Resource Allocation & Scheduling
Resource allocation and scheduling are at the heart of the maintenance process. However, many people are still struggling to capitalise on the full potential of their SAP tools and need to establish down-to-earth practical strategies to tap SAP's resourcing and scheduling capabilities and put effective processes in place for their business. They are looking for more than just concepts - the real nuts-and-bolts stuff on what you do and how you make it work for you. This is where people and software really come together every minute of every working day to achieve practical outcomes - with the potential of huge gains. This area is often about the basic, core functionality of SAP and its application - resource identification, work lists and prioritisation, job structuring and planning, documentation, work completion and close-out processes.
- SAP Capacity Planning - setting up capacity planning and the planning table; using resource levelling; handling leave, absences and shift operations; understanding the planning table; linking to HR
- "Second-Generation Problems" - we've got the basics of capacity planning set up, but now come the tricky bits - splitting an operation over days, incomplete delayed jobs and handling shared work centres across planners
- SAP Multi Resource Scheduling (MRS) - what is it and what does it do? Features and capabilities of SAP's latest scheduling tool
- Integration with HR Module - scheduling to the individual person and allocating work based on qualifications; integrating with HR leave, absence and training records, or other HR data; understanding what data and processes to integrate and how to achieve this
- Third-Party Solutions - using a third-party solution (from Excel to Primavera) to perform scheduling; reasons for these approaches and integrating the external solution with SAP
- Work Resourcing and Scheduling Processes - using these tools on a daily basis to organise resources (internal or contract) and getting tasks done in the most effective manner to schedule people, crews, resources; effectively using SAP to manage worklists where there is more work than resources; managing long lists of jobs; prioritising and deciding which work to progress; getting the business and technology aligned to manage the work - daily and weekly worklists and measurement of schedule compliance
Master Data Management
Getting the master data right and keeping it right over time is recognised as one of the keys to effective maintenance system design. Utilising that data by making it accessible, further drives system effectiveness. The challenge is managing all forms of master data, from the technical objects (e.g. functional locations, equipment, BOMs) through standardised work management data (e.g. task lists, documents etc).
- Data Management Processes and Roles - centralised versus distributed data ownership; training data owners; tracking data changes; controlling/auditing accuracy and consistency of data; data transfer at capital project completion
- Data Remediation Projects - getting the data up to scratch; gaining management support and resourcing
- SAP Master Data Management (MDM) - what is it and is it of any use to maintenance people?
- e-Catalog - using external catalogues to define, select or purchase materials; integrating the catalog - using BOMs, PO's material planning etc; other technology - Link One, EB Pro; selecting catalogs and which vendors - challenges and successes
Document Management
Third-party documents (Word, Excel, Acrobat, engineering drawings, etc) are of increasing importance for many organisations and there is a growing need for their integration into the SAP work management processes.
- Document Content - what information do you store in documents - procedures, JSA's, checklists, vendor manuals, drawing registries etc; storing photos, sound files, movies and scanned images
- Document Storage - where and how to store the documents; utilising SAP document storage solutions (e.g. SAP Document Management System); looking at third-party document storage systems integrated with SAP
- Document Integration - integrating documents into business processes rather than having them just as a library; linking documents to SAP functional locations, equipment, BOMs, task lists, work orders and materials; understanding what documents should be linked; examining how to link and access the documents
- Document Integration with Work Orders - printing documents with work orders and making up work packages; third-party printing solutions (e.g. SEAL, Promethius)
- SAP Document Management System (DMS) - what are the capabilities of SAP DMS and what is their usefulness to maintenance people
Maintenance Plans
SAP maintenance plans have been around a long time and organisations are now starting to really consider what they want from them. In the process they are encountering many "second generation" problems - no longer the basic issues, but rather the more advanced features or the handling of tricky business requirements.
- Counter Based Plans - mixed calendar and counter schedules (e.g. complex vehicle plans); handling erroneous readings; handling highly unbalanced readings (intense usage, then no usage for some time); seasonal schedules
- Managing Statutory Work - statutory requirements and inspections (fire equipment, breathing equipment and rigging); monitoring and reporting compliance; handling audits
- Managing Work Generated - managing high numbers of work orders from maintenance plans
- Ownership - who owns a maintenance plan, who should create it, change it, reschedule it
Reporting & Business Intelligence (BI)/Business Objects (BO)
The focus is primarily BI and BO, and what reporting capabilities they can deliver.
- Business Intelligence - BI implementation experience and technology; outcomes from actual implementations of BI; effective BI design; design of BI cubes
- Business Objects - what is it and what is in it for maintenance people? BI versus BO; which to use and why?
Contractors & Services
Most organisations use contractors in maintenance to some degree and some are totally dependent on them, but contractors introduce many issues in the SAP world:
- SAP Functionality and Usage - utilising SAP tools such as purchase orders, outline agreements, service entry sheets, CATS and SRM in contractor management processes; handling purchase orders, goods receipt and service entry processes when the sheer volume of this work can be daunting
- Contractor Management Capability - understanding the total picture of contractor management in SAP, across PM and MM; measuring contractor costs and performance in SAP; generating relevant KPIs and reports; identifying and managing different contracting arrangements within SAP, such as alliances, long-term contractors and one-off contractors
- Contractor Interface - managing the processes to pass information and work seamlessly between your team and your contractors - worklists, completions, history and hours worked; utilising SRM/Portals for contractor access
Budgeting
Budgeting in PM still remains an enormous challenge, with a lot of interest now focussed on SAP's Maintenance Cost Budgeting (MCB) solution. There are many organisations seeking solutions here, but they are not sure whether MCB is the answer to their problem.
