Fleet Management 

Use

This function enables you to display fleet objects from your transport fleet in the R/3 system. As a general rule, it was already possible to show fleet objects as equipment master records prior to Release 4.6. The fleet-relevant additional data represented in the standard system as two additional tabstrips is new. You can now maintain important fleet data such as the license plate number, load volume, consumption data, fuel card number, engine data, fuel type and so on directly in the equipment master record.

Like all pieces of equipment, you can also use the fleet object as a reference object for maintenance or service tasks. The fleet object can act as the reference object for either a notification or an order. You can also perform maintenance planning for a fleet object. You can make the date of the next scheduled service dependent on the distance counter (for example, the odometer), the time counter (for example, the time meter), or any other fleet counter.

Integration

Fleet management is a standard function. All Plant Maintenance (PM) and Customer Service (CS) functions are available to you, including evaluation functions such as executable programs (reports), list display and list editing functions, the maintenance history and the Plant Maintenance Information System (PMIS).

Prerequisites

Your system administrator has defined the desired fleet types as types of technical objects in the Customizing function for technical objects. Fleet types enable you to differentiate between cars, fork lift trucks and tanks in your fleet pool.

Even if you only have freight vehicles in your fleet pool, you can still use the fleet type for classification purposes. For example, a haulage company divides its fleet pool into the following fleet types for better data evaluation: Silo vehicles, tanks, tip trucks (for example, street car suspensions or semitrailers), container vehicles, tarpaulin-covered vehicles (for example, semitrailers, conveyor vehicles, plateau vehicles or jumbo load trucks) and special vehicles (for example, coal trucks or walking floor vehicles for bulky material).

Your system administrator has assigned a separate view profile to each defined fleet type regulating the screen structure. This enables you to configure screens for cars and tanks differently, because, in the case of cars for example, you may only want to record the usage type (business or private), and in the case of tanks, only the load volume. You have two tabstrips with a total of eight screen sections at your disposal in the standard system which you can arrange as you wish. You can choose the titles of these tabstrips yourself.

Features

If your system administrator has defined special measurement positions for your fleet objects in the fleet management Customizing function, you can create special measuring points or counters in the Plant Maintenance (PM) application component that are used to calculate the consumption data for your fleet object. To calculate consumption, you require a fuel counter that measures either the amount of fuel consumed or also (for trams, locomotives and electrical cars) the amount of energy consumed. You also require a so-called primary counter (activity counter) that measures time or distance (for example, the number of kilometers traveled or the operating hours).

The measurement position of the fuel counter must be labeled with the counter usage 3 = consumption-relevant fuel counter in Customizing. The measurement position of the primary counter must be labeled with the counter usage 1 = consumption-relevant distance counter or 2 = consumption-relevant time counter in Customizing.

You can define several such counters for a fleet object. The counters referred to when calculating the consumption values are controlled by the calculation method. This is defined by your system administrator in Customizing. The length of the periods from which the calculation of average consumption values should be determined as well as the unit of measurement of consumption (for example, liters per 100 kilometers, miles per gallon, liters per hour, gallons per hour) is controlled by the calculation method. In the standard system, calculation methods for calculating consumption values are delivered in the following units of measurement:

You can display the consumption data in the fleet master at all times if you have correctly maintained the calculation method. The following analysis data is necessary:

The system determines the overall counter reading for the primary counter from the measurement document last entered for this counter.

The system determines the overall counter reading for the consumption-relevant fuel counter from the measurement document last entered for this counter.

In order to calculate the average daily fleet object activity, the system first determines the start of the period for which the data should be determined.

In the case of a short-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the short-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

In the case of a long-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the long-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

The average daily fleet object activity is then calculated from the first and last measurement documents entered for the primary counter at the start of the period. The number of days between the entry dates for these documents is chosen as the time interval. The following formula is used for calculation purposes: Average daily activity = (Overall counter reading for the last measurement document – Overall counter reading for the first measurement document after the start of the period) / Number of days between the entry dates for both documents

In order to calculate the quantity of fuel consumed daily, the system first determines the start of the period for which the data should be determined.

In the case of a short-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the short-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

In the case of a long-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the long-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

The average quantity of fuel consumed daily is then calculated from the first and last measurement documents entered for the consumption-relevant fuel counter at the start of the period. The number of days between the entry dates for these documents is chosen as the time interval. The following formula is used for calculation purposes: Average daily consumption = (Overall counter reading for the last measurement document – Overall counter reading for the first measurement document after the start of the period) / Number of days between the entry dates for both documents

In order to calculate the average consumption for the fleet object, the system first determines the start of the period for which the data should be determined.

In the case of a short-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the short-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

In the case of a long-term analysis, the start of the period is the current date minus the number of days for the long-term period. Your System Administrator has assigned this number of days to the calculation method in Customizing.

In the next step, the system determines the first and last measurement documents entered for the consumption-relevant fuel counter. The difference between the overall counter readings for these measurement documents is displayed. The system also searches for the measurement document entered for the primary counter at the same time as the measurement documents for the consumption-relevant fuel counter. The difference between the overall counter readings is also displayed in this case. The average consumption is calculated from the quotient of both differences. The unit is expressed in the units that your System Administrator has assigned to the costing method selected.

In order to ensure the precise calculation of these consumption values, you must enter a measurement document for the primary counter in realtime for each measurement document entered for the consumption-relevant fuel counter in your system. This means that the mileage reading and other related data must be entered every time the tank is filled.

All average values are calculated as an average of a long and a short period, the exact length of which is defined in Customizing. You can use the comparison of long-term and short-term analysis values to detect damages to the fleet object (for example, a leak or a faulty engine) or to recognize misuse.