8    Plant Maintenance and Enterprise Asset Management

The traditional SAP ERP Plant Maintenance (SAP ERP PM) functionality has evolved over the years to include Asset Lifecycle Management and has now expanded into Enterprise Asset Management (EAM).

EAM expands the traditional SAP ERP PM functionality to include all stages of the technical system, from asset planning to procurement and ongoing maintenance through asset retirement. SAP S/4HANA offers the latest EAM functionality in a single system with end-to-end process simplifications.

One of the key improvements with SAP S/4HANA is the user experience (UX) enabled via multiple SAP Fiori apps. Traditional SAP ERP PM solutions struggled with end-user system integration. Maintenance technicians on the floor or in the field had to enter data via a terminal or other hardware solution. The SAP Fiori apps enable device-agnostic data entry and can be customized to meet an organization’s needs, as opposed to relying on the generic UX offered.

SAP S/4HANA in the EAM space also opens up expansion into the most up-to-date solution offerings, including integration to the SAP Asset Intelligence Network, real-time SAP Predictive Maintenance, Mobile Asset Management, multiresource planning, and Internet of Things (IoT). Additional functionality offered includes integration to Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and the SAP Geographical Enablement Framework.

8.1    SAP ERP Plant Maintenance and Enterprise Asset Management Basics

SAP S/4HANA also offers standard analytics that will help maintenance leaders and planners manage workloads and view the current status of work being performed. The analytics offered include better visibility into the assets in the network. SAP S/4HANA also offers improved system performance when scheduling maintenance plans and during material requirements planning (MRP) runs.

SAP S/4HANA includes the core plant maintenance functionality enabled via SAP ERP PM, but it leverages SAP HANA technology to offer improved functionality, performance, and analytics.