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Pool Asset Management allows you to plan pool assets from the point at which they are requested right up to the point at which the service is settled. Demand notifications can be entered in the system directly by the requester or by the planner. The graphical planning board allows the planner to display and plan all demands. The planning board shows the individual demands as a series of bars. The planner can then use drag and drop to assign these demands to the available pool assets, which are also displayed graphically. The current status of each demand notification is indicated by various bar colors, which means that the planner can instantly see how each of the pool assets is being used and what the utilization and status of the entire pool is.

Integration

The functions in Pool Asset Management and the graphical planning board are implemented with standard SAP objects, thus providing a maximum level of integration with the SAP system with minimum training requirements.

The demand notification is stored in the system as a maintenance notification with notification type MF. The notification collects all of the data relating to the operation. It documents the individual planning steps and their status changes. The individual pool assets are modeled in the form of equipment master records. Functional locations are used to combine individual assets in a pool (whereby the functional location must allow the installation of multiple items of equipment). Service orders are used to collect the costs for using a pool asset.

Prerequisites

You have configured the Customizing settings for Pool Asset Management and for the integrated functions in Plant Maintenance and Customer Service.

Features

The process flow from the demand notification to the withdrawal and return of a pool asset is as follows:

The employee enters a demand in the system in the form of a maintenance notification. The planner for the pool can see all the demands and available pool assets in the graphical planning board. When the planner assigns a demand to an available pool asset, the asset is reserved and the employee automatically receives an e-mail confirming the reservation. When the employee retrieves the pool asset, the data that is used later for settlement is recorded.

If the asset is a pool vehicle, for example, the employee receives the keys to the vehicle along with the registration documents, and the planner records the current mileage/kilometer reading. When the vehicle is returned, the new mileage/kilometer reading is entered so that the system can automatically calculate the cost of using the asset on the basis of the distance driven and the duration. (The mileage/kilometer reading is modeled in the system in the form of a measurement document.) In this way, the use of the pool asset can be settled as soon as the asset is returned, and the asset is available again immediately.

If a demand cannot be fulfilled or is canceled, the relevant cancelation activities can be carried out.

Status of the Demand Notification

When the demand notification is entered, it has the status "not planned". When the planner assigns a pool asset to a demand, the status of the demand changes to "planned". When it is reserved, its status changes to "reserved" and the requester is informed of the reservation. When the requester picks up the pool asset, the notification status changes to "retrieved". When the asset is returned, the status changes to "returned". The process flow ends when it is settled and the status changes to "settled".

Activities

The following transactions are available:

  • Graphical resource planning with planning board (transaction PAM03)

  • Create pool (transaction PAM01)

  • Edit pool (transaction PAM02)

You can access these transactions from the SAP menu by choosing:   Logistics   Customer Service   Service Processing   Pool Asset Management  .