Efficient Plant February 2018 - 31

enterprise software solutions

Kicking
Bad
Habits
Kristina Gordon
DuPont

IF THERE'S ONE WAY to
complete a task in SAP, there are
10 more behind it. Choosing the
correct steps when processing work
orders, entering time confirmations
and history, and creating purchase
requisitions can be exhausting,
especially if the user doesn't fully
understand the financial implications behind it.
This month, we will explore five
critical elements of SAP PM that,
if processed correctly, can actually
increase the reliability of your plant.

Video Training

There is no training video
for this month's column. The
January training video on
planning was delayed due to
technical difficulties. By the
time you read this, it should be
available at efficientplantmag.
com/1801SAPtips. Watch this space
each month for a new
training video.

Kristina Gordon is SAP PM Leader,
DuPont Protective Solutions Business,
and SAP WMP Champion, Spruance
Site, Richmond, VA. If you have SAP
questions, send them to
editors@eﬃcientplantmag.com
and we'll forward them to Kristina.

FEBRUARY 2018

BLANKET WORK ORDERS

Blanket orders are work orders that have time
confirmations or materials for shop supplies continually added over a long period of time without
being closed.
Acceptable reasons for use:
 Training time
 Housekeeping
 CBT (computer-based training) completion and
meetings.
Unacceptable reasons for use:
 To replenish materials used on a job
 To use for "fill in" time confirmations (other than
startup coverage or similar)
 For repair work that should be confirmed to a
corrective or urgent work order
 For PM work that should be confirmed to preventive- or predictive-maintenance plans.
If not managed well, the following issues can result:
 Loss of equipment history
 Work-order estimating accuracy will be poor
 Could lose the ability to update and make task lists
more accurate due to time not being confirmed.

TIME CONFIRMATION

Time confirmation in SAP is a key component in
accounting for maintenance dollars and where
they are allocated. Compliance with this metric
will avoid residual costs at month-end financial
closings.
Acceptable reasons for use:
 Add time spent on a job into the system
 Have history of the real time spent on a job to
improve estimates
 Justify any requirements for increasing/reducing
maintenance labor
 Efficiency allocate maintenance-labor time costs.
Unacceptable reason for use:
 False time confirmation entered by supervisors to
justify full utilization of job resources during shifts.
If not managed well, the following issues can result:
 Loss of time history required to perform jobs
 Manual-labor costs cannot be efficiently allocated
to the correct work/equipment

 Loss of maintenance-cost visibility.

WORK-ORDER HISTORY

PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE

The accuracy and consistency of reporting equipment history, including failure codes and long
text descriptions of what was observed/found and
completed, are essential to the future reliability of,
and engineering improvements in, our equipment
and systems.
Acceptable reasons for use:
 Keep historical data on cause of failure
 Close feedback loop on improving maintenance
plans and reliability
 Continuous improvement of maintenance execution
and job packs.
Unacceptable reasons for use:
 Failure to complete history or improper history will
cause loss of valuable execution data.
If not managed well, the following issues can result:
 Loss of job safety-observation history
 Loss of valuable data to improve maintenance and
reliability across the plant
 Could potentially put the plant in a non-compliant
state with OSHA.

Increasing asset reliability should always be the
focus of a plant. To achieve this target, we need to
shift from a reactionary mode, where most of the
work is "urgent" or "emergency'" to a proactive
mindset where preventive and scheduled work is
the norm.
Acceptable reasons for use:
 Shift reactive mindset
 Improve asset reliability
 Reduce maintenance costs
 Reduce unplanned downtime
 Improve product quality
 Reduce loss/scrap of product.
If not managed well the following issues can result:
 Have a reactive organization always in
firefighting mode
 Equipment reliability decreased due to lack of
preventive work. EP
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant February 2018