Team to NOT sort the list prior to loading as it will prevent the functional locations from completely loading, no matter how many times they try to re-run it.
8. Do VLOOKUP against IH06 for active Functional Locations / Superior Locations after the IH06 file is prepped and ready. Remove any that are no longer relevant.
9. Check to make sure lower level functional locations are removed from superiors that are no longer relevant.

IH06 – list of functional locations

1. Used to get current list of valid and active functional locations.
2. Run transaction IH06 wide open.
3. Execute and download list to excel format
4. Delete any Functional Locations that have DELETED, ARCHIVED, SCRAPPED, DO NOT USE, etc. in the FL Label.
5. If there is a Boneyard/Scrap Floc for items that are no longer valid, scrub these as well. Make sure to check that all the functional locations are flagged for INAC or DLFL. If not, work with business to review and determine if they can be set to INAC or DLFL.
6. Once the superiors are deleted check to see if there are any FL’s under that superior that need to be removed that still reference the superior functional location in TPLMA.
7. Verify data is correct, then use the list of functional locations to load it into IFLOT table field in SE16N.
8. Do a VLOOKUP with IH01 to bring in INDEX using the functional location as the key INDEX.
9. Review the #N/A and delete if INAC and DLFL. May need to keep the INAC, depending on Customer needs.
10. Make any substitutions that you need to for Work Center IFLOT-LGWID = CRHD-OBJID
11. Check cost centers against current cost center list and adjust as needed
12. Check Locations (STORT) against config check table T001L
13. Check Object Type (EQUART) against config check table T370K
14. Check Catalog Profiles (RBNR) against config check table T352
15. Check WBS Elements against PRPS if relevant.
16. Remove any references to Internal Orders as they probably are not converting.

IFLOT – Table for Functional locations

1. In SE16N, Table IFLOT, Enter valid Functional Locations (TPLNR) from cleaned IH06 file
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. Align the file with the load file template
4. Change the Company code (IWERK) as appropriate
5. Change Plant Codes as appropriate for Plant, Maintenance Plant and Plant related to Work Center.
6. Use CRHD to get the ARBPL (work center ID) for IFLOT-LGWID (VLOOKUP with OBJID). Validate that the work centers aren’t flagged for deletion or no longer valid. Get with team to fix any that are not correct.
7. Check Object Type (EQUART) against config check table T370K
8. Check Catalog Profiles (RBNR) against config check table T352
9. Make sure to insert a temporary Column A in the load file for the INDEX (from IH01) and do a VLOOKUP to bring in the INDEX, sort the file by the INDEX.

ILOA – PM Object Location and Account Assignment

1. In SE16N, Table ILOA, selection input, enter Functional Locations (TPLNR) from cleaned IH06 file and enter ILOAN from IFLOT (Loc/AccAssmt field)
2. Run in Background
3. Go to SM37 to view job
4. Click on the Settings button and change the last page number to 999999.
5. Use Save to local file button
6. Downloaded spreadsheet will need to be cleaned up.
7. Check assigned cost centers against valid Cost centers for S/4HANA.
8. Check Locations (STORT) against config check table T001L

IFLOS – Functional Location Alternative Labeling (If Active)

1. In SE16N, enter table IFLOS and copy the TPLNR from the cleaned version of IH06 and execute
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. Select all fields (there are not many in this table) and Download to excel
4. Primarily for reference if there are later issues with maintenance items, or functional location task lists.

Equipment

An Equipment is an object that is maintained and maintenance tracked individually, where the objects maintenance history is important to be retained. The object can be removed from a Functional Location or Superior Equipment, repaired and then placed back into service, potentially at the same or different Functional Location or Superior Equipment.

Additional Information can be found in the link to the SAP Help files – Equipment

The following objects can linked to Equipment

• Classes and Characteristics
• Long Text (Covered in a separate Blog Post)
• Documents (through services for Object – GOS)
• Document Info Records (not relevant for this Customer)
• Functional Locations
• Bills of Material (Material BoM’s are linked through the Construction Type Field SUBMT and the Equip BoM’s are linked internally.
• Task Lists, both General and Equipment Task Lists
• Maintenance Items
• Permits (not relevant for this Customer)
• Object Networks (not relevant for this Customer)
• Master Warranty (not relevant for this Customer)
• Reference Functional Locations (not relevant for this Customer)
• Inbound / Outbound Warranties (not relevant for this Customer)
• Production Resources and Tools (PRT’s) (not relevant for this Customer)
• Industry Specific Objects (not included in this document)
• Other SAP Module integration, FI, CO, MM, PS, QM etc.

