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Author's profile photo Zack Frazier

Introducing SAP Maintenance Assistant for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

The SAP Mobile Asset Management team is pleased to announce SAP Maintenance Assistant, our brand new mobile maintenance execution solution designed for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2105. The fully offline solution will enhance technician tool time, providing on-hand asset and maintenance event-related data, when and where the technician needs it.

The application leverages Fiori for iOS and Fiori for Android design languages for a best-in-class user experience, and supports phone and tablet form factors for iOS and Android.

What is it?

Most simply, we want to bring the benefits of mobile maintenance execution to SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers.

Our SAP Asset Manager customers (using on-premise or single-tenant Cloud backend) report that mobility has been a significant contributor to reducing unplanned downtime and improving overall operational efficiency. Their maintenance teams can stay in the field close to their assets, the mobile solution helps them collect better data, and easily attach pictures with personalized annotations, giving the customer a complete picture of asset health and condition.

While the two solutions have a lot in common, there are some important differences that led our team to develop SAP Maintenance Assistant.

Why a new app?

SAP S/4HANA Cloud introduces the new phase model concept as an alternative to system and user statuses. The two levels of process hierarchy are set by SAP and cannot be changed. SAP Maintenance Assistant is designed specifically for maintenance technicians working in this best practice phase model.

Read New Phase Model for the Maintenance Processes in S/4HANA Cloud for more information

The phase model approach is not yet available to on-premise customers. Additionally, SAP S/4HANA Cloud has limited extensibility compared to our on-premise customers where we see a lot of customization to accommodate process and industry needs. SAP Asset Manager is highly customizable to meet those needs, whereas SAP Maintenance Assistant may not be modified.

After weighing these and other considerations, we decided to share the best ideas across our applications while maintaining the flexibility to innovate each with the capabilities of the backend solution.

What does it do?

SAP Maintenance Assistant brings key functionality to the mobile device for maintenance technicians working in the Execution and Post Execution phases in the nine-phase asset management maintenance process.

Execute operations

Completing operations is a major part of a technician’s day, and SAP Maintenance Assistant brings these front-and-center to the overview page. Right away, the technician sees My Operations with assigned tasks to be executed, able to start, hold, and complete operations.

Operations%20list%20on%20iPad%20and%20Operation%20detail%20on%20Android%20phone

The technician may view and edit operation details, explore related technical objects, add notes and attach pictures and files. The technician also has access to all order operations assigned to the work center, and may pick up unassigned operations.

Manage maintenance requests

A maintenance technician needs to stay on top of Maintenance Requests that require further action. The application allows the technician to easily add notes and attach images to show the condition of the asset.

Maintenance%20Requests%20list%20on%20iPhone%20and%20Edit%20Maintenance%20Request%20on%20Android%20tablet

Creating new maintenance requests on the mobile client is simple and the technician has the option of marking “minor work” requests which may be completed immediately.

Take measurement readings

Here we bring the a great feature from SAP Asset Manager to enable a technician to record measurement points of technical objects individually or in a single form.

Take%20Reading%20on%20iPad%20and%20Measurement%20Points%20charts%20on%20Android%20phone

Easily view a list of all measuring points for a technical object and dive into measuring point details, including historical readings with a chart view.

Capture malfunction data

Tracking the cause of malfunctions is important for planning proactive maintenance. The application allows a technician to enter malfunction information for a maintenance request when completing an operation.

Edit%20Maintenance%20Request%20on%20iPhone%20and%20Enter%20Damage%20Code%20on%20Android%20phone

The technician may enter damage codes and attach images and files, providing a snapshot of the asset condition.

Manage time confirmations

When completing an operation, the technician is prompted to enter a time confirmation. It is also possible to enter a record separately.

Add%20Time%20Confirmation%20on%20iPad%20and%20Confirmations%20list%20on%20Android%20phone

The overview page includes a Labor Time section for easy access to view and edit the technician’s time confirmations, including historical entries. The entries for each day are grouped by operation.

