In aircraft or other technical objects such as engines, high value components (rotables) are often used in a remove-install-rework scenario. The high value components are replaced in cases of damage by a serviceable rotable and then refurbished at a later point in time using a separate order.
The refurbishment of high value faulty rotables is of considerable economic importance for companies, and is a core process in plant maintenance.
The rework can either be executed internally (inhouse repair) or by an external vendor (subcontractor). Therefore, you can create subcontracting purchase orders (purchase requisitions) automatically from an external refurbishment order operation.
Partial subcontracting of certain repair tasks is also possible.
If an external service is needed to refurbish the part, one or more maintenance tasks are transferred to a subcontractor. The part to be refurbished, along with the provided components that are to be installed in the part during the maintenance process (if required), will be delivered to the subcontractor.
After rework the part returned by the subcontractor is received into stock.
The refurbishment process can be started manually by creating a maintenance order or be triggered from the material requirements planning (MRP) based on the current stock situation.
Planned orders created in MRP are converted into refurbishment orders to start the refurbishment process. Quantities and dates for the refurbishment order are provided from the planning process.
Creating refurbishment orders from planned orders is only possible for materials where the spare parts class code is set in the material master record. For more information, see Conversion of Planned Orders into Refurbishment Orders .
The following scenarios are supported for the subcontracting process with refurbishment order:
Standard Repair
Unit Exchange (same as standard plant maintenance order scenario)
Replacement (same as standard plant maintenance order scenario)
Outbound Delivery for Subcontracting with Refurbishment Order
You have activated the business function
Refurbishment and Subcontracting
(LOG_EAM_ROTSUB),
Refurbishment and Subcontracting 2
(LOG_EAM_ROTSUB_2) and
Serial Numbers in Purchasing
(LOG_MM_SERNO).
The
External Processing
field in the general view of the maintenance order is set to
Externally Processed Operation
.
You can maintain the control key for this in Customizing, under
.You have selected stock item category L or you have defined your own valid item category.
Only valid item categories are permitted for MRO subcontracting. Stock item category L is provided for orders with an external operation; however you can also define your own valid item categories, which are stored in table T418, indicator KZBSF. You can define valid item categories by selecting the
Inventory Management
indicator for an item category in Customizing for
Plant Maintenance and Customer Service
, under
.
Goods movement types
The subcontracting process is supported for refurbishment orders that use transfer postings (313/315) as well as classic goods receipt and goods issue component movement types (101/261).
For more information, see Additional Movement Types .
Beside the company’s own stock (normal stock), subcontracting from refurbishment orders is also available for the following stock types:
Customer stock (B)
Material that belongs to a customer
Project stock (Q)
Company own stock or customer stock linked to a project
Orders on hand (E)
Material related to a specific customer order
It is possible to trigger the subcontracting process from any given operation of the refurbishment order, including the first operation.
Refurbishment order type SM03 is used within the subcontracting process for return material authorization orders.
Converting planned orders to refurbishment orders
During the conversion, you can select serial numbers and transfer them to the refurbishment order.
The integrated solution supports all standard goods movement transactions including MIGO , MB11 , and ADSUBCON .
Note
Note, that in the subcontracting monitor ( ADSUBCON ), you can only make goods movements for external operations where the basis is the purchase order. In a refurbishment scenario, the basis is always the refurbishment order (though for external operations the refurbishment order can generate purchase orders as well).
Forward exchange is not supported
The following special stocks are not supported:
C onsignment vendor (K)
Material that belongs to a vendor
Returnable transportation package vendor (M)
Material that has been loaned from a vendor
It is not possible to allow more than one planned modification of the material number within one refurbishment order
A combination of one planned modification with an unplanned material number change is generally possible, but only for exchanges and replacements and not unplanned modifications. As soon as it is planned to do the upgrade internally it is not allowed that the subcontractor makes an unplanned modification (same equipment). Instead, the subcontractor can send an exchange (same material number, different serial number) or a replacement (material number, different serial number).
The unplanned material exchange scenario does not support partial deliveries.
For refurbishment orders with subcontracting operations not in DIMP, you cannot have unplanned modifications for operations that use MPN interchangeability.