Order Processing in the PM System – Overview (Part-1)

This section provides an introduction to maintenance orders, the essential element in the planning and processing of maintenance tasks.

Maintenance Processing in the PM System

The PM System supports the entire plant maintenance department in planning, processing and settling maintenance tasks. You can enter, plan, monitor and report all the tasks to be carried out by the plant maintenance department. This includes both tasks that are not planned or that are due to malfunction, and regular maintenance and inspection measures.

Maintenance processing (PM processing for short) in the PM System covers several levels which need not necessarily all be processed in full. Each company can determine its own maintenance processing procedures according to its requirements.

Elements of PM Processing

Maintenance processing for unplanned tasks consists of three essential elements:

1. maintenance notification

1. reports a malfunction at a technical object

2. requests maintenance tasks

3. describes the condition of a technical object

2. maintenance order

1. plans the execution of maintenance tasks

2. monitors the work progress

3. allocates the costs for the maintenance task

3. maintenance history

1. stores important PM data on a long-term basis

2. makes this data available for evaluations at all times

Main Steps in PM Processing

Main Processing Steps

The processing of unplanned maintenance tasks in the PM System can be subdivided into the following steps:

1. Notification of a malfunction or a defect in a system or part of a system, in other words, a description of the system condition
2. Requesting a maintenance task
3. Creating a maintenance order and planning the task
4. Releasing the maintenance order
5. Executing the order
6. Completing the task and confirming that the order has been completed
7. Entering technical information such as findings, causes and downtimes
8. Completing the maintenance notification and the maintenance order, storing the relevant data for evaluations and for planning future maintenance activities

Overview in Graphic Form

Which Steps Does This Document Describe?

Steps 1, 2 and 7 refer to the maintenance notification and are described in PM Maintenance Notifications.

Steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 refer to the maintenance order and are described in this document.

Step 8 refers to the maintenance notification and the maintenance order, and is described In PM Maintenance Notifications for notifications and in this document for maintenance Orders.

The maintenance history is described in the document PM Maintenance History.

The Maintenance Order

If, for example, a technical object malfunctions or is damaged, maintenance tasks may have to be carried out to restore the ideal condition of the object.

You make the initial request for the necessary tasks using a maintenance notification. However, to plan the necessary tasks in detail and to monitor their processing, you need to use a maintenance order. You can choose whether to refer the maintenance order to the relevant maintenance notification or not.

Functions of the Maintenance Order

In the malfunction report, you describe the current condition of a technical object and outline the maintenance tasks required; in the maintenance order you can describe the repairs required in greater detail.

The system provides a wide range of functions for planning, processing and settling the order:

1. Planning Functions
2. Processing Functions
3. Settlement Functions

Planning Functions

The following functions are available in the maintenance order to help you plan maintenance tasks:

1. You can schedule the tasks for one or more technical objects.
2. You can describe the tasks to be carried out in detail.
3. You can specify which work centers are to carry out the tasks.
4. You can describe the individual operations which are to be carried out in detail and specify the planned execution time and the number of persons involved.
5. You can plan materials, using object-specific bills of material if required.
6. You can specify the settlement rules.
7. You can include task lists in the PM order to assist in preparing the maintenance task.
8. You can plan the tasks to be carried out by your own employees or an external company.

Processing Functions

The following functions are available in the maintenance order to help you carry out the maintenance task and monitor the work:

1. You can print shop papers for the maintenance order.
2. You can make planned or unplanned material withdrawals from the warehouse for the order.
3. You can enter confirmations which document the work progress.

Settlement Functions

You can settle the costs resulting from a maintenance task in one of the following five ways:

1. to a cost center
2. to a fixed asset
3. to a project
4. to another order
5. to a G/L account

Completion of a Maintenance Order

You can create a maintenance order in response to one or more maintenance notifications. You can also subsequently create a maintenance notification for a maintenance order that was created directly, for example, in order to enter machine breakdown data or system availability data with reference to the work carried out at particular objects.

Both the maintenance notification and the maintenance order are completed, once the repairs that were requested have been carried out. There are two completion procedures:

1. technical completion For information on this, refer to Technical Maintenance Order Completion
2. business completion For information on this, refer to Business Completion of a Maintenance Order

Order Processing in the PM System – Overview (Part-1)