View associated technical objects

Maintenance technicians often need information about equipment and functional locations related to their assigned orders, or those assigned to their work center colleagues. All of the technical objects are available on the mobile device.

Scan%20barcode%20on%20iPhone%20and%20Hierarchy%20on%20Android%20tablet

The technician may view details of the technical objects and explore related objects and view measuring points. A consolidated hierarchy view is also available to navigate the object relationships.

When is the release available?

SAP Maintenance Assistant is available now. The application is publicly available and includes an offline demo mode for viewing and testing the functionality. The application may be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

We welcome your reviews and feedback.

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      19 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Norbert Frühwein
      Norbert Frühwein

      Good news Zack,

      looks great ! Was this app built with the MDK Toolset?

      How flexibly can the app be adjusted or expanded? Is it necessary to follow the new phase model?
      What about  S/4 OnPremise customers? How about ECC in combination with a BTP?

      Many thanks in advance!
      Many greetings
      Norbert

      Author's profile photo Zack Frazier
      Zack Frazier
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Norbert.

      SAP Maintenance Assistant is built with the MDK but, since the phase model in S/4HANA Cloud is fixed, we do not provide the ability to customize the app using the MDK tools.

      For on-premise S/4HANA and ECC customers, we offer SAP Asset Manager which may be customized (and usually is) to suit a specific business or industry process model. Look next week for a blog post about the 2105 release for SAP Asset Manager.

      Cheers,

      Zack

      Author's profile photo Leonardo Gomez
      Leonardo Gomez

      Hi,

      Does the customer need to have a BTP account with mobile services to run this app?

      Thanks!

      Leonardo.

      Author's profile photo Zack Frazier
      Zack Frazier
      Blog Post Author

      Yes, SAP BTPms is required, which is included as part of the SAP Maintenance Assistant license.

      Author's profile photo Kevin Hu
      Kevin Hu

      Does it mean SAP Maintenance Assistant is sharing the same code base as the standard SAP Asset Manager and possibly getting the same update lifecycle?

      Zack Frazier Syam Yalamati

      Author's profile photo Zack Frazier
      Zack Frazier
      Blog Post Author

      No, the two applications are separate. SAP Maintenance Assistant has quarterly releases to coincide with S/4HANA Cloud updates.

      Author's profile photo Rajendra Pandey
      Rajendra Pandey

      Hi Zack,

      Is there any document explaining what is required to connect SAP Maintenance Assistance with S/4HANA Cloud?

      Do we require association of Persons with Work Centre (e.g. using HR Work Center integration) to enable download of jobs?

      How download of master data is restricted?

      Best Regards,

      Rajendra Pandey

      Author's profile photo Syam Yalamati
      Syam Yalamati

      Hi Rajendra,

      All the relevant information related to SMA app is listed in our documentation https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_MAINTENANCE_ASSISTANT/2105/en-US

      Set-up guide and Test scripts can be accessible from:

      https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/scopeitems/4RV

      Regarding Master data and Business application data, this data will be restricted based on EAM Personalization Fiori application, where you can set current users Work Center & Work center plant and other planning filters.

      1. Login to the Fiori Launchpad as your Business User
      2. Open the Personalization tile
      3. On the General tab, maintain Main Work Center & Main Work Center Plant. Based on this setup Business data(Work Order Operations, Notifications etc) will be restricted for this User
      4. You can also set other optional general parameters such as Planning Plant, Planner Group etc., to further refine your distribution criteria
      5. Rest of the parameters available in other tabs in the Personalization app are not currently used by the SAP Maintenance Assistant app.

      Thanks

      Syam Yalamati

      Author's profile photo Daniel Endres
      Daniel Endres

      Hi Syam, Hi Zack,

      do I need to provision anything on the BTP Side to get the Maintenance Service in the Marketplace.

      I tried to find it on our Cloudfoundry Subaccount but there are no services listed related to Step 3.7 out of the Setup guide (https://support.sap.com/content/dam/SAAP/Sol_Pack/Library/Setup/4RV_Set-Up_EN_XX.pdf)

      Also nothing in the discovery center (https://discovery-center.cloud.sap/servicessearch/Maintenance/?)

