You can describe the individual maintenance tasks to be performed in the operations. An operation specifies the time, work center and other control information required for the maintenance task. You can describe how the task is to be performed in the operation text.

Operations have the following tasks in the PM component:

• Determination of capacity requirements
• Specification of whether a task should be carried out internally (internal processing) or externally (external processing)
• Maintenance of status
• Determination of deadlines on the operational level
• Specification of the required spare parts and resources (for example, special tools)
• Determination of flow in task completion through relationships between operations

You can assign service packages to both kinds of operations if this is allowed by the control key you have entered. Using service packages enables you to

• Plan services in all dimensions
• Jointly plan services to be performed in different dimensions
• Define services uniformly
• Structure services in an unlimited number of levels
• Make basic agreements
• Agree on conditions
• Use service catalogs
• Better describe work content

The control key specifies which operations should be performed. You can specify the following, for example:

• Scheduling
• Confirmation
• Settlement
• External processing
• Printing
• Costing
• Service specifications maintenance

You define the operation type using a control key. The control key specifies:

• Operation type, that is, whether internally or externally processed
• The business functions to be performed in the operation, for example, whether a purchase order will be created for the operation
• How the operation is handled while it is being processed, for example, whether it will be taken into account in costing or whether it should be printed and confirmed

For each operation it is possible to create data for both internal and external processing.

You must first assign a control key to be able to decide whether the operation should be processed internally or externally. You can enter the control key in the Operation overview screen and the detail screens for the individual operations.

It is possible that you are not able to overwrite certain values that the system copies into the task list. These values originate from the master record of the work center you have entered in the task list, and are marked with a reference indicator. This indicator shows that these values are obligatory and cannot be overwritten at any point (for example, in a task list or maintenance order) where they refer to the work center.