SAP Service Management - Advanced Configuration Guide 2

Introduction

Originally, I planned to make this one super configuration book.  But due to e-book limitation, it forced to me think about a better way to provide this information.  So, my first book is all about a quick implementation.  The second book is all about the advanced configuration of service management.  This third book is a continuation of the Advanced Configuration Book.  Most of the configuration topics in this book were a learning experience for myself as well.  They are not areas that I have used at my past clients.  By forcing myself to document these parts of configuration helped open my mind to new potentials for future projects.  In addition, I’ve included some addition sections after configuration where I go into detail on the some of the fun things you can do with SM and explain how to use them and some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the functionality.  If you’re looking to move to the next level, this book will help get you there.

How to read this book

Most of this book should be used a reference guide.  I expect very few people to read this from start to finish.  The idea is that the configuration sections of the book will provide you with some guidance to implementing some advanced portions of service management and then all the individual pieces of configuration that make up the process. 

You’ll notice that many of the common pieces of configuration are not included in this book.  They are covered in my previous books, so this guide really should be used as a companion to my previous books (listed near the title).

Configuration

This will begin the configuration section.  Please note that each major area of configuration will be a main heading.  This is because service management crosses so many different areas of configurations.  Each section will be listed with the exact location of where the configuration can be found.

Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service

Basic Settings

Maintain Authorizations for Master Data

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Maintain Authorizations for Master Data

This is really the responsibility of your security team, so I’m not going to cover this in any detail.  It’s just a link to transaction PFCG.

Define User Status

This is covered in my previous book: SAP Service Management: Your Successful Implementation Guide

Create Authorization Keys for User Status Authorizations

The next section talks about creating authorization keys for a user status. The short story is that you can define keys to manually check authorization on setting certain statuses.  This can be especially useful if only certain groups are allowed to reverse a status or set something back to in progress after it's been completed.  By default, when the system sets a user status as a reaction to business transaction, it does not perform an authorization check.  When you set or delete a user status, the system checks whether the user is authorized for this action. In addition to the status profile and the object type, the system also checks the authorization key assigned to the user status in question.

Now remember, at this stage you are only defining the keys (see the previous lesson if you want to see where to assign them). Now, courtesy of SAP, here's a pretty good tutorial on how to set this up.

You want to define that certain user statuses can be changed only by a specified employee group.

To do this, create an authorization key and assign it to the relevant user statuses.   In the general authorization maintenance, you can then assign authorizations for this key via the authorization object B_USERSTAT.  

Activities

1. Check whether you want to define authorizations for your user statuses.

2. If necessary, create authorization keys as follows:

a) Choose New entries.

b) Enter a key and an explanatory text in the appropriate fields and choose Save.   You have now created the authorization key.

3. Assign the authorization key to one or more user statuses in your status profile.

4. Define corresponding authorizations and include them in the relevant authorization profiles.

Define Currency for Maintenance Statistics

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Define Currency for Maintenance Statistics

This simple piece of configuration actually has a lot of power if you do any reporting using the PMIS (Plant Maintenance Information System).  If you set this currency, it will perform the currency conversion on everything to make it common ground.

Permits

Permits are not something I’ve personally implemented for a client.  After doing a bit of research, here is what I found.  You can use permits to define certain rules or conditions which are to be observed during the execution of maintenance tasks.  Permits are often broken up into work permits or access permits.

Define Permit Categories

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Permits->Define Permit Categories

This first piece is to set the permit categories.  Like so many areas, there is no real configuration.  Just give it a value and a description.

Define Permit Groups

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Permits->Define Permit Groups

This next piece locks in the permit class to the permit group.  Now, the big catch here is that before you can update this configuration, you must first go to CL01 and create a class type 049.  Initially, you don’t really need to worry about the characteristics within the class.  Those can always be added later, but you need the class to exist in the configuration client.

Set List Editing for Permits

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Permits->Set List Editing for Permits

Like all the other list editing pieces of configuration, select one of the options.

Press the attributes button.

Now, you set up the system variant for the transaction following the standard variant functionality.

Measuring Points, Counters and Measurement Documents

This is a very cool section that unfortunately is often not used in many businesses, in my humble opinion.  The biggest problem is that it can be a lot of manual master data if you do not have any IoT devices that can feed this data back to your system.  Despite that, I do recommend understanding this functionality, and always bring it up to the business.

Make System Settings for Measuring Points and Measurement Documents

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Measuring Points, Counters and Measurement Documents->Make System Settings for Measuring Points and Measurement Documents

Now, if you’re dealing with an out of the box system, this strange looking blank screen is what you will see.  Press New Entries

After new entries, you get this single check box.  This check box gives you the option for an interval document.  An interval document, according to SAP help, is a special measurement document that groups the counter reading transfers to the counter of an installed piece of equipment for a time interval. As a result, the counter reading transfer does not generate any more individual documents.  I have not used this functionality in past implementations.

Define Measuring Points Categories

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Measuring Points, Counters and Measurement Documents->Define Measuring Points Categories

Out of the box, you get these two options.

When you drill into one of these, you see that you have several options to help you define the category.

MeasPosUniqnss – determines when the measuring point has to be unique.

Catalog type – allows you to enter in a catalog, similar to the notifications that can be defined for the measuring point.

MeasRge message – This lets you determine if it’s a warning or an error if you exceed the measuring point range.

TolPeriod (sec) – this allows you to specify a tolerance between the SAP internal clock and the date/time you enter on the measuring point.

Create Number Ranges for Measuring Points

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Measuring Points, Counters and Measurement Documents->Define Number Ranges Measuring Points

From here, it works just like any other number range.

By default, there is only the single range.  Generally, the measuring point number range is not important, so this is a piece of configuration that I rarely change. 

Create Number Ranges for Measurement Documents

IMG->Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Master Data in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service->Basic Settings->Measuring Points, Counters and Measurement Documents->Define Number Ranges Measurement Documents

Exactly like the previous section.

By default, there is only the single range.  Generally, the measuring point number range is not important, so this is a piece of configuration that I rarely change. 

Define Field Selection for Measuring Points and Measurement