      Thanks,

      Daniel

      Author's profile photo Syam Yalamati
      Syam Yalamati

      Hi Daniel,

      You need to add Service Plans under Configure Entitlements to access SAP Maintenance Assistant(SMA) service, go through the BTP guide related to SMA service: https://help.sap.com/viewer/5209668b80ad494280a3ba6be8eee0fe/2105/en-US/c8923fc09f6f429e9c5e1c4ead651b0b.html

      Thanks

      Syam

      Author's profile photo Daniel Endres
      Daniel Endres

      Hi Syam,

       

      thanks for your reply.

      Unfortunately I am not allowed to access the link. Upon login with my S-User it comes back with a 403. What would be the name of the Service Plan which I need to assign?

       

      Best regards,

      Daniel

      Author's profile photo Syam Yalamati
      Syam Yalamati

      Hi Daniel,

      We will look into the issue, you can search for "SAP Maintenance Assistant" service.

      Entitle Sub-accounts to SAP Maintenance Assistant:

      Procedure

      1. Log into the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) Global account.
      2. Navigate to Entity Assignments and select the subaccount to which you want to deploy the app.
      3. Click on the Configure Entitlements button next to the selected subaccount. Click on Add Service Plans when the option appears.

        A pop-up window displays.

      4. Search for SAP Maintenance Assistant. Select the standard subscription to enable subscribing for the account.
      5. Click Save.

      Subscribe to SAP Maintenance Assistant:

      Procedure

      1. Log in to the SAP BTP Cloud Foundry subaccount.
      2. Navigate to the Service Marketplace and search for SAP Maintenance Assistant
      3. On the SAP Maintenance Assistant tile, click on the 3 dots on the top-right corner of the tile, then select Create. Alternatively, select the SAP Maintenance Assistant tile and create an instance by clicking on the Create button.
      4. On the screen that appears, keep the default values:
        • Service: SAP Maintenance Assistant

        • Plan: Standard

      5. Click Create.
      Author's profile photo Daniel Endres
      Daniel Endres

      Hi Syam,

      thanks for sharing this information.

      But I still cannot find it, I dont have Entity Assignments but Subaccount and Service Assignments.

      And no Maintenance Assistent to be found in the Entitlements or Service Plans.

       

      Author's profile photo Syam Yalamati
      Syam Yalamati

      Hi Daniel,

          This service requires license, it won't available by default in the service marketplace. Please go through the scope item limitations as listed in the attached picture.

      Thanks

      Syam

      Author's profile photo victor wojeichouschi
      victor wojeichouschi

      Hi Zack,

       

      The company where I work is about to start using the new SAP 4hana and I was wondering what are the required steps to implement this mobile version on our plant?!

       

      Author's profile photo Zack Frazier
      Zack Frazier
      Blog Post Author

      Victor,

      The SAP Maintenance Assistant mobile application requires an additional license. Once the app is licensed, set up instructions are available on the SAP Best Practices Explorer scope item SAP Maintenance Assistant (‏4RV‏).

      Zack

      Author's profile photo victor wojeichouschi
      victor wojeichouschi

      Perfect.

      thanks

      Author's profile photo Mukesh Jain
      Mukesh Jain

      Dear Zack,

      We have setup this mobile application and connected to backup S4 public cloud system. It is working as expected.

      As a next step, we want to enable single sign-on with this app means end user should be able to login with their 3rd party identity provider credentials. Currently they need to enter SAP credentials.

      Could you please let us know whether this could be achievable, If yes, could you please assist how?

      Thanks and regards,

      Mukesh Jain

      Author's profile photo Keith Blake
      Keith Blake

      Hi Mukesh,

      This is achievable. You need to establish trust between your IDP & your BTP subaccount. You can find information here: https://help.sap.com/docs/btp/sap-business-technology-platform/configuring-single-sign-on-using-third-party-identity-provider

      Once you do this, when logging into the app you will be given the option to choose which identity provider you'd like to sign in with. You can choose your third party IDP & enter the corresponding credentials.

      Keith