Ensuring a high availability of objects in the long term is an important part of Plant Maintenance. Preventive maintenance is used to avoid system breakdowns or the breakdown of other objects, which - in addition to the repair costs - often result in much higher costs subsequently owing to production breakdown.

There are many benefits in using preventive maintenance within your company. It is the generic term for inspections, maintenance and planned repairs, for which the time and scope of the work can be planned in advance.

In addition to internal company aspects for preventive maintenance, external factors should also be considered. An increasing number of conditions set by legislative bodies demand more stringent requirements on planned monitoring and maintenance of objects. External requirements can be:

• Manufacturer recommendations

• Legal requirements

• Environmental requirements

Another reason for preventive maintenance is the need for quality assurance, since, for example, the quality of products manufactured at a technical system is substantially affected by the operating condition of the production plant.

It is also often more cost-effective to maintain objects regularly, and therefore prevent a much more expensive breakdown. You can determine the data required for this using past data supplied by the system.

The Maintenance Planning component is integrated with the following components and sub-components of the SAP System:

Plant Maintenance application component

• Maintenance task lists
• Maintenance orders
• Maintenance notifications

Customer Service application component

• Service orders
• Service notifications

Materials Management application component

• Service procurement
• Service entry sheets

Quality Management application component

• Inspection characteristics
• Inspection lots

Sales and Distribution application component

• Outline agreements

You can use maintenance planning to describe the dates and scope of corrective maintenance and inspection activities at technical objects. You can ensure that your technical objects are maintained on time and thereby function optimally.

• Maintenance notification
• Service notification

• For detailed planning of tasks

• Maintenance order
• Service order

• For detailed planning of tasks and history for the damage processed in the notification

• Maintenance notification and maintenance order simultaneously
• Service notification and service order simultaneously

• For Customer Service

• Maintenance plans with reference to an outline agreement

• For Quality Management using the link to QM inspection characteristics

• Inspection lots

• For service procurement in purchasing

• Service entry sheets

• Graphical scheduling overview
• List with calculated maintenance dates
• Cost display for maintenance plans
• Archiving of maintenance plans

One of the most significant advantages offered by the Plant Maintenance application component is the option of split-level maintenance. You can create a maintenance plan, and consequently the maintenance call objects, for example, at the following levels:

• Pieces of equipment

• Functional locations

• Materials

• Material and serial numbers

• Assemblies

The possibility of split-level maintenance allows you to plan and perform maintenance tasks for the following objects:

• An individual piece of equipment which operates independently of other equipment (for example, a vehicle)

• Functional locations (for example, a production line) which may comprise several pieces of equipment

• An assembly within a piece of equipment (for example, a pump motor)

• Materials

• Material and serial numbers