Data Relationships between Tables and Objects

This Customer has a Condition Based Maintenance solution that internally keeps track of the measuring points and counters to send notifications and trigger preventive maintenance work orders so they did not have any measurement points or counters in the SAP ECC System to convert.

This object was one of the easier ones as the Customer had standard configuration and functionality. We used transaction IH08 to get the list of Equipment downloaded from the Legacy System and clean it up for loading into SAP S/4HANA.

IH08 – Equipment List

1. Transaction IH08, selection – Maintenance Plant XXXX, Status Excluded DLFL. (Check with Business for the ones marked INAC to verify exclusion.)
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. VLOOKUP against valid functional locations. Some equipment is not installed in functional locations so be careful not to delete them. Status AVAL versus INST
4. Also use it for ARBPL_LOCATION, ARBPL_ORG
5. May need data under the Sales and Distribution or Serial Data section where applicable. (not this Customer)
6. Let cost centers flow from functional locations except for equipment not installed at functional locations or where specific equipment may have a different cost center for settlement, then enter the cost center for the load file.
7. Check assigned Company Code, Plant, Maintenance Plant, etc.
8. Check cost centers against valid Cost centers for S/4HANA.

EQUI – Equipment master data

1. In SE16N, enter table EQUI, Use EQUNR cleaned list from IH08 as input
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. Don’t need field BEGRU, ELIEF, GWLEN
4. Make any substitutions that you need to for Controlling Area, Plant, Maint. Plant, Cost Center, Work Center, etc.
5. Check if Cost Center for Floc is the same for the Equipment, some may not be. Check with business to verify and adjust as needed.
6. Check Valid Work Centers and Plant assigned
7. Check Locations (STORT) against config check table T001L
8. Check Object Type (EQUART) against config check table T370K
9. Check Catalog Profiles (RBNR) against config check table T352

EQUZ – Equipment Usage Periods

1. Use cleaned list from IH08 as selection criteria Equipment numbers (EQUNR)
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. Use CRHD to get the ARBPL (work center ID) for EQUZ–GEWRK (VLOOKUP with OBJID). Validate that the work centers aren’t flagged for deletion.
4. Sort by equipment number, DATVU Newest to Oldest
5. Data < Remove Duplicates use only on EQUNR to remove all the duplicated entries.

EQKT – Equipment Short text

1. Use equipment numbers from EQUI and layout EQKT
2. Execute and download list to excel format
3. Only need if different languages are in scope.

Load File Preparation and Template

Used the SAP S/4HANA Version 1709 Data Migration Workbench for the loading of the Functional Locations and Equipment.

Align the fields in the extract files with the fields in the load file template as needed. Not all fields from the extracts are needed for the load file. The load file templates for Functional Locations and Equipment had only one tab in the template for all of the data that this Customer required.

Current versions may have more fields and functionality so it is important to always use the up to date templates.

For additional information about migration templates, see the SAP Help Portal (currently available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud only): https://help.sap.com/s4hana. Choose <your release> → Product Assistance → English → Data Migration →  SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit  → Migration Objects for SAP S/4HANA  → Available Migration Objects.

Remember to pay attention to the validity dates and make sure they are coordinated with the objects that the Functional Locations and Equipment are relevant for.

After these files are loaded, if there are characteristics that need to have their values updates, there is a separate load file format for this as described in SAP EAM Data Migration Part 3 – Characteristics and Classes, see link above.

Functional Location

1. Align Fields in IFLOT with load file template.
2. Make sure to insert a temporary Column in the load file template for the INDEX (from IH01) and do a VLOOKUP to bring in the INDEX, sort the file by the INDEX.
3. Copy records into template.
4. Remind the data team to delete the INDEX before loading and to not sort the file after removing.

Equipment

1. Align Fields in EQUI with the load file template.
2. Copy records into template.
3. We added fields at the end for TIDNR, MSGRP, EQFNR as this version of the migration cockpit did not include these fields and they were important to the Customer.
4. Split out into two load files, the Numeric Equipment numbers and the Alpha Equipment Numbers as the number ranges need to be changed for each load file accordingly.

Closing Comments

These were some of the easiest load files to prepare and format for loading. There are separate Blog Posts planned for the objects related to Functional Locations and Equipment, such as the bills of materials, task lists, long text and attachment made through services for object.  I hope this will help you as you convert your data to SAP S/4HANA.

Please stay tuned for the next Blog Post in this Series SAP EAM Data Migration Part 5 – Bills of Material, coming soon. I look forward to your comments, feedback and engaging conversation. Please like and follow my profile to get updates as new content is added.