- Budgeting - the process of budgeting in SAP; zero-based budgeting and its high dependence on data accuracy; utilising maintenance plans to develop budgets
- MCB - understanding the capabilities and limitations of MCB; examples of use in practice; usability and practicality of use, not just for large sophisticated organisations, but also for medium to smaller organisations as well
Training
How do you get new-comers up to speed and who is best to conduct the training? what strategies are in place for post-go-live and ongoing training and what type of training is available: web based vs. classroom vs. self taught; business process and management training; placing more emphasis on good training documentation (info pack - RWD); explaining 'the why' as well as 'the how' to users.
- SAP Training Methods - the good and the bad of various methods; delivery method; on-line training (how good is it versus face-to-face)
- Ongoing Training - Who is best to train new users (key users, team leaders etc) and how to do it? Ongoing training over time as people and roles change (turnover and promotion)
- Ageing Workforce - replacing retirees; loss of skills, concepts and best practices; knowledge transfer issues; retaining competencies and potential solutions; succession planning
Culture & System Acceptance
Many companies still struggle with low rates of SAP usage and acceptance and if it's not the persons primary job to use SAP, how do you inspire interest?
- Creating an SAP Culture - business champions and key user groups - setting them up and keeping them going
- Process View as a Basis of Acceptance - presenting a process view of SAP rather than the transactional view; easier to appreciate the relevancy of processes than transactions
- Ongoing Growth - ownership and driving of SAP - keeping the momentum up as a business changes and avoiding stagnancy
- Management Support for Change and Continuous Improvement - work smarter not harder; sponsorship from upper management; perhaps should use shop floor level change upwards rather than management down
- Approaches for Acceptance - basic system first, then grow; sell visibility of access to data; monitoring who is/isn't using SAP to change behaviour; use BOMs to rope them in; competency assessment scorecard
Portals
Portals are starting to appear within organisations and maintenance people are being asked what they would like to see on them.
- Best Practice for Portals - what can you reasonably do via the portal for maintenance; what functionality or capability is there for maintenance? What are i-Views, what do they do and can we build our own?
- Delivering the maintenance viewpoint on SAP portals; utilising portals to raise work requests, deliver reports and enter data of relevance to plant maintenance
Asset Management
Maintenance can and should be used as the means to increase asset and plant reliability. The interest is in the use of SAP Plant Maintenance to support business strategies and processes that deliver effective asset management, high reliability and clear business improvements. What successes have companies had in driving plant reliability and effectiveness measures?
- Asset Management - driving asset performance; schedule compliance; lifecycle replacement planning; reliability tracking and improvement
- RCM (Reliability Centred Maintenance) - SAP capability; third-party tools; implementing RCM methodologies in SAP
Shutdowns
Shutdown planning and scheduling is an area where many organisations perceive SAP to be weak, and often they deploy third-party solutions. But is this perception true and even if you do go to a third-party solution, how do you split the planning and scheduling activities between SAP and that?
- SAP Tools - what is available; use of capacity planning on smaller shuts (100-200 work orders)
- Third-Party Tools - common third party tools being used are Primavera and MS Project. Is this proving the most effective way to plan and schedule shutdowns or should we be doing it in SAP? Integration between Project System and PM is not easy - has anyone got this working really well? How suitable is the planning board for shutdown planning? If a lot of shutdown planning and scheduling is done outside of SAP, how do you go back to SAP to check in?
- Shut Planning Processes - faster planning using less resources (use of available tools to increase planning efficiency); handling scope and schedule changes
- Shutdown Reporting - shut scorecards
History Coding
Maintenance history coding often passed over as too hard in earlier implementations, is again starting to get focus as organisations strive for greater reliability and performance from their plant.
- Process - collecting and analysing coded maintenance history (coding, object part, damage, cause, activity); business processes for capturing coded history e.g. what types of plant item or work? Who, when, how is the data entered?
- Designing Catalogs and Codes - sources of coding systems (e.g. BS1822.4 or a company/industry standard); developing in-house (guidelines and rules of thumb)
- Analysis - carrying out analysis based on the codes, and what outcomes can be achieved from coded history; reporting tools - list screens, PMIS, BI/BO?
Usability
What tools does SAP have available to increase usability, particularly for infrequent users?
- Technology - GUI-XT; Portal; Mobile; Configuration etc.
- Real examples of organisations that have simplified their system and increased usability and acceptance
Mobile
SAP's in-built mobile technology and Mobile Asset Management (MAM) solution are generating a lot of interest, with many organisations looking at mobile computing again - now that a standard and integrated solution is available.
- MAM Technology - understanding the technology and how it works; hardware (portable devices) available; what do the screens and processes look like?; SAP technology vs. an alternative third-party solution - decision criteria; latest developments and technology trends
- Business Processes - employing mobile technologies to manage your maintenance; identifying the parts of the process that are mobile and integrating these parts into a whole business process; the right split between mobile and non-mobile; where is mobile computing actually effective and delivering real benefits?; achieving user acceptance
- Integration of Mobility Solutions with